Hey there,
This is a just for me to share a student's work with you, as I feel I've been overdoing it on facebook lately!
This is one of the better answers I received - very few mistakes. But is this what's to become of my intelligent students??
Tell me your favourite part of Japanese culture:
I like the loyalists in the last day of the Tokugawa Shogunate. There is a lot of man who rise to greatness in turbulent times. One of these guys, I like Yodo Yamauchi. He was heavy drinker. He always drunk sake. I wanna be like him.
Oh man! lol
Today was graduation day. I was prepared for one hour of sitting in the freezing gym listening to presentations in a language I don't understand. It was two and a half hours. I finally ducked out for a toilet break after two hours, deeming disturbing everyone to be preferable to wetting myself.
I noticed many of the parents, students and teachers taking naps during the presentation, but I couldn't overcome my cultural notion that sleeping during important ceremonies (or, indeed, sleeping during work hours at all) is a total no-no. However, I had to question the Japanese love of overlong, overformal ceremonies, when they also love to nap anywhere, anytime. Surely one cancels out the other? Let's just skip to the chase and save ourselves an hour and a half of pomp, hey?
However, today I learnt an important Japanese fashion lesson. Apparently to be a woman dressed formally here, all you need to do is wear a black jacket and pin a huge fabric flower to your lapel. Bonus points for glitter, lace, pearls, or anything big enough to pull your top so it's lopsided. On one woman, it looks nice. On a whole tribe of women, all decked out in flowers of varying pastel shades with the odd metallic from the ones under 40, it looked ridiculous.
Personally, I felt stink that I had nothing special to wear today. Various outfits in my wardrobe are suitably formal so that I didn't feel underdressed, but it would have been nice to do something special when everyone else was looking so smart. So now I'm wondering if it's taking the piss if I get myself a nice black tie. I used to have Dad's black silk one on a permenant loan (he stole if from a Coke advertising set, so he couldn't complain too much!), so I'm thinking of getting my own. Then I can slap on a nice black tie with a white shirt and look suitably formal without having to go all Japanese with a pin-on flower. Opinions... is that rocking the boat crossing gender clothing norms, or just being acceptably non-uniform (which is what us foreigners do best!).
Ok, I'm going to head home now. I am pretty sure (haven't been told officially or anything) that I have no more classes for the school year. Which means I have three weeks to catch up on journal marking, Japanese study and all the other odds and ends that have been accumulating. And after that three weeks... NEW ZEALAND! Yay!
The only downside is that we have no downtime between getting back to Japan and starting work (I think I'll miss the first two days or something. On the bright side no opening ceremony. Yay!!). That means I'll have to prepare some lessons and stuff so I'm all ready to go. I still don't know what textbook I'm using and whether I'll have 20 students or 40 students per class. Obviously that changes things a bit... But I'm very excited about being able to train them from the start. I'll give them all a piece of paper with common classroom requests and phrases. It will include things like 'make a circle', 'where is it?', 'please read it' and other things they should totally know from junior high school but have forgotten or pretend not to remember. Grammar points to cover early will be that 'Are you ready?' cannot be correctly answered by 'Ok' and that 'I like baseball. Because it's fun.' is not, in fact, two sentences. No matter how badly you are trying to hit the five sentence minimum. I will also clearly establish my expectation that they will bring their notebook to every class and that they will stick loose paperwork into their book or folder. Then, if they don't comply with those things and get caught out, they will be performing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to the class.
It's been hard taking over from someone else mid-year, when I have no idea what type of classroom expectations he had or what type of classroom commands he used. As he was American, I think a fair number of the common commands and phrases would be different. Anyway, clean slate with these students. And because I'm staying for another year, I'll be taking them right through. I will start the journal writing exercise early with them (my recent experiments with it suggest it will be highly beneficial writing practise) and I hope to see the new students do better than the group that have just finished their first year. The school has been trying to fix an issue with English scores dropping, so I'm excited to potentially make a positive impact with instilling English journals. Even if they only improve by 3%, 3% each times 280 odd students is... well, a lot of percent! Writing it like this, it sounds egotistical/overly enthusiastic to think I can fix an issue a whole school is grappling with, but I really think regular writing practise in an informal format (eg. not just practising set phrases for the exam) could make a real difference in students enjoyment and understanding of the language.
