ダニエルの冒険

Last Wednesday we had written and listening tests, and on Thursday (yesterday) we presented our speeches in front of the class. As such, I was far from prepared for Thursday. I just winged it really, occasionally glancing at the iPod to see what I was supposed to be talking about. As such, I maintained eye contact and was able to make it sound like I wasn’t reading, but that’s about all I succeeded in doing, as my language ended up being a bit too casual for a speech and I wasn’t exactly holding myself properly because I was too focused on putting together the Japanese in my head to think of it. At least that meant that I wasn’t chosen as the representative for our class, a responsibility put onto Shun.

His speech was great though. He wrote it seriously and delivered it seriously, but had one of the teachers crying with laughter. It was about young Japanese women putting on their makeup while they’re on the train, and delivering a fairly absurd speech in such a serious way worked really well. Shun’s a smart guy and I’m sure he’ll do us proud at the contest next Friday.

Test Results

We got the results from the Wednesday tests and Thursday’s speech today. The average for the written was 86.2% and the average for the listening was 84.2. I managed to get above average in the written with 94.8% but below average by about the same amount in the listening with 77.8%.

Speech Presentation

The “results” of the speech presentation were not in numerical form but were given to us in the form of advice from our peers. We all wrote comments on everyone else’s speeches and we got those back today (after review by the teacher, of course).

My speech was entitled 日本人に話しかけましょう or “Let’s Approach Japanese People”, and talking about how in language schools it’s actually quite hard to find native speakers to talk to, and how approaching people on trains or where-ever often leads to interesting experiences and allows you meet great new people

Here’s my feedback, mostly anonymously, in no particular order:

• いろいろなエピソードがあってとてもよかったです。また、みなさんの目を見て話しかけているところもよかったです。（さの）
• 一番おもしろかった
• いろいろ経験があって、おもしろいですね。ダニエルさんなら、日本人と話しかけるのは問題ないと思いますけど、勇気があって、すごいと思います。
• おもしろかった。とくにそのアイスクリームランドについてところだ。もっと練習すれば練習するほど上手にスピーチを出来るようになると思う。
• 私もそう思うよ。面白すぎだ。すばらしい。
• 面白かった。日本人と話しかけましょう。ちょっと緊張ね。いい経験を話していいポイントですよ。 ^_^
• 上手でした。
• 自分のエピソドは面白い話でした！やっぱりダニエルさんはなんぱに上手そうだ。
• ふかい、はなしみたい、たのしい、きもちがある
• いろいろな経験をしていますね。確かに日本人は恥ずかしがり屋が多いですが、実は話したい！と思っている人が多いので（私のように！）話しかけて下さいね！（林）
• よくXXを会わせます。いい！体の「ポーズ」を変えたほうがいいと思います。ポケットから手を出してください。スピーチのために少しもっと硬い表現を使えばとてもレベルが上がるような気がします。たくさん自分の経験について話して、分かりやすいスピーチができました。

In English:

• It was great that you spoke about lots of personal episodes. Also, it was good that you spoke while keeping eye-contact. (Sano-sensei)
• The most interesting speech.
• Your experiences are pretty interesting. As for you, approaching Japanese people isn’t a problem, and having that confidence is a great thing, I think.
• Interesting. Especially the “Icecreamland” part. I think the more practice you do the better you’ll be able to deliver the speech.
• I think so too. Too interesting. Wonderful.
• Interesting. Let’s approach Japanese people! It makes me a bit nervous though. Talking about good experiences is a good point, I think.
• A skilful speech.
• Talking about your own episodes was an interesting story! [sic] As I thought, it seems you’re good at flirting.
• Deep. Like a story. Fun. Had emotion.
• You’re talking about a lot of personal experiences. Sure, there are many shy Japanese people, but the truth is that there are just as many people who think “I’d love to talk!!” (like me!) . Please approach Japanese people! (Hayashi-sensei)
• [Can't read first line.] Good! I think you should adjust your posture. Please take your hands out of your pockets. For a speech, I think the level would go up a lot if you used more formal language. You spoke a lot about personal experience and you were able to deliver an easy to understand speech.

(I apologise if I sound like a foreigner in my translations. I’m quite poor at translation work right now and end up sounding like a Japanese high-schooler trying to use English.)

I’ve just read through all these and identified them all… except one… because I’ve accounted for all the people where were present. One of the two really short ones is definitely Mike… but the other one I can’t account for. Strange.

Personality Test

We were given another personality test today. I’ve been given this before by a Japanese friend (Maki) but in a slightly different form. Here it is as it was given to us today:

You’re in the desert and have nothing but five animals with you: a lion, a cow, a horse, a goat and a monkey. As you go along, you can’t keep looking after them all so have to discard them one by one. Rank them in order so that the first is the one you would get rid of first, and the last is the one you would get rid of last. Think about it and I’ll discuss the answers in a little bit.

Clothes Shopping

An anecdote to divert your attention from the personality test interpretation: I had half an hour free while waiting for my clothes to wash today so I went to do some shopping. I deciding to check out a clothes shop and see if they had anything to fit me, seeing as I wasn’t expecting the washing machine to actually wash my clothes anyway. I saw some shirts that I liked (or rather, didn’t hate) and asked the man at the cash register if I could try one on to see how the size fits. He let me try an “L” and I tried it on and got the buttons to close but it was a pretty tight fit. I asked if he had anything bigger and he handed me a different colour shirt of the same design, but with LL on it. I tried this on and I swear it was actually smaller than the L. I held by breath as I unbuttoned it, feeling that the buttons would burst open otherwise. That was the biggest size they had. I thanked the sales assistant and joked that I’d be back after losing some weight.

Personality Test Results

This is a bit random, and if I had to try to give a reason for why it might possibly be right, is that subconsciously we associate particular animals with character traits. I do not assume this association, should it even exist, to span more than a couple of adjacent cultures. I kept my cow til the end just because I like milk. And monkeys are cool so I wanted him around for as long as possible: Horse (as far as I know, you can’t ride a horse on sand, at least not for long), Lion (what good would a lion do me anyway? It would just eat my goat or my monkey or something), Goat (I still have the cow for milk), Monkey (I love monkeys), Cow (the provider of both my favourite drink, milk, and favourite food, steak).

	1st	2nd	3rd	2nd	5th
Me	Horse	Lion	Goat	Monkey	Cow
Fred	Lion	Monkey	Cow	Goat	Horse
Kellie	Goat	Lion	Monkey	Horse	Cow
San	Cow	Goat	Lion	Monkey	Horse
Shun	Lion	Cow	Horse	Goat	Monkey
Marcos	Lion	Monkey	Goat	Cow	Horse
Mike	Monkey	Goat	Horse	Cow	Lion

And finally, here is how to interpret the meaning: Lion: pride. Cow: work. Horse: Oneself. Goat: Ones partner. Monkey: Ones child.

I’d put anything else in my life before myself… but I’d but put my job before my children and partner. All because I love milk and steak. What a mix.