Japan, I'm coming for you!
I have an iPad!! So apparently Japanese districts are the pilot district for missionaries to get iPads in the MTC. And we are so lucky! There's an area book APP. AN APP! No paperwork for me!! Also I get to draw pictures in my free time, I love it!
Also I forgot to add this to my last email, but everyone lied. There are no hangers in the MTC, NONE! Our whole room had about 7. But it's okay, we all just shove our clothes into drawers anyway!
I never told you about my living quarters! There are four girls in our room, two bunk beds. I sleep on top! It's like sleeping in the sky!
Here's a view of our classroom on a regular day during study time! (Note my companion taking a selfie on the right-hand side. Definitely a regular day.)
Oh and here's my companion!
(Photo edited to enhance the redness of Sister W's hair)
My teachers are literally so funny and just the best!
Today, our teacher Nora Kyodai (Brother Nora) (his name is actually NoraWong but Wong sounds like how a dog barks in Japanese "wan wan" so he won't let us call him that. It's so funny. He's so funny. If you get a question right, he presses his nose and goes "PING PONG!!" What????? Also, he's Laotian! He's a great teacher.) ANYWAY. Today he made us get up and take a lap around the buildings. We come back and sit down.
Then he makes us get up again, comes with us, and makes us SPEED WALK (and he has long legs, so I was running) around the buildings IN THE RAIN. And he was doing this punching thing while he went and he was like "ICHI NI ICHI NI" and he kept yelling at us to go faster in Japanese. The crazy elder in our district was at the head of the pack, shaking his hips as he went along. We were all dying laughing. It was a great day at the MTC.
And now we know not to act sleepy in class....
Our investigator became our teacher too. We were just sitting waiting for class, and in comes Fuchino-San. We were all like "uuuuuuuhhhhhh"
It was so funny hearing him speak English.
He says the funniest stuff under his breath, and always says "desu ne?" ("it is" or he agrees with you) At the end of all of his English sentences. SYL people!
"Fuchino-San" always looked at his shoes during lessons, and we told him that he did that and today during class the crazy asked him a question in English and he said "Wakarimasen" (I don't understand) while looking at his shoes. Looks like we'll see Fuchino-San around!
Turns out he's going to be our next investigator too. Now we call him KatÅ-san. To quote my companion, "Trust no one at the MTC."
The MTC is so weird, guys.
We have this other "teacher" who literally calls himself our babysitter. Let's call him Babysitter Sensei. He always comes in during the block of time when we all take turns teaching our investigator. All he's taught me is Zootopia quotes, a lot about the Star Wars and Marvel, and about the different islands in Jurassic park. Summation, he's great. Today he was wearing a leather jacket to protect his light blue silk tie (the one he wears every day) from the rain.
He was the one who had been trying to trick us that our investigator was a real Japanese guy, and after we found out we confronted him in the hall and he just stuck out his tongue and laughed. He is really funny.
Another story about our "babysitter"
One day in class we had two teachers, What-Once-Was-Fuchino-San and Babysitter Sensei. After arguing about my short-term language goals (which he finally admitted were subarashii--amazing) he said "Brother S. He is gone. I am the captain now."
And then he tried to eat my notebook.
Here's some pictures of my district!
My teachers are literally so funny and just the best!
Today, our teacher Nora Kyodai (Brother Nora) (his name is actually NoraWong but Wong sounds like how a dog barks in Japanese "wan wan" so he won't let us call him that. It's so funny. He's so funny. If you get a question right, he presses his nose and goes "PING PONG!!" What????? Also, he's Laotian! He's a great teacher.) ANYWAY. Today he made us get up and take a lap around the buildings. We come back and sit down.
Then he makes us get up again, comes with us, and makes us SPEED WALK (and he has long legs, so I was running) around the buildings IN THE RAIN. And he was doing this punching thing while he went and he was like "ICHI NI ICHI NI" and he kept yelling at us to go faster in Japanese. The crazy elder in our district was at the head of the pack, shaking his hips as he went along. We were all dying laughing. It was a great day at the MTC.
And now we know not to act sleepy in class....
Our investigator became our teacher too. We were just sitting waiting for class, and in comes Fuchino-San. We were all like "uuuuuuuhhhhhh"
It was so funny hearing him speak English.
He says the funniest stuff under his breath, and always says "desu ne?" ("it is" or he agrees with you) At the end of all of his English sentences. SYL people!
"Fuchino-San" always looked at his shoes during lessons, and we told him that he did that and today during class the crazy asked him a question in English and he said "Wakarimasen" (I don't understand) while looking at his shoes. Looks like we'll see Fuchino-San around!
Turns out he's going to be our next investigator too. Now we call him KatÅ-san. To quote my companion, "Trust no one at the MTC."
The MTC is so weird, guys.
We have this other "teacher" who literally calls himself our babysitter. Let's call him Babysitter Sensei. He always comes in during the block of time when we all take turns teaching our investigator. All he's taught me is Zootopia quotes, a lot about the Star Wars and Marvel, and about the different islands in Jurassic park. Summation, he's great. Today he was wearing a leather jacket to protect his light blue silk tie (the one he wears every day) from the rain.
He was the one who had been trying to trick us that our investigator was a real Japanese guy, and after we found out we confronted him in the hall and he just stuck out his tongue and laughed. He is really funny.
Another story about our "babysitter"
One day in class we had two teachers, What-Once-Was-Fuchino-San and Babysitter Sensei. After arguing about my short-term language goals (which he finally admitted were subarashii--amazing) he said "Brother S. He is gone. I am the captain now."
And then he tried to eat my notebook.
Here's some pictures of my district!
(Me and F Shimai. She's cute. I think I'll keep her around for a while.)
The other day at gym time I was wearing a t-shirt from Give and Take that has a cute little drawing of a girl and a nihonjin from our zone were like "OHHHH!! Sore wa ______-chan!" I don't remember the name of the girl, but they totally recognized what she was from. Some kind of thing to sit on the side of your cup? I don't know. But then later that night, I was singing some song I knew in Japanese while brushing my teeth and one of them was like "Oh, you know that band??" And then we talked about Japanese music. Now we have a joke that I am a nihonjin (native Japanese) 😎.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO MY BEST STORY YET.
One of the Nihonjin wrote my name (Mae) in Kanji. Like she basically gave me a new name. It means "Rely on your growing faith," and I literally couldn't thank her enough. I was so touched!! This is what it looks like! It is so special.
Today, my companion said "The struggle is a peninsula," instead of "the struggle is real." Babysitter Sensei was laughing so hard before he told us her mistake. How to say "the struggle is real" in Nihongo, thanks to Brother Nora
A picture of me practicing writing kanji, like a good little student.
Here are some memorable quotes from Sensible Elder from this week:
Someone outside was singing. "Someone's really flexing the golden pipes!"
His crazy companion was saying stuff. "Stop saying words."
Crazy companion says something totally random, again. "That's my companion..."
If any of you were wondering how my snack stash was looking, it's looking pretty darn good. Thanks, Dad.
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