The November café saw us back on home ground in Fukushima City on Thursday, November 16th and Saturday, November 18th. We held our café as usual at the Fukushima International Association where we hosted a talk on Kenya, and the English Café got pumped with talk about bilingualism.
Our guest from Kenya was Mr. Francis Amimo Okoti who enlightened our participants to the wonders of Kenya’s beautiful nature, and also large modern cities. We learned about the delicious food of Kenya, and Mr. Okoti showed us just how easy Swahili can be, with its simple pronunciations. It was a truly eye opening experience for those of us who know little of African countries.
In the afternoon and on Thursday night, we discussed the pros and cons of bilingualism. What qualifies as being bilingual? How does one know when they’re bilingual? We came to the conclusion that everyone participating would in fact, be able to call themselves bilingual!
In the end, it was a weekend in which we had good natured conversations about people’s perceptions in regards to speaking other languages, and learned a lot about a country that most of us had never been to. Can’t wait to see what next month brings!