opinios

I attended the first half of my junior high school's anniversary festival today. I get the impression that one doesn't normally get invited to these kinds of things (I didn't last year), but I have established a good rapport with the teachers at this school and felt like I should do the right thing and make an appearance.

I rocked up (9.00 on a Saturday morning, mind you) not quite knowing what to expect, and took my seat in the gymnasium in the area reserved for teachers, off to the side of all the students.

And thus the music begun.

It must be that Japan is a karaoke-culture that so many kids have no inhibitions about just getting up on stage and belting out a number. Ikeda-kun from the 3rd grade did it while playing a guitar and harmonica, and he sounded good. The girls from 3B didn't quite hit the high notes of their soppy number, but credit to them for having a go (they still sounded better than I would have had I tried to sign in front of a few hundred people). I really enjoyed listening to the different styles that were performed, from pop rock to love ballads to brass-band instrumentals.

But the problem for me was that after the music finished, the rest of the day was full of plays. Music is a universal language. Japanese is not.

Before I continue, let me clarify that I tried really hard to understand what was going on. I had drunk a Dekavita C genki drink with my breakfast to pep me up in preparation for a long day. And for quite a while now I have felt confident enough to carry out a conversation in Japanese with anyone about pretty much anything. If you don't know the word for something, you can always say it another way and be understood.

But hearing native speakers speak amongst themselves and understanding what is going on is an entirely different ball game. I have definitely made ground lately in terms of comprehending the Japanese I hear around me, and I'm sure if I watched more television understanding would improve. Unfortunately I'm just not much of a television watcher.

And so it was useless. The speed these kids rattled off their lines, using all kinds of variations and rough phrases for when people get angry or are frustrated made comprehension impossible. The play lasted about 45 minutes and I understood about 10% of it. I was proud to see my students up there, so naturally acting out some drama about... well I actually have no idea what it was about... but I was still proud to see them up there on stage and in lights. But that's not enough to get you through 45 minutes while sitting in an uncomfortable chair. The audience laughed at punchlines, gasped at shocking turns of events, and cheered at heartfelt speeches. And I clapped politely.

All of a sudden I felt incredibly lonely. Here I was, sitting on my own in a big hall surrounded by a constant stream of a foreign language coming at me, with no reprise. I've been in this country for over 2 years and really made an effort at studying the language and immersing myself in as much of the culture as I can, and I basically understood nothing. It was a frightening realization.

The festival runs all day. The afternoon is full of plays, and as much as I wanted to "do the right thing" and stick around, I had to excuse myself. I used the word yakusoku, which means that I had a promise that I had to keep.

Not a complete lie - the promise was with myself, and involved having some solo time, before I have to go into Japanese mode again for the dinner with all the teachers from 6.00 tonight. At 6,000 yen a head, it better be a damn fine meal.

Never since arriving in Tokyo have I wanted to be surrounded by English so much. Not a good frame of mind to be in for studying for my exam. Hence the question: is it better to be completely ignorant and not speak any nihongo, so that you don't get invited to all these things and don't have to struggle through the frustrations of understanding nothing? Probably not, but it would certainly be a hell of a lot easier...