“Why I Read” get-together session
We had a fantastic get-together session after the term!
The session is called “Why I read”, named after the famous essay by George Orwell “Why I Write”. It was such a great opportunity to get to know each other more. I started my online Japanese literature discussion classes back in 2020, when Covid began plaguing the world. I realized again that everybody was going through a difficult time then. I am happy to know that my classes were a bit of use to deviate from the plight they were in.
One participant really summarized well the beauty of my discussion classes. Through sharing your opinion with others would lead to some new ideas being born, which you would never think of otherwise. I believe one of the advantages of reading is to find yourself in the sentences you read. Expressing your own views and being exposed to others’ would help you find yet another new facet of yours. I’m always surprised myself that some totally new ideas get formed almost miraculously during discussion in each session.
Thank you, all the participants (current and to present alike), for your wonderful contribution! In the session, we recommended a book to each other: Soseki Natsume, John Steinbeck, Herman Hesse, Raymond Carver, Byung-Chul Han, Uwe Timm, and Somerset Maugham. Every recommendation was convincing, and yet I was particularly drawn to “The Invention of Curried Sausage”. I have a love-hate relationship with the Currywurst! I loved Currywurst so much that I ate a little too much (every single day for a week!) when I started living in Berlin.. I should seriously reconsider my relationship with it through reading this book.
This April, my discussion classes are going to enter the 5th year! Let’s discover together Japanese literature more and more!
If you want to discover Japanese literature, join our discussion classes!
If you haven’t taken my classes yet, you can try one class for free as well.