荷物 Luggage

     Today I sent an eight kilogram box filled with my summer garb to my mother in the US. I had expected it to cost around two hundred dollars, but to my surprise, it was only sixty eight dollars. Wow! I decided to send it by boat (ふね） instead of airplane (ひこうき） so that I could have more money to spend on last minute souvenirs (おみやげ） for friends and family. I had a bunch of summer kimono (ゆかた） packed in the box as well. I plan to give one to a friend, as it does not suit my taste all that much. I`m also beginning to write my farewell speech that I`ll deliver in front of my school. Once I finish it, I will upload it onto this blog for everyone to read!

Best regards,

Sarah Swanner 須和奈　星羅　（すわな　せいら）

Learn Japanese: Basic Verbs

　

日本語の基本的な動詞　

 

＊にほんごのきほんてきなどうし＊

     Hey guys! For those of you getting ready to depart for Japan, whether it be a year or a semester or even a summer program, it`s important to learn a little Japanese before you go so that you don`t feel so lost, right? If you have just started studying Japanese, or have been learning for around a year or so, but feel like you aren`t prepared or that you need more matierial, here is a list of some of the most commonly used verbs that I can scrape up off of the top of my head. These are verbs that you will use often yourself, and will hear others use these in conversation and in written context. Whether you`re at school, at home, or at the train station, these verbs will be of great use to you! Let`s get started!

いく　(行く） to go
くる　（来る） to come
もどる　（戻る） to return, to come back (もどってくる）
かえる　（帰る）　to come home, to return home (かえってくる）
あげる　to give (you give to someone; someone does a favor for someone excluding yourself and those related to you)
くれる to give (someone gives to you; someone does a favor for you or someone in your family)
もらう/*いただく　to recieve, to have someone do something
*いただく　is the respectful form of the verb もらう 　　　　｛そんけいご　尊敬語｝
はなす　（話す）　to speak
しゃべる　（喋る） to talk
いう/ゆう　（言う） to say, to tell
どなる　（怒鳴る） to yell
なく　（泣く） to cry
わらう　（笑う） to laugh
ほほえむ　（微笑む） to smile
おならをする　to fart, to pass gas
はく　（吐く）　to vomit, to puke
くしゃみがでる* to sneeze
げっぷがでる* to burp, to belch
あくびする to yawn
*（でる＝出る）
たべる/くう*　(食べる・食う） to eat, to consume
のむ　(飲む） to swallow, to drink (often used in the expression くすりを飲む to take medicine)
かむ　（噛む） to bite, to chew
Ａでむせる　（咽る） to choke on A
*食う is male language and is not a very polite word to use, especially as a female.
のる　（乗る） to get on, to ride (train, bus, etc.)
おりる　（降りる） to get off (train, bus, etc.)
のりかえする　（乗り換え）to switch trains
まちあわせる　（待ち合わせる） to meet up, to rendezvous
むかえにくる　（迎えに来る）to come and pick someone up
むかえにいく　（迎えに行く） to go and pick someone up
つくる　（作る） to make
つかう　（使う） to use
すてる　（捨てる） to throw away, to get rid off
おす　（押す） to push
ひく　（引く） to pull
Ａにぶつかる to run into A, to bump against A
きる　（切る） to cut
おぼえる　（覚える） to remember
わすれる　（忘れる） to forget
おもいだす　（思い出す） to recall, to come to mind
おもう　（思う） to think
かんがえる　（考える） to decide, to think about, to consider
かんじる　（感じる）　to feel (emotions, etc.)
あるく　（歩く） to walk
はしる　（走る） to run
すべる　（滑る） to slip
ける　（蹴る） to kick
たつ　（立つ） to stand
すわる　（座る） to sit
おきる　（起きる） to get up, to rise, to wake up
ねる　（寝る） to sleep, to go to bed
ねぼうする　（寝坊） to sleep in, to oversleep
てつやする　（徹夜） to stay up all night, to pull an all-nighter

