By Alexx Thompson

We had our first guest speaker! I was really curious as to what he’d be like. At first I thought he might’ve been a student, but no! He’s a teacher. He introduced himself as Simon and told us to call him Si! In class we learned honorifics recently, so I think it’s polite to call him Si-san. Or maybe Si-sensei, since he is also going to be helping us with Japanese!

He told us that he started studying Japanese in middle school and I was really moved. I also connected with that due to the fact I started studying Japanese in middle school too! Sometimes I would hear him talking to Eshita-sensei and I thought, wow! This guy is really good! I want to be as good as him. When he started telling us about how he got a job through a company in Japan, I was really interested. He said the program made sure that the businesses that employees worked at had to pay them and make sure they had living accommodations. I want to ask him how he found that company!

I really liked him and thought he was a really fun guy! I hope he comes back more. I think he was amazing as our first guest speaker and I’d like him to come again. I really liked listening to his story. I was also surprised that he came back. Living in Japan is my dream but when he said he didn’t know if he wanted to be there until he retired really made me think. Maybe I should rethink my goals and don’t rush towards my goal, because maybe I’ll end up becoming unhappy later on.

Having a guest speaker really made me think that class was finally getting into swing. It made me feel like I’m diving into the real world. I really look forward to what he’ll help us with! His Japanese skill makes me really want to practice with him. He told us in order to stay passionate about learning Japanese we had to find something we were passionate about other than things like manga and anime. The first thought that came to mind was history, and then later fashion. But I love history and think it’s super interesting. I sometimes devote hours to researching random facts about history that I won’t even use for anything, I just think they’re really cool to read about.

I really like having guest speakers come in because I think it’s super interesting. I love hearing about other people’s stories! I’m really excited to see who comes in next so I can learn from them as well. There’s lots of joy, for me, finding out new things and opportunities. I’m looking forward to the next guest and the fun experiences to come soon! Like we learned in class, I’ll say see you later for now. Jyaa ne!