Kristina: クリスティーナ

今回はクリスティーナが仕事と、自分がシャイな性格をどのように克服したかを話してく­れました。現在の彼女からは想像できませんが、子供のころはシャイだった、とのこと。­また後半では歌声も披露してくれました。

— Transcript —

Hello! It’s Kristina!
How is the weather? It’s cloudy today.

As you can guess, I’m an English teacher for kids.

What I usually do is jump around and scare children into using English by making them do ridiculous things. And use ridiculous amount of gestures and some broken Japanese, but, I don’t speak Japanese, they do.

Just an example, one of them would say something like “jikan, jikan.（時間）” You know, just the word alone. If I didn’t understand what it meant, I would just be like “what are you saying?” But he uses the gesture like “jikan.” So, “oh, time!” So, it’s cute that they really try to communicate. I like that. Because, you know, why learn a language if you are not going to communicate?

It’s funny because teaching English makes me think about my mom a lot. She actually learned English as a second language. So I find myself thinking about her experience, with education and moving to America, because of the things I’m experiencing as a teacher.

When I came to Japan, I was isolated in the country side, I’ve mentioned that already, but it was like learning the language the way a child would, because basically I could only learn vocabulary. You know, like, “shingo, shingo（信号）” and pointed lights, and “oh that’s light!” “Michi no eki, michi no eki（道の駅）” and “oh that’s the rest stop!” Or “eki, eki（駅）” and “oh that’s station! OK!” So that’s how my vocabulary grew, it was as if I was an infant. It’s really kind of exciting.

But then I had to ask my mom “how did you learn English?” because she speaks English so well. And she is just like, in the Philippines, where she’s from originally, she had English class everyday for an hour from kindergarten into high school and way into college. In the high school she attended, if someone spoke Tagalog or Visaya, anything other than English, and the teacher found out, that person would have to pay a fine. So it was really strict.

She kind of noticed that I was really shy, and didn’t want me to have a hard time. I did anyways because I was really shy. But it was kind of because of her training that later on in life that people I met in life pull me out of this shyness that I had. So my mom used to make me sing everywhere, talk to strangers, ask for directions, order the food, anything and everything to make me talk to people, because I was terrified of them.

I remember one time, she made me sing on a bus, it was some long-distance bus ride, with just me and her and a bunch of strangers. And she’s like, “Tina! There’s no TV, go up to the front of the bus and sing!” I was like “Umm.. I don’t want to this! I hate this!” It was one of those things that I hated with all my heart. I couldn’t say that to my mom, so what I do, I sing! And, I only knew one song because it’s the one song.. well, she really like Les Miserables so I knew how to sing “I Dreamt a Dream” before I could really understand what I was singing. But I sang that, on the bus full of old people, and.. I just think it’s really funny especially that line, that’s like “♪I had a dream my life would be.. so different from this hell I’m living, so different now from what it seemed♪ Now life has killed a dream I dreamt♪” A bunch of old people hanging out, and this little kid is singing to them about the regret.

The point is, because of all of that stuff that I just said, I really like my shy kids, I can get through the lessons, but I think I have some skills in making people want to communicate. Or at least encouraging people to try to communicate or stop being so fucking shy. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with shy, I like it, but I don’t want people to miss out on experience because they are scared of something.

Yeah! But.. Ughh, what’s this video about!?

It’s about me being a teacher, and how much I miss my mom. Okay. That’s it. Bye!

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■ Idiom & Phrase

it was like learning the language the way a child would,
　それは子供がやるような言葉の学習方法だった

Tagalog or Visaya
　タガログ語かヴィサヤの　ヴィサヤはフィリピンの地方名

pay a fine.
　罰金を払う

pull out of 〜
　〜から引っ張りだす

It was one of those things that I hated with all my heart.
　それは私が心から嫌なことのひとつだったの

with all my heart は文脈により約が別れますが、ここでは「心底」といった意味になります

A bunch of 〜
　たくさんの〜