As you may or may not know, last week I did a presentation for my Japanese History Class. Just by the way, I'm the only exchange student in this class, it's taught to Japanese students who may pursue a career in teaching in the future and aims to consolidate the absolute essentials and required knowledge to teach Japanese history in schools etc. Needless to say, I'm lucky if I understand half of what the teacher's talking about.
Anyway, when I said presentation, the truth is my teacher explained that he actually had a meeting he couldn't miss but it was at the same time as class, but he couldn't just leave the lecture halfway through so after handing out a document written completely in English, he asked if I could explain it to the entire class next week while he was at the meeting. Word for word, he told me there won't be a lecturer for 30 minutes, so instead Jackson will teach you all for 30 minutes, I can rely on you right Jackson? So as opposed to taking the logical response and being like, what no way! I said, yeah, I guess I could do that.
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| Catalogue of the Japanese Coin Collection (Pre-Meiji) at the British Museum (A book review by Timothy Crafter of the University of Oxford) |
BREAK
In a lot of Japanese class the students are very reserved about standing out, voicing their opinions or asking questions etc. Therefore in a lot of classes pieces of paper will be handed out for the students to write their feelings, thoughts and reflections on the day's work. My teacher thought it would be a great opportunity for me to see how well my presentation was received, so I received my very own review from the 30 or so students who were attending the class that day. I think there were 27 to be exact.
The comments I received and an English translation will follow (it might be bad English though).
The girl who sits next to me in class was kind enough to write her comment in English.
１。Dear Jackson. Thank you for teaching English sentenses. I enjoyed listening to this. I think that I want to learn English. Also, to read long English essays is too difficult for me. Thank you. Sincerely, ...
[Her English wasn't perfect but neither's my Japanese, so I really appreciated the thought and effort]
２。たいへん良い発表でした。ジャクソン先生は、めっちゃいい兄生！
It was a very good presentation. Jackson-sensei is a great older brother teacher.
３。すごいと思う。書評の内容がだいたいわかった。他の言語をジャクソンのように話したい
I think it's amazing. I understood generally what the book review was about. I want to speak another language the way Jackson does. (IE like you do)
４。ジャクソン君の発表について改めて日本語が上手いと思った。難解な日本語表現も少ししか間違えていなかった。
I thought once again with regards to his presentation, Jackson is good at Japanese. There were only a few times when he mistook some difficult to understand (abstruse) Japanese expressions.
５。偉人に対して「こいつ」、「やつ」はやめてほしい
I want you to stop calling historical figures (great men), "This dude", "That guy" and "that bastard" etc
６。想像以上にわかりやすかったです。百点満点。日本語訳では無かったかもしれませんが、正しい意味が伝わったのですばらしい解説だったと思います。ただ、英語を読むのは所々早かったなぁ〜 聞き取りが苦手でごめんね
It was easy to understand than I imagined. 100 points, perfect score. It probably wasn't a Japanese translation/version but the correct meaning was gotten across, so I think it was a excellent explanation. Except at some points you read the English a bit quickly. I'm sorry I'm not good at English comprehension.
７。英語で書かれていることは全然わからなかったけどジャクソン君の説明のおかげで、大体理解できた
I had no idea what was written in English but thanks to Jackson's explanation I got the general idea.
８。日本語が上手だったのでびっくりです。楽しかったです。
I was surprised you were good at Japanese. It was fun.
９。ジャクソンさんはたいへん丁寧な日本語を話されていてわかりやすかったです。
Mr. Jackson spoke very polite Japanese and it was easy to understand.
１０。ジャクソンの流暢な日本語に感動、よく調べてくれたと思う。
I was moved by Jackson's fluent Japanese, I think he did his research.
１１。聞いていて納得できた。話がも聞きやすかった。朽木正綱のことを初めて知ったし、聞いていて、よく分かった。
Listening (to your presentation), I understood (what it was about). Your speech was also easy to listen to. It was the first time I'd heard of *Kutsuki Masatsuna* and after listening (to your speech), I understood a lot. (**NB Famous coin collector who the book being reviewed has a lot to do with)
１２。英語を読もうとしても全く理解できなかったが、ジャクソン君が日本語で何が書いてあるのかと、それについてのことを説明してくれて、わかりやすくてよかった。
Even if I try to read the English, I couldn't comprehend it at all but the explanation Jackson gave in Japanese about what was written was easy to understand so I was glad.
１３。ジャクソンは、とても日本語が上手くて少しこっちが勉強しないとなと感じた。
Jackson spoke Japanese very well and I felt that if (I) don't study a little ... (I'll be in trouble)
１４。カタログが世界の日本史を研究している人にとって大きなものになっていると思った。外国人のジャクソン君にとって質問をしない日本人の学生は違和感があるようだった。桜木先生がすごい先生だとわかった。日本語がすごいと思ったし、わかりやすかった。
I thought this catalogue was a big thing for the people in the world researching Japanese history. It seemed as if the Japanese students who didn't ask any questions made Jackson, the foreigner, feel a bit uncomfortable. I realised *Sakuraki-sensei* is a great teacher. I thought your Japanese was great and it was easy to understand. (**NB Sakuraki-sensei is the actual teacher of this class, I wrote sensei after his name because I know no accurate translation for it and Teacher Sakuraki sounds weird)
１５。ジャクソンさんの日本語が非常に上手でわかりやすかった。朽木正綱という人物は知らなかったけど、どのような人物かよくわかった。
Jackson's Japanese was very skilful and easy to understand. I didn't know who Kutsuki Masatsuna was but I now understand what kind of person he is.
１６。ユーモアがあっておもしろかったし、話の進め方を相談しながら進めていったのは、よかったと思う。
It had humour and was interesting, plus discussing the way your speech would progress while progressing it was good I thought.
１７。少し日本語がおかしかったけど分かり易かった。
The Japanese was a bit strange but it was easy to understand.
１８。ジャクソン君は彼女（girl friend）はいるんですか？
Does Jackson have a girlfriend?
１９。ハキハキと発表していてとても良かった。自分も明後日、基礎演習で発表があるので、参考になりました。
You presented clearly and it was great. The day after tomorrow I too have a presentation in my seminar class, so this became a good point of reference.
２０。日本語うまかった！
JAPANESE WAS DELICIOUS!
２１。ハキハキとしゃべっていて聞きとりやすかった。
You spoke clearly and it was easy to follow.
２２。「を」を「に」にかえた方がいいと思うところがありました。みんなに配ってくれたプリントは、大事なポイントをおさえてくれていて、訳をきくときにとても役立ちました。ありがとうございました。
There was a place/were a few places that you should have changed "o" into "ni". The handout you gave to everyone covered the important points so it was very useful when listening to the translation. Thank you very mech.
２３。書評の意味、たいたいわかりました。朽木正綱さんがすごいことをしたということが理解できました。I got the gist of the book review. I could grasp the fact that Kutsuki Masatsuna did some amazing things.
２４。すごくわかりやすかった。ネイティブの発音をきけてよかった。
It was really easy to understand. I was glad I got to hear native pronunciation.
２５。本当に素晴らしいプレゼンテーションだったです。同年代の学生としてすごく尊敬できます。日本と海外の学生の質の差を感じました。
It truly was a wonderful presentation. As a student of the same generation I can really respect you. I felt the difference between the quality of Japanese students and students from overseas.
２６。ジャクソンの時計はピンク
Jackson's watch is pink.
[The reason this is funny is because I ran out of material in the last 5-10 minutes of the class and just started talking to them and asking them if they understood. Nobody answered me so I just started making jokes and at one point said something along the lines of I know what you're all thinking how can I take this guy seriously, I mean look at his watch, it's pink. Who does he think he is?]
２７。すごい日本語が上手でわかりやすかったです！
(Your) Japanese was really good and easy to understand.
２８。ジャクソンの話めっちゃ面白かった。近い将来にオーストラリアへ旅行する時は、ジャクソンの住んでた場所にも行ってみたい。
Jackson's talk was very interesting. In the near future when I travel to Australia, I'd like to go and see what the place Jackson lived in is like as well (while I'm there)
２９。ジャクソン君の説明はとてもわかりやすく内容が少し理解することができました。とてもおもしろかったです。
Jackson's explanation was very easy to understand and I could appreciate the subject a little more. It was extremely amusing.
３０。所々、少し気になる日本語があったけど文脈から考えればわかった。
There were a couple of places that bothered me (IE could do with fixing), but if you think about the context you could understand (what you were trying to say)
３１。非常にわかりやすい授業でした。
It was an incredibly straightforward (easy to understand) lesson.
３２。ジャクソンの翻訳がすばらしかったです。また、桜木先生が貨幣の研究に大きく貢献していたことにおどろいた。Jackson's translation was magnificent. Still I was surprised that Sakuraki-sensei made such a notable contribution to the study of coins.
３３。お疲れさまでした。英文がものすごく高度だとわかりました。要約文と聞きとりで内容をあらかたつかめました。 （？）
You must be tired! (Japanese expression, lit. thank you for having tired) I realised that the English text was staggeringly advanced. Due to the written summary and listening comprehension, I could mostly grasp the contents (of the text) [NB the question mark is because I had trouble reading this guy's hand-writing, but I'm pretty sure that's what he wrote because it doesn't make sense otherwise)
３４。教壇の上に立ってみての感想を聞きたいです。
I want to ask how it felt to stand on the platform and be a teacher.
Anyway, I really appreciated all the comments everyone wrote me. There seemed to be an abundance of compliments as well as a few jokes and some constructive criticism. A great experience all round. The comments themselves are yet another souvenir in my exchange experience.
So, as thanks for reading this far, I'll put up another picture! You've done well! I would've given up on reading this dull blog post long ago but just for the few people who read this, here is a picture of my latest purchase. 大きなカラダづくりに！
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| It's got minerals, multi-dextrin and all that science-y junk! |
That's right, weight up protein for "building a large body" as the Japanese says. I looked at the nutritional information on the back and realised I just bought expensive banana Nesquik (tm) with added vitamins and minerals. But who cares it tastes delicious! God forbid if we see any results I can post vain photos of myself posing in mirrors shirtless (Don't worry, there won't be any results :-P)
