Case Study 4: How multi-lingual speaking had helped with several different languages needs

The problem. I served as a Korean- and English-speaking volunteer in Hawaii for a year and half at a temple. There was a day when the center, where I worked, was running out of Japanese volunteers to give a tour. I just go

t off from an English tour and should leave, but the senior volunteers asked me if I can give another tour in Japanese.

The solution. I didn’t memorize the tour in Japanese at all because I was assigned to take English and Korean tours only. However, using all the conversation skills and vocabulary that I knew, I started one more tour in Japanese. Skipping the history and background story that I wasn't sure about in Japanese, I tried to give bri

ef information about the landscape the Japanese could see. Time to time when I didn't know how to continue the tour, I gave them a couple of quick quiz having them guess about things in the tour so that the Japanese guest wouldn't be bored during the tour.

The result. Even if it was an extra and unprepared tour with less familiar language, it was satisfying tour to the Japanese guests. I was glad that I could help to have a pleasant tour to the guests speaking Japanese, and I remember the day as one of the hardest days of my service.