In the midst of uni applications and school hectic-ness, I felt a bit grateful due to this particular volunteer activity. For your info, I haven't participated in any volunteer events this quarter mainly because I had to skip them for other needs (TOEFL test, sudden stomachache on Saturday morning, etc).
Basically, the volunteer event this time didn't take place on Saturday unlike usual, instead, it took place three days in a row on weekdays. I could only attend two out of three sessions though. Basically, De Anza students signed up to interact with Japanese students from Kokusai Junior College in Japan who were on some sort of a field trip to US. We were supposed to give them "American experience" and share stories. Seeing that I learned Japanese for two years (I'm never good at it though), I considered this volunteer pretty much as a chance to finally apply what I have learned for two years in high school in real life.
Basically, the volunteer event this time didn't take place on Saturday unlike usual, instead, it took place three days in a row on weekdays. I could only attend two out of three sessions though. Basically, De Anza students signed up to interact with Japanese students from Kokusai Junior College in Japan who were on some sort of a field trip to US. We were supposed to give them "American experience" and share stories. Seeing that I learned Japanese for two years (I'm never good at it though), I considered this volunteer pretty much as a chance to finally apply what I have learned for two years in high school in real life.
~DAY 1~
I was quite surprised to see all the Kokusai students turned out to be all girls. They were simply outnumbered by DeAnza students, but that didn't reduce the fun. Anyway, after the icebreaker on the first day - Tuesday, February 21, 2012, Kokusai students and De Anza students had one-to-one conversation on the long table.
The icebreaker game - find someone who could provide answers of these given questions!
The Kokusai group was kind enough to give a souvenir to each De Anza volunteer
An authentic chopstick from Japan! I got the pink one luckily xD
I happened to sit across this cute girl named Airi. I managed to greet and introduce her in my super limited Japanese: "Hi, my name is Carissa. Nice to meet you!". She went "Sugoi!" then I continued in Japanese that I learned it back in high school. Sometimes, when she got caught up in explaining a word in English, she turned to Saki, who sat next to her and asked for a translation. かわいいですね：）
Remember when I said De Anza students should give the Japanese students an "American experience", apparently that wasn't what exactly happened in the end, because instead, it happened in a reverse way. Thing is, Airi asked if I liked Japanese music in the first place, and I couldn't help but to keep the conversation flowing. We ended up talking about J-pop musicians that were familiar to me, like Arashi, NEWS, and Hey!Say!JUMP (mostly Johnny's). On talking about Arashi, I told her my bias is Ninomiya Kazunari, especially after I saw him briefly act in Letters from Iwo Jima. Apparently Airi was a big, big, BIG fan of Sho Sakurai of Arashi and Yamada Ryosuke from Hey!Say!JUMP.
We went screaming, spazzing, fan girling or whatever you call it everytime we mentioned any Japanese artists that we both knew. Every after I mentioned names of Japanese artists I knew, Airi would turn to Saki and talk to her in Japanese, possibly telling her that "Hey this girl knows a lot about Japanese music! >///<". I could see Saki's surprise expression that came afterwards.
Maybe she was surprised I would know that MUCH Japanese artists. Even in the end, it turned out Airi and I were the loudest in the room, where everyone else was just having quiet, adequate conversation. Airi and I were just devoured in our own little fangirling realm.
But it wasn't until we reached the climax, where it was later revealed that we BOTH LOVED NISHIKIDO RYO. Holy...
That reminds me how long it's been since I last spazzed about Jpop. After all this time, I have been drowned quite a while in Kpop industry.
In addition, I also mentioned that my roommate, Elda, was a fan of Japanese culture. I told Airi that Elda introduced me a lot to Japanese stuff and contributed to enriching my Japanese vocabularies. Aww...wish she were there...
I got to bump into other Kokusai students and tried to greet them, again, in my poor Japanese (there's nothing wrong to try, is it? ^^"). They were very friendly and welcoming, though at some points, I was a bit intimidated with their regal looks. For instance, I met this particular Japanese student called Ai and I'm telling you she was super stylish and super tall. She was so sweet anyway :). I bumped into a lot more who mostly came from Saitama and Tokyo.
The icebreaker game - find someone who could provide answers of these given questions!
