Tag: Japan

What my dialect meant to me

Yuri

I grew up in a small town in Hokkaido, the northernmost island in Japan. There are varieties of dialects within the island, but when people say ‘Hokkaido dialect’, they usually mean the dialect spoken in the biggest city in Hokkaido (Sapporo). In this blog post, ‘standard Japanese’ refers to the Japanese language spoken in Tokyo, ‘Hokkaido dialect’ refers to a dialect spoken in Sapporo, and ‘my dialect’ refers to a dialect spoken in my hometown.

Picture retrieved from https://www.gojapango.com/japan-map/

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What’s Your Salary?

By Hina

There’s this couple I’ve known for many years. The wife graduated with a B.A. in English Literature and had taught English for many years. The husband, on the other hand, was a doctor. Having research experience abroad and about 30 years of experience on the field, he had high credentials and did well, although he was sometimes a little socially awkward.

I was talking on the phone the other day to the wife, who was complaining about the lack of her husband’s English ability. “I was so ashamed when we went out for dinner with that doctor from Taiwan. All he could ask in his bad pronunciation was how much [the Taiwanese doctor] earned and what he did in his free time.” “He asked how much he earned?” “Yes, and that was all he could ask.” “Oh… Well, that’s too bad.” “I was mortified. I can never go out with him!”

…everyone, meet my wonderful parents.

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Let’s Go Change Some Lives!

Hina

This summer, I worked for seven weeks with a company called LbE Japan. This company works with the Japan Tourist Bureau (JTB) and Guy Healy Japan to provide intensive 3-day English summer camps for students. By inviting about 40 university students from America, they aim to give Japanese students the experience of living in America. The students got the ultimate ‘American’ experience – complete with American carnivals, dance parties, and campfire. By the end of August, we had undergone 30 USA Summer Camp sessions, and had had over 1000 attendees. “Let’s go change some lives!” was our unofficial motto – we were ready to help the kids learn to love English.

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