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アジア系アメリカ人集会
大学院に入って無事1年を乗り切り、時間的にも余裕が出てきた雅子さん。そこで、もっと視野を広げたいと、大学外のグループに参加することにしました。まず参加を申し込んだのは、ボストン支部を持つ、アジア系アメリカ人の全米組織です。
Naaap Meeting
By MASAKO YAMADA
Since I have much more free time now than I did during the semester, I've decided to look into various Boston organizations so that I can expand my horizons beyond my circle of close friends and classmates. I love my old friends but I also enjoy meeting new, different people ― and I'm finding this much harder to do now that I'm in graduate school. It's inevitable, since the people with whom I normally associate are within the department. Actually, I hear that this phenomenon is true among people who work full-time; I think this is why so many professional interest groups exist. They take the place of student clubs. In a way, they are even more diverse, since the members aren't limited to people from a certain college or a certain age group.
One of the first groups that I wanted to join was the local chapter of the National Association of Asian-American Professionals. Although I'm not technically an American, I made it a point of participating in Asian-American activities while I was in college and I miss that kind of activism in graduate school. I looked up the NAAAP Boston web page, wrote a query to the printed E-mail address and sent the organization a check for $20 (¥2,300). This has bought me membership to a pan-Asian-American organization that has one or two local events a month, one national event a year and countless unspecified perks outside the scheduled events by way of personal contact with members.
I attended my first NAAAP event today: it consisted of an excursion to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) followed by dinner at a local Cambodian-French restaurant. I'd only gone to the MFA two days before with my friend, but I was looking forward to looking at the exhibitions again with a new group of people. What I didn't realize was that it would be impossible for us to enjoy the art collectively. With about 20 people, the group was simply too big. After a while, I didn't want to tag along with the cumbersome group (it was even worse than a tour group, since most of the members knew each other well and were eagerly chatting away), so I decided to look at the exhibits by myself. After a while, I noticed that the group had dispersed into smaller groups, so I guess most of the other people felt the same way.
Dinner was interesting, since the 18 of us all sat at one long table. Ordering the food, yelling out personal introductions and trying to coordinate the check were minor headaches, but the general spirit of the dinner was cheerful and pleasant. At 23, I was the youngest member there (and one of very few students), but I enjoyed talking with the older men and women. It's not very surprising that I didn't click with all of them, but I didn't get the sense that it was particularly because of people's age or job status: rather, I saw that many of them grew up thinking they were American ― which is what they are ― and I realized that I am different.
The other group that I' m eyeing (besides a chamber music group at the local conservatory) is called Pacific Link. The name of the group makes it sound like another Asian-American networking organization, but it's actually a loose-knit group of Japanese graduate students, who are mostly transient. Many of them are in the professional fields of law, business and public policy. In many respects, I've lead a different life from these students as well; it remains to be seen whether I can derive continuing satisfaction from being a part of this group.
Obviously, the overall feel of each ― NAAAP and Pacific Link ― is very different, but I can't say which I prefer. What I realize, however, is that these groups both offer something that I can't quite achieve with my Chinese classmates at BU, in spite of our similar lives: I can express myself freely, in my own language, be it English or Japanese. I'd like to say that good intentions and gestures are all that matter, but in fact this ease of verbal communication means so much to me.
Since I have much more free time now than I did during the semester, I've decided to look into various Boston organizations so that I can expand my horizons beyond my circle of close friends and classmates. I love my old friends but I also enjoy meeting new, different people ― and I'm finding this much harder to do now that I'm in graduate school. It's inevitable, since the people with whom I normally associate are within the department. Actually, I hear that this phenomenon is true among people who work full-time; I think this is why so many professional interest groups exist. They take the place of student clubs. In a way, they are even more diverse, since the members aren't limited to people from a certain college or a certain age group.
One of the first groups that I wanted to join was the local chapter of the National Association of Asian-American Professionals. Although I'm not technically an American, I made it a point of participating in Asian-American activities while I was in college and I miss that kind of activism in graduate school. I looked up the NAAAP Boston web page, wrote a query to the printed E-mail address and sent the organization a check for $20 (¥2,300). This has bought me membership to a pan-Asian-American organization that has one or two local events a month, one national event a year and countless unspecified perks outside the scheduled events by way of personal contact with members.
