Meet Priscilla

By on July 8, 2015

While mulling over our scheduling issues and who’s lined up next to interview, I met by chance an interesting kindergartner who virtually grabbed my attention.

Priscilla or “P”, as she is fondly called by people close to her, is born to a Filipino dad and British mum. Her family moved from the U.K to Tokyo a few years back.

Far from being a ‘hazukashii‘ (shy) little girl that most kids her age are, Priscilla is one of the most sociable, energetic, talented kindergartner I’ve ever met who seems to be filled with joie de vivre. She is chatty, funny and articulate. We spoke in English but she’d have been equally at ease had I interviewed her in Japanese.

She does not speak her dad’s language. Her dad Bryan says, “This could be because of the environment she is frequently exposed to. One more reason is that she yet has to meet other Filipino kids in our neighborhood.”

Priscilla goes to a Japanese kindergarten, likes school and math, and does her homework like every other kindergartner.

There are not many other 6-year old kids who watch CNN but surprisingly, she does. When I quizzed her who Shinzo Abe was, she answered, “the head of Japan.” I asked her who the U.S. President was, she confidently said, “Obama.”

But she added, “I don’t want to go to America, there are a lot of guns.”

Inspite of her being a non-Japanese, she has never been bullied at school.

“I am nice to all my classmates and they are nice to me,” proudly says P in a British accent.

“But my real close friends in school are Ni-chan, Ruca, Yuki chan, Yusuke, Nino chan, Saki chan, Yusei, and Ase chan.”

“We always talk in Japanese. But sometimes, I don’t like it when they ask me to talk in English. I ask them to stop but they keep asking me,” whines P who speaks English only at home.

When she comes home from school, she plays with Sugar, the family’s 11-month old Shi Tzu.

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Priscilla and family dog, Sugar.

” Sugar likes to jump at me, lick my face and pees a lot. She wants me to play with her. But when I come home from school, I’m tired.”

Outside of school, Priscilla takes piano lessons willingly sans the need to be pushed.

“From age 2, Priscilla has been consistently showing a natural interest in music and arts. She sings and likes to tinker with her toy guitar or piano at home. That’s when my wife Lou and I knew that we had to help develop her natural inclination to music,” says Priscilla’s dad whose being a professional jazz fusion artist helps to sustain his little girl’s love for music.

Her dad showed me a number of Priscilla’s really funny pretend plays captured on video.

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Priscilla gives a make up tutorial.

Fully made up wearing a bright red lip color, she does a make-up tutorial in one video. On the screen, she flashes a duo blush palette she snatched from her mum’s purse. “This is pink. This one here is light pink. Today, I’m going to use this one and this one,” she says pointing to her make-up. Then she makes a face and quickly moves on when her attempt to read the label in Kanji failed.

In another, she sings a string of pop tunes switching from Nicki Minaj’s Boy you got my heart beat runnin’ away to Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and other rap songs complete with funny moves. She also sings Disney’s Frozen and Tomorrow. She gets all the notes and lyrics right without missing a line.

Watching her videos has got me wondering how a 6-year old can build an extensive repertoire quicker than the others. Priscilla is way ahead of the pack.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?

“To be a teacher like my mum.”

Favorite game:

Hide and Seek

Favorite cartoons:

Peppa pig, Horrid Henry, Princess stories, Monster high

Priscilla reviews The City Buffet

♦ SJ

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