Talk night
Through the eyes of a Newbie
The first talk night. This was going to be interesting – spending an evening, talking a language I hardly know, with a bunch of people I knew only a little better. After doing my best, and arriving only 45 minutes late, I was showed to the cosy bar at Bikuben dormitory. I moved my way around tables of people eagerly chatting away in a tongue that seemed strange, and yet surprisingly familiar, to find an empty chair at a table in the back. Everybody around the table greeted me, and accepted my apology for being late, even though this was given in English.
“So here we go”: self presentation in
Japanese. I started out the safe way, “Good evening, nice to meet you” and continued using a few of the, for the occasion, well rehearsed standard phrases. After telling my name, age, and how old my parents are, I realised I had to pass the ball along, as I was quickly running out of conversation topics. The couch-sitting girl that took over wasn’t. It was absolutely fascinating to hear her casually chat away, no involuntary breaks, no “um’s”, just a continuing flow of words. This is what I want to do, I thought to myself, while trying to grasp what she was saying. This is the goal; this is what we’ll all be able to do. In a few years, it will be me sitting in that couch, discussing topics of way more interest than which days I practice soccer. An uplifting thought.
Watching the older students talking helped a lot. It helped in the classical way; hearing the language spoken, pronunciation, building vocabulary, but it also helped in another way. It helped confirm that this is the right place to be. This is the place; I want to spend the next years of my life, in this atmosphere, with these people, doing this.
I managed to squeeze out a few more sentences from my microscopic vocabulary, but the rest of the evening was more or less spent listening to fellow-students talking away in a, to me, almost show-off style. When the talk-part of the evening came to an end, I sat there with a great feeling of having benefited from being there, thanks to the older students who took their time to talk to us new-comers, and letting us practice a bit.
I looked around at other year 0 students. We all looked a bit confused, but thrilled and happy at the same time.
The first talk night was over, and I couldn’t wait for the next one to begin.
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