Happy New Year!!ð
This past New Year and Christmas holiday, some people came to stay at Guest house Ioly Osaka in order to meet their families and friends, like they did last year. These people usually stay here for more than a night; some stay two nights, some others stay for a week. This time, a Vietnamese couple who had stayed here before came back to stay for a week. Like the last time, they cooked here every day, and like the last time, they gave us some Vietnamese coffee!â
For two nights during their stay, another pair came to stay here: another Vietnamese pair! Exactly speaking, a father of Japanese nationality originally from Vietnam and a Japanese son.
One time, the father spoke to the young couple while they stayed here. I was there when he did and his son was next to him, so I asked the son if he understood what his father had just said. His answer was 'No'.
However, the boy, 5th grader in elementary school in Japan, apparently lived in Vietnam for a few years before and spoke Vietnamese then. He also went to school there and started studying English when he was in 1st grade, and now he says he finds the English he learns here as a 5th grader in Japan 'too easy'.
By the way, I learned when the young couple were staying here last winter that they don't celebrate the Japanese New Year because they celebrate the Lunar New Year. In fact, the last New Year here was a quiet one...ðµ
Though it was quite quiet, I had another guest last time around, a gentleman from France, and I had a cosy but nice New Year's Eve / New Year's Day with him.
This time, although the Guest House was fully booked towards the end of December, it was just the Vietnamese couple who stayed here on the night of New Year's Eve. So it was even quieter this time...
However, the next morning, the young lady came downstairs and said 'Happy New Year!' to me in Japanese!! I was terribly impressed!!
I understand that the Japanese New Year is nothing for them to celebrate, but she was considerate enough to say the phrase to me... To be honest, their Japanese is no more than functional, but living in Japan, they've definitely been learning our culture and practising it.
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