Best regards,

Sarah Swanner 須和奈　星羅　（すわな　せいら）

お正月 （おしょうがつ） New Year

     Hello, everyone! It`s December 12th, 16:00 right now here in Japan. I thought I`d update everyone on what`s been going on here in Japan and with my exchange. It`s definitely winter, that`s for sure. In the Kansai region, during the summer it`s unbelievably hot and during the winter it`s butt-freezing cold. Yet as cold as it is I must continue to wear my uniform skirt to school. I`ve caught a cold three times already, but I made it to Japan so I won`t complain!
     The New Year holiday is fast-approaching, and with it come mail from AFS informing me of my nearing departure. Everyone here is busy writing New Year`s cards, or as they say in Japanese 年賀状　（ねんがじょう）. For those of you learning Japanese, here are some great phrases to remember during the New Year holiday:

・　明けましておめでとうございます　（あけましておめでとうございます）　Happy New Year
・　今年も宜しくお願いします　（ことしもよろしくおねがいします）  I'll be indebted to you/relying on you this year too

There are also these two expressions, which mean basically the same thing as what I mentioned above:

・　謹んで新春のご挨拶を申し上げます
(つつしんでしんしゅんのごあいさつをもしあげます）
・　旧年中はひとかたならぬお世話になり、誠にありがとうございました　
（きゅうねんちゅうはひとかたならぬおせわになり、まことにありがとうございました）

That`s it! Pretty easy, huh? Try to write some Japanese ねんがじょう　to your friends and family in your country and share they Japanese culture with them! According to the Chinese calender, the year 2014 is the year of the horse, so all ねんがじょう will have a horse drawn on them. Here is an example of a ねんがじょう!


 

 


     My New Year plans include visiting my host grandmother in Kyoto and and taking a trip to Tokushima to stay at a hotel on the beach! I`m going to save up my money and buy a furisode to wear on New Year`s day when we visit my grandmother. It`s going to be cold, but I`ll be okay, hopefully!

Best regards,

Sarah Swanner 須和奈　星羅　（すわな　せいら）

 

Long Time No Update

     I haven`t updated this blog in a while, and for that I appologize. A lot has happened since I arrived in Japan, so I will try to cram it all into this one post. Hopefully it won`t be overbearing! So to start with, I arrived in Tokyo the evening of March 20th. The group of twenty adventurous American teens, including myself, filed into Narita airport and proceeded to get our residence cards. It was a long line of gaijins, but we managed to make it through. One of the AFSers was half Japanese, so she had Japanese citizenship and therefore did not have to wait in line. Sure sounds nice, huh? After we got our residence cards, and they are by no means the most flattering pictures either, we trollied on down to the first floor to claim our baggage, then hopped on a bus outside the airport that took us to a fancy dancy hotel. Riley Keenan was so tall that he had to bend down on the bus! Once the bus pulled into the driveway of the hotel, we again claimed our baggage and dragged the blasted things into the hotel lobby, where we waited for further instructions from the AFS volunteers. It was here in the lobby that I met my Norweigian friends in-person for the first time. Oddveig and Carina and another girl whose name I can`t recall greeted us warmly! Riley, Miranda, and I were so happy to see them. We would often have google chats with them, and to finally see them in-person was pretty awesome. My other Norweigian friend, Serina, was somewhere else. I can`t remember! Whoops!

     At the arrival orientation the boisterous group of twenty Americans met the rest of the world going to Japan. Never in my life have I heard so many languages spoken all at once in the same room. It was mind-boggling, to say in the least. There was Spanish, French, German, Italian, Norweigian, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai, just to name a few. Well, and English as well, of course. We met girls from New Zealand and Australia! After we loaded our plates with whatever food there was to take, we sat down at a table with some other teens. It was quite an eclectic group, let me tell you. We talked about our reasons for wanting to go to Japan and compared our flight lengths. 

     The next day we were grouped according to our regions. The newly made friends said their goodbyes to those who were placed far away, and we all got on our respective buses and were soon on our way. My bus was headed for Osaka. The drive was about seven hours, I believe. On my bus there were Americans, Thai, Norwegians, Mexicans, Danish, New Zealanders, Russians, and one girl from Paraguay. We sang the popular songs of our countries the whole way there. I`m sure the bus driver wanted to throw something at us!

