310-324-6611
GVJCI
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Board and Staff
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
    • Follow Us on Social Media!
    • Join Our Email List
    • Resources
    • Testimonies/PR
  • Donate
  • Become a Friend of the GVJCI
  • Events/Programs
    • GVJCI >
      • GVJCI Upcoming Events
      • 2022 Art Show
      • Bento Program
      • GVJCI Scholarship
      • Matsuri Bento-To-Go Fundraiser
      • TANOSHII Fun Camp >
        • Camper Registration
        • Counselor Registration
        • Testimonials
        • Camp Supporters
        • Activities
        • FAQ
      • Restaurant Fundraiser
      • Virtual Matsuri >
        • VM Main Page
        • VM Content Schedule
        • 2021 VM Art Gallery
        • Entertainment
        • Food
        • Martial Arts
        • Matsuri Memories
      • Seniors >
        • TNK Classes
        • Smartphone/Tablet Class
        • Food Distribution >
          • Greeting Card Program
        • Tomo Cafe | 友カフェ
      • Recurring Events >
        • Day Of Remembrance >
          • DOR 2022 >
            • Big Band Music in Camp
            • Camp Comedy Performances
            • Japanese Cultural & Performing Arts
            • Fine Art >
              • Amache & Heart Mountain
              • Arts & Crafts
              • Henry Fukuhara
              • George Hoshida
              • Minidoka
              • Rohwer
              • Tanforan-Topaz Art School
          • DOR 2021 >
            • CSUDH Japanese American Digitization Project
            • Densho Campu Podcast
            • Lane Ryo Hirabayashi Tribute
            • South Bay JACL Oral Histories Collection
        • Meditation & More Class
        • Virtual Matsuri >
          • Art Gallery
          • Entertainment
          • Food
          • Martial Arts
          • Scholarship Recipients
      • Past Events >
        • 2021 GVJCI Online Art Show Home Page >
          • Artists A-J
          • Artists K-M
          • Artists N-O
          • Artists P-Z
        • The Bridge: GVJCI Heritage Center >
          • Book Club
        • KonMari Method Workshops | こんまり®︎メソッドワークショップ
        • Oshogatsu
        • Oysters, Bites & Biiru
        • TABE-DORAIBU >
          • TABE-DORAIBU
          • Map & Partner Bios
          • POINT SYSTEM
          • FOOD PICTURES
    • Japanese Language School >
      • Japanese Language School >
        • JLS Graduates
    • Member Organizations >
      • Arts/Music/Dance >
        • Bando Hidesomi
        • Hawaiian Music Class
        • LA Men's Glee Club
        • Meito Calligraphy
        • Taiko
      • Health and Wellness
      • Martial Arts >
        • Gardena JCI Kendo
        • Gardena Judo Club
        • Gardena Kendo
        • Gardena Naginata
        • Kyudo Renmei
      • Service >
        • Evening Optimist Club of Gardena
      • Sports >
        • Sansei Baseball League
        • South Bay F.O.R Junior Sports Association
        • South Bay Youth Basketball
      • Youth >
        • Boy Scout Troop 683
        • Boy Scout Troop 719
  • COVID-19
  • How to Help
    • Become a Bento Buddy!
    • Giving Tuesday 11.30.21
    • Donate Your Car!
    • 2022 GVJCI Raffle Drawing
    • Shop on Amazon
    • Volunteer
    • Purchase a 2023 Calendar Ad
  • Facility Reservations
  • Blog
    • Blog Terms of Use
    • Want to write for us?
