Entry V. Can You Speak Japanese?

That's a question that I hear a lot. I have been studying the Japanese language, but I am not really learning how to speak it. It takes many years to learn to speak and understand a new language. I don’t have enough time for that. Also, I don’t know anyone who speaks Japanese. I am learning a little bit by reading and listening to CDs.

Trying to speak Japanese is interesting and fun, but writing Japanese is very difficult.

Do you remember when you learned the letters of our alphabet? It was hard work, but not as hard as learning Japanese. In English we only have to learn to read and write one alphabet and it has only 26 letters. The Japanese call our alphabet Romaji. I am using Romaji to help me learn a little bit of Japanese. Romaji is the way Japanese words can be written in English. For example, you may have learned the Japanese word for hello. A common Romaji way of writing that word is: Konnichiwa.

Children in Japan have to learn four different alphabets; Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and Romaji. All of these alphabets together have thousands of “letters”. You can imagine how long it takes to learn how to read and write. When I am in Japan I will visit schools and see how the children learn. That will be very interesting for me. When Mr. Endo comes to our school, he is going to teach us how to write some Japanese.

Hiragana and Katakana alphabets each have 46 characters. The characters are not called letters, they are called Kana. Each Kana is a syllable, rather than a letter, and most kana are combinations of one consonant and one vowel.

The Japanese use Hiragana and Katakana for different kinds of ideas. Hiragana is used to represent actual Japanese words and is mainly used for grammar, slang, and very common words. Katakana is generally used to write foreign words in Japanese or for emphasis (similar to the way italics are used in English).

The fourth alphabet, Kanji is a system of Chinese characters. Each symbol represents an idea or a word rather than a sound or syllable. Each character or symbol has a specific meaning.

When characters are combined, they create new words. For example, if you combine the character for “electricity” with the one for “car” you would be referring to “train.” There are thousands of characters used in Japan in many different combinations.

I certainly will not be able to learn all of the Kana and Kanji symbols, but I am learning a few. I certainly want to know which bathroom is for women and which is for men. It is also nice to know which door is the entrance and which is the exit.

Can you think of some other symbols that it would be good to know?

Entry IV. Lucky Day, Lucky Week

There are only a few days left before I leave for Japan. I am nervous and busy, but not too busy to notice all of the wonderful things that are happening as I prepare for my trip. This week I got my travel itinerary showing my airplane reservations. Now I really believe I am actually going to Japan! I will be flying to San Francisco at 6:00 am on Sunday. That means a 4:00 am trip to the airport, but that's OK with me. I am pretty sure that I will be too excited to sleep on Saturday night anyway.

I also got information about the family that I will be staying with in Japan. It is a married couple, a little older than I am. They have one son who lives in a different city. I wrote them an email and sent them a picture of me. I was so happy when they responded in English! I can only say a few things in Japanese, so I was worried about communicating with them. I can't wait to meet them. I will send pictures of my hosts and their house and tell you all about that visit when it happens.

A Japanese teacher from the Milwaukee School of Languages gave me a beautiful gift this week. She translated my business cards into Japanese. Then a friend of hers created a layout to have the cards printed. I have been told that business cards are very important in Japan. They are called meishi. I am printing bilingual business cards with one side in English and the reverse in Japanese. I hope to trade these cards with the people that I meet .

We also had a very special visitor at Fernwood this week. Maki, a Japanese student, came to see our school. When she heard that I was leaving to go to Japan, she lent me a wonderful bilingual book on Japanese Culture. I am taking it with me to Japan because it has a lot of excellent information that will help me as I travel. Dōmo arigatō gozaimasu, Maki. (That means thank you very much. )

Entry III. Meeting Mr. Endo

I was planning to write about the Japanese language today, but that will have to wait. I am much too excited about something special that happened. Today, Mrs. Langhus and I went to Madison to meet Mr. Endo. In November, after I return from Japan, Mr. Endo will be coming to Fernwood to be a special guest teacher for three weeks.

We had so much fun talking to Mr. Endo and making plans for his visit to our School.

Mr. Endo is in a group of 8 Japanese teachers visiting Wisconsin in October and November. They are coming to teach us about their country and to learn about Wisconsin. Mr. Endo will share his culture with us and we will help him with his English.

Mrs. Langhus and her family will host Mr. Endo in their home while he is here. They are planning to show him many of the wonderful museums and performances in Milwaukee.

We knew that Mr. Endo had three children, but we didn't know that he loves sports and music. In Japan he teaches 6th grade. He is also a basketball coach at his school. He told us that at his school the girls like to play basketball more than the boys. The boys love to play baseball.

The visiting Japanese teachers sang songs and taught us a traditional Japanese Dance. Mr. Endo has a beautiful voice and plays the recorder. He promised to teach our students a song about cherry blossoms that his own children love to sing. He also brought materials to teach lessons about geography and art.

He showed us beautiful brush paintings that his sixth grade students had made. The paintings show scenes from Japan such as Mt. Fuji and Temples. One student drew a bowl of Japanese noodles. Several others drew pictures from Japanese Anime. I know that many of our students love anime cartoons and will want to talk to Mr. Endo about this.

It was a joy for Mrs. Langhus and me to meet Mr. Endo. We are very lucky that he will be coming to Fernwood. If you haven't yet seen the picture of Mr. Endo and his beautiful wife and children, check out the display case outside of room 14.

Entry II. The Journey Before the Journey

If this is your first visit to Fernwood Abroad, you will want to scroll down to the first entry below. The entry that appears when you log on is the most recent.

If you read my first entry you already know that I love to travel. Each new trip is an exciting adventure and I get to enjoy each trip three times!

The first time I enjoy the trip is the planning phase. I found out I was going to go to Japan in April, so Phase 1 has already been 5 months long. I have tried to read and study a lot about Japan, to learn a little of the language and make some decisions about the things I am going to do in Japan.

Then there is the trip itself. From October 1st to the 19th, I will be on the road and in Japan. During that time I will try to send back a journal entry every day.

Once the trip is over and I am back at Fernwood, the third and longest part of the journey begins. This is the phase of remembering and sharing. It is so much fun to look at the pictures, read notes and journals, share souvenirs, and just remembering all of the wonderful experiences.

My trip will begin when I get on the airplane to San Francisco on October 1st. Until that time, I want to share the excitement of preparing for the adventure to come.

After I return to Fernwood on October 23rd, I will be coming to classes to share the photos and stories, and to help our Fernwood students learn more about Japan and the Japanese people. We want to be ready to welcome our Japanese guest, Mr. Endo, in November.

I hope that you will enjoy going on the Journey before the Journey with me!