The crazy year that was・大変だった年

Hi reader! Thanks for being here again. 🙂 In my last post in May, when I said see you on the other side, I meant the other side of my semester 1 assessments. Well, now Semester 2 and Lockdown 2.0 are both finished, and it’s the other side of 2020. And might I add, the better side. At least in Melbourne.

日本語で上手く書けないので、私の日本人の友達はもし読もうとしていれば、英語で頑張ってください！(<– I can’t write well enough in Japanese, so to my Japanese friends, please do your best in English!)

It’s a year today since I arrived back in Australia. What a year.

It’s nice to finally take a bit of time to write on here again. Some people had way too much free time this year. That was me for the first few months back in the country. Other people were completely overrun: health workers, politicians, [insert others here] and students of interpreting and translation.

At the start of the year I thought I’d have time to write more. Ha!

I thought I’d write about the things I was learning. Usually in Japan, there was a heap of cultural stuff I would pick up all the time, but never time to actually sit down and study. Well this year, there was an abundance of sitting down, and admittedly also a lot of study. It was the kind of study, however, that made me aware of the enormity of the task of acquiring Japanese, and the fact that I am effectively still beginning. That being said, I did learn many words and expressions. I consumed a lot of news.

What did I learn this year?

The main thing I want to say about interpreting at the moment is this: it’s different to talking for yourself. You become the voice for someone else in another language. In some situations this is more important than in others, but what you’re responsible for conveying is not just the content of what someone’s said; it also includes the intention. That means feeling, connotations, and any other information that can be gathered from the choices someone makes about the way they say something. People make choices deliberately about their phrasing, and it’s up to an interpreter to convey that. For example, if one person says, ‘SIT DOWN, NOW,’ and this is conveyed as ‘Would you be so kind as to be seated?’ the effect changes and is probably not what the original speaker intended. In the physical world it might only change the speed with which someone sits down, but the emotional impact will be different.

In situations that include psychological monitoring and/or manipulation, it’s especially important that not only what someone says, but also the way they say it, is rendered into the other language. This is true of various consultations, e.g. health or legal. The way someone speaks gives indications of all sorts of information: how well they’ve understood something; whether they’re lying; whether they’re experiencing some sort of mental disturbance; whether they’re an expert on what they’re saying.

At uni, the example that came up the most times was a cross-examination in court. Apparently barristers use all manner of trickery and rhetorical techniques to intimidate, put off and confuse witnesses. This is to discredit the witness for the other side – in other words, it’s so that the other side’s case will look weaker and the judge/jury/relevant party won’t believe this witness. E.g. a lawyer says, ‘In fact, you were at the bank that morning, and you did see Mr X, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU?’ In some other situations it’s OK to edit out repetitions like this. But it was really hammered home this last semester that in some circumstances, seeming redundancies like these are a considered decision on the part of the speaker, and it’s unethical to omit them or fix errors in what someone says, because doing so distorts the message.

The idea of interpreting is of removing the language barriers so that everyone talking has equal access to what is being communicated.

When I was in Japan and struggling along to make myself understood in Japanese, sometimes there would be something I wanted to express but I didn’t have the exact words, so I would just change what I was saying.

E.g. ‘I don’t really want to go into that shop because the assistant last time was really snooty. I felt like she was judging me and I was uncomfortable.’ Half the time it would feel like too much work to say all this, so I might just say something like ‘Last time I went into that shop, I didn’t like the assistant, so I don’t really want to go in there.’ Even now that I think about it, I can’t think of a good equivalent for the ideas of ‘snooty’ and ‘to judge someone’. 俗物な人？ジャッジする？批判的な目で見る？

So. For myself, I managed by saying less or saying something slightly different using language I knew. But if you’re interpreting for someone else, you can’t do that. You can’t be the voice of a judge/police officer/Centrelink staff member/banker/doctor/lawyer speaking as if they’re speaking to their friend. Likewise, you can’t interpret as the voice of a 4-year-old and use words like ‘distortion’ or ‘equivalent.’ It’s like acting.

In summary, it was fascinating to learn about and practise interpreting and it took a huge deal of time and effort to make the progress I have to this point. I only did a bit of translation. More of that next year, I think.

Other news

This year as well as studying and practising, I also went on quite a few walks. My partner’s Australian partner visa was granted (WOOHOO!!) but he wanted to wait for his December bonus and anyway, we were all locked down over here, so we are due to meet again in January.

What else is news? Hotel quarantine, Biden elected, Go To Travel (what happened to Go To Eat?), several TV shows… I think I mentioned earlier in the year that it was hard to settle in again here. Covid made that harder than it could have been. A lot of old friendships had sort of gone stale, petered out or just changed. The upshot of this was that adult me wanted to meet new people and make new friends. With the help of uni and language exchange events, this was going swimmingly until Covid hit Melbourne. Uni group projects were a blessing in disguise because they meant contact (albeit virtual) with other humans throughout lockdown. A language exchange buddy introduced me to their other interpreting practice Zoom group, which helped both my interpreting skills and social life a great deal throughout the bigger lockdown. I started teaching English again via a couple of online platforms. That contact with people outside the house was a sanity saver in Semester 2 and Lockdown 2.0. And recently I started another job! Woohoo.

I think that’s most of it from me. You know what 2020 was like. If there’s never another one again, it’ll be too soon.

What about you? Did you learn anything good this year? Any special milestones?

As always, thanks for reading! And as always, I hope to write again soon 🙂 There’s no uni for the next while so who knows, I might even do it.

Until then, please take care and stay safe!

How are(n’t) you travelling?

Hi reader. How have you been getting along in the time of Covid craziness?

I’ve been reflecting on the everyday things that have helped me through weird times and trouble.

At one stage, I had a lot of free time, living in Gifu. It was just after moving back to Japan in 2015. I was homesick, living alone, knew nobody in my prefecture (partner was next prefecture over), and a lot of free time was not conducive to a happy, healthy life. It took a while to find things but eventually, I was able to fill evenings and the odd weekend with blogging, walking, running, yoga (with Adriene), music, and audiobooks. I listened to Double J radio, RN Breakfast, and I recall a fair amount of John Grant and Fat Freddy’s Drop. It was in Gifu that I listened to the audiobooks of Moby Dick, Cranford, and Pillars of the Earth, and it was there I discovered the wonderful world of Yotsuba.

Since I left Gifu in early 2016, too much time hasn’t often been a problem.

Over several years in Hiroshima, exercise always helped. The first year I walked regularly because we lived in a semi-rural area. During walks and the hours I spent driving to work and back, I listened to a lot of audiobooks.

You know, somehow I thought coming back to Australia, I’d have more time than in my busy life of teaching in Japan. It’s worked out quite the opposite. The uni course I’m doing is pretty all-consuming and doing it in iso has been taking its toll on the old mental health.