     Once we arrived in Osaka, we parked the bus and walked to yet another orientation site. This time, the orientation was three days long, I believe. We stayed at a youth hotel, and here we were instructed on how to take on the world of Japan. We recieved two booklets; one booklet was on Japanese grammar and the other contained around one hundred kanji to be learned. We discussed Japanese manners, customs, and language. The volunteers gave us tips on how to handle various situations, and we discussed what to do in an emergency. All in all, it was a fabulous time. Inside the hotel was an onsen, and all of us girls didn`t know that we had to take off all of our clothing. It was a nice start to the many culture shocks to follow.

     Once the orrientation came to a close, the group was again separated, but this time it was according to our chapter. Some of the chapters left with other chapters because they were close together. That was the case with mine. In my chapter, Mishima, there are only two AFSers: myself and Hao, a boy from Malaysia. We commuted to the station with an AFS volunteer and another small group of a different chapter. From here, each of us branched off to where our host families would meet us. I was the first to go in my chapter. I was greeted by my liason, Sugo Hiroe, and my translator Hitomi Matsumoto. We exchanged greetings and talked for about a minute or so before my host sister arrived. This was the first time I saw Nao. She had seemingly just finished with a club activity, for she was wearing her school uniform. She walked up to me, played with a couple of strands of my hair, and said, "Kawaii!"

     Together with my host sister, my liason, and my translator, we walked to where my host mom had parked her car. We loaded in and my host mom drove us to her house, where we all sat in the living room and discussed AFS things. After my liason and translator left, it was just my host family and I. From here began my new life in Japan.

      I also met Nao`s cousins,Yosuke and Kosuke. Kosuke took us to Starbucks and bought us coffee. Well, he bought me coffee and Nao a shake of some sorts. Nao doesn`t like coffee! The following evening Yosuke took us to a large city called Shinsaibashi. It`s really like a huge shopping area of the city. There are so many people congregating in such a small place. I saw gang members, lolita, and all sorts of people. It was wild. Yosuke took us to take purikura, which are like cute versions of the photobooths in the USA. They make your skin lighter, and your eyes bigger. I kind of looked like a blue-eyed catfish, but it was fun, nonetheless.

     So after a couple of weeks, school started. I had to write a speech for the opening ceremony. I stood in front of around eight hundred students and faculty and delivered my elementary level self-introduction in Japanese. It was nerve-wracking, but I managed to do it. The next day was my first day of school. I swear, you would have thought that I was Harry from One Direction or Beiber, because the girls nearly passed out when they saw me in the hallway. I`m not exaggerating, they literally screamed. Some even begged me to take a picture with them. I gladly did so, I mean, what could it hurt? My class is ２年８組、or second year, class eight. There are forty-one students in my class, including myself. I take chemistry, bioligy, computer, health, PE, math 2 & B, classical Japanese, modern Japanese, home economics, calligraphy, geography, and English W and 2. I always take notes, because I want to bring them back to the USA and show everyone what the work looks like in Japan for high school students. In English class I participate fully, but as for classes like chemistry and math, its too difficult for me to comprehend. I understand single words and sometimes full sentences, but the chemistry lingo in Japanese is way over my head! I at least know how to say `oxidation reaction` in Japanese, but I`m not sure how useful that will be in the long run.

     All in all, everything is as it should be. My host family is more than what I could have ever asked for, and my host sister is a riot, I love her to death. On weekends we often go hang out with other nearby AFS students and go to amusement parks or go shopping in the big cities. The best part is eating dinner at Nao`s part-time job, Kiraku, which specializes in ramen and udon. I hope someday I can bring my family and friends to Kiraku!

    Until next time!