The Kokusai group was kind enough to give a souvenir to each De Anza volunteer
An authentic chopstick from Japan! I got the pink one luckily xD
I happened to sit across this cute girl named Airi. I managed to greet and introduce her in my super limited Japanese: "Hi, my name is Carissa. Nice to meet you!". She went "Sugoi!" then I continued in Japanese that I learned it back in high school. Sometimes, when she got caught up in explaining a word in English, she turned to Saki, who sat next to her and asked for a translation. かわいいですね：）
Remember when I said De Anza students should give the Japanese students an "American experience", apparently that wasn't what exactly happened in the end, because instead, it happened in a reverse way. Thing is, Airi asked if I liked Japanese music in the first place, and I couldn't help but to keep the conversation flowing. We ended up talking about J-pop musicians that were familiar to me, like Arashi, NEWS, and Hey!Say!JUMP (mostly Johnny's). On talking about Arashi, I told her my bias is Ninomiya Kazunari, especially after I saw him briefly act in Letters from Iwo Jima. Apparently Airi was a big, big, BIG fan of Sho Sakurai of Arashi and Yamada Ryosuke from Hey!Say!JUMP.
We went screaming, spazzing, fan girling or whatever you call it everytime we mentioned any Japanese artists that we both knew. Every after I mentioned names of Japanese artists I knew, Airi would turn to Saki and talk to her in Japanese, possibly telling her that "Hey this girl knows a lot about Japanese music! >///<". I could see Saki's surprise expression that came afterwards.
Maybe she was surprised I would know that MUCH Japanese artists. Even in the end, it turned out Airi and I were the loudest in the room, where everyone else was just having quiet, adequate conversation. Airi and I were just devoured in our own little fangirling realm.
But it wasn't until we reached the climax, where it was later revealed that we BOTH LOVED NISHIKIDO RYO. Holy...
That reminds me how long it's been since I last spazzed about Jpop. After all this time, I have been drowned quite a while in Kpop industry.
In addition, I also mentioned that my roommate, Elda, was a fan of Japanese culture. I told Airi that Elda introduced me a lot to Japanese stuff and contributed to enriching my Japanese vocabularies. Aww...wish she were there...
I got to bump into other Kokusai students and tried to greet them, again, in my poor Japanese (there's nothing wrong to try, is it? ^^"). They were very friendly and welcoming, though at some points, I was a bit intimidated with their regal looks. For instance, I met this particular Japanese student called Ai and I'm telling you she was super stylish and super tall. She was so sweet anyway :). I bumped into a lot more who mostly came from Saitama and Tokyo.
~DAY 2~
More De Anza volunteers participated this time, and the Kokusai students got even more outnumbered. I didn't quite talk a lot that day since my volunteer shift was short, about an hour or so (I had a class to catch earlier), and especially the new De Anza volunteers were given priority to have one-to-one conversation. So I went on to the side of the room and had a friendly chat with my fellow volunteer folks.
The highlight of the day was the presence of my playful Japanese friend from De Anza, Mona. We finally got to sit down for one-to-one conversation even though it was considerably short.
Mona and I shared conversations with Kate, a Korean-Japanese girl. Mona kinda served as a translator for me. From their conversation, I could hear a bit that Kate was surprised to know Mona was a Japanese, despite living in the US. Kate told Mona and I that she and the rest of the Kokusai students just went to LA the other day, where they got to visit Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, and Universal Studios Hollywood! Kate ecstatically shared her favorite ride of each theme park.
OMG, I was positively jealous with the students at that very second.
Luckily, I still got to greet some of the girls I met yesterday. When I met Airi again, she went: "Oh...(You're the one who likes) Ninomiya Kazunari!", I knew that Airi and other girls I met yesterday still remembered me :)
The highlight of the day was the presence of my playful Japanese friend from De Anza, Mona. We finally got to sit down for one-to-one conversation even though it was considerably short.
Mona and I shared conversations with Kate, a Korean-Japanese girl. Mona kinda served as a translator for me. From their conversation, I could hear a bit that Kate was surprised to know Mona was a Japanese, despite living in the US. Kate told Mona and I that she and the rest of the Kokusai students just went to LA the other day, where they got to visit Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, and Universal Studios Hollywood! Kate ecstatically shared her favorite ride of each theme park.
OMG, I was positively jealous with the students at that very second.
Luckily, I still got to greet some of the girls I met yesterday. When I met Airi again, she went: "Oh...(You're the one who likes) Ninomiya Kazunari!", I knew that Airi and other girls I met yesterday still remembered me :)
~DAY 3~
Day 3 wasn't exactly one of the sessions (I missed the actual Day 3 due to History exam), but it was by far the most impressive day out of all Kokusai volunteer days. It took place today, on Friday. I first heard that today's Kokusai meeting was exclusively for De Anza volunteers who came to all 3-days session (because that particular last Kokusai visit day in De Anza would involve lunch and chit chat), while I didn't. But my friend, Channon told me to just come along.