This last couple of months, one of the most comforting things I have discovered is chamomile tea. It’s calming and caffeine-free, and goes well with dark chocolate (bonus). It reminds me of Peter Rabbit. Somehow things that are childlike and Beatrix Potter-esque are comforting to me. They link me to the world of books, fantasy and childhood, where I could escape into a book pretty much anytime and never had to make major decisions (read: safe place).
So chamomile tea is a sort of weapon to take into battle against an afternoon of self-flagellation.
When we were able to go into the classroom, when the teachers were able to establish a supportive atmosphere where we could support each other and laugh at our own mistakes, it didn’t seem like it would be quite as hard.

On a similar note, reading books before bed is a comforting ritual I can finally do now that I’m living somewhere with a bed again. Most of the time I was happy sleeping on a futon (needing but not being able to air it/sun it enough was another story), but the wonder about sleeping in a bed is that you can prop yourself up against the bedhead and read a book. If you’re in a futon on the floor, you can lie on your back and hold the book over your head, but if you get sleepy and your arms droop, it falls on your face. You can lie on your tummy and put the book in front of you, but it doesn’t stay comfortable for that long. You can lie on your side… but there’s no comfortable way to read in bed for any length of time.
So before bed I’ve been rotating between different books – mostly fiction. I indulged in Kate Grenville for a bit, but mostly I try to read Japanese stuff. Progress is slow. I’m now inching – more like millimetring – through the Japanese translation of a kids’ book, Momo, which is originally by a German author, Ende. It’s pretty cute so far.

The other things I’ve been enjoying during this time are probably the same as most people: walking the dog, whatever exercise I can steal the time and find space for, TV (finally watched the first season of Money Heist, aka Paper House/ペーパーハウス), sleeping, meals, and hugs with permitted household members. The odd jigsaw and board game has helped, and family meals as in tradition, even if half the family is on the other side of Zoom stealing the background from where we are. The rare contact that I’ve had with other students (other than messages about group assignments) has also helped. Now that we’re allowed to have people visit or visit friends’ houses, my quality of life is about 50% better.

Things that generally don’t help stress levels include emails, notifications (especially email notifications), assessments, and anything over about 45 minutes of news a day. I turned off my uni email phone notifications and have 0.0 regrets about this so far.

One nice thing about studying is that my Japanese reading has improved. I guess you could say my listening is better too from words acquired through reading. That must be true, but I don’t sense it in the same way as with the reading. Language skills, like in this case, being able to speak as if you were a politician, a newsreader, a lobbyist, or a specialist giving a presentation at a community forum or at a conference… those things take time and practice, and I’ve only dipped a toe here.

Anyway, in case you were wondering, I’ve nearly finished the first semester of this course. It’s looking like it might be a while before there’s any travel to Japan.

OK, reader. Two weeks till freedom. See you on the other side!

BB 2/日本語タイム、その２

（日本語版は下）

A couple of weeks ago, my translating and interpreting course started. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

It’s better to interpret what is said directly, not indirectly

It’s faster and easier.

For instance

Direct

A: [I’ve got a headache.] (in Japanese)

Interpreter: I’ve got a headache.

Indirect

A: [I’ve got a headache.] (in Japanese)

Interpreter: She says she’s got a headache.

This doesn’t work in all cases (over the phone, for example).

Do a professional interpreting self-intro at the start of each [dialogue] session

Example

Hello, my name is [name], I’ll be your interpreter today. Everything that is said here will be interpreted and will be kept confidential. Please speak directly to each other*, and as concisely as possible. For accuracy, I will interpret in the first person. I may need to interrupt you.

Extra options include something like:

• If there’s anything you don’t want interpreted, please refrain from saying it. I have an obligation to interpret everything.
• If you don’t understand something I interpret, please say so.**

Translation companies are fussy about details

My translation tutor told us they’re really picky about punctuation and grammar. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

As far as concepts go, that’s about all I got in the first couple of weeks. Aside from this it was theory and stuff about how to use translating tools.

*Politeness problems

When I wrote the draft of this post, I wrote ‘please speak clearly’ as ‘hakkirito hanashite kudasai’ using the ‘te’ form in Japanese, but my proofreader suggested a slightly more polite/respectful/customer-directed style, ‘o-hanashi kudasai.’

When interpreting, after using this more respectful speech style, is it OK to go back to plain old everyday polite speech with ‘te’ form? Not weird?

I’m not sure I’d be able to hold up an interaction using kenjo-go (‘humble speech’) or sonkei-go (‘honorific speech’) with my current Japanese. It’s not that I don’t understand it. I’ve had plenty of exposure to sonkei-go as a customer, just never had to actually produce it myself. And kenjo-go comes up on the news every time Abe talks so I hear that a lot. But for both, without study and practise, there’s no way I’d be able to use them properly. I’d be mixing them up and confusing everything.

Interpreters’ speaking abilities aside, if the person speaking English isn’t using a very polite and formal tone, it would be inaccurate to do so in interpreting for them.

So… as the ‘interpreter’s voice’ maybe it’s best to err on the side of being more polite? At least, when talking to a Japanese client.

Oh dear.

**Another Japanese friend read this self-intro for me and completely rewrote it, making it more formal on the whole and probably a heap more correct. But I didn’t want to include that in this post because it’s already too long. Another time.

Next time (yes! It’s already planned!)

• Australian lifestyle preventing the spread of the coronavirus
• Learned since Week 2: Interpreting and acting
  

通訳と翻訳の講座の第１、２週学んだことを書きます！（今のところ、第３週終わった）

大体直接的な通訳が間接的のよりいいということ

この方がより早くて簡単だから。

例えば

直接

Aさん：頭痛い。

通訳さん：I’ve got a headache.

間接

Aさん：頭痛い。

通訳さん：She says she’s got a headache.

できない場合もある。（電話とか）

毎回、プロフェッショナルとしての自己紹介と通訳のやり方を通訳前の言語両方で行うこと（会話・対話？のとき）

いろんな通訳に話したら、「いや、そんなことしてる暇ないよ」と言ってるけれど。

例えば

こんにちは、私は（自分の名前）、今日通訳する者です。この場で話されたことは全て通訳し、もちろん口外しません。お互い直接的に、できるだけ簡潔にお話し下さい*。

正確のため、私は一人称で通訳します。また、遮ることがあります。

あとは+α、例えば：

• 通訳して欲しくないことがあれば、発言を控えてください。ここで発言されたことは全て通訳する義務がありますので。
• もし私が通訳したことがわからなかったら、お聞きください。**

翻訳の会社は規律にうるさいこと

句読点、文法のことで厳しくてうるさい、ということを、先生に言われました。それはあまり驚くべきじゃないだろうけどね。

概念的に、それで以上。他は練習、やり方の理論（セオリー）、翻訳支援ツールの使い方。

＊敬語悩み

私は今のブログ記事の下書きを書いたときに、「はっきりと話してください。」と私が書いたけど、直してくれた人が「はっきりとお話しください」に直してくれた。

通訳するとき、一回、もし私がこういう話し方になって、（謙譲語？尊敬語のレベルではないよね？「お話しください」）後から普通の丁寧語のて形「してください」、「行きます、います」とかに戻ってもいいのかな？おかしくない？

