Thanks, Serena and Sarah!

一週間の助っ人外国人たちによるべびえいご・こどもえいごを終え、明日からは通常と同じくJesseのえいごになります。


ニュージーランド出身のGoeff先生がご都合で来られなくなりお二人のレディにお願いしました。

アメリカ合衆国出身のSerenaは、自らGenki English!と称してパワフルなべびえいごを提供してくれました。

イギリス出身のSarahは、マイルドにときにはジャグリングなどを見せながら子ども達の心を掴んで楽しいこどもえいごを提供してくれました。

「とっても刺激的でした。」「やっぱりJesseがいいな。」「毎日違う先生がいいな。」「またこの先生に会いたい！」など、様々なご意見頂きました。私としてもいい勉強になりましたので有意義な一週間でした。快くこどもえいご、べびえいごを引き受けて下さったご両者と、Jesseの不在時に変わらず来てくれたみなさま、ありがとうございました。

さぁ、来週はささやかではありますがお土産配るからお休みしないでねー！

Dispatches from Kuala Lumpur 3

Dinner is waiting

KL is supposedly a foodie's heaven, but a foodie my 7-year-old daughter is not.
There are lots of different kinds of food here since there are lots of different kinds of people here: Chinese, Indian, Malay, and a fusion of all three. The one thing almost all the food here has in common is spiciness, which, again, for a 7-year-old can be a problem. In one Chinese restaurant we went to we ended up having to swap dishes because the mango chicken she ordered also had a chili sauce. I do think over the past week and a half she's gotten a little more used to some spiciness.

"not too spicy"

Another difference in food culture is of course utensils. And all three different cuisines here highlight that. I ate this Indian meal with my hands, including the rice not pictured:

"You're eating like a baby!"

Chinese food gets chopsticks:

And Malay food just gets eaten with a spoon and fork, often used at the same time.

Another jarring difference is the places meals are prepared and eaten.  Most people, especially the natives outside of the center of the city, tend to eat outside of the restaurant proper using the tables and chairs set up where ever theres space. The photo above is of tables and chairs set up in the street.

This place is just some side street behind a street market. Not pictured are the dishwashers in the street using the road as their workplace, too.

"What food license?"

This kitchen is in the middle of the sidewalk

This stall is on the stairway to the train station.

If it all gets to be too much, which happens for my daughter, there is also Western food around. 

"Can't I eat the french fries first, then have the salad?"

Food at a Western restaurant is more expensive than native food, but it's still not as expensive as Japan. We ordered an XL pizza for the equivalent of 1200 yen. And for an American like me, KL has more authentic American food than Japan does, so I sometimes don't even want to eat Malaysian/Chinese/Indian. 

Here are a couple more pictures. See you next time.

Have a seat.

Chop it. Drink it. Chuck it.

Dispatch from Kuala Lumpur 2

Just a quick thought about traveling around KL.
The last two days we've taken the subway home it's been super busy. There are 3 different trains that run through the city. The one that makes an almost-loop around the city center, running near a lot of the tourist attractions, is the monorail. And it gets crowded, especially at rush hour but really most of the time. The train that comes is usually only 2 cars long. Like I said, the last two days have been really busy. Everyone lines up pretty orderly to get onto the train, and once the other passengers get off, we file on. Except because the train has been so full and not many passengers get off, not so many of us can file onto the train. So we've had to wait for 3 or 4 trains to come and go before the two of us have been able to get on.
But once we do get on, the people are very kind: someone will offer their seat to my daughter to sit in; or ask to make sure that she's not getting squished if they're standing beside us. The neighborly kindness of strangers is very refreshing.
If I had any qualms it would just be with the train system for not running longer and/or more frequent cars, especially on the monorail.

Dispatches from Kuala Lumpur

It's been a almost a week here in Kuala Lumpur and I want to share some things about this place. I'd meant to write this sooner, but I usually have been falling asleep at the same time as my daughter.

Life here for the average KLer (that's what I'm calling residents of Kuala Lumpur) seems definitely different than the average Japanese person. Most people here are polyglots (bi- or trilingual) since the city is made up of primarily ethnic Chinese and Indians along with the native Malays. They all have their own language and all three groups also use English. With only 2 exceptions, every single person I've spoken with (asking for directions, etc) has spoken English. 

Though not everyone's English is the same as mine. For example, whenever someone addresses my daughter they call her "baby". We were on the subway today and someone very kindly gave up their seat for my daughter. As they stood up, the person said, "Here, baby, come sit down." They're not using baby like honey-sweety-dear-monkeybear, they just call even 7-year-olds "baby." 

One thing that's not so different is the weather. Being closer to the Equator, I was expecting the heat to be terrible. But it's really just as hot and humid as Japan, sometimes even a little cooler. 

That's all for now, but I promise more posts will come soon.

Bye,

Jesse

まよい

ここ数日迷っていました。何を迷っていたかというと、今週佐鳴湖花火大会で何をするか。

先週の鴨江アートフェスティバルでエネルギーを使い果たし、その３日後にはバタバタとジェシーと長女がマレーシアへ。週末は戦力外の次女と私だけ。Mumuが始まってから佐鳴湖花火退会の日はレモネードを配って来ましたが、一人では出来ないしとか台風来るかも知れないしとウジウジしている間に次女ちゃまが発熱しました。

レモネードがなくたって、ジェシーがいなくたって、誰か来るかも知れないと連絡網メールを書いては消し、書いては消しとしていたのですが、そのわずかな望みも消滅。みんなでご飯食べたかったなぁ。また明日も二人っきりの食卓かぁ。

ジェシーが帰って来たらレモネードリベンジしたいですけれどね。。夏はあっという間に過ぎて行きそうです。みなさま休暇をどうぞ楽しんで下さいませ。

万一、花火大会が決行となりましたら駐車場をご利用頂けますのでお越しになりたい方はご一報くださいませ。