Watashi wa nihongode supi-chishitai desu kedo, nihongo mada mada~ hakkiri arawasukoto ga dekinai kara, eigode hanasasete itadakimasu. Hontouni Gomenasai.
When I came here, I lived in the dormitory in Musashi-Urawa.. There I lived with girls from different countries: England, Germany, Korea, Vietnam, China, Japan, and Taiwan. My dormitory was like a small universe. When I go out of my room, walk in the hallways, take the public bath, or eat at the dining room, I would hear people talking in different languages and it was beautiful in the ears. When I was a kid, I never would have thought that I could experience something like this.
I attend classes and seminars here in Suidobashi. The classes I took were taught in English because my limited Nihongo capability won't allow me understand difficult words used in classes taught in Nihongo.
But most of the time I'm here, I spent learning at the Japanese Language School in Ichigaya. We have classes five days a week every morning, and in the afternoons there are different classes. Kanji, Role-playing, even singing, and other classes. We even have Conversation classes where I have met many Japanese volunteers, young and old, and people from different countries: France, America, Bolivia, Canada, Poland, Sweden, and Finland, just to name a few. I have been to many places: Oosaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Hakone, Kamakura, Yokohama, Nikko, and around Tokyo. Every place I've been to always amaze me. Every place is beautiful. But of all the places I have been to, my Japanese Language School is my most favorite place in Japan. There I did not only learn the Japanese language but I also learned a lot about friendship, life, love, and the fact people may come from different countries but we are a lot similar than we are different. And it's my favorite place because it is where I have met and became friends with wonderful people.
I wanted to tell more about my classes, more about my travels, and more about the people I have met but I thought Id rather talk about what this experience taught me and what difference it has made in my life.
First, I learned that language can never be a barrier to anything. People can understand each other despite language differences. Like me and my Chinese friends, they are jouzu in Nihongo but not in Eigo, while I am jouzu in Eigo but has a lot to improve with my Nihongo and yet we can talk about a lot of things and about life. Also in my dormitory, there was a Korean girl who came for the winter vacation, and she wasn't good in either Eigo or Nihongo, but when she knocked on my door and gave me an omiyage I know she wanted to be friends. Which made me realized something else, it is true after all, that action does speak louder than words. ^^
I also learned from meeting people from different nationalities that we may come from different countries, grew up in different cultures, have different colors of hair, skin, and eyes, and some may be taller than the others but the truth is that if we look beyond the physical appearance, we will realize that we are similar to each other. I have made really good friends. There are seven girls that are especially closer to my heart: three from China, two from Germany, one from America, and one from England. I share not just experiences and travels with them, but also happy moments and sad ones. Now that I am writing this, I can't help the tears from falling down my face thinking that I would have to go home soon, and I would have to part from friends that I might not even see again.
Being a Filipina, short and yellow-skinned with dark eyes and dark hair, before I came here in Japan, somehow I felt inferior to Western races, that they always do things better than Filipinos do. Maybe it is because they stand tall and they're white skinned that when you stand beside them, you can't help but feel little and unbeautiful. But when I got to know these people, I realized that we only look different outside and that I shouldn't look down on my race because we are special too. I realized that Western people may look superior but they are normal people too: they also get bored in boring classes, copy homework, and never return them, etc. ^^. I also realized that I should be proud to be a Filipino. We don't have a rich country but we are sensitive and caring people. It was me who started hugging my dorm mates (the Germans, English, and Chinese) and since then, we never part ways without hugging. From all these, I realized that if we only put aside our prejudices and try to get to know people and accept them for who they are, then our world will probably be a better place to live in. No wars. No misunderstandings.
There were a lot of reasons why I had wanted to get the scholarship.
One reason is that I wanted to be mature. I was 20 years old when I left the Philippines and just finished my third year in College. Only one year left before I graduate. But I felt there is so much I have to learn in life before I can be ready to graduate and so I thought, one year away from my parents will help me mature a lot. And it did. Not all my experiences in Japan were happy ones. But the sad and challenging ones taught me how to be strong, be an adult, have faith, and take care of myself.
Another reason is I wanted to broaden my horizon and see a world outside the Philippines. Unlike Japanese people, it is not easy for Filipinos to travel outside of our country. It is difficult to acquire a visa and you have to be rich enough to travel. This is my second time in Japan. The first was in high school when I was also sent as an exchange-student for two weeks at St. Margarets (Rikkyo in Mitakadai). I wanted to grab this opportunity because it's a chance not everyone is privilege to have. And yes, not only was I able to travel and see Japan, I was also able to somehow learn about Germany in the eyes of my German friends, China in the eyes of my Chinese friends, England, etc.