Well, you'll hear all about it if I pour my heart and soul into this idea and it doesn't take off. And by 'heart and soul' I mean spare time and lunchbreak!
Hope you're all doing well. NZ... see you soon!!!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Two Years
Hey there,
While we haven't been very subtle about it - posting on facebook etc - for those of you that missed the exciting event, Jeff and I have been married for two years! I always used to think (oh, naive child!) that marriage just HAPPENED, that you fell into it and as long as noone slept around, that was it for a successful marriage. My own parents recent marital issues have proved to me how incorrect that attitude was. When we were dating I viewed dates as just that. It was always a mildly surprising reminder of how long we'd been hanging out together and an excuse to go out for dinner. Now I'm married I view it as a whole different story. Our culture (and my recent family problems) is so full of news about divorces and marriages gone wrong that while Jeff having been my boyfriend for four years seemed like just a date, Jeff having been my husband for two years seems like an achievement! (And this touching little entry of mine is no time for any smart-arse comments about Jeff, thankyou! That goes for both sets of parents and Shelley :P ) (Note: I've long wondered about mentioning Mum and Dad's recent issues on here. I held back while it was in the thick of it, but I think most of you in NZ have heard Mum talk about it and if you're over here, you may well have heard me mention it. It was a pretty traumatic time all round, but now it seems like if the relationship lasts, it'll be a much, much more mutually rewarding one than the last few years. There have been important lessons learnt all round, even if there were things like 'don't let your parents stay in your tiny Japanese apartment when they're supposedly seperating'. :P It's ok parents, you're still allowed back xxx)
Anyway, we had a really fun night. I got dressed up in a new dress from Singapore, put my heels in my handbag and we walked up to the train station. I changed shoes on the train and we went wandering round the centre of town looking for somewhere to have dinner. The place I had chosen wasn't open, so we ended up at Italian place we had been to before (and therefore knew it was good). I had a yummy white wine (actually no idea what it was... the 'English' menu was actually Italian. Because those two are pretty much the same...) and Jeff had some imported beer. Not the one he ordered, but one he likes even more, so that was ok. We had bruschetta (translated as 'toast on tomato') and a wee cheese plate to start (oh blue cheese how I love you!), followed by pizza and pasta. It was all very tasty and a thoroughly enjoyable night, concluded by another meander through the wee streets of bars and restaurants, lit by strings of blue fairy lights, back to the station.
In other news, I wanted to tell you about an exciting wildlife experience I had a week or so ago. I was driving along a country road in Jinseki, at about 4pm, when a big bird flew overhead and settled on the power line on the side of the road. I did a double take, going "Was that...?"
I turned around and drove back, and sure enough it was a huge white and brown owl. It turned its head to stare at me. I fumbled round the car looking for the camera (I had left it on the table at home) and finally fished out my cellphone. By this point it decided I was enough of a concern to move further down the road. I followed it, inching along in my little Dihatsu Mira. I managed to click one crappy photo, enough to show that its foliage was perfectly blended to the bare sticks and snow of the background (by that I mean you can't see it on the photo. At all). Finally it turned its big dark eyes away, spread its wings and flew away across the snow covered rice fields. Amazing!!
I hope you're all doing well, wherever you are atm. If you're in NZ, hope to see you in three weeks!!!
