Q1. | Hi, Monica .How are you?
|
A. | Hi, fine, fine, very good.
|
Q2. | First time at a Japanese festival?
|
A. | Uh-uh. No, no. so, I am, I'm, I've been also at the, um… Sake Matsuri. That was
good. That was… I enjoyed that a lot.
|
Q3. | Oh, good. OK.
Um, can you tell me where you're from?
|
A. | Uh…this is actually always a difficult question, because…yes, I'm born in Romania,
but, uh… I spent my last six years, um… I've been in… I've lived in Germany. And, yeah,
went to school there, and after that I worked a year and then went to the university.
|
Q4. | How did you get to come to Japan from Germany?
|
A. | Um…so I'm studying Japanese. I've studied Japanese in Germany. Um…and…
uh…since I'm a child, it's, this is the dream of my life to come to Japan, and to live here.
|
Q5. | How long have you been in Japan?
|
A. | Oh, there's one month, yeah, one month, four weeks.
|
Q6. | So what do you think of Hiroshima University?
|
A. | I really like it, I, I, uh…there's just, uh…what I like most here is, uh… that all the
faculties are on the same place. It's different from Tubingen, where, where I studied in
Germany, because there was a university city and I really enjoy that all the faculties are
on the same place. And I, also, so, I think here is so warm atmosphere and, and also the
places, where, where you can stand or spend time outside. They're also so warm, and,
uh… I really like to be here. I've never spent so much time in the university before.
I really, yeah, I really enjoy it here.
|
Q7. | What about Japanese classical arts? Have you had any experience with those?
|
A. | Uh…you mean a theater or calligraphy or…
Yes, uh… I, I think, One and a half year ago I went with, uh…uh…an old woman to , in
Germany, and I've seen, seen, uh…to theater, uh… theater plays, uh…so, Noh, Noh
play, and Kabuki play. It was very, very interesting. Very interesting, I, yeah, yeah, I
enjoyed that a lot.
|
Q8. | What was, uh, the most striking thing you remember?
|
A. | Uh…the masks. It was, it's really amazing so I, they were so… what I can
remember is that they're so white, very white, white masks, and… but they were very
real.
|
Q9. | What about Japanese drums?
|
A. | Oh, this, oh, this is good. Oh, it's, it's, when I went Sake Matsuri, uh… accidentally
I just was there and then there was a group. They began to, to play. And this was the,
uh…Japanese drums. And I've never seen that before, and I just could sit there, and the
music and the sounds and the power, actually, of the music came just, very, very deep.
And yeah, just, all the whole body, yeah, and, so much power, yeah. Actually I thought
meditation. This is a way to meditation. But I thought about it. And the sound, it was
amazing.
|
Q10. | What about learning Japanese? What's your experience been like?
|
A. | Uh…so when I began, uh… I get very fast accustomed to Hiragana and Katakana.
That was actually… amazed me. But, uh…what's very difficult for me is, um…
conversation; speak, to speak in Japanese. So this is, in Germany I didn't do, I didn't
have conversation, so that now it's difficult for me to, to, to speak. But uh…uh… I can, I
can write or, or read or, with a dictionary. It's no problem. So I'm very accustomed to it.
Very, very, yeah. But speaking, speaking is very difficult.
But when I, when I'm going back to, to Germany one year, I will speak Japanese, I hope.
|
Q11. | A lot of people say that the Japanese are shy. And Japanese people say that about
themselves. What's, what's your impression?
|
A. | Oh, so, my impression, one month, I would say definitely not. The way I understand
shyness, I would say not, they are not shy. They are so open and so directly, so, uh…
they, they coming to you and speak with you and, and, and accepting many things and
really very open for, for new things, that I wouldn't, so, for me, this, this openness, and
warmness, this, uh…is exactly the opposite of being shy.
|
Q12. | Uh… what do you think about the fashion you've seen? Clothes that college
students wear, for example?
|
A. | Oh, Extrodianry. I'm really, I'm really fascinating about that. And one thing, so
what I thought was…when I came here to the university, university, actually, buildings
are brown and gray, and the people with their fashion and with their clothes they have,
they bring so much color. There's also now, when it's raining, there is always color, color.
Very, yeah, full of color, and life, yeah, uh…uh…
I think, uh… also one can do anything what, you can do anything what you want. Any
combination of colors and, and, and, yes, just, very, very full of life and, and yeah. And
you can do everything what you want, what you want to wear, you just wear it.
And it's, it's amazing. I really like it. Yeah.
|
Q13. | Thank you for talking.
|
A. | Yeah. It was nice.
|