今の私は話しているとき、自分から謙譲語でも尊敬語でも発するのをずっと続けられるかは微妙。理解できないわけじゃなくてね。もちろん私が客だったときにいつも言われてたけれども、自分から発する必要だったことがないと思う。謙譲語も、いつもニュースで安倍首相が使ってるからそこで聞いてるけど、私自身が使ったことなくて、勉強も練習もしなければ、正しく使えるはずがない。混じったり混乱したりするでしょう。

通訳者が尊敬語、謙譲語を使えるかどうかはともかく、訳す英語はそこまで丁寧じゃなかったら、訳す逆に使うのも不正確になる。

だから…自分通訳者の声としてもっと丁寧な話し方がいいかな？日本人のお客さんに話すとき。

やばいね。

**もう一人の日本人の友達はこの自己紹介をみて、改めて書き直してくれた！でももう長いから今日ここに投稿するのをやめた。また今度にしよう。

次回！

（そう！もう決まってる！）

• オーストラリアでのコロナウィルスが広がるのを予防する生活
• 第２週以来学んだこと：通訳と演技

Bilingual Bij 1/日本語タイム１

English below

やばいやばい！！

来週から、翻訳と通訳の勉強が始まる。コースが始まる。講座始まる。課程始まる。まだ全然知ってる日本語の言葉が足りないはず！日本語能力試験でダメだった語彙はまだ絶対だめ！通訳も今の自分は合格できないかも！できるとしてもギリギリのはずで、絶対大変！パニックだ！

もう2ヶ月オーストラリアにいて、最近ちょっとだけ狂ってきてた。この2ヶ月時間たっぷりあってたくさん勉強しようと思ったけど、その時間をかけてバイトも探して結構応募して、面接受かった。その仕事は臨時というか、代用教員？代理の教師で、すぐレッスンに呼ばれた。その後、翌週呼ばれて行けなくて、それから二週間何も連絡なくて他のバイトを探していて、応募しても無視されたり、断られたりしてた。しばらく落ち込んできて、センターリンクというオーストラリアの支援センターの支援を申し込みむことにした。低所得者のための薬、病院、公共交通機関の割引も申し込むことにした。

フルタイムの学生は働く時間がないから、そういうオーストラリア国民を支援する制度がある。快適に暮らすことはできるほどではないけど。基本的に、所得の限度があって、それを超える人はこの、学生のための支援をもらうことはできない。というわけでフルタイムで勉強しながら働けてる人はもらえないけど、もちろんみんな請求したいから、申し込みで嘘つく人が結構いるらしい。だから申請のプロセスは複雑で分かりづらいし、申請するとき、色々立証証明する必要がある。

このプロセスの一つはフォーム。そのフォームの一つはModiAという、所得 (income)と資産(assets)が何がどのくらい有るかを申告するフォーム。

一人一人の事情はそれぞれ違うから、申請のフォームは色々ある。例えば私の場合、何年か前、祖父母にtrustというお金もらった。祖父母が私たち孫が小さい時に、特別な銀行口座を開いて、その中に大人になった私たちがもらえるように預金した。今調べたら日本語で「委託金」だった。この委託金あれば、ModiAに書く上、委託金のフォームも提出しないといけない。フォームの名前はModPT。ModPTをやるために、委託金の情報がもちろん必要だけど私たちの委託金はプレゼントだったから、私はその情報を持ってなかった。持ってたのは受託者 (trustee)、という人、つまり、私たちの親戚（の二人。多分普通は一人だと思うけど）。その親戚に連絡して、探してもらわないといけなくて、その親戚も色々正しい書き方とかその委託金を作った弁護士さんに電話で相談しないといけなかったらしい。

そして、この間、私が音楽活動で仕事やってたから、それもフォームが必要。趣味で私は合唱で歌うことが好きだから、1ヶ月前、あるメルボルンの合唱団のオーディションを受けた。合唱団の指揮者の人に「今度の日曜日、教会の礼拝で、歌ってくれないか？」と誘われた。謝礼金は○○ドルで。その教会では、私がオーディションを受けた合唱団ではなかったけれど、拝礼で何か稼ぐ期待もしてなかったから喜んで引き受けた。

でも、教会に請求書を出すために私の会社としてオーストラリアの企業登録簿に登録しないといけない。これは意外と簡単なんだったけど、センターリンクでの申請のフォームを書くときに、企業の詳細の書類が要る。または他のフォームで書いて、やっぱり必要な書類が分からなくて、センターリンクに電話かけたけど繋がらなかった。別のセンターリンクの番号を見つけたけど、その番号にかけると、人間の声ではなくてロボットの声が出て、自分の個人番号、生年月日とか入力すれば、ロボットにダメだと言われたら、とりあえず

諦めた。あとでまた最初の番号に何回かかけた後、繋がって、30分待待たれたけど、その後人間と話すことができて、フォームについて聞けた。

二週間後、割引の申請を出せた。もらえるお金の申請はパートナーのフォームもやらないといけなくて、それを完成させるために、パートナーの給与明細の2ヶ月分、そして銀行口座の残高の証拠も必要だから、給与明細はすぐとってくれてたけど銀行の明細は一週間かかるらしいから、それをまだ待ってる。

こういうことばかりやって、多分誰でもちょっと落ち込んだり、頭が変にる気がするでしょう。

とにかくやりたかったほど勉強はできてないね。そのために今やばいやばい、何かしなきゃ！と思って、これを書いてみた。

いつもこのブログで、オーストラリアと日本を比べてるんだけど、こういうお金のことは（嬉しいことに！）する必要だったことがない。

日本で、学生時代の学費や日常生活、家賃とかは全部バイトで稼ぐお金で払うのは無理でしょう。だいたい親が払ってくれてるかな？なぜか、深くまで考えたことがない。実家に住んでる人が多いと思うけど、それは全員ではない。みんな結構、大学受験のために高校で大変勉強するでしょう？それは、いい大学に進学するためでしょう？で、それはいい会社に入って、給料の高い仕事できて、自分の未来の子供がいい学校に行けるように、いい大学に進学できるように、などなど…？だからだいたい親は全部払うパターンなのかな？日本人の読んでくれてる人、教えてください！

