アンニックが見た昭和村 #30

9／17

■日本で学んだ4つのこと
外国語指導助手　アンニック先生

Hello residents of Showa Mura,
I thought I would share four things I have learnt from living in Japan.

1.Be mindful of others
It is very normal in Japan to consider other people’s thoughts or feelings. I think Japanese people naturally have a ‘team’ mentality and work well together. In western culture there is more focus on oneself and your own goals in life, many people will only think of what benefits them or perhaps the people they care about. I admire the consideration and kindness of Japanese people, and I hope I can do the same.

2.Enjoy the company of the people you work with.
I was not very sociable in my previous job as it was a big company and there were many people who were not my age. But arriving in Showa I was surprised by the strong community here, and I have enjoyed getting to know the people I work with every day. Going hiking together or just taking a few minutes to talk has made working with them such a pleasure.

3.Making mistakes is better than not trying at all.
When I was a child, I enjoyed learning new skills and trying anything I was interested in. But now I often worry about what others think of me and I don’t like making mistakes. Coming to Japan with no Japanese language knowledge was challenging. At first, I didn’t speak much because I was afraid of making a mistake. But everyone in Showa was so patient and kind, and the more I tried to communicate- the quicker I learned. Some of my language mistakes have made very funny memories for me. Such as saying ‘watermelon’ instead of ‘water bottle’ and asking if I should bring a watermelon on a hiking trip.

4.Learning ‘vending machine’ was not a useful word to learn.
Some of you may know, when I first arrived in Japan, I knew only how to say my self-introduction, yes, no,’yabai’ and vending machine.
I still have yet to use this word, but somehow, I have not forgotten it. When the day comes that I do use it, I will definitely let you know.

Until next time.
～Annick