I went to Hanamaki today to give a speech in English at the international center there. They wanted me to talk about some aspect of American culture, and I chose the Amish, since I live fairly close to Lancaster County, and my father's family is Pennsylvania Dutch (which means German, not the actual Dutch, for those of you not from Pennsylvania). It's surprising how many good online resources there are on the Amish. I'd been preparing for the past two weeks, doing a lot of research in the computer room at school and at home. I also listened to Weird Al's 'Amish Paradise' a lot. The speech itself lasted an hour and a half, which ended up being the perfect length. I was able to cover everything I wanted to and still have some time for questions at the end. I spent a lot of time beforehand thinking about how to explain the concepts in simple English, and I think I did a good job. It was difficult, because the Amish are a lot more complicated than most people think. They're really not anti-technology. They're just very selective about what technology they use. Many Amish use gas power or batteries, and some of them are willing to use modern machinery at their jobs. I also had to give a basic history of the Protestant Reformation and the Anabaptist movement, which involved showing the audience pictures of 16th century Anabaptists being executed and tortured from a book called the Martyrs Mirror published in 16th century Holland. It was probably one of my proudest moments as an agent of intercultural exchange. You can see the pictures here.Unfortunately, despite giving a speech on European history, I wasn't able to incorporate the phrase 'it's good to be the king.' And I didn't use any examples drawn from Nebraskan rural life to illustrate Amish ideology. Professor Weinberger and Professor Krebs would be so ashamed of me. I received 3000 yen in what I think are book gift certificates for giving the speech, but I would have done it for free. Any public speaking experience is extremely helpful to me. And now I'm off to read a bizarre manga about people who find corpses, talk to them, and fulfill their last wishes. It's called Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and it is awesome.