By Kelly Yue
The Lotus paid a socially-distanced visit to the Asian House on a Wednesday evening to participate in their weekly dinner and speak with the Japanese Cultural Program Coordinator (CPC), Machi Niiya, as well as three residents (Sarah Yamamoto, Luca Xu, and Andrew Choy) to learn about their experiences living in the Asian House.
During normal times, the Asian House would house 13 residents including the CPC. But due to the pandemic, the number of residents was reduced to 6 this year. Luca says the smaller number of residents made the Asian House feel like a home to her. While social distancing guidelines made it difficult for students to interact with the broader campus community, they prompted Asian House residents to develop more intimate relationships. “Hanging out with them makes me feel like I’m not by myself,” Luca says.
Despite busily preparing okonomiyaki and taiyaki (Japanese pancakes), Machi adds on by explaining how the smaller capacity allowed her to connect more deeply with each student in comparison to pre-pandemic times when the house was at full capacity.
In addition to developing a community, almost all residents chose to live in the Asian House to improve their language ability. Sarah, a prospective Japanese language minor, says the ability to speak Japanese everyday was a major reason for her to live at the Asian House as she hopes to get more fluent in Japanese. “The fun events, especially cooking, was another reason for living here!”
Machi highlights the key role of collaboration in the Asian House as all residents can propose and host events. “Food events are always the most popular! But we’ve also had movie nights, karaoke nights, and picnics.” Since she was in Japan for the fall semester and was unable to do any in-person programming, she is trying to coordinate more events this semester for her residents. The whiteboard in the lounge area allows residents to put down ideas for events. Once they finish an event, they cross out that suggestion and add new ones on. Next on their list is making cha siu bao, a barbecue-pork-filled bun.
Readers may start to wonder how students with different levels of Japanese fluency interact at the house. Andrew has the answer for you. While Andrew is not fluent in Japanese, being immersed in an environment where Japanese is the main medium of communication helped him improve his listening skills tremendously. Machi, who is a Mandarin learner, would sometimes converse with Andrew in Mandarin to help him understand the conversation as he is more fluent in Mandarin than Japanese. He affectionately calls the Asian House his “second home,” which provides him with familiarity and comfort during chaotic times.
We thank Machi, Sarah, Luca, and Andrew for letting us share their joy. Follow their Instagram Page @cc_japaneseprogram to learn about their house events!
(video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gdEB-nWCrAdOUcCesuMHxyKDiLypogx8/view?usp=sharing)