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Board and Staff
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
    • Follow Us on Social Media!
    • Join Our Email List
    • Resources
    • Testimonies/PR
  • Donate
  • Become a Friend of the GVJCI
  • Events/Programs
    • GVJCI >
      • GVJCI Upcoming Events
      • 2022 Art Show
      • Bento Program
      • GVJCI Scholarship
      • Matsuri Bento-To-Go Fundraiser
      • TANOSHII Fun Camp >
        • Camper Registration
        • Counselor Registration
        • Testimonials
        • Camp Supporters
        • Activities
        • FAQ
      • Restaurant Fundraiser
      • Virtual Matsuri >
        • VM Main Page
        • VM Content Schedule
        • 2021 VM Art Gallery
        • Entertainment
        • Food
        • Martial Arts
        • Matsuri Memories
      • Seniors >
        • TNK Classes
        • Smartphone/Tablet Class
        • Food Distribution >
          • Greeting Card Program
        • Tomo Cafe | 友カフェ
      • Recurring Events >
        • Day Of Remembrance >
          • DOR 2022 >
            • Big Band Music in Camp
            • Camp Comedy Performances
            • Japanese Cultural & Performing Arts
            • Fine Art >
              • Amache & Heart Mountain
              • Arts & Crafts
              • Henry Fukuhara
              • George Hoshida
              • Minidoka
              • Rohwer
              • Tanforan-Topaz Art School
          • DOR 2021 >
            • CSUDH Japanese American Digitization Project
            • Densho Campu Podcast
            • Lane Ryo Hirabayashi Tribute
            • South Bay JACL Oral Histories Collection
        • Meditation & More Class
        • Virtual Matsuri >
          • Art Gallery
          • Entertainment
          • Food
          • Martial Arts
          • Scholarship Recipients
      • Past Events >
        • 2021 GVJCI Online Art Show Home Page >
          • Artists A-J
          • Artists K-M
          • Artists N-O
          • Artists P-Z
        • The Bridge: GVJCI Heritage Center >
          • Book Club
        • KonMari Method Workshops | こんまり®︎メソッドワークショップ
        • Oshogatsu
        • Oysters, Bites & Biiru
        • TABE-DORAIBU >
          • TABE-DORAIBU
          • Map & Partner Bios
          • POINT SYSTEM
          • FOOD PICTURES
    • Japanese Language School >
      • Japanese Language School >
        • JLS Graduates
    • Member Organizations >
      • Arts/Music/Dance >
        • Bando Hidesomi
        • Hawaiian Music Class
        • LA Men's Glee Club
        • Meito Calligraphy
        • Taiko
      • Health and Wellness
      • Martial Arts >
        • Gardena JCI Kendo
        • Gardena Judo Club
        • Gardena Kendo
        • Gardena Naginata
        • Kyudo Renmei
      • Service >
        • Evening Optimist Club of Gardena
      • Sports >
        • Sansei Baseball League
        • South Bay F.O.R Junior Sports Association
        • South Bay Youth Basketball
      • Youth >
        • Boy Scout Troop 683
        • Boy Scout Troop 719
  • COVID-19
  • How to Help
    • Become a Bento Buddy!
    • Giving Tuesday 11.30.21
    • Donate Your Car!
    • 2022 GVJCI Raffle Drawing
    • Shop on Amazon
    • Volunteer
    • Purchase a 2023 Calendar Ad
  • Facility Reservations
  • Blog
    • Blog Terms of Use
    • Want to write for us?

