Saturday, June 04, 2005

Grateful for my Workplace 会社・感謝

For months and months now, from well before we came to this room in Roppongi, Aogu and I have been teaching Koji that when Aogu goes out he's going to 会社ー"kaisha," which means "company" or "workplace". Koji knows this very well now, and he should, because Aogu quizzes him every morning and evening. The morning conversation goes like this:
A: パパはどこ行くの?
 Where am I going?
K: 会社!
Kaisha!

The evening conversation unfolds this way:
A: パパ帰ってきたよ!どこに行っていたの?
I'm home! Where did I go? (somehow it sounds dumber in English...)
K: 会社!
Kaisha!

Just to make sure the kid really knows what he's talking about, he and I occasionally have the following chat sometime mid-day:
J: 仰司、パパはどこ?
Koji, where's Papa?
K: 会社!
Kaisha!

Things really get crazy when Koji brings the topic up on his own, as follows:
K: パパ、来る?
Papa coming?
J: パパは今会社に行っているの。後で来るよ。
Papa's at kaisha. He's coming later.

Recently, my brother-in-law Ken and his wife Aya put out a gospel CD called "Dream Church". (Warning: advertising follows!) It's really great; you need one or two copies for yourself and your mom/friend/boss. Get more information here (scroll to the bottom of the page for a bit of English information, or email me. The best thing about it, is that all of the songs are in Japanese. If Japanese people who love Jesus want to express their feelings in song, should they then run out and find songs in English and translate them?
NO!
Well, this sometimes works out but sometimes it doesn't...so it seems better to me if Japanese people go ahead and express themselves in their mother tongue. I am WAY off my original point, which is this:
Koji LOVES the Dream Church album, particularly the first song, which is called オープニングメドレー主に贖われた者たちは/みんなで手をつないで("Opening Medley: Those Redeemed by the Lord/Let's All Join Hands").
The word "hallelujah" comes up quite frequently in the song, and he's actually becoming quite good at singing it, which is impressive for a two-year-old, right?! Another word that comes up often is 感謝 ("kansha" meaning "thanks/praise")
But whenever we get to that bit of the song, I'm positive Koji sings the more familiar 会社 ("kaisha").

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