While we haven't been very subtle about it - posting on facebook etc - for those of you that missed the exciting event, Jeff and I have been married for two years! I always used to think (oh, naive child!) that marriage just HAPPENED, that you fell into it and as long as noone slept around, that was it for a successful marriage. My own parents recent marital issues have proved to me how incorrect that attitude was. When we were dating I viewed dates as just that. It was always a mildly surprising reminder of how long we'd been hanging out together and an excuse to go out for dinner. Now I'm married I view it as a whole different story. Our culture (and my recent family problems) is so full of news about divorces and marriages gone wrong that while Jeff having been my boyfriend for four years seemed like just a date, Jeff having been my husband for two years seems like an achievement! (And this touching little entry of mine is no time for any smart-arse comments about Jeff, thankyou! That goes for both sets of parents and Shelley :P ) (Note: I've long wondered about mentioning Mum and Dad's recent issues on here. I held back while it was in the thick of it, but I think most of you in NZ have heard Mum talk about it and if you're over here, you may well have heard me mention it. It was a pretty traumatic time all round, but now it seems like if the relationship lasts, it'll be a much, much more mutually rewarding one than the last few years. There have been important lessons learnt all round, even if there were things like 'don't let your parents stay in your tiny Japanese apartment when they're supposedly seperating'. :P It's ok parents, you're still allowed back xxx)
Anyway, we had a really fun night. I got dressed up in a new dress from Singapore, put my heels in my handbag and we walked up to the train station. I changed shoes on the train and we went wandering round the centre of town looking for somewhere to have dinner. The place I had chosen wasn't open, so we ended up at Italian place we had been to before (and therefore knew it was good). I had a yummy white wine (actually no idea what it was... the 'English' menu was actually Italian. Because those two are pretty much the same...) and Jeff had some imported beer. Not the one he ordered, but one he likes even more, so that was ok. We had bruschetta (translated as 'toast on tomato') and a wee cheese plate to start (oh blue cheese how I love you!), followed by pizza and pasta. It was all very tasty and a thoroughly enjoyable night, concluded by another meander through the wee streets of bars and restaurants, lit by strings of blue fairy lights, back to the station.
In other news, I wanted to tell you about an exciting wildlife experience I had a week or so ago. I was driving along a country road in Jinseki, at about 4pm, when a big bird flew overhead and settled on the power line on the side of the road. I did a double take, going "Was that...?"
I turned around and drove back, and sure enough it was a huge white and brown owl. It turned its head to stare at me. I fumbled round the car looking for the camera (I had left it on the table at home) and finally fished out my cellphone. By this point it decided I was enough of a concern to move further down the road. I followed it, inching along in my little Dihatsu Mira. I managed to click one crappy photo, enough to show that its foliage was perfectly blended to the bare sticks and snow of the background (by that I mean you can't see it on the photo. At all). Finally it turned its big dark eyes away, spread its wings and flew away across the snow covered rice fields. Amazing!!
I hope you're all doing well, wherever you are atm. If you're in NZ, hope to see you in three weeks!!!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Almost two weeks
Almost two weeks since I last wrote... how does that happen? I'm convinced I write really often, when pressed saying I write once or twice a week, but it's actually much, much less than that!
In all fairness, lately I've been pretty busy. The school speech competition is on this afternoon so I've been working late every day for the last couple of weeks to coach the students. Unfortunately it also coincided with the upcoming exam (Mar 2nd), which I was required to write a portion of. The Listening section was ok - I did the same thing last exam - but I really had no idea what was required of me for the Writing section. Usually the instructions are all in Japanese, so even looking at old exams wasn't super helpful. However, in looking through old exams I remembered that last time the teacher had borrowed one of my old in-class vocabulary quizzes and included that in the exam, so I thought maybe that's what the teacher organising this one was on about. He was super unclear, but I made a new vocab quiz and handed it over. He hasn't come back to me with any changes necessary, so I guess it was ok...
The only problem is, the teacher I was working with last exam is very confident. When I first started I got a bad impression of her because she changed my lesson plan, which had a follow-through effect of meaning that in following lessons, her classes had covered different stuff and in a different order to all my other classes, so I needed to make adjusted lesson plans for her group, when everyone else follows the same plan. BUT I quickly came to realise that she's confident because she's good and she's willing to tell me what to change because she knows her students capabilities. In a short time she became one of my favourite teachers to work with. As such, when my exam questions were too hard/easy she was perfectly happy to come back to me and tell me what to change.
On the other hand... the teacher maknig the exam this time is a shy little bird of a man. I know it's not the first time I've scared a bloke, but I'm not used to also feeling physically imposing when working with a guy. He is a slender, quiet man, almost a head shorter than me. I think his English is good, but he's so busy talking around the subject instead of being blunt and he would never be rude enough to tell me he disagreed or didn't understand, so I find him really hard to communicate with. He is one of those people that is so busy trying to be agreeable that it's very hard to find out what they want from a situation. As such... I have no idea if that was what he wanted or not. But I'm guessing that will be what goes in the exam!
