今週の漢字: 慣(れる)
Adapt:
Many new JETs wonder how they’ll adapt to the culture of Japan. I’ve seen a number of these said JETs frequently asking questions. Sometimes I think it goes too far from asking about how it works to get the bare necessities to asking about how the toilet flushes. Okay, I lie about the toilet question, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone were to ask about it. It seems for some people, there are never enough answers to satisfy their insecurities and curiosities. Then, there are those who seem to have no questions and are happy to just jump into the unknown.
I like the middle, although I admit that I swing closer to infinite questions. I’m sure there will be lots of unfamiliar situations that I will experience despite the questions that I have, but I’m fine with that. I don’t stress out thinking about questions to ask people who lived in Japan or current JETs on everything about everyday life. I love planning for vacations, but if there’s something unexpected, I usually wouldn’t mind. Of course this is different from a vacation, but I like to know a bit about the schedule so I’m not surprised to find out a packed or lack of class schedule.
I hope to hang out with people every week or every other week. However, I am not going to drink. I wonder what kind of effect this will have on my co-workers and supervisor. My predecessor informed me that although there are JETs who don’t drink alcohol, I will probably be doing a lot of explaining on my non-alcoholic preferences. The best tip I’ve heard so far is to use the wonderful technique of diversion. So when they try to give me sake, I am planning on saying, “すみませんが、ビールを飲みません。でも、お茶が大好きです！(sumimasen ga, biiru o nomimasen. demo, ocha ga daisuki desu!)” So, translating, I’m hoping to say that I don’t drink beer, but I love tea. I imagine I’ll post about how it goes.
Stay tuned next week for part one of my thoughts before leaving!
今週の写真: I’ve been taking pictures of things I would like to show my students, so for this week, here’s my house.
1 comment:
Questions * infinity (now that's scary). All kidding aside, it's great that you seem to have a good balance between spontaneity and planning.
-curtiss
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