October 7, 2007

I think I’m learning Japanese. . .

Edited to add pronunciation for those who want to learn along with me-see below.

I just spent the last 15 minutes looking online for that song. Does anyone else know what I’m talking about? Back during the days of converse sneakers, and Cyndi Lauper-like hair, I could have sworn there was a song that repeated over and over again to some electronic music, "I think I’m learning Japanese. I think I’m learning Japanese; I really think so." Ringing a bell? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

(How funny is it that I finally found the song I was thinking of, and the lyrics are "I think I’m turning Japanese. . ." not "learning Japanese." Just another classic lyric mishap by yours truly. Anyway, I found it! Feel free to click play while you continue reading.)

I wanted to have a little music to go along with this post that tells you that Big I and I are learning Japanese. Last week, we had almost an entire class that was taught in Japanese. How cool is that?!? We did blocks and punches and learned the correct names for them as we did them. We spent much of the class doing moving drills and repeating "gedan barai" for downward block as we moved around the dojo (I’d tell you the names for the other blocks/punches but I can’t spell them to save my life). It was a lot of fun.

In addition to that, we have a Japanese woman coming to teach Japanese lessons to anyone in the dojo who is interested in learning. The lessons started today. Big I and I learned some basic greetings and pronunciation, and had a blast. Our Japanese teacher is named Chia (I’m fairly certain that is NOT how you spell her name, but that’s what it sounds like. Chia, as in "Chia Pet"). She does not, however, look like a chia pet. She’s a bubbly, pretty, extremely nice person and I think it’s going to be really cool to learn from her.

One of the instructors at our school has been learning from her for a while now. It’s quite obvious from the conversations the two of them have in Japanese that left Big I and I sort of staring in awe. During this particular instructors’ classes, we don’t start over at "ichi" (one) once we get up to ten. We continue counting correctly in Japanese as high as we need to go. It’s quite amazing to listen to the kids in the dojo who know how to count better than some of the adults (and by "some of the adults" I mean me). I’m working on it though.

I figured I would make Big I attend one class and then she could decide if she wanted to continue or not. She is SUPER into it! We spent the entire day talking to each other with the few words of Japanese we learned. Our brief conversations went something like this:

Me: Konichiwa (Hi) [koh nee chee wa-remember to emphasis the koh, not the nee as Americans will often do. . . and by Americans, I mean ME.)
Big I: Konichiwa
Me: Geski desu ka? (How are you?) [gehn kee dess ka]
Big I: Geski desu. (I am fine.) [gehn kee dess]

When I tucked Big I into bed tonight I told her "Kombanwa" (Good night) [kon bahn wa-that’s a long "o" in kon. I have no idea how to type that!] . I told her that we’ll say Ohayo Gozaismasu (Good Morning) [ohio go zai ee mahs] tomorrow morning. As I was leaving her room tonight, she said, "I’ll probably be the only kid in my school who can speak Japanese. Is that cool?" She was grinning ear to ear. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Don’t worry though. I won’t start posting in Japanese or anything. . . at least not for a while. 😉

Sayonara [sa yo na ra]!