This experience has also taught me to dream more for me and for my country, the Philippines.
I wanted to finish my studies and work hard so I could travel the world and go to my friend's countries to meet them again. I also wanted to work harder so I can earn enough so I can bring my parents and sister with me back to Japan and see the country that has been home for me for a year and see how beautiful it is.
Japan and my country, the Philippines, are different. In Japan, there are innumerable train lines (the Sobu-sen, the Saikyou-sen, the Keio-sen, and all of JR lines and chikatetsu), in Manila there are only three lines that we use to go around the city because our main transportation are buses and cars. Japan is a lot more organized than my country. Here there are bus stops; in my country the buses can stop almost anywhere. Japan even has lockers for umbrellas and this plastic dispenser outside any establishment when it rains, whereas, the Philippines has quite a number of problems to even think about that. In the Philippines, especially in cities, you will find slums and little kids begging for alms in the street or selling cigarettes. You will even find people getting a living from Gomiyama. It is because the life in the province is really hard so some thinks of migrating in the cities hoping they will get lucky, but most don't :,(.
When I think about it, it makes me sad but it also makes me want to offer more to my country. Someday, I want to see my country to be developed like Japan. You see, I am from the University of the Philippines, which means that part of my tuition is subsidized by the Government from our citizen's taxes. I owe my education to them, even this chance of being here, I owe to them, and I wanted to give it back to my country. I want to repay my country for what it has done for me.
Leaving Japan will be sad. I have gotten used to Japanese living already...except the constant earthquakes, I still get scared of that. But I don't get embarrassed taking all of my clothes off when I take public bath. And I've gotten use to using "eeeh....to..," "ano...," "eeeeh?%#!," "...ne~" in normal conversations. I am even getting used to the very crowded trains in the morning. I will miss seeing houses with bushes in their front yard trimmed into balls, or seeing Japanese faces' turn brightly red when drinking alcohol, or seeing pachinko in every corner. And it might take me a long time to stop doing a slight bow when greeting people even when I'm home in the Philippines already.
It will be sad, but I am coming home with a better self, bigger dreams, and wider insight. Kotoshi no seikatsu wa zettai isshou wasuremasen. DOMO ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU. Ijou desu.
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By Anonymous, at 3:24 PM
(hehehehe...in random order...^_^)
(hehehehe...in random order...^_^)
How to make a Falling Star |
Ingredients: 1/2 cup of naivety 3/4 cup of laughter 1/4 cup & 1 tsp. of insecurity |
Method: Combine in a tall glass half filled with crushed ice. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of sadness. Sprinkle a bit of craziness (it's not complete without that!). Serve chilled with a smile. And recently, i discovered that if you add a pinch of faith, it'll be a lot better. Yum!*Do not overindulge!* |
When i lost you, I was the one who loved you most, but between us you lost more. For someday I can love someone the way that i loved you but you will never be loved again the way that i did...
everything happens for a reason, nothing happens by chance or by means of good luck. illness, injury, failures, love lost, memories of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of one's soul. without the small tests, whatever they may be, life would be like a smoothly paved straight flat road to nowhere. it would be safe and comfortable but uttery pointless...
do not undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others, it is because we are different that each of us is special...
do not let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. by living your life, one day at a time, you live all the days of your life...
do not be afraid to encounter risks, it is by taking risks that we learn how to be brave...
do not run through life so fast that you forget, not only where you have been, but also where you are going...
Humankind get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again...
We cannot make anyone love us. All we can do is let ourselves be loved.
"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive." - Eleonora Duse
"This is courage...to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends." - Euripedes
"Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark." - George Iles
The hardest thing to do is to watch someone you love, love someone else.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then its not the end.
Nobody is perfect until you fall in love with them.
Men are not worthy of precious tears, they just make us look terrible...
Its amazing the things you realize when you lose someone; you get mad at yourself for not saying the things you could've a million times, you take for grantd the days doing nothing when you could have been with them. anyone can be taken at anytime in our lives, but we always wait until theyre gone to say the things we never had the courage to before
Watching you walk out of my life hasn't made me bitter or cynical about love, but rather, it has shown me that if i wanted so badly to be with the wrong person, how beautiful it will be when the right one comes along...
in the movie "in the mood for love," if someone had a secret they didnt want to share, they go up to a mountain, find a tree, carve a hole in it and whisper the secret into the hole...then they cover it with mud, leaving the secret there forever...
this is my hole...