Hiroko’s Diary

I’m a member of “Okaasan power-up Juku”, a city group in Suita.   Almost all members are mothers who are very busy raising little kids but at the same time, are interested in international exchange.  

Yesterday, we hold a Japanese sweets making experience.  We invited two Japanese sweets patissier from Kyoto.   The shop name is “Yoshihiro“.  The city group’s family and several international students gathered at a comunity center in Kotobuki-cho, Suita.  

We made two kinds of sweets.   One is a pine tree shaped cake.  And the other was a plum flower shaped one.  Those were very beautiful and tasted good.   We served “Omaccha”, green tea, as well.   Everyone seemed satisfied and happy.  

Japanese sweets and green tea.   What a perfect combination! 

Before I write about Hatsugama, I want to talk about what happened while I was writing the last article yesterday.   I was writing it just before I made my children sleep, it means I was in a hurry writing.   So, when my son told me that he wet his pants, I scolded him very fiercely.   I regretted after he slept.   “I’m very sorry.”

Anyway, speaking of Hatsugama, guests usually wear Kimono, but it was very windy that day, so I went my teacher’s house, the place Hatsugama was held at, wearing a suit. 

In the waiting room, we are supposed to write our names and appreciate flowers and a hanging scroll.  After that we eat “Hanabira-mochi”, a sweat especially for “Hatsugama”.   And then we wait uniil the host tell us to come in the special room for Hatsugama.

I’ll write a continuance in next blog.   I have to to to pick up my daughter now.

I started to learn “Tea Ceremony” when I was 18 years old.   My mother told me to learn it.   I wasn’t willing to do it at first because I thought that learning “Tea Ceremony” was out of date.   But it didn’t take time for me to come to love the unique atmosphere.   While I was doing lessons, I felt as if time stopped.   My teacher would say to all students “When you come to my house to take lessons, you take off all the secular dirt and you can forget all of what you have to do or you have to play as an employee, a student, or a housewife.

Since then, I take lessons from time to time.   On Jan. 7th, I was able to participate “Hatsugama”, the first tea ceremony of the New Year, for the first time in 7 years.   I’ll write about what I did in the ceremony in the next blog.  

I went to the church to participate in a Christmas worship.   I saw a video titled  “The Gift of the Magi”, a very famous story all over the world.  As a matter of  fact, when the video finished, I was’t touched at all since I knew the story.  At the end of the service, however, the minister told us the profound meaning of the story using several words in a bible.  I was finally moved and considered about how I had behaved in front of my husband.  I’ve never given him something with money that I earned selling my precious thing.   I apologized him in my mind and thanked God for making me notice the wonderful message of the story.  At the same time, I understood the real meaning of Christmas.   I was very happy after the service. 

Today, I participated in the end of the year party after my English class.  Each student prepared one dish and took it there.   Three were spring rolles, potate salade, potate croquettes, pickled red radish,  rolled sushi and an apple pie.  I cooked rolled sushi.   All of them were delicious.  After having eaten them, we sang Christmas songs.  Moreover, my teacher taught us how to make a snow flake with a piece of paper.  It was very beautiful.   I was very happy  and I thanked God for giving me such a wonderful opportunity.

I teach English on Thursdays and Fridays to children. Teaching something is really encouraging and enjoyable. But at the same time, it’s quite difficult. My students are from 5 years old to 8 years old. On Thursdays classes, students are all girls and on Fidays, students are all boys.

Those girls love songs and dances. They are very diligent. They do homeworks with pleasure. The difficult point for girls is that a few girls shun another girl and they are really mean. On the other hand, the difficulty for boys is that they can’t be quiet nor sit down properly. So that I need to speak loudly and repeat the same phrase many times. That means I get completely exhasted after lessons. However the good point for boys is that they are not mean, rather very honest and sweet.

I think I have to be more strict to students. It seems that they think of me as a friend. From next week, I will say ‘No!’ with serious face and voice when they do something they shouldn’t do.

初めて日本語で書きます。英語だととっても時間がかかりそうなのでお許しください。

この4月から英語を子供達に教え始めました。毎回とっても楽しくて時間があれば教材のことを考えています。私の性格は凝り性で飽きっぽいです。ただ、英語だけはずっと好きで自分なりに勉強してきました。子供達に教えてみて、ついつい子供達に英語が好きになって欲しくて、お母さん方にレッスン後に子供たちの様子とその日に何をしたか、宿題は何かをメールで送ります。もちろん全てのお母さんが私と同じくらい英語に関して情熱を持ってるわけではなく、それを望むこともないのですが、メールの返事がなかったりすると少しへこんでしまいます。私の伝え方が厳しすぎたかなあとか・・・まあ、いちいち気にしているとこれから長続きしないので気にしないようにしているのですが。

メールってとても便利だけど表現がストレートすぎたりしますよね。携帯メールの時は出来る限り絵を入れて優しい雰囲気になるように注意したりします。

今は毎日スケジュールが詰まっていて忙しいけど、出産後ようやく自分のしたいことが出来るようになって毎日happyです。最初の１歩を踏み出すときは勇気がいったけど、やり始めると何とかなるもんですね。ついつい時間を忘れて教材作りとかしてしまうけど、これから先できる限り長く続けていけたらなあ、と思います。いつか子供達が英語をしていたことがよかったなあと思ってもらえたらそんな幸せなことはないだろうなあ。

家事・育児とこれからも調和を保ちながら続けていきたいです。ついつい母親として教えている子供達のことも見がちなので、ゲームをしているのを見ると「あんまり長くゲームをしちゃだめだよ」とか言ってしまいそうになります。でも、それはその子の家庭のことだから私がそこまで言うのはいけないなあと反省し、今は思いとどまっています。でもきっといつか言ってしまうかも。

過ぎたるは及ばざるがごとし！あまり熱を入れない様に細く長く・・・自分に言い聞かせています。

Yesterday, I went to paricipate into a Jazz chants seminar held in Esaka. About 20 people gathered there.All of them are English teachers. Yesterday, there were 3 lecturers. Speaking English with Jazz rhythm was the main theme in that seminar. For me it was the first time to participate in that kind of seminar, so it was really good and exciting. It started at 10:30am and finished at 16:00. In that seminar, I got acquaintance with a few people and exchanged e-mail addresses. Since I thought Jazz chants are good to study English with, I decided to adopt several chants into my English lessons from now on.

I want to write about myself after I started to work at Kansai University. If you haven’t read "About myself 1" and "About myself 2" yet, please read them first.

As a matter of fact, when I returned to Japan from the United Stated, I wanted to go to a graduate school majoring English literature. One day I told my father that I wanted to study more, he said to me "If you want to go to a graduate school, work first and make money for it by yourself".

Therefore I decided to work for a few years. But once I started working in the fuculty of Engineering office at Kansai University, I found it very interesting and challenging. After all, I had worked there for 7 years until I left my job as a result of my hospitarization.

After I regained my health, I tried to study for the exam of a graduate school. I took several classes as an auditor. But unfortunately or fortunately, I found that I got pregnant, and I had to give up to study. Since that time, 7 years has passed. Still now I sometimes wonder that if I have a chance again, I want to try to get the ticket at a graduate school.

I started to teach English to little kids from the past April. Since I gave a birth to the first child, I hadn’t had enough time for myself until I got a chance to study English at Suita Church about a year ago. Every time I attended the class, I really had a wonderful time and was influenced by other students’ career regarding English studying or teaching. Since then, I had thought that I would like to do something using English. At last I found the something that I’d had been looking for. That is an English teacher for little kids. Now I’m very satisfied with my decision.