あ。あと、フルタイムではない学生というのはあり得る？

やっぱり、これを書いて辞書何回も使ったり知らない単語が結構必要だった。特に通訳で使いたくなりそうな言葉が出るよね…書くことがいい練習でしょう！

今まで知らなかった単語：

• 課程
• 代用教員（聞いたことがある気がした）
• 資産　（知ってたけど使ったことなかった）
• 支援：ラジオニュースで何回も使われたのを聞いてるけど自分から初めてで、使い方に自信がまだない
• 特定的
• 低所得ーー＞収入の使い分け？
• 立証するーー＞一番自然な使い方じゃなかったらしい
• 預金
• 申告する
• 委託金
• 所得と収入の使い分け？
• 受託者ーー＞英語でも使ったことなかった、今年まで
• 指揮者ーー＞何回か調べたことあり、何回調べても全然思い出せない！
• 依頼
• 謝礼
• 請求書ーー＞何回か使ったこともあるのに思い出せないやつだな。
• 引き受ける
• 細目詳細ーー＞使い分け？？
• 「は」と「が」の使い分けはまだ難しい。

結構勉強になったみたい！

手伝ってくれた人に：ありがとう❤️

Wahhh!! S**ts**t!!*

Starting next week, my translating and interpreting [study] starts. The course starts. The lectures start. (This was me trying to find the most appropriate word for a university course.) I still have nowhere near enough language! The vocab that was no good in the JLPT** is still no good! I might not be able to pass interpreting! Even if I can it’ll be a near thing and definitely a lot of hard work! PANIC!

I’ve been back in Australia for 2 months and recently felt I was going slightly mad. Having plenty of time over the 2 months I intended to do a heap of study, but ended up using the time job-hunting and I did get an interview. The work is of the temporary variety, as a casual relief teacher, and I was called in to do a lesson almost immediately after the interview. After that, the following week I got a request but couldn’t go, and for the next 2 weeks there was no contact from the school. I kept looking for other work, and all my applications were going ignored or rejected. This left me feeling a bit down in the mouth and decided to apply for a Centrelink student payment (Centrelink is the Australian government support centre for people with low incomes). I also decided to apply for a low income health care card, where you can get discounts on medicines, medical fees, and public transport.

Australia has a system where full-time students, not having the time to work much, can receive a support payment – if they’re Australian citizens. Not that it’s enough to live comfortably on. Basically, if your income is over a certain threshold, you can’t get the student payment. This means that full-time students who are managing to work at the same time can’t claim the payment, but of course everyone wants to, so apparently there are quite a few people who lie in these applications. Because of this, the application process is complex and difficult, and you have to prove everything you write.

One part of the process is forms. One of the forms is called ModiA, a form to declare your income and assets.

Depending on your circumstances, there are different forms you need to do. For example in my case, I received money from a trust several years ago from my grandparents. When we children were small, our grandparents created this trust for us to receive money as a present when we grew up. If you have or are involved in a trust, as well as declaring so on the ModiA, you have to complete a trust form, whose name is ModPT. In order to do the ModPT, naturally you need the information about the trust, but we kids received our trust money as a present, so we didn’t have that information. The person who did was in our case the trustee, which in our case is 2 of our relatives (I think it’s probably more common to have one trustee?). So I contacted them and had to have them look around to try and find the information, and in the end they had to ask the trust’s lawyer to get the right information to help fill in the form and attach the right documents.

During this time, I was doing a bit of music work, so there was a form about that. I’ve always liked singing in choirs, so about a month ago I auditioned for one. The conductor asked if I would sing in a church service the following Sunday, for XX dollars. Having not expected any financial gain out of this audition, I happily accepted, but to invoice the church I had to register as a business with the Australian Business Register. This was surprisingly easy, but then the Centrelink application needed all the details of the business. I started filling in the ‘I have a business’ form, but having only just begun to operate as a business about a week before I started the application, I didn’t have or know how to do the paperwork you’re supposed to attach, so I called Centrelink. The number didn’t connect. I found another number and called that, and a robot answered and asked for my customer number and date of birth, after which it told me I couldn’t use the service. I gave up for a bit. Then calling the first number again, after calling a few times it connected to the point where I got to hold for 30 minutes and then got to talk to a human and ask my questions.

2 weeks later, I was able to submit the application for the health care card. The student payment requires a partner form, which needs my partner’s payslips from the last 2 months and a bank statement showing account details and balance. He was able to get the payslips easily enough but the bank statement takes a week apparently, so we’re still waiting for that to be able to get the partner form in.

Spending all your time doing this sort of thing, maybe anyone would feel a bit gloomy and mental. Anyway, I haven’t got around to doing all the study I wanted to. That’s why I thought ‘oh no oh no, I need to do something!’ and wrote this.

Usually on this blog, I compare Japan and Australia, but happily, I’ve never had to deal with with these kinds of money issues in Japan.

In Japan for students, the costs of uni fees, everyday living and rent and stuff must be impossible to pay with what students earn at their part-time jobs. Do parents usually cover most of those costs? For some reason, I’ve never thought that much about it. I think a lot of students live at home with their parents, but not everyone. Everyone studies their head off at high school for the university entrance exams, right? And that’s to get into a good university, right? The point of which is to get a good, high-paying job in a decent company, so that you can pay for your future children’s education so they can get into a good uni etc.? So do parents generally pay uni costs? If you know, please let me know!

Oh. And is there such a thing as studying in a non-full-time capacity in Japan?

In writing this post there were quite a few words I needed that I didn’t know, or didn’t know how to use, and I referred to a dictionary many times. Especially in interpreting, there are going to be lots of words coming up like that… Writing is probably great practice.

Here are the words I didn’t know/haven’t really used before:

• 課程 – かてい – course (of study)
• 代用教員 – だいようきょういん – this was what the dictionary said was ‘substitute teacher’ but  apparently 代理の、だいりの、is a bit more natural and 教員 is a bit formal compared to the tone I’m going for so I used 教師、きょうし, which I haven’t even checked with my proofreader.
• 資産 – しさん– asset(s) – I knew this one but had never used it myself
• 支援：– しえん – support (funding) – I’ve heard this used on the radio news a fair bit but this was the first time for me to use it myself so I wasn’t totally sure about it, but apparently it was right
• 特定的 – とくていてき – specific, designated, purpose-made – apparently this didn’t work here. I need example sentences, dictionary.
• 低所得 –ていしょとく – low income. What’s the difference between 所得income and 収入income?
• 立証する　– to prove – again, apparently wasn’t very natural usage and 証明、しょうめい, was better
• 預金 – よきん – deposit. Seen this at the ATM probably hundreds of times but never remember the reading because I’ve never used it myself until now
• 申告する – しんこくする– declare (tax etc.)
• 委託金 –いたくきん – a trust fund
• 受託者–いたくしゃ – a trustee. This year is probably the first time I’ve used this in English
• 指揮者 – しきしゃ – I’ve looked this word up a few times, but no matter how many times I do I can never remember it when I want it!
• 依頼 – いらい – a request. I’ve known this word a long time but never been able to use it correctly, including in this post. I tried using it to say how the conductor asked me to sing at the church because I wasn’t sure if ‘invite’ would work there, but apparently invite was actually fine.
• 謝礼 – しゃれい –  a fee, the kind a person/company charges for a service (not school fees)
• 請求書– せいきゅうしょ– invoice. I’ve actually used this a number of times but still can’t remember it.
• 引き受ける –ひきうける – accept, take on
• 細目 – さいもく– details/particulars vs 詳細 – しょうさい – details/particulars??
• Still haven’t nailed the difference in usage between「は」and「が」subject markers.

