Ok, so this is only an hour after I posted the last one, but I have two important things to say: 1) my school's brass band is the schiz (is that still a word?) and 2) I am an idiot.
I thought they were playing LAST Monday and that I had just somehow missed it (misunderstanding the venue - right outside my office - or something). But no, they played today. They were awesome, doing little box steps with their clarinet solos and everything. Too cute. The grand finale involved six students from the calligraphy club coming out and using big paint brushes and mops to write something about 'Myoodai High School, energetic, smiley people' (and something about a dream which I didn't really understand in context), in highlighter pink, yellow, purple, green and orange on a huge banner laid out in front of the band. It would have made for some awesome pictures... grrr!! I guess I need to leave the old camera in my car when Jeff has the good camera, so even if I don't get amazing pictures, I'll get SOMETHING.
What else has been going on? I've collected a new class - a third year (18 yr olds) English Composition class. I'm basically a grammar check, wandering round answering questions and helping them with tricky bits (like rearranging the words to make the phrase 'Little had I ever dreamed I would...'). Of course, when the Japanese teacher isn't looking, I get grilled on my favourite movies and music. Sample conversation:
Student: J-pop music what do you like?
Me: What J-pop do I like? I haven't really listened to any J-pop.
Student: What music do you like?
Me: I like rock music and some pop, American pop.
Student: Oh, rock! I know rock! Avril!
Me: Err, yes.
Student: Lady Gaga! Katy Perry!
Me: Umm, yup. They're American. *Bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself laughing at the idea of Katy Perry being rock*
Another funny situation I've had that I've been wanting to share is with a particular teacher at Tode High School, my visit school. He is a nice guy, always making noises about inviting Jeff and I over for dinner and telling me how much he wants to hear about NZ. BUT he seems to really struggle with using an ALT in class. He often forgets I'm there and leaves me standing in the corner while he works on pronunciation with the kids. Anyway, last class he was asking me about what I found strange in Japan. I told him (and the class) that we foreigners find the bowing very strange.
"Oh, really?" he said in surprise. "Why?"
"Well, it's just not something we do back home. Especially when it's overdone, it can feel, I don't know, uncomfortable."
"Oh. But what about if you've done something bad? You bow then, right?"
"Ah, no. No, we don't."
"Even if you're really sorry?" He sounded slightly shocked.
"Nope."
"But, how do you show you're sorry?"
I then acted out my best apology, pretending I was late to class, using my face, voice and body language, to show an apology (trying NOT to include any bowing, which is kinda second nature after a year in Japan!).
"So, you don't bow to your boss at all?!"
I try not to giggle at the thought of my NZ bosses face if I came in late and bowed to them. "Ah, no. Never."
"Hmm. Interesting. Well, what about in sports teams? The younger kids still bow to the older ones, right?"
By this point I'm losing patience. The idea of the younger kids on the first 15 doing a formal bow to the 18 yr olds is so odd I can't even picture it. What part of 'never' is this teacher not getting? "No. Definately not."
"You would bow to the President though, right?"
"No. No we wouldn't. We don't have a President and we wouldn't bow to the President of America because he's not our President. The only person MEN would bow to would be the Queen, because the Queen for us is like the Emperor for you. MEN would bow like this," I did a deep, straight bow with my arms carefully tucked in front and behind me. "WOMEN would curtsy." I did a deep curtsy, holding out my imaginary skirt, to show the class. There were a few 'ooh's and 'aah's and I think the penny dropped about our culture being DIFFERENT. While both Japanese and European bows move the head closer to the floor, that's about where the similarity ends. Really they are two totally different different things, as different as running and skipping.
Throughout the conversation, I could see the teacher couldn't get his head round how much of what they do in Japan is just Japanese culture and not The Way It's Done. I could see he viewed our not bowing as some kind of stubborn arrogancy, like we considered ourselves to good to bow. I couldn't work out how to explain it's not like we consider bowing when we apologise but decide we're too arrogant to bow. He clearly couldn't understand that it is NO part of our culture, so if we did try to bow, people would laugh at us or get angry, thinking we were taking the piss.
Clearly, although he is an English teacher, he can't have travelled outside Asia, or if he has, it was for a short time on a tour bus chartered for Japanese. It's not the first time I've had this with him, where he has shown that he has no idea of how Japanese a lot of Japanese behaviour is. I mean, I know every culture has that and you only realise your behaviour is 'Kiwi' rather than 'normal' when you travel, but it's surprising in someone who teaches a foreign language and has contact with at least two foreigners every week.
Anyway, that was something odd I wanted to share with y'all. Now it's time for me to head on home to my little apartment. Monday is the night Jeff and I seperately, so it's my 'self maintenance' night - painting toenails, doing a facemask, dying my eyebrows (preferably without dying the rest of my forehead...)... Oh, and hoovering the flat, doing laundry etc. Not an exciting night, but I always feel good going to bed because I've done something useful that evening. I'll feel especially good tonight because I expect to finish my book tonight! We've had PLENTY of time to read lately and we have a big box of books ready to fill up our suitcases for our trip home in March. My reading lately has been mainly Harry Potters and Terry Pratchetts, so I've been getting through the books particularly fast. Yesterday Jeff declared he was going to put me on a book diet. "What, only one a week?" I asked. "A week?!" he replied. "One a month!" It wasn't until I asked, "Umm, can I reread it over the month?" that it turned out while I thought he meant I was only allowed to read one book a month, he actually meant I can only buy one book a month. Phew! The reason he is concerned is because I may have bought 13 books in Taipei. It made my bag pretty squashed but was so worth it. Now Singapore for New Year's... Book shopping here I come!!
Ok, that's actually the end. No more blogging today, I promise!
Charly
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