“Japanese cooking class held in Chinese and English and organised by “Koto-ku Bunka Centre” (Koto-ward Culture Centre)

 

 

 

 

Have you ever made “rose-shaped roll sushi”? It’s so beautiful. On Saturday 17th June 2017, 5 LVC members, consisting of 2 Chinese interpreters, 2 English interpreters and a PR staff member went to the “Japanese Cooking Class”.

There is a cooking room on the 7th floor of the Koto-ku Sogo-Bunka Centre (Koto-ward General Culture Centre), located 1 minute from Ojima Station in Koto-ward. There were some Malaysian women, an Australian man, Indian girls, and some Chinese women with a girl and a boy; in total 11 people. At first they gathered and chatted, introducing each other either in Chinese or English, and then they moved to the cooking room next door. Everybody sighed deeply, just watching the samples the teachers made and their demonstrations, and said “What beautiful sushi!”

We were divided into 3 groups and stood around our own table and then the lesson started. Under the teachers’ kind instructions, everybody tried getting to grips with making sushi. Even for us Japanese interpreters, the rose-shaped rolled sushi was astonishingly beautiful. When the people had finished making sushi, they took it back home to show their families.

The following are the impressions of the interpreters from LVC.

  • The Chinese girls who I was in charge of as an interpreter were able to speak Japanese up to a certain level and as the teachers showed them how to make sushi, we didn’t actually need to use language a lot; just watching and learning the process was enough. Half my time was spent doing interpreting work and the other half I enjoyed chatting. I could also learn how to make rose-shaped roll sushi. A thing I regretted myself was that I couldn’t explain well in Chinese how to cut the rolled sushi. This is an issue for the next time. We also needed to check beforehand if people were allergic to certain food or couldn’t eat particular items for any other reasons. I would be glad if the Chinese girls become LVC members, as they seemed to be interested in our activities.   (Y.Y)
  • I was in charge as a Chinese language interpreter and mainly interpreted during the cooking lesson. At my table, there were 3 children who go to a Japanese elementary school and a woman in her 20s working in Japan. Even though I might not be able to explain everything in Chinese, as we had 2 teachers on each table, while talking in Chinese and Japanese, we enjoyed making sushi. I was glad that at the end of the lesson, I was asked by one of the boys “When will the next lesson be?” (K.K)

  • The good points were that I could enjoy the interaction among the participants from Malaysia and Australia in a friendly atmosphere, and also I could learn how to make rose-shaped roll sushi. On top of that, we could taste it after making it. A difficult point was the vocabulary to do with cooking and flowers, such as Makisu (bamboo mat used in food preparation), Kampyo (gourd shaving), Tsubaki (camellia), Ajisai (hydrangea) etc. (N.O)

  • People from 4 different countries gathered in what became an enjoyable “rose-shaped roll sushi” workshop. I was the interpreter in charge of “Greeting and announcements” and also interpreted for 2 Indian girls while they were having the cooking lesson.

As everyone could speak some Japanese, people were chatting in Chinese, English and Japanese and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I could also have a nice time with them. The cooking teachers taught thoroughly and kindly. It was wonderful that we not only enjoyed the conversation but also learnt how to make rose-shaped roll sushi!  (Y.H)

LVC has various kinds of enjoyable activities, so why don’t you join us?

We are looking forward to seeing you.

Writer: Yoshie Hutchinson

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