Faking It....

It takes a lot of skill to look like you really know what is going on when really you have no clue. This has been me since arriving in Japan. Faking it all comes down to making eye contact, smiling and nodding your head at the appropriate time (or those you think are appropriate!) It does take great skill to fake it well because you particularly do not want to look you know want is going on too well or these around you might expect you to do something and be waiting for you. You know this has happened when the room is suddenly quiet and everyone is looking at you.



City Hall

Having to fake it has been happening a lot to me over the past few days. Yesterday I was invited to the City Hall to meet with the major of Hachioji City. Hachioji is one of the cities that surrounds greater Tokyo. It is an annual event for those students heading overseas on exchange for the summer to meet with the major prior to going. This year there are four students from this area going to the states. I was told the major was very busy so we had only a half hour of his time. He talked and talked, I smiled and smiled, and then he talked some more. He asked the students questions and they shared were they were going and some information on their host families and I just kept smiling. Then, since the major had talked so much we had run out of time and had to leave before he was able to talk to me. Now...in this instance smiling and faking it worked in my favour!

Today I was not able to fake it very well. The mother in the family I am currently staying with has been studying ballet. She invited me to attend her ballet class. Now, not only have I never done ballet before but I could not understand the instructions from the instructor very well. I kept trying to stay at the back of the class but the difficulty with this was the ballet studio had HUGE mirrors on all the walls so it did not matter how much I tried to hide or stay at the back of the class, it was pretty obvious I had no idea at all what I was doing. The class was an hour and a half long so don't think I would have been able to fake it for that long even if I knew more Japanese or even a little ballet.

Being over in Japan, you kind of surrender yourself to those around you. They tell you where you are going, when you are going, what you will eat, when you will eat and sometimes even who you are going with. The other day I was passed from person to person. It does sometimes feel you are just a ball being passed but it is all done out of respect. Many of the individuals I have come in contact with want to talk and visit with me, practice their English or tell me about a personal visit to Canada or America. Now....for those of you who know me, I am generally quite talkative. Well it is hard to be talkative when you can only pick up the odd word here and there. So, over the past week I have been pretty quiet. Oh, I have been having very detailed conversions but they have all been with myself so far. I am understanding more words each day so hopefully my comprehension will increase. I can not guarantee my spoken Japanese will improve but I will keep trying. Until then, I will fake it all with a BIG smile!