3rd Japanese Language festival

26 July - 27 July, UM Perdana Siswa

The 3rd annual language festival had arrived and gone. 2 days of tirelessly working behind the scenes to ensure a successful festival. This year, we wore a white design T-shirt exactly like the one on the cover of the booklet.

Missing in action...

Last year I was doing cameraman duty, a task I keep telling everyone I don't want to repeat. Luckily someone heard me ( or I had bad camera skills), I was assigned to the more 'challenging' task of registration. 2 others joined me, non other than Frog girl and PSP boy. Both are my classmates. You might wonder about the empty seat. It was mine lar, I can't take photo and sit there at the same time right....

Students lining up to enter the auditorium

After that, I was assigned to the more mundane job ( or so I thought) of manning the PA system. Together with me was my sidekick, Louis san. Totemo wakai hito desu ( very young man). As usual everything you expect to go wrong had gone wrong and it was up to me.. and Louis san of course to save the DAY!

Sound didn't come out lar, cannot project screen lar, got image no sound lar, laptop crash lar, lights cannot come on lar... anything and everything. Hordes of sensei surrounded me and kept asking, "daijobu", "dekimasu ka.", " dou shite", " mondai ga arimasu ka" ( ok? can? what happened? got problem?) and a load other question that my numb mind cannot dechiper already. Working under duress someone bombard me with japanese. Can die one..!

Yes, what can I do for you...

I also helped out at the information counter and manage to 'ajaran sesat' a few people. The most frequent question that was asked of me was the JPLT exam ( this part I didn't ajaran sesat, I swear!), whether is this a sub bon odori ( what the....) and the origin of the dance performed during the opening ceremony. I must have 'ajaran sesat' quite geng cause they removed me from the counter after a short while and put me back into the auditorium to look after the PA system. Sigh!.. I stood whole day and was sooo darn tired. tsukareta!

Second day was more fun. I was assigned to help in the yukata class. PSP boy was so dying to go into yukata class because there were a lot of 'mei mei' but was assigned to Ikebana instead..(japanese flower arrangement) wa ha ha ha! I consoled him with the fact, Ikebana also got a lot of 'mei mei', older only ma...

We only hang the good ones..

I don't know a darn about wearing yukata so I got the labour job. Preparing the yukatas. Some of the yukatas are quite weird, so sensei asked to put them one side. She said, "Kore wa hen, kore mo hen, hen hen hen. " (this one weird, this one also weird, weird weird weird. ) After a while I also thought everything looked weird.

I helped put on her yukata

After the first session, I was taught how to wear a yukata and thus, I started my career as an amateur yukata expert. I think my knots are quite hideous and profusely apologized every time after I tied the obi ( the belt). However the kids seemed to like it and hop of showing off.

Group photo from 2nd session.

Girls had more fun because girl traditionally liked to play dress-up and there are more pieces to wear ma... However they weren't much of a poser though I did see some tried the kawaii look.
The guys... another matter altogether. At first they started out quite shy, when I zoomed my camera at them..

Kintara, Hamtaro, Momotaro and Ichiro

After I kacau kacau them, they warmed up and give me the kakkoi (cool) pose... Cool huh....

You wanna say something?

When I asked them to give me the Water boy pose.. they gave me this. Some how the pose was not quite what I wanted but I gotta salute them for having the balls to do it. Maybe because I didn't tell them I am going to post it up my blog...Oops.

Bleach meets Ultraman

It was so tiring at the end of the day and I have never spoken so much Japanese in my entire life. This year I can carried a full conversation albeit, simple ones with everyone. I was so happy!!!! Ureshi katta desu!

However this year besides leaving with heavy legs, I also left with a heavy heart. This will probably be my last japanese language festival volunteer work but hey, next year it's a different story lar!

Thanks to Yap san and Ng san for being the best sempai! For those who would like to participate next year, buzz me !