Street Dancing

August 5, 2004 - Hanagasa Festival (Ken, Jay-R, Eric, Arlene)

* Originally posted in my Multiply account, http://ebdeguzman.multiply.com.

Yesterday was so fun, though a bit tough. We had the annual Hanagasa Flower Hat Dance Festival. It is actually held for hree days every year but the international students (like me) danced only on the first day. Some groups were devotingly practising since last year as they will be dancing for three days. Anyway, my experience yesterday was quite enough for me to give it a try again next year.

I came to the city hall at about 3 pm. It was the assembly place for all that will dance under the Yamagata City International Friendship Association umbrella. Being under the International Student Center of Yamagata University, we were also under the association. In the assembly hall there were so many foreigners. Most noticeable are the Chinese and the Koreans, who comprised the greatest number. There were also some Malaysians, Brazilian, Indonesians, Americans and Canadians.

I though I was the lone Filipino there since I am the only one wearing the Firipin sash. But eventually, I met two more and we instantly became friends.

The Hanagasa Dance reminded me of the Obando Fertility Dance, same street dancing type and both are so much fun.

*To know more about the Obando Fertility Dance, please go to http://www.geocities.com/obando81.
Picture taken at Nanoka-machi, Yamagata City, Japan.

Entrance Exam Blues - I passed it!

* Originally posted in my Multiply account, http://ebdeguzman.multiply.com.

Now is summer vacation here in Japan but I will still be busy in preparing for my entrance exam on the 23rd. Actually, I will be meeting my tutor as I will familiarize myself with my research proposal which he will be translating for me in Japanese.

The exam will be an interview by the Math department faculty panel and it will be in Japanese. I don't really know if I can reply to them in Japanses but at least I need to familiarize myself again with my undergraduate thesis which was written almost three years ago. I have forgotten what it was about already.

I am worrying about the entrance exam in two ways. One is the content itself of the interview. Next is how to have it in Japanese. Well, I will just leave it to God, to my tutor, to my academic supervisor, to the math faculty panel, and to myself.

Gambarimasu!

Teaching Math for Kids is Fun!

* Originally posted in my Multiply account, http://ebdeguzman.multiply.com

Lately I have started teaching mathematics to some Filipino children here in Japan. I actually have two students. The one is in high school already and the other one is in elementary. The high school student still knows how to communicate in Tagalog, which was a great convenience for me. However, the other one speaks no other than Japanese, so every time we have the session, I am quite nervous with my Japanese. It is obvious that the little girl is more fluent than me in Japanese but it is ok. The girl at first seemed to be very shy but as the sessions went on, we are having fun.

It is very fulfilling for me to see them learning their math with me as their tutor. Someone told me that why did ‚h choose teaching math for kids as a volunteer work instead of having it as a part time job. I really don't know why also. But for me, it is experience and fulfillment that matter most to me. May be some other time, I can teach math or English as a part-time job, but for now, I will just let myself experience the fun being with children of the same country as where I came from.