I was looking forward to going on the Portland trip and worried whether I could enjoy it very much. However there were lots of chances to learn, practice and teach in English. Some of them were very fresh for me, even in Extension program. Especially, I felt that talking with students at Columbia Basin College, having dinner at Flying Pie Pizza and shopping at Uwajimaya were very interesting, not just fun.
First, I liked talking with students at Columbia Basin College. In this time, we had to discuss our presentation. Fortunately, I had a chance to talk with two students, both of them were males. They were so kind of us so I felt free to tell them about my presentation, Japanese Money. They looked interested in my presentation topic so I was glad to be able to teach them about it. They enjoyed my presentation and I had a confidence a little. At lunch time, one of the students, and another student was busy, brought the cafeteria. Then we also talked about Japanese culture and enjoyed listening to the You-Tube. I had a great time at CBC. And it was a good start to have memories of the Portland Trip.
In addition, I was looking forward to having a dinner at Flying Pie Pizza. I was absolutely starving because it might be late for the dinner time there. There were two very big pizzas on my table. They were so nice! And we kept talking with pizza. There were friends not only in my group but also in other groups so we couldn’t stop talking about many kinds of topics. And we had small speeches like in Public Speaking class, even at dinner time. That was so funny. The speeches were about classes in Japan, presentation topic and why we decided to come back to MFWI. We helped each other to care about posture, eye contact and gesture. They were good practices, good opportunity to think about them deeply and fullness with delicious pizza.
Finally, Uwajimaya was very interesting. I liked shopping there, as almost all students did. Most of stuff was from Japanese and I felt like I was in a Japanese store. Even they were expensive, students looked happy and I was one of them. Also I was interested in the woman who guided us at Uwajimaya. She guided us there in English. After that, we talked with her in Japanese. Her Japanese was very good and I respected her as one of second-language speakers. She must have learned about Japanese a lot. Surprisingly, I felt that I wanted to work at Uwajimaya very much as soon as I looked people who worked there. I can bring the place which they want to get something and teach about Japanese stuff because I am a Japanese. To tell the truth, I felt weird that American people told us about Japanese stuff. So I had many kinds of feelings about Uwajimaya.
In conclusion, I was worried about my presentation even during the trip which should be fun. However I could tell students about it at Columbia Basin College and practiced even at dinner time. Through this trip, I had a lot of opportunities to practice it and learn about both of cultures in America and Japan. Portland trip was not only shopping without tax but also many kinds of interesting experiences.