So this was probably quite a useful study exercise!

Thanks to my helper in this post ❤️

*(Note: The Japanese word I used here isn’t exactly a swear/curse word but for the spirit of what I wanted to convey, this seemed closest.)

**In the December JLPT I came very close to passing.

Re-entry

A month ago today, I came back to Australia. Here are some mild reverse culture shock things I’ve noticed.

This is the future

And it looks like a dystopian fiction.

Coming back to Melbourne, as soon as the plane started descending over Victoria, as far as the eye could see was a haze of smoke. Once we got lower towards the ground I could see that everything underneath the haze was brown and dead, thanks to the continuing drought. What on earth have I come back to and why? was all I could think.

The taps in the airport toilets were out of science fiction movies, with water, soap and driers all in different parts of the one tap. Made by Dyson, which seems to be making all manner of things these days. The toilets themselves, on the other hand, were not. This is true for several public toilets and their taps that I’ve since seen, not only in airports.

In the cities, there are young people and families everywhere, of all different shapes and sizes, half of which seem to be covered in tattoos, and speaking different languages. Buildings also come in many different shapes and sizes with art and/or graffiti in places. People of almost all ages – not so many over about 60 – with or without families are queuing up outside cafes at 11am and sitting around with their coffees and enormous gluten-free brunches.

All the cafes have about 4 milk alternatives for coffee: soy, almond, oat – not everywhere – and lactose-free dairy milk, as well as plain old milk, which can be full-cream (for Americans, that’s about 3.4% milk fat) or low-fat. Versions of eggs on toast often cost around $20 in Melbourne and are cheaper in Brisbane. Brisbane used to be more expensive than Melbourne. The times, they are a-changin’.

Everywhere in the cities is selling craft beer. It’s easier to find a pale ale or an organic cider than a VB.

Story: Doctor’s visit of the future

I went to the doctor’s to renew a prescription within a week of being home and the doctor I saw seemed young for a doctor, maybe younger than me. (Yes, I know this doesn’t mean I’ve come to the future so much as that I’ve survived into the future by ageing. Shh.) She talked like my uni friends and the Australians I’ve seen on iView.

She weighed and measured me (can’t remember the last time a GP did that), took my blood pressure, printed a prescription, composed a referral letter with me sitting there, and then printed it out and handed it to me just like that, no folding, no envelope. I wandered back out to reception holding both flat A4 sheets of paper and stood in front of the desk wondering if this was what you’re supposed to do (in Japan you sit down until they’re ready for you to pay, at which point they call your name).

After a little while somebody noticed me and we confirmed that I had just seen Doctor Z, and then she got the account up on the screen and I waved my debit card at the machine. It seemed to work. Then we had to do something else so that I could get my Medicare rebate instantly put back in my account. The receptionist asked what account – cheque, savings or credit – which I didn’t know, so I took a stab at one and again, it seemed to work.

I went back out through the smoky air to the car, still holding my A4 papers. I knew what to do with the prescription, but for the referral letter I had to ask Mum. Turns out here you make an appointment with the specialist’s rooms directly and then you just take the letter along when you go to the appointment. I folded it and put it in my bag, where it later got slightly squashed. That’s not futuristic, that’s just life in Australia, I guess.

Where do I belong?

The last 4 places I’ve relocated to, it has been for work. I was always moving for the sake of fulfilling a particular role in a school or similar facility. I always knew what the role was before I arrived. It wasn’t always easy, especially when I had no car and knew nobody in Gifu, but I worked it out, and in Hiroshima, made a place for myself, which became easier as I stayed longer and got to know people. I didn’t always like the role: in most cases, it was to be the one clowny white person in the school, making ‘English’ and ‘foreign’ seem approachable and fun. But it was something to do and there were always eventually other foreigners in similar situations to meet and befriend.

This time, I’ve come back to Australia with a looser plan: study, work on the side, and be closer to Australian friends and family. I came back in time for Christmas, just after the birth of the latest human to join my family, and uni doesn’t start until March. I haven’t got a job yet and am searching in areas I haven’t before… All the friends I used to know here have of course changed, as have family members. It’s been roughly 5 years, after all. How people take their tea and coffee has changed. Half of Melbourne seems to have been diagnosed with various chronic illnesses. And that’s all fine. But it was especially odd in the first week or two, seeing all these things I used to be part of and that used to be my life, just moving on in the ways they are now.

Here’s one I never really knew, though: beer sizes.

In Brisbane, where I’m currently visiting, you can buy 4 sizes of beer on tap (aka draught beer). The smallest is a pony, then a pot, then a schooner, and the biggest is a pint. I know everyone in Melbourne and Sydney likes to complain about the other city and how it’s got weird drink sizes, but 4 seems like a lot. The young man offering tastings of the draught beers (and I’m glad he was – some of them were not my cup of tea) was happy enough to explain them, and in a way that was very easy to understand. According to some sources I’ve found, a pony is 140ml, although in this pub it was apparently about 200 (which apparently in some Australian states is called a seven?). A pot (or apparently a middy in NSW) is around 285ml. A schooner is usually 425-ish ml, whereas something around 500ml is called a pint, depending on what measurement system you’re using. Even though a pint of other liquid is usually 600ml – again, depending on your measurement system.

My friend has just asked her friends from Queensland, NT and Victoria about this and all the Victorians have never heard of a ‘middy’ or a pony. Ponies seem to be rare.

Most Australians don’t move between the parts of Australia with enough frequency to be able to navigate the lingo with any reliability. If you’re coming to Australia, you can check the terms in the place you’re going, or just ask for ‘small’ or ‘big’ and gesture with your hands. You’ll work it out. People can be surprisingly accommodating, I’m discovering.

Environmental awareness

A Japanese friend came to visit when I’d been back about 2 weeks. It was just after New Year. We took him and his daughter to Healesville Sanctuary, which is like a zoo but exclusively for Australian animals. All the animals were sleeping because it was the middle of a hot day. In the car on the way there we talked about the bushfires and how so many of those afflicted were so unhappy with ScoMo and his reactions – or lack thereof – to the fires. This meant that we talked about the drought and the environmental problems going on in Australia, and global warming, and Australia’s backwardness in climate policy. We also talked about what animals are native to Australia, and how we wouldn’t be seeing pandas and cats at the Sanctuary.

At the Sanctuary there is plenty of information about Australian wildlife and what the various animals’ needs are, and when you go to the bird show, they show you the kinds of old tree stumps and hollows that many birds need to live in and explain how when these trees are cut down, those birds don’t have anywhere to live and can die out. They ask you to pledge to use 100% recycled toilet paper to help preserve the remaining bush.

