The
Hippo philosophy is to acquire languages naturally, through
immersion. I didn’t study Japanese before coming to Japan, except
looking at a few books about the basic structure of the language out of
curiosity, so the way that I’m learning is by listening, observing, and
repeating. As Yo Sakakibara, the founder of Hippo writes, the Hippo
experience is “one of adults experiencing what it is to be a baby,” and
this is exactly what I’m doing. I had known this before coming to Japan
but it’s really different to experience it first hand. Not only am I
learning in the way that a child learns,
but I am acquiring language in the same pattern that a child does. The
first words that a little kid learns are things like: mom, dad, hi, bye,
hot, cold, happy, tired, you, me, want, like, go, eat, this, that,
what, where. This is also pretty much the first set of vocabulary that
I've acquired in Japanese, without even meaning to. It made me realize
that these are some of the first words that a child (or an adult
immersed in a foreign language environment) acquires, not because they
are the easiest, but because they are the most necessary, useful, and
frequently heard.
I’m
actually amazed at how much can be conveyed and understood with just a
few words, and how even learning one new word allows me to express a
whole range of new ideas. For example, the other day I learned that the
ending –tai means to want. By applying this to the things I could
already express like, “I eat”, “I go”, etc., I can now say “I want to
eat this or that”, “I want to go there”, ect. Perhaps my sentences are
not grammatically correct, but I can express the idea, and this is what
is important.
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“Kore-wa Nihongo-de nan-to i-imasu ka?
Words learned at the dining room table |
I
try to use the simple phrases I am learning in Japanese as much as
possible with my host family when we are eating or doing things around
the house so I practice and remember them, and they are very patient
with me. One of the first things I learned from my host mom was how to
say “Kore-wa Nihongo-de nan-to i-imasu ka? (How do you say this in
Japanese?),” which is one of the most useful phrases as you begin to
discover the world around you in a new language, just like a little kid
learning to talk for the first time.
The
Hippo office is also a really great learning environment. Since we have
5 interns from different countries, it’s naturally a multi-lingual
environment and we are all learning together and from each other.
Yufu-chan always says things first in Japanese and then English or
Spanish if I don’t understand. This is helpful because even if I might
not understand something in Japanese at first, every time I hear it, it
becomes more recognizable and I understand more. Miyuki-chan went with
me on the subway one day and I was pointing out to her the Japanese
kanji that I was beginning to recognize in the station. She was just as
excited about and interested in the way that I was learning as I was.
She said I was just like a little kid, excitedly stopping along the way
to point out something that I could understand. That’s how I felt too!
Now every time I see her at the office she asks me what new thing I have
learned and I can proudly show her my notebook with some new name or
kanji I have discovered the meaning of.
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| Kanji I have learned from the subway station |
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