2019 忘年会 (bo-nen-kai) End-of-Year Party!
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December in Japan is bounenkai season, when workplaces and social groups gather for end-of-year parties.
忘年会 (bounenkai, end-of-year party) is one of my favourite Japanese words.
忘 means “forget”, 年 means “year”, and 会 in this context means “party”, so a bounenkai is a “forget-the-year party”. Isn’t that great?
We have a bounenkai at Step Up Japanese too! About half the time I forget it’s a bounenkai and call it a “Christmas Party”, but I think that’s ok.
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Like many people in the UK, I studied French in school. I liked French. I thought it was really fun to speak another language, to talk with people, and to try and listen to what was going on in a new country. (Still do!)
When I was 14 we went on a school exchange to the city of Reims, in northeastern France. I was paired with a boy, which I’m sure some 14-year-olds would find very exciting but which I found unbearably awkward. He was very sweet and we completely ignored each other.
That was nearly 20 years ago, and I didn’t learn or use any more French until, at some point in lockdown, I decided on a whim to take some one-to-one lessons with online teachers. Here are some things I learned about French, about language learning, and about myself.