The format of today's meeting was different than any other sessions. Instead of having one-to-one conversation on a long table, the Kokusai students were free to roam around with De Anza students, sitting on the floor, and taking pictures in every corner of the room.
The format of today's meeting was different than any other sessions. Instead of having one-to-one conversation on a long table, the Kokusai students were free to roam around with De Anza students, sitting on the floor, and taking pictures in every corner of the room.
Seeing that Airi, Nozomi, and Haruka did Kpop dance covers previously, they apparently are avid Kpop fans. Airi excitedly scooted over to show Zoey and me videos of particularly Big Bang she keeps in her phone. She told me that her bias in the boyband is T.O.P and we even briefly got to sing 'High High' as performed by T.O.P and G-dragon.
Aside from Kpop, Airi showed me pictures of T.O.P and Chinen Yuri of Hey!Say!JUMP (since I told her before that I loved that boyband). We then briefly danced to Dreams Come True
At one point, I noticed some girls I met on the first day were practicing Kpop dance, like Girls' Generation's Gee and Mr. Taxi. I hesitatingly observed them and complimented their effort. When they figured out I could keep up with the dance's choreography, they instinctively went to their sensei and mentioned something about Girls' Generation to him. The sensei just came to us (the Kokusai girls, Zoey, and me), bringing his laptop over, and guess what he did...
Yes, so it was revealed that the sensei was a SONE (Girls' Generation's fan), and he even claimed to favor Yoona as his bias of the group lol. That's just amazing! Then he excitedly showed a video of Airi, Haruka, Nozomi as well as other girls who were not on the Kokusai tour performing Gee's dance cover on an event (as well as Ai's drumming skill) to Zoey and me. Zoey and I were instantly mesmerized by the girls' talents! Zoey even took a chance to promote De Anza's very own Kpop dance club :)
The sensei soon encouraged Airi, Haruka, and Nozomi to re-enact the Gee dance they did in the video in front of everyone around the room. Before I knew it, they invited me to join the simple dance cover performance spectated by everyone in the room. I told them I never quite learned Gee's dance in depth, but they kept on encouraging me to join them so I did.
Yeah, I ended up dancing to a Kpop song - Gee - with Japanese girls. The experience was indescribable!
He showed Gee's MV on his very own laptop.
And that was totally unexpected! XD
And that was totally unexpected! XD
Yes, so it was revealed that the sensei was a SONE (Girls' Generation's fan), and he even claimed to favor Yoona as his bias of the group lol. That's just amazing! Then he excitedly showed a video of Airi, Haruka, Nozomi as well as other girls who were not on the Kokusai tour performing Gee's dance cover on an event (as well as Ai's drumming skill) to Zoey and me. Zoey and I were instantly mesmerized by the girls' talents! Zoey even took a chance to promote De Anza's very own Kpop dance club :)
The sensei soon encouraged Airi, Haruka, and Nozomi to re-enact the Gee dance they did in the video in front of everyone around the room. Before I knew it, they invited me to join the simple dance cover performance spectated by everyone in the room. I told them I never quite learned Gee's dance in depth, but they kept on encouraging me to join them so I did.
Yeah, I ended up dancing to a Kpop song - Gee - with Japanese girls. The experience was indescribable!
In the latter part of the meeting, we spotted the girls introducing Japanese game involving some sort of hit-and-defend method as you can see in the video below.
Zoey and I put some effort in trying out this game and much to my surprise, Zoey was a quick learner! I got beaten very often. She's so good at this XD
Channon and Kate
Me and Ami!
Saki looks fierce and cool at the same time, doesn't she?
Rock on!
Time flew so fast as we enjoyed our time. The Kokusai students needed to leave for their next destination, Stanford University. We hugged each other when they were just about to take off. They said they would be coming back next year to De Anza and expected to see me, but I would be then transferring to the university :(. "Then find me in Japan!" they said everytime I hugged them. Yes! I'd love to go to Japan and see them by any chance!
It's been such a pleasure to interact with them. The event has become simply more than just volunteer work but a chance to get together with these fantastic Japanese students and gain a priceless experience :)
By the way, the girls are leaving today back to Japan.
よいフライトを*! Wish to see you in another chance!
* : Have a nice flight!
Pictures are credit to:
Ami Matsumoto and Andy Nguyen
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