They used to recommend the Who Gives a Crap toilet paper, but they’ve stopped mentioning this brand name. I have noticed that at my friends’ houses and also some trendy eating and drinking places, they have this toilet paper, though.

After the Sanctuary we went to a nice winery with a restaurant and did a tasting and had some lunch. My Japanese friend commented that people seem very aware of the environment in Australia as opposed to Japan, and seem to care about it a lot. I hadn’t really noticed this before but I think it’s quite true, especially now. There is a lot of conversation about it in Australia, and there are more and more products becoming available that are at least marketed as being environmentally friendly. Plastic bags are much less prevalent than in Japan, for which I am glad. People are actually using those plastic wrap alternatives you see on Facebook advertising.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that people aren’t at all aware of these things in Japan, nor that Australia is plastic- and carbon-emission-free, not by a long shot. But as one of my ex-Japan-dwelling friends pointed out to me the other day, people seem more inclined to take personal responsibility and try things in Australia, whereas in Japan that’s not such a prevalent viewpoint. Yes, we should use less plastic, some people might say, but not to the point of taking their own bags to the supermarket or of refusing individual small plastic bags for pieces of fruit. And people changing their diet to be better for the environment doesn’t seem to be on the radar in Japan. I think sustainable fishing is beginning to be a thing, maybe, but I have never heard a Japanese person talk about anyone trying to cut down on meat. (Carbs, though…)

On the other hand, though, Australia is covered in litter. It’s by the side of any major road. I pointed out to my ex-Japan-dwelling friend that the streets are cleaner in Japan because people a) don’t really litter and b) go around picking rubbish up off the streets. But that’s only retirees volunteering because they want to show their community spirit, she said, or because they want their street to look nice, rather than because they are trying to stop plastic getting into waterways and disrupting ecosystems.

I don’t know the intricacies of volunteer street cleaners’ motivations, but I do agree with my friend that people generally seem more actively concerned about the environment in Australia than in Japan.

So, next, in Melbourne’s future-dwelling dystopian society, to get a casual job where I can speak Japanese. I will do my best. I will remember to make an appointment for the specialist whose referral letter is somewhere in my room at home now. Wish me luck, reader. Until next time, take care of yourself. And if you made it this far, thank you!

News

I just spent about an hour on Facebook and I don’t even need to refuse to feel bad about it: there is no need for guilt here. I just closed 8 Jisho.org tabs and it’s causing no anxiety. Why? Because the JLPT is finished for another 7 months. I sat N1 again yesterday and can safely say that in some ways I did better than last time. I know this because yesterday I read the whole grammar section, which in July I didn’t have time to do, having done the reading first.

Speaking of the JLPT, one of the reading texts was about writing. The writer – a novelist, by the sounds? – was writing about the word 好き ‘like’ and saying he/she couldn’t honestly say that they liked writing, nor that they disliked it. In one section they were saying that the writing process helped them form and organise thoughts, and to discover what they were really thinking. The thoughts were floating around in some sort of nebula and it was the act of putting them to paper that helped them understand. Well, that’s the answer I chose for that question. Hope it was right. And that’s a bit what this post is going to be like.

Can you guess what I’ve been doing since my last post? Well, it has involved several textbooks, one full-time job, tens if not hundreds of episodes of News 7 on NHK, several seasonal coffees from Starbucks and Tullys, a few of Ryoma-den (the story of Sakamoto Ryoma), a couple of Japanese books and a couple of English language audiobooks, one and a half episodes of the Dollop (wtf Ronald Reagan), about AUD$1900 worth of taxes, vegetarian gyoza, and some frustrating bootlaces and less frustrating shoe polish.

News:

I am leaving Japan. This time in three weeks I will be in Australia again. To be honest, this gives me quite mixed feelings for several reasons, in no particular order and I truly mean no particular order at all:

1. I will be in Australia where there’s no shame in asking for time off. I think. Wait, I’ve never worked full time in Australia. Is there shame in asking for time off?
2. I will be in the same country as most of my family and Australia-living friends, able to see them (more) often. Not that much more for the ones who live in Brisbane. Who are mostly from Melbourne, I’ll have you know. Why did you move to Brisvegas?
3. My other half will still be here until his partner visa approved – and it had better be approved, it cost the better part of 4 years of savings on what I’ve earned in Japan.
4. I will be leaving some craziness and also some rather endearing personalities at my current job.
5. Need to find a new job, which will undoubtedly have new craziness and hopefully minimum toxicity.
6. I’m going back to uni. Will the course be any good? Will I be any good? Where am I going to park to get to the station? How will I deal with morning train anxiety?
7. How am I going to keep up my Japanese when I’m suddenly surrounded by English everywhere?
8. How am I going to find who/what I’m looking for when I can’t see over and around other people?
9. I’m going to miss my friends in Japan. I’m already at a distance with those in Tohoku, but the ones in Hiroshima I see often – some more often than others of course – and there are some special ones in Tokyo and I know I can always hop on a shinkansen and be there the same day. Even to Tohoku it’s a short plane and moderate bus/train, possible over a weekend.
10. I’m going to be an aunty!
11. I’m going to miss Japanese customer service.
12. I’m not going to miss the plastic and packaging.
13. Am I going to miss the weather people telling me what to wear/have with me the next day?

OK. Before I leave, there are about a kjillion things to do. Now that the JLPT is done, I can start actually doing them without any ‘aagh is it OK to use this time to do this?’ worries.

• Clean the apartment
• Go to the city office and report that I’m leaving the country. Get a certificate that says so and has the dates of when I was living at this address
• Photograph/scan, translate, edit and upload the last 6 months’ worth of bills, documents, photos together etc. to My ImmiAccount for the partner visa application
• Buy an electronic dictionary
• Cancel phone contract
• Clean the balcony
• Buy Japanese books and send them, with other books, to Australia for reading practice
• Send home some clothes and stuff
• Get rid of everything else
• What to do with thank you messages from students in past schools? It’s the sort of thing I only look at when I’m thinking of throwing them away.
• Clean out work desk
• Finish the project I’ve been working on over the last year and a half to help new teachers at work

You get the picture. And now, it’s time for me to get ready for work.

I know I always say this, but I think it’s more realistic this time to expect that I’m going to post again soon. Thanks for reading.

A funny weekend

Hi blog! Haven’t seen you in a while. Been studying for a test – yes, the JLPT, N1, and I’m quite confident that I’ve failed it for the first time – and working full time, and also applying for a visa. That is an ongoing process I’m not going to talk about it here today. Maybe another time. Maybe never.

A couple of weeks ago I had a funny weekend that I want to share with you. You’ll need some back story first – namely, that I’m a musician and have on occasion done some performances singing and playing the piano around Hiroshima city. My friend’s mum, who is in a band, was participating in these events and invited me to join, which was nice of her. I don’t have a band in Hiroshima, and these have always been solo acts. I did one in February or March this year and didn’t enjoy it much, and decided not to do these any more by myself. But in June this year I was asked to do one on a Friday night.