I attended my first NAAAP event today: it consisted of an excursion to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) followed by dinner at a local Cambodian-French restaurant. I'd only gone to the MFA two days before with my friend, but I was looking forward to looking at the exhibitions again with a new group of people. What I didn't realize was that it would be impossible for us to enjoy the art collectively. With about 20 people, the group was simply too big. After a while, I didn't want to tag along with the cumbersome group (it was even worse than a tour group, since most of the members knew each other well and were eagerly chatting away), so I decided to look at the exhibits by myself. After a while, I noticed that the group had dispersed into smaller groups, so I guess most of the other people felt the same way.
Dinner was interesting, since the 18 of us all sat at one long table. Ordering the food, yelling out personal introductions and trying to coordinate the check were minor headaches, but the general spirit of the dinner was cheerful and pleasant. At 23, I was the youngest member there (and one of very few students), but I enjoyed talking with the older men and women. It's not very surprising that I didn't click with all of them, but I didn't get the sense that it was particularly because of people's age or job status: rather, I saw that many of them grew up thinking they were American ― which is what they are ― and I realized that I am different.
The other group that I' m eyeing (besides a chamber music group at the local conservatory) is called Pacific Link. The name of the group makes it sound like another Asian-American networking organization, but it's actually a loose-knit group of Japanese graduate students, who are mostly transient. Many of them are in the professional fields of law, business and public policy. In many respects, I've lead a different life from these students as well; it remains to be seen whether I can derive continuing satisfaction from being a part of this group.
Obviously, the overall feel of each ― NAAAP and Pacific Link ― is very different, but I can't say which I prefer. What I realize, however, is that these groups both offer something that I can't quite achieve with my Chinese classmates at BU, in spite of our similar lives: I can express myself freely, in my own language, be it English or Japanese. I'd like to say that good intentions and gestures are all that matter, but in fact this ease of verbal communication means so much to me.
Shukan ST: June 13, 1997
(C) All rights reserved
- semester
- 学期
- look into 〜
- 〜 を調べる
- various
- いろいろな
- organizations
- 組織
- expand my horizons beyond 〜
- 〜 を越えて視野を広げる
- circle
- 交友範囲
- graduate school
- 大学院
- inevitable
- しかたがない
- associate
- つきあう
- department
- 学部
- Actually
- 実際
- phenomenon
- 現象
- professional interest groups
- 社会人の趣味団体
- take the place of 〜
- 〜 の代わりをする
- In a way
- ある意味では
- diverse
- 多様な
- age group
- 年齢層
- local chapter
- 支部
- technically
- 実際には
- made it a point of participating in 〜
- つとめて 〜 に参加するようにしてきた
- looked up
- 調べた
- web page
- ホームページ
- query
- 質問
- check for $20
- 20ドル分の小切手
- pan-Asian-American
- 汎アジア系アメリカ人の
- countless
- 数え切れない
- unspecified
- 特定できない
- perks
- 利点
- personal contact with 〜
- 〜 との
- 個人的な接触
- attended
- 参加した
- consisted of 〜
- 〜 から成っていた
- excursion
- 遠足
- was looking forward to 〜
- 〜 を楽しみにしていた
- exhibitions
- 展示
- collectively
- 集団で
- tag along with 〜
- 〜 についてまわる
- cumbersome
- 煩わしい
- were eagerly chatting away
- 熱心にしゃべりまくっていた
- had dispersed into 〜
- 〜 に分かれた
- yelling out personal introductions
- 声を張り上げての自己紹介
- coordinate the check
- 帳じりを合わす
- minor headaches
- ちょっとした頭痛の種
- general spirit of 〜
- 〜 の全体的な雰囲気
- didn't click with all of them
- 全員とうまが合ったわけではない
- particularly
- 特に
- job status
- 職場での地位
- (am)eyeing
- 気にとめている
- besides 〜
- 〜 のほかに
- chamber music
- 室内楽
- conservatory
- 音楽学校
- makes it sound like 〜
- 〜 のような響きがある
- loose-knit
- ゆるやかに組織されている
- transient
- 短期滞在の
- fields
- 分野
- In many respects
- 多くの点で
- derive 〜 from 〜
- 〜 から 〜 を得る
- satisfaction
- 満足感
- Obviously
- 明らかに
- overall
- 全体的な
- prefer
- 好む
- offer
- 提供する
- achieve
- 達成する
- BU = Boston University
-
- in spite of 〜
- 〜 にもかかわらず
- similar lives
- 似た境遇
- good intentions
- 善意
- 〜 are all that matter
- 大切なのは 〜 だけだ
- verbal
- ことばの