Friendships with young people

I've been having a good relationship not only with elderly people but also with young people since I came here over six months ago.


At the Columbia University choir, the Collegium Musicum, I sing with students. Most of them are not music major ones. I've been surprised how talented they are. Unfortunately, since they are busy for various reasons, the attendance is not so good, but we've improved little by little and our concert is less than a month away. I always look forward to seeing them in every rehearsal on Monday and Wednesday.


I started to audit another school's class since last Monday. This is a choral conducting class. There are only six students. I hope I can build a good friendship with them from now on. Last Monday, I was a little bit nervous for my first visit there. There were three student at that time. I was surprised to see that two of them are from Asia, my region, Korea! All of them were friendly and smiled at me. Choral conducting is one of the several things I really wanted to learn for years. I join this class to sing for the conducting by the students. I saw a big improvement in each student after getting the teacher's suggestions. It was amazing! Can't wait to join the next class. I'm very lucky to have this opportunity during my stay here. I don't want miss a class. I have stay well and keep a good condition so that I can contribute my singing to them in a best condition.


Also, I started to have a good friendship with twin boys who live next door to my apartment. Since I moved there, our relationship had been just like greeting each other. The change occurred when one them got injured his arm last month. I heard he had a surgery and felt very sorry for him. So I made a dozen of paper cranes as my wish for his quick recovery. They liked the cranes and another boy asked me to teach how to make it. I made a instruction models, following the several procedural steps. He tried to do it by himself at first, made a good effort, and the time came for me to visit him one night. We fixed the date for Tuesday night since I have no rehearsal that night. We've got together for two times until now. I like the time with them. We not only do the cranes but talk with each other. They told me they are working on their school paper project. I asked what was the main topic. The topic was the budget cutting! Oh, economy crisis is here, too! They told me it mostly affects the art subject, such as concert opportunities, movie going, museum visiting and so forth. Their lunch service may have been affected. I was so sad to hear that. One of them play the piano and sing beautifully, too. At the first meeting night, I was a little bit nervous because the following day was my vocal lesson and I had had a bad result at the previous lesson. I was not confident with my singing at that time. I confessed my feeling to him. He said to me "Naoko, you are an excellent singer, I can tell. I hear your practicing sometimes, and I know." I was very very encouraged by his words. At the next meeting, I told him that the lesson went very well and my teacher gave me a good comment. Then he said, "I told you that you are an excellent singer!" I think we became good friends now and I love them!