 |
The Yamasa Institute
S tudent N etwork |
|
|
| Center Homepage |
Suggestion Box
|
STUDENT INTERVIEW: Daniel Ebeling, AIJP, Germany Euan: Ban sensei - can I interview you for the newsletter?Ban: NO! I'm busy. E: Really? Come on.... B: (looks for something to do urgently) No, I have to go... (grabs passing student and runs away). E: Daniel, you look as if you're not busy.... Daniel: (looks behind) Really? Oh... E: Would you mind doing an interview? First impressions of Japan etc... D: Okay. E: So, do you have a pen and paper? D: Yes... E: Okay... Daniel Ebeling, Germany... where in Germany? D: Seeheim, near Frankfurt... 50 km south... half an hour by car. Not so far. E: And when did you come to Yamasa? D: October. On the AIJP course. E: And Japanese? When did you start studying that? D: I started about 2 years ago... self study. About 20 to 30 minutes every day in the train when going to University. And I bought some tapes. E: How good was that? Did you learn a lot? D: No. I covered about the same as one day here in two weeks. Also, I had no one to talk to in Germany. I understood reading and grammar, but it was too slow. [At this point, Josh (USA, Acceleration, noisy) interrupts:] J: Say something about his handwriting... that's what you're supposed to do at this point. E: Get out of here. [an amusing but unprintable section] E: Where were we... D: The problem is that I got to the point where I forgot as much as I was learning, so it was pointless studying more - when I got to studying kanji I just had to come to Japan or I would never have learnt anything. E: Which class did you start in when you got here? D: G class - one class up from the beginners. I'm taking a half-year break from university where I study Psychology with a sports minor - at university it's only theory - I do karate, but you can't do that at university in Germany - and I study movement learning, you know, how people learn and forget things, learn movements. I think it will be useful in sports sciences... of course Sports Psychology fits so well with Japanese. E: What was your impression of coming to Japan? It's been a month now, hasn't it? D: First impression... I was surprised to find an empty room except for the bed, fridge, futon etc. I had to buy all the plates and things for my apartment - I didn't realise that. That was a little expensive at first, but if I had known where the 100-yen shop was it would have been quite cheap. E: Oops - you should have read the homepage. There is information about cheap shops on one of the student homepages too. Anything else? About Japan in general? D: Hmm, it's a nice rainy country. People are very nice, both types - there are some who talk to you and some who gesture without talking, but they're all very nice. Like at the airport, or the train station, they just gesture but don't talk. I was very surprised at how very kind they were though. At the karate dojo too, everyone was very kind - I think that if you show interest in something, then they are kind. |
||||||||||||||
|
www.yamasa.org
Aichi Center
Online Center
Kanji Dictionary
Japan Travel Guide
Yamasa TV!
FM Okazaki Online
Created and maintained by Declan Murphy and the students and staff
of the Yamasa Institute Multimedia Studio
© Yamasa - All rights reserved.