GVJCI Blog
ガーデナ平原日本文化会館ブログ

AN ADULT LEARNS JAPANESE (DURING COVID) - PART 2

2/22/2021

0 Comments

 
By: Scott Maccarone, Community Guest Contributor
Days go slow, weeks go fast. “Wait, what day is it? Is it Thursday?” I ask my wife. “No it’s Tuesday” she responds. The days blend together and work from home keeps not only our bodies but our minds confined to the same four walls. Our brains want to be distracted. “I’ll get it!” I shout as my ears hear the sweet sound of the doorbell - another Amazon package containing some pens (I love writing instruments), protein bars, and the complete DVD collection of Poirot. Why am I still using DVD’s?! Because Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and all the other streaming services do not carry some of my favorite shows like Columbo and Poirot unless I sign up for another streaming subsidiary like BritBox or AcornTV. Maybe we will consolidate all these streaming services into an accessible, yet fully loaded entertainment service?! Yes - consolidated, accessible but loaded entertainment. Let’s call it CABLE for short! But I digress. Rantings and ramblings aside, the monotony of daily life during COVID can be difficult to cope with. Fortunately for me, I have each Saturday morning to look forward to with Aki Sensei teaching Japanese!

During non-COVID times, I would meet with my martial arts group (Kashima Shinryu at UCLA) for practice twice each week, and my wife, our son, and I would meet with friends for coffee, brunch, dinner, or walks on weekends. How do we maintain our mental health when the very mechanisms we employ to protect our sanity are stripped away? How do we regain a sense of routine and socialization when we are stuck at the bottom two rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? My answer came in the form of Aki Sensei’s Japanese class in addition to turning to Zoom for martial arts and social “gatherings”. 
Picture
My Japanese language class gives me a sense of normalcy and progression when days smear together. I open my textbook’s in the evenings once my son has gone to bed and study Japanese for an hour. I can see my progress flipping through the pages of my textbook, lecture notes, and homework as the days, weeks, and months pass by. The completed lessons and homework assignments act like signposts along an intellectual highway - “Now passing Lesson 4. Next stop Lesson 5!” Having this intellectual highway is comforting since our temporal highway has been ravaged by COVID and under construction indefinitely. We typically measure progression with birthdays, holidays, festivals, and other celebrations with friends and family. Our response, for better or worse, has been to push pause on all these events, effectively freezing our sense of time because our celebrations - our sense of progression - have been stuck in a holding pattern for a full year. By creating my alternative intellectual highway, I have been comforted with a new sense of progression in my life.
Aki Sensei does an excellent job each Saturday morning holding her students accountable for the material and ensuring each student has the opportunity to participate in class. Aki Sensei brings fun and interesting cultural topics and “phrases of the day” building the language-culture bridge. For example, we learned about Setsubun which occurs the day before spring, typically on February 3rd, but this year (2021) occured on February 2nd which had not happened since 1897! Setsubun is also called the “Bean-throwing Festival” owing to the tradition of throwing roasted soybeans while shouting “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (“Devils out! Fortune in!”). Along with seeing Aki Sensei and my classmates via Zoom each Saturday, the routine of studying and practicing Japanese at home has established a new normal for me - a new routine I can depend on through the chaos of work, parenting, and COVID.
​

I have found the mental challenge of learning Japanese gives me a sense of purpose when so many of my other activities and interests have been put on hold. I still practice Kashima Shinryu in a limited way on my own. And 1-2 times per week the group meets virtually for a short practice session and discussions. This practice exercises my body and spirit clearing out the mental cobwebs and better preparing my mind for Japanese lessons. But more than that, the language and my martial art feed each other and have served me well as strong and steady signposts as I traverse this new landscape.

Picture
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
​はじめまして。マカロネスコットです。よろしくおねがいします。
Scott Maccarone is a mathematician by education, earning a MS from UC Irvine, but writer by choice. Scott has practiced various martial arts from Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu Kodokai, Judo, boxing, Muay Thai, and Kashima Shinryu. The history, spirit, and culture of Japanese martial arts elevate Scott’s practice into physical exercise, intellectual study, and a means to achieve psychological well-being. Scott has been to Japan twice and intends on many return visits post-COVID. Scott is most fortunate to have met his wife who is truly his best friend and better half, and is continually in awe of his young son whom he loves far more than evolution requires.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2022
    August 2021
    June 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    July 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016

    Categories

    All
    DIY
    Food And Recipes
    JA Culture
    JA History
    Japanese Traditions

    RSS Feed

Come and visit!

GVJCI's Mission and Vision

Our mission is to create a space to engage, share, and embrace the Nikkei experience and culture.

The GVJCI envisions a vibrant network and a welcoming space for all persons interested in Japanese heritage and culture where history and tradition are honored, people are inspired to create action and change, and cultural pride and respect for all humanity are promoted.




​

Contact Us

 1964 W. 162nd St., Gardena, CA, 90247  |     (310) 324-6611    |      info@jci-gardena.org
Office Hours: Mon - Fri 9 AM - 5 PM