Dancing?

Another ALT named Kathy recently got a list of dance studios. She made a copy for me, and I just stopped to take a look at it. There are actually quite a lot of dance studios in Kochi, but I'm not sure what they all teach. I can't read much beyond the names of the studios.

I think I would enjoy taking dance classes of some sort, but I'm hesitant to go into one of these places to try and get information. I don't know if foreigners are really welcome at these studios. It's a big hassle to work with someone who doesn't understand anything you're saying. I'm not even sure I know enough Japanese just to fill out a form to enroll in classes. Today I barely managed to sign up for a points card at a drug store, and all I needed to write down were my name, address, and year of birth. I imagine I'd be fine once things got started since I can follow along by watching the others. But when they actually give verbal instructions, I can't understand what they're telling me to do. I can't expect everyone to be as patient with me as the Yosakoi team was.

I don't even know where to start with this one. I really feel like I need to get involved in some sort of activity, and I already miss dancing. What's more, dancing is pretty much the only type of exercise I actually enjoy. But I'm actually frightened of going into this situation. So far I've been okay with bumbling my way through things, but this time is different, somehow. I don't want to go in there and rely on them figuring out what I want.

If I'm lucky, maybe I can convince Kathy to go looking at the studios with me. Even if we didn't end up enrolling at the same place, it would make gathering information easier if I weren't alone. I'm not sure I have the courage to do this by myself. Now that I'm not spending all of my time in the office with other ALTs, it's becoming more apparent how little I can communicate. It's very isolating at times. At school, if the English teacher is out of the staff room for a while, I'm more or less cut off from everyone else in the room. I feel kind of helpless because I have to rely on the people around me for so much. All of the teachers I've worked with so far have been very welcoming, but I don't like putting the burden of communication on them.

I guess all of this should be motivation to learn more Japanese, but it's a daunting task. There's too much that I need to know. I'm not sure the classes at the KIA will be adequate; a lot of the grammar points in the textbook are things I've already learned. It won't hurt me to review the information, but I'm getting desperate to learn new things. I feel like I'm way behind the curve. Which is funny, since there are ALTs who have been here 3 years without learning Japanese and who are getting by just fine. But I think I have a different outlook than they do. I really want to understand people; it isn't good enough to get what I need and be done with it.