Hey y’all,
This post will be discussing week 4 of my experience at Middlebury’s Summer Japanese Programme.
Starting off the week we began our proposals for our final semester projects. We were told that we had to write a 5 page paper that discussed some sort of problem in Japan. After that, in the conclusion of our paper we had to give our personal opinion on how we feel that this problem could be solved. I wrote my outline talking about funerals in Japan in regards to them being Buddhist vs Shinto. I was very excited to do research about this topic however this joy was short lived (go to Week 5 to see what happened with this).
After this whole endeavor, our next big assignment within the week was our oral exam. We were told that we would be discussing topics that had come up within our readings so far throughout the first four weeks of the programme. When I heard that I started to panic a bit just because our readings up until that point had been on quite niche topics to some degree ranging from Informal Speech in Japan, Tezuka Osamu and manga, the invention of the instant ramen cup, and holidays within Japan. I think as Middlebury Chinese Summer Programme alum, Trudy Fadding, put it aptly when I told her I was stressed about the exam is that at this point in our language fluency, you will no longer be quizzed on discussing your favourite music group or what you did last weekend, but about things like the ethics of celebrating more than religion in Japan. Nevertheless the partner I was paired with to have our conversation in front of the professors and I did our best to make an interesting conversation about Cup of Noodles.
At the end of the week we had our Natsu Matsuri. That Saturday we woke up bright and early at 10am (realistically I usually use Saturday to catch up on sleep I had missed from that week, but I rallied) to go to a Taiko Drum workshop. I had a great time at the event and it was amazing to see so many students show up to this optional event. Next we had our main festivities for the festival which included my two clubs, Sado and Yosakoi, putting on little shows for the department. We also got to eat kakigoori which was super fun.
After that I slept more. And that marks the end of my week 4 at Middlebury.
Yours truly,
Will McC