A friend my age was organising an event in his local area, and some local acts including a DJ were doing a gig in a small gallery space, and they wanted one more act, so my friend asked me. It was a different group of people from the other events I’d participated in – younger, like, people in their 20s and 30s and a couple of families with kids. One of the families was on stage together, with their kids playing marimba, clarinet, keyboard, violin and singing. The dad was on the drums or bass, depending on the song. Another act was a singer-songwriter kid, 19 years old, in red bell-bottoms and an orange and white striped long-sleeved T-shirt, singing all his own songs, with a distinct sound. One group was made up of One Piece fans in orange T-shirts and straw hats who sang two Aimyon covers in a row. Then there was me, and then the DJ who played some great music. It was an interesting and fun event to be part of because everyone was so different. At the end one of the One Piece guys played a song someone had written about the area, Yokogawa. It was pretty catchy.

Some friends had come along to watch, so we went out afterwards to find somewhere to have a drink and something to eat. We tried to go into a cool-looking bar on the ground floor of a hostel nearby, but they were closing. Around the corner there was an Akamaru, which is a chain izakaya popular in Hiroshima. It was pretty full but there was a very friendly bunch of Japanese guys drinking with a bearded overweight white guy, all who looked to be in their early 20s, who encouraged us to join them or take their seats. They were sitting out the front of the place with tables and chairs on the footpath. They actually stood up and asked us to take their seats, but they and all their food and drinks were still at the table, so we didn’t straightaway. The staff brought out an extra bench to sit on and we eventually sat down and the 4-5 Japanese boys drifted away, but the white guy said ‘Can I join you?’ and sat down with us.

There were about 7 of us – me, an American guy, and 5 Japanese girls with varying levels of English speaking and listening skills. The American guy was between 2 Japanese girls nearer the other end of the table, but I was next to the bearded white guy. His name was Ron and he was from Canada. One of my Japanese friends wanted to ask him lots of questions but he didn’t really understand her English, nor she his, so they did a bit of communicating through me. It went something like this.

Friend (in Japanese): What’s his name?

Me: She’s asking your name.

Him: Ron, I’m Ron.

Me (in Japanese): His name is Ron.

Friend (in Japanese): Rob?

Me (in Japanese): No, Ron, like Ron Weasley. You know, in Harry Potter.

Friend (in Japanese): What’s that?

Me (in Japanese): You don’t know Harry Potter?

Friend (in Japanese): His name is Harry Potter?

Me (in Japanese): No, his name is Ron. One of the characters in Harry Potter is also called Ron.

Ron: What are you guys saying?

Ron told us that he had been travelling around Asia for a couple of weeks. He had been in Taiwan for a week and then maybe Korea, and Japan for a few days, and my American friend and I were the first white people he’d seen in a week and a half. He’d come to Hiroshima through Saga (Kyushu) and Fukuoka and there were no white people anywhere. We couldn’t know how happy he was to see white people!

This was pretty funny for me and the American guy. All the Japanese girls agreed that his story was impossible: maybe not in Saga, but there are lots of foreigners in Fukuoka. There must have been some.

No, he said, there weren’t.

We asked Ron what he did and he told us he worked for General Motors, which was a name we two westerners recognised but none of our Japanese friends did. They didn’t know Holden, Commodore, Chevrolet or Buick either. This was a bit of a surprise for Ron and, honestly, for me too. We all had to suppose that Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Honda are just really prevalent, and that other cars popular in Japan are often from Europe or the UK, like VW, BMW, Audi, Mercedes etc. You do see Fords though.

Ron had to repeat how happy he was to speak natural English with white people again. I could only think, hmm, he hasn’t lived in a non-English-speaking country before.

We all had fun meeting Ron and he seemed to have enjoyed meeting us. He might be back in Canada again by now.

The next day was Saturday and I had work. I was planning to go to lunch at a friend’s house on the Sunday and that friend had a new baby, so on Saturday after work I went with my other half to look for a nice present for the baby. We weren’t sure exactly what sort of thing we wanted to give, but we went to the baby/kids’ section of Fukuya, a department store, to see what was there.

About 90% of everything was pink/red or blue. I was appalled. The baby whose present we were looking for was a girl, but I didn’t want to enforce any gender norms on her, no matter how sure I was that everyone else would, as well as what she would see on TV, in shops, in books, in all media. We eventually found a nice soft teddy bear – NOT PINK – without a speaker or a peek-a-boo function, not too big, that I figured a small child would be able to hug.

Then we went looking for some yakitori, because it was dinner time and we hadn’t had yakitori in a while. It was raining and the first 3 places we tried were full, but we kept walking around and eventually found an empty yakitori place.

There was a dog on the counter. 

The owner didn’t smile the whole time we were in there. He didn’t talk much either. He didn’t mention the dog, we didn’t mention the dog. The dog looked at us. We talked quietly and watched the TV that was on, up in the corner. The dog walked up and down the counter. Some show with some scary home videos. The dog went to sleep. The food was good. The one other customer ordered draft beer after draft beer and eventually left. The dog turned around and looked at us again. We decided it was time to go. The owner stepped outside for a minute without saying a word and I took the chance to snap a photo of the dog. 

The next day was Sunday. I went to the lunch and gave the teddy bear to the mum – the baby was still 3 months old and might not be very interested in her teddy yet, but her big sister would claim it, because she’s really into soft furry things at the moment, according to her mum. Another dad who was at the lunch invited all of us to go to a haunted house he’s organising in August, on levels 3 and 4 of a building, upstairs from what you might be able to call a cafe/cabaret bar.

And that was that weekend.

Spring and that

Here are a few things that have happened with me in the last while.

*Revelation*

It’s hit home that in many cases I’m now a sempai in Japan. Not only in Japan, actually, but that’s the current setting. This became evident a year or so ago at a picnic with a heap of newly-arrived JETs. They were all so shiny-eyed and excited to be in Japan, which was, well, refreshing. It reminded me how it used to feel to be new and as foreign inside as out. I’ve become one of the people explaining and showing other new people how to do things. Stranger still, I’ve had to do this for a co-worker who actually is my senior in both age and in our workplace, because they’re going to do an ALT position, which is what I’ve had both more training and experience in than maybe anyone else at work. Of course, the longer I stay in Japan, the more people I meet who have been here for 10 or 20 years longer than I have, and who can speak, read and write fluently in Japanese. So it’s all relative.

Spring

As well as the end of the school year and a number of changes at work, I had a parental visit over the March transition period which was terrific, and also intense. Mum and Dad came and even though this winter was mild, the trees were still just getting ready for spring. There were some buds on the sakura, but that was about it. Everything was still grey and ugly, but Mum and Dad got to see it all start to change, which was nice. And now everything’s green, the humidity’s on the rise, the doona/duvet/kakebuton is in the cupboard, and the hydrangeas are coming out. No dragonflies yet, but mozzies have started.