Yesterday was a relatively uneventful day at Tode. I'm not sure why I always end up blogging about Tode. Perhaps because it's only my visit school I feel less disrepectful talking about them, Or maybe it's because I don't lead the lesson so I get to observe (and comment on!) the teaching of others.
Anyway, yesterday I DIDN'T scream at my teacher who compulsively translates everything, although I was fantasising about it. I admit I did snap out "I said I will read it three times, so I will read it three times" when he cut me off after once to translate the question for the students and ask a student to answer the question. If he is going to translate it for the students (and sometimes write it on the board), why does he bother preparing me with the question in English, but deletes it from the students handout? I assumed the point of the exercise was listening practise (and English practise), but when he's translating and writing, I wonder why he doesn't save himself the time and leave it on the kid's handouts in the first place...
But I am trying to work in little ways to challenge the kids, even if he is busy undermining his own teaching. I do simple things, like walk around the class to check the students have their textbooks open and at the right page (about a 50% hit rate); tapping their book during listening exercises to draw their attention to the fact they should be listening and writing, not talking or reading a comic; and my latest one being reading the question three times to allow the kids who want to try to get a good listen to the English and take a guess at the answer before the teacher translates it for them.
The other thing he does that drives me crazy is he tells the students who he will ask to answer BEFORE we do the exercise, so only the student(s) who will be called on ever bother listening. I can't blame the students for being so lazy when he never, ever challenges them, but it will really affect them when they change to a different teacher next year.
In the next lesson, with the teacher who often displays an assumption that Japanese culture is world culture ("You don't bow, even if you're really sorry??"), he again didn't really know how to use me. Two weeks ago he had asked me to prepare a slide show on 'travel', which I narrowed down to castles (I think I mentioned it on here?). Anyway, last week he was actually absent, but nobody told me on the assumption that he told me the week before, which he HADN'T. So I had this super awkward conversation with a relieving Japanese teacher, where I was trying to ask if he wanted me in the class but couldn't work out the Japanese to manage. All the English teachers had buggered off somewhere and there was no-one to ask for help. Finally I told him I would do my 20 min castles talk, by which time some English teachers were back in the office to be our translators. Considering there was no translator during the talk, it was pretty successful. I asked the kids if they knew a certain building and they all agreed they didn't. Then I showed a picture of inside - and they all successfully identified it with a scream of "Harry Potter!" Yes, it is the set of the hallways next to the courtyard in that internationally popular film!
Anyway, this week the teacher never mentioned his having been absent and never brought up the slideshow at all (I thought I would be showing it again with translation this time). Instead, he asked me to come in 15 minutes late because the kids had a test. When I arrived, they were still busy doing the test. Finally the teacher asked them to do an exercise in pairs. There was an uneven number, so I went and sat in the spare seat to work with the students. I don't know if it was because I was sitting with the kids so the teacher forgot who I was, or whether because I was tired I was understanding less Japanese and body language than usual, but the teacher kept giving instructions then looking at me expectantly. Only problem, the instructions were all in Japanese. I was too tired to be very helpful, just following the students or looking at him quizically until he threw out a page number of something English. He clearly had no idea he was doing it, because he never apologised or anything. Just gave me strange looks when I gave him my "you know I don't speak Japanese, right?" face.
In my last class, I had an amusing experience (apologies if you already read this on facebook). Three kids were discussing my hair colour and the difference between the dyed ends and the regrowth on top (a year's worth of regrowth, yikes!). I explained the top was my natural colour, that I only had it dyed in NZ. One boy (who looks like he spends a good two hours with the straighteners every morning!) scrutinised me, then declared it was 'pudding coloured'. I thought that was so funny! (For clarification, for those that are not up with Japanese culture, 'pudding' is the consistency of the old Instant Puddings that parents used to make when we were young, with the flavour of creme brulee. Likewise creme brulee colour. Oooh... 'creme brulee' hair... I might have just invented a new colour! I can sell it to L'oreal and make millions!)
Anyway, I totally cracked up, and the class did too. Only I was laughing at the pudding hair colour, while I think the class was laughing in surprise at seeing how much I was laughing. Whatever, it was totally a laugh-with, not laugh-at, because Japanese students are way less malicious than Western ones. Back home teenagers are nasty things (apologies to Laura if you read this