Live from Japan!

One Christmas, several years ago (2001 or 2002), I had the great pleasure of spending the day with Aaron and his extended family. For the most part, it was the first time that I would meet most of them including his aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

We all descended upon the assisted living facility where Aaron’s grandparents (Virginia’s parents) lived. We gathered with everyone for a meal, and it was the first official time that I had met his entire family in one place, at one time. As you can imagine, this was a stressful experience, to say the least. I wanted to make a good impression. After all, I really liked Aaron, and I really needed his family to like me.

For the most part, the visit was nice and uneventful. Although, one particular part of the visit will forever stand out in my mind as one of the best memories I have of John Dotski (Aaron’s grandfather).

We were sitting down for a meal that had been prepared by many hands. It was typical Christmas fare, and everything was delicious. I was seated across from John and we made pleasant small talk throughout the meal. At one point, the conversation took a slightly different turn. He asked me what I was studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I explained to him that I was a political science major with a legal studies minor.

He paused, and thought about this for awhile. Then he said, “Politics, eh? Then you should be good at making speeches.”

I sort of giggled, not really knowing how to respond. He continued, “I think you should get up and make a speech.”

Now, I was getting really nervous. Anyone who knows me is aware that I am not particularly fond of public speaking. And, in front of a family that I had just met, I was even more nervous. Before I knew it, John was saying, “Speech, speech, speech. . .”

All other conversations stopped, and all eyes seemed to be on me.

I had no idea what I was supposed to give a speech on, but I do know that after I turned beet red in the face, he eventually dropped it and we returned to the pleasant small talk that we had been having before the whole conversation began.

I thought about this story today as I was preparing to give my speech to the entire staff at my new high school. I still don’t like public speaking, and a crowd of new colleagues is just as intimidating as a room filled with new family.

Today was the first full day of classes for students after summer break, and the first full day that the entire staff was present since I came. As a result, my kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) thought that today would be a great day for me to make a speech and introduce myself. The only trick was that the speech was to be given in Japanese.

Sure, I have studied Japanese for a little while now, but my confidence is still minimal. I worked on the speech and wrote it out. It was short, only a few sentences, but I felt that it had gotten my point across. I had a teacher check the Japanese, and it seemed fine. I practiced it, and practiced it some more.

Still, when the staff room was filled with unfamiliar faces, I froze. I went up in front of everyone and read from my little paper of romanized Japanese (I wrote the speech out phonetically using the roman alphabet, instead of Japanese characters, to make it easier for me to read in front of a crowd). I don’t feel that I was overly dynamic, but sometimes, what can you do?!

At the end of the speech, I offered chocolates, Frango mints, to my entire staff. They were well received and I continued to get compliments and thank-yous throughout the afternoon.

Phew!! Glad that’s over!