Study, work, whelm

I’ve been trying to watch Japanese news, listen to Japanese news, do reading comprehension exercises, read books and study kanji in some combination every day, while working full time and also eating and sleeping. And, you know, brushing my teeth, showering, and even exercising sometimes. And trying to socialise with people. This means that things like watching dramas, reading books (without a dictionary nearby) and alas, self-care take a back seat. Which is a real shame and doesn’t make sense, I know. If you don’t look after yourself, it’s natural that you’re not functioning at your best, which would of course be the ideal way to be for work, study, socialisation and life in general. I guess I’ll make a point of prioritising it for at least the next couple of weeks and see how that goes. With luck the study, etc. that I get around to should be a bit more effective that way too.

What else has happened?
Got my gold licence. When you first get a driver’s licence in Japan, it’s green. Then after a while you have to renew it and it changes to blue. If you have the blue one for a set time (3 years?) and you don’t have any traffic violations in that time, the next time you renew it’s gold. Not sure if it changes to blue the next time if you’re involved in any incidents or what. Hope I don’t find out.

Australia had an election… not much to write home about there.

Japan had an election… not much to write home about other than noisy trucks driving around with recordings of people just saying their names and good morning, hoping that you’ll vote for them.

I went to Kyushu for Golden Week. Kyushu’s great. I failed to go to Yakushima because of weather conditions, but succeeded in having some adventures and spending some money. And finding how popular Kumamon is all over Kumamoto. Most of the week I had in Kyushu was rainy.

Walking in the rain in Kagoshima

I also saw an interview of a famous ex-porn star, I mean really a star. There was one of a famous man and one of a woman who wasn’t so famous. The man is charismatic and speaks well. His interview is interesting.
Oh, and I saw the Green Book movie the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. Also found a beautiful cinema where it was showing.

So not that much news going on, but that’s what there is for the moment. At some stage I should have some more to say… maybe in Japanese! That way I could blog and study at the same time.
HW: self care. Hope you’re looking after yourself, reader!

Dark Emu: book review

I read this book recently, Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, and wrote a kind of review on Goodreads, and I want to share it with you too, whether you’re on Goodreads or not, because I think every Australian should read this, or at least become familiar with the material.

Dark Emu is a first rate extended essay. It presents the heretofore unknown history of Australian Aboriginal agriculture, economy and ways of life, and describes the way European immigrants and hero-worshipped explorers ignored the clear signs (and some that were apparently too subtle) of civilisation and of the manipulation and interaction with the landscape. Pascoe writes about the native crops that were cultivated and the ways they were managed, and suggests ways of bringing back the farming methods that sustained Aboriginal people for millennia – that seem to work on this dry continent with its particular soil.

The style is – well, I’ve described it as an essay – documentary and somewhat academic. Pascoe writes with real conviction, making his own position clear and encouraging the reader to take the same position and also to feel curious to learn more about Aboriginal ways of life.
One thing that I found strange in reading Dark Emu was the insistence against the perception that Aboriginal Australians were ‘mere’ hunter-gatherers: rather, they did build towns and work the land. That’s fine, but what’s so bad about hunting and gathering? Pascoe seems to argue that it’s seen as primitive, whereas farming is seen as a sign of a more developed way of life. I’d thought that hunting and gathering was supposed to be kinder to the land, whereas farming was harder on it – but Pascoe reckons it’s just that Western farming methods and crops/stock aren’t designed for Australian conditions. Either way, I imagine Pascoe’s dispute with the ‘hunter-gatherer’ label must be partly because it’s not accurate and partly because the stereotype worked against Aboriginal people when it came to Native Title – maybe the white guys were arguing that ‘they’re not farming the land, they’re just wandering around and taking from it’ to deny Aboriginal entitlement to the land.

Excellent writing, not only for Australians.
Now I’m going to check out some of Pascoe’s other stuff as well as this novel ‘Taboo’ by Kim Scott. If you’ve got any country-specific recommendations for me, please let me know! I’m also enjoying reading a couple of books set in China at the moment.

Happy 2019!

As always recently, long time no write, eh? It’s looking like staying that way this year, because as well as still working full-time in a language school I’m studying for the next level of the JLPT – the N1. I want to learn to read more in Japanese generally, and N1 might be useful in getting jobs, too. There are some jobs in Japan where N2 is useful, and there might be some in Australia where it’s useful too but N1 is definitely more so.

2018 was a pretty good year for me in some ways. It was also pretty sad in some ways. Two of my grandparents died, on different sides of the family. Elsewhere in the family, cousins got engaged and/or had more children. My work environment changed from one of constant discomfiture to one where I can make jokes with other teachers and laugh when things go wrong (not if it’s serious, obviously).

In 2018 I learned the hard way not to ride on the yellow lines (for the visually impaired) when it’s been raining. At least not the new ones. After falling off my bike on them, twice, feeling annoyed at the footpath suddenly having become a minefield of pedestrian and slipping hazards, I also discovered that there ARE actually people who use them for direction. Saw two people in one week feeling their way along, having myself made it to adulthood without ever seeing anyone using them.

2018 brought ends to some friendships and beginnings of new ones, as well as the discovery and closure of a nice Cambodian restaurant. I was lucky enough to be introduced to a bar that plays the BEST music, and also a little Italian restaurant where all the staff wear denim shirts and serve some of the best pasta I’ve ever eaten.

In 2018 I went skiing once. I read 27 books, according to Goodreads, including some fantastic ones. My top 3 would be: The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss – and the next book in the series), Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman), and The Sympathiser (Viet Thanh Nguyen).

I visited 2 countries I hadn’t been to before: Hong Kong – yum cha 3 times, or was it 4? – and Korea, and really enjoyed both. I tried calligraphy, another first. I tried archery for the first time (it was great) and saw an exploding bamboo fire at the archery course. I enjoyed whisky for the first time: Teacher’s. I went to a rainbow tea party. They were just showing off all the colours of tea they could make – I don’t know if the tea makers are aware of what rainbow means in the West.

Japanese calligraphy. It was fun.

Fancy tea – more for looking at than for drinking.

The bamboo grows in sections, so when the air in each expands with the heat, the divider as it were has nowhere to go but out… pop!

There were some great films that I saw in 2018, including Bohemian Rhapsody. Japanese films I really liked were One Cut of the Dead, Cafe Funiculi Funicula, and Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura. I learned the joys of Japanese medical dramas.

Plenty of things happened for me in 2018 and it’s looking like 2019 will hold quite a few too. Already been skiing once so it’s looking good! I hope you’re well and that 2019 is shaping up well for you.

See you sometime, reader. Wish me luck with my studies. Somehow I’m determined to have some semblance of a life while I study and work. Hard to balance everything. So 応援してね！

またね　：）