Much to our excitement, this evening's culture class covered the delicate art of calligraphy writing. As many of us soon found after the first strokes, calligraphy is hardly as easy as it appears in movies and by masters. Called shodo in Japan, literally meaning "the principle of writing," this fine art was passed down to the Japanese from China and has survived the centuries, evolving, even, into a sport in some areas. Tonight, we did not practice full body calligraphy much to our dismay, but stuck to the basics, with horizontal and vertical lines. A line is more than a line; it takes a steady hand to create one without any blemishes or waves. After getting our lines down, or as good as they would ever be in a 50 minute class period, we moved on to larger, more complex kanji characters to write on our final special calligraphy paper. Characters such as love, peace, dream, and happiness were choices in the packet full of characters for us to choose from. Wisdom was a popular choice, as well as friendship. Even though, for many of us, this was our first experience with calligraphy, our final pieces turned out rather awesome looking. All of us were proud of our handiwork despite being far from mastery. Overall, a successful endeavor: no spilled ink, many beautiful creations.
Jillian
"Normal Life" from a Student's Perspective
Every day, we work very hard to compete with our very demanding schedule. However, on a normal day to day basis we all take our classes quite seriously, even if we are in different classes at times. For the past two days, we actually had something that could be considered a normal day. We had our daily routine in the morning as per usual; for example, we got up and did our daily run of Rajio Taisou (which is always invigorating). Then off to breakfast we went! After a hearty breakfast, we headed off to language class. Each class is working at different paces, which are interesting to see because we all work on different stuff. For example, in the beginners’ classes, they are working hard to master hiragana while the advanced class is in the process of mastering the art of kanji. Classes can range from very hard to very interesting, especially for the last couple of days. The lessons are very engaging and fun for everyone to enjoy. At this point we can all pretty much speak in complete sentences which is totally awesome considering how some of started off not knowing any Japanese. So full-emersion lunches aren’t so bad anymore. Culture Classes are very animated because we are very eager to learn about the different aspects of Japanese culture. Every day, we are fully engaged in whatever lesson we are being taught. As for after class, we have journal time, which is a great way to relax after our long days; also a time for us to be fully together. Helps end on a calm note and makes for great friend time.
Calyssa
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