As many readers already know, during my years teaching at Saint Lawrence Academy in Santa Clara, California, I had the privilege of coordinating an exchange program with a Catholic school in Nagasaki, Japan. Junshin Girls’ Junior & Senior High School would send a group of about twenty students to Saint Lawrence each year in March. I accompanied many groups of Saint Lawrence students on their two-week adventure to Nagasaki in the fall.
In preparation for our visits to Japan, I would facilitate six orientation meetings with the Saint Lawrence students prior to our departure. Students would be introduced to some of the cultural differences they would encounter during the trip. I also introduced them to about forty simple Japanese phrases they could use in their interactions with their host families or on campus with the Junshin students. The phrases were quite basic:
Ohayo gozaimasu — Good morning (formal)
Ohayo — Good morning (casual)
Konnichiwa — Hello
Konbanwa — Good evening
Oyasuminasai — Good night (at bedtime)
Sumimasen — Excuse me
Gomennasai — I’m sorry
Hajimemashite — Nice to meet you
Genki desu ka — How are you?
Hai — Yes
Arigatou — Thank you
Mata ashita — See you tomorrow
The Japanese words are fairly phonetic. “Ohayo” is pronounced like the state, Ohio. The words are easy to say, but practice is essential to be able to use the phrases effectively.
Most of the students were fairly comfortable with using these phrases, and I warned them not to freak out when someone responded to them in Japanese. There was no expectation that they be conversational in the language, so they could simply smile and say, “Wakarimasen,” meaning “I don’t understand.”
One student in particular couldn’t wait to practice the Japanese he had learned. On the 11-hour flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and on the shorter two-hour flight from Tokyo to Nagasaki, he practiced the phrases. When we arrived on campus for the first day of our visit, this student jumped out of his host family’s car, confidently walked up to a small group of Junshin students, and, with a huge smile on his face, blurted out, “Iowa!”
Needless to say, the Junshin students just looked at him with a look of… “Whaaaaat?”
He was puzzled by their odd response until one of his Saint Lawrence friends said, “Dude, wrong state! It’s Ohio, not Iowa!” The poor kid was humiliated. He had practiced so much for that very moment, only to blurt out the wrong word.
Fortunately, he got over it quickly and was able to laugh about it a while later. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to travel to Nagasaki with various groups of students, and for the entertaining stories I have to share about those adventures.