    

あと１６日！

関西弁

うちのホストファミリーは大坂府に住んでいると、ほんまに興奮していました。ずっと前に大阪へ行きたかったから、ちょっと関西弁を習いました。いつか、ぺらぺらになりたいんやけど、もっと関西弁を勉強しようと決めました。ときどきめっちゃ分かりにくいやで！

標準語って関西弁よりもっと米国に住んでいる生徒に使われます。そうやから、関西弁ってあんま知っておりへん。日本語の学生がいろいろな方言を知っておるのはほんまに大切って思います。これから、日本におってる間に、いくらのブログは日本語で書かれるかもなぁ。

ほな、しんどいやから、寝る！おやすみ！

Time Flies

     Only seventeen more days here in Oklahoma. I can't believe time has flown by this fast. It seems like yesterday that my friends in AFS Japan had posted something along the lines of "250 days until we leave," and now it it February 27th, 2013 and seventeen days away from my departure. I can remember back in August of 2012, looking at my balance of $13,200 on my application and wondering how in the world was I going to manage a feat of 13K in seven months. Well, with the help of generous donors and Global Leaders, I have chipped that mass down to $0.00. 

     As of today, I'm officially going to Japan. My domestic ticket is booked, my yellow AFS luggage tags came in the mail last week, and I have my host family and host school information. I will be living in Ibaraki City, in Osaka prefecture. I have a host mom, dad, grandmother, and two host sisters who are fifteen and sixteen. My school is Mishima High School, and I start April first. I can't even begin to express how ecstatic I am. This has been a dream of mine since I was a little child of ten. If things had not worked out the way they have, and I was not able to go to Japan, I would have had no qualms about getting wonderfully lost in another country through AFS. It would have been quite an adventure to have gone to, say, Turkey or Norway. However, my ticket is booked for Japan this year, and I'm going to delve into their culture like a fish whose been out of water for far too long, and it has been.

     What has really surprised me is that by going to Japan, I would learn about other cultures like French, German, Norwegian, Dutch, and Paraguayan. These are just some of the people who are embarking on the Japan exchange with me. I've made friends with people around the world just by wanting to go to one place in particular. Now I have every intention of traveling the world with these friends. I hope that in the next twenty years, I can be sitting at a little cafe in Paris with my French friends, or a museum in Germany with my German friends, or watching the snow fall outside of a warm house in Norway. Perhaps I will be living in Japan, and my American friends may join me. We will be reminiscing of our life in Japan as a group of brave and adventurous teens who were ready to brace the world.

     There's a quote that I've heard since elementary school, "Be the change you want to see in the world," and at that time I didn't have an inkling as to what I could do to live up to that quote. How could a little ten year old me do anything to have an impact on this world? Six years later, and as of March 20th, I'll be putting that phrase to the test. With the ample opportunity that AFS USA has given, and with more than 175 young individuals my age from all around the world, we'll be that change.

AFS Japan Facebook Groups

* AFS Japan 2013-2014 Year Group

http://www.facebook.com/groups/280217615414626/

* AFS Japan 2014-2015 Year Group

http://www.facebook.com/groups/129962473832762/

* AFS Japan 2013-2014 Fall Semester Group

http://www.facebook.com/groups/271215156330165/?ref=ts&fref=ts


     Those are all of the groups for this year and the following year trip. If you're going on one of the above programs, follow the link and request to join! 

New Members!

Bonjour! Hallo!

    Today our group added two new members, a girl from Germany and another girl from France! I'm so excited to meet all of these people from around the world. I never realized that I would be meeting people from other countries by doing an exchange with Japan! I'm trying to learn how to say basic phrases in everyone's native language. Dutch is new to me! Here's what I've learned so far:

Hallo, mijn naam is Sarah. Hoe gaat het? 
(Hello, my name is Sarah. How are you?)

     Hey, it's a start! Anyways, I will be leaving for L.A. in sixty-seven days. In about ten weeks, I'll be in Tokyo! All of this just completely flabbergasts me. Time flies by so fast. It was only six months ago that I was added to the AFS Japan 2013-2014 group on Facebook. Now the members are all my good friends. On the AFS Japan (general page) I spoke to the exchangers who went on the 2012-2013 trip to Japan and I learned a lot of useful information. I can't wait to join the kyuudou club (archery) if my host school offers it. If not, I'd love to take shoudou (calligraphy) or maybe I'll get brave and take a whoopin' in kendou (wooden sword fighting.)