Extension students went to Portland, Oregon from November 13th to 16th. Through this trip, I enjoyed communication with people, noticed that my country is awesome, and learned a lot about American history and culture. I will talk about three things that I especially enjoyed during the trip.
First of all, relationships with people made me happy. On first day, we visited Columbia Basin College and talked with students who take Japanese class. I talked about my presentation topic to students. My topic was sometimes difficult to understand but they listened to my story carefully and tried to comprehend. Moreover they asked me a lot of questions, so I could notice what everyone wanted to know about my topic and what was my fault of explanations. It was absolutely a good opportunity to practice my presentation. Before talking to them, I haven't had confidence about my presentation, but I gained a little confidence because of them. Therefore, I really appreciate students' kindness. In addition, most of the students were very interested in Japan. The girl that I talked with at lunch time liked Japanese anime and manga. One of her favorite manga was my favorite one, so we talked about it for a long time. I was so glad that she was interested in the culture of my country and I could talk about it. Furthermore, students gave us two presents. One was the poster of the Japanese flag and another was a bag containing a letter and some candies. I didn't expect this surprise, so it made me happy. I had a wonderful time with nice kind-hearted students.
Finally, I learned new American culture from the volleyball game at Portland State University. I was looking forward to visiting there and watching the volleyball game because I had been belonging to volleyball club when I was a junior high school student and high school student and I love volleyball. The game was so exciting and interesting. However, during the game, I felt some cultural observations. First was that coaches entered the court with leather shoes or heels shoes. In Japan, everyone puts on sports shoes even a coach or a manager, so it was very hard for me to accept this situation. Then, some rules were different. In Japan, when a ball touches the ceiling, the last team which touched the ball has a foul against and the opponent gets a point. During the game, a ball reached the ceiling three times, but the referee has never claimed a foul. I don't know whether the rule changed or not, but I was very confused. Next was about terms. Of course, some terms were the same like "Cover!" or "Out!", but some terms were different. When an attacker spikes, Japanese people say, "Ike!" It means "GO!" However, American people said, "Come on!" at the same situation. It was opposite meanings, so it was the most interesting for me. I could learn about American volleyball and watch a high-level game, so I totally enjoyed it.
In conclusion, I could enjoy communicating with people, reconfirming Japanese brilliance, and learning new things about America while I visited Portland. These experiences offered me new views, notions and knowledge. Therefore, I consider it was certainly a valuable trip. I am thankful to this precious opportunity and fabulous people that I met during the trip!
First of all, relationships with people made me happy. On first day, we visited Columbia Basin College and talked with students who take Japanese class. I talked about my presentation topic to students. My topic was sometimes difficult to understand but they listened to my story carefully and tried to comprehend. Moreover they asked me a lot of questions, so I could notice what everyone wanted to know about my topic and what was my fault of explanations. It was absolutely a good opportunity to practice my presentation. Before talking to them, I haven't had confidence about my presentation, but I gained a little confidence because of them. Therefore, I really appreciate students' kindness. In addition, most of the students were very interested in Japan. The girl that I talked with at lunch time liked Japanese anime and manga. One of her favorite manga was my favorite one, so we talked about it for a long time. I was so glad that she was interested in the culture of my country and I could talk about it. Furthermore, students gave us two presents. One was the poster of the Japanese flag and another was a bag containing a letter and some candies. I didn't expect this surprise, so it made me happy. I had a wonderful time with nice kind-hearted students.
Next, visiting Powell's City of Books was great for me. I got a little culture shock and a big revelation. There were many kinds of books such as novels, picture books, comics, magazines, biograophies, dictionaries, guidebooks, recipe books, and so on. In addition, there was stationery such as pencils, clips, notebooks, schedule books, and so on. The most surprising thing was socks. There were a lot of lovely socks, but I was not able to understand why socks were in a book store because I thought socks are not related to books. Therefore, it was strange for me. Anyway, there are many things to see, so two hours was a very short time for me. While I visited there, I read Japanese guidebook because I was curious about what the recommendation of Japan from American points of view was and how the publishing company introduced the Japan. In the book, I discovered interesting information. I live in North of Osaka and there is a monorail train. This rail is the longest monorail's rail in the world, so the auther of this book said about it. I was completely surprised because the monorail was just a method of transportation for me. However I noticed using it ordinarily was lucky. I could realize the special thing that was the pride of my hometown and I began loving my hometown more and more.
Finally, I learned new American culture from the volleyball game at Portland State University. I was looking forward to visiting there and watching the volleyball game because I had been belonging to volleyball club when I was a junior high school student and high school student and I love volleyball. The game was so exciting and interesting. However, during the game, I felt some cultural observations. First was that coaches entered the court with leather shoes or heels shoes. In Japan, everyone puts on sports shoes even a coach or a manager, so it was very hard for me to accept this situation. Then, some rules were different. In Japan, when a ball touches the ceiling, the last team which touched the ball has a foul against and the opponent gets a point. During the game, a ball reached the ceiling three times, but the referee has never claimed a foul. I don't know whether the rule changed or not, but I was very confused. Next was about terms. Of course, some terms were the same like "Cover!" or "Out!", but some terms were different. When an attacker spikes, Japanese people say, "Ike!" It means "GO!" However, American people said, "Come on!" at the same situation. It was opposite meanings, so it was the most interesting for me. I could learn about American volleyball and watch a high-level game, so I totally enjoyed it.
In conclusion, I could enjoy communicating with people, reconfirming Japanese brilliance, and learning new things about America while I visited Portland. These experiences offered me new views, notions and knowledge. Therefore, I consider it was certainly a valuable trip. I am thankful to this precious opportunity and fabulous people that I met during the trip!