Living in the Dorms

日本語は英語の日記の後だ：

I live in the dorms at school. Very international, but not very Japanese. Tonight, I heard Italian, Chinese, German, Swedish, Japanese, and French at one time or another. As international as this is, the only Japanese is when students practice (so often is limited Japanese and with a heavy accent) or on TV. I guess this makes sense, as the only thing the school teaches is Japanese to foreign students.

The dorms are probably good for the younger students, as they get a chance to meet people from many other countries. For many of these kids (and they seem like kids to me - I am old enough to be the father of some) this is their first trip abroad.

The dorm has 2 kitchen-lounges to use to cook, eat, study, relax, etc. One of them is primarily used by the students from Taiwan. The other lounge is primarily used by English speakers. Of course, there are other students than Taiwanese and English-speakers who use each lounge, and students from each side do venture to the other side at times, but this is what the majority seems like on any given day.

I use the Taiwanese lounge, both because that is where I was assigned a box to keep my food, but also because the Taiwanese are much better are trying to speak in Japanese than the folks on the English speaking side.

日本語：
学校のドーミトリーに住んでいる。　国際だ、けど日本式じゃない。今晩、イタリア語と中国語とドイツ語とスウェーデン語と日本語とフランス語を聞いた。国際でも、少ない日本語が使う。　外国人の練習とテレビで日本語で使う。　その学校は外人に日本語を教えるクラスがあるから。

若い学生にはドーミトリーに住んでいるのがいいだろう。ほかの国から来た学生に会えるから。　沢山若い学生は始めの外国へ旅行だ。

ドーミトリーは二つキッチンがある。一つは台湾人が使う。ほかのは英語が話せる人が使う。勿論、色々な人は何方も使う、でも多数派はそうだろう。

私は台湾人のキッチンを使う。そのキッチンに自分の蓄えがあるから。そして台湾人は英語が話せる人よりよく日本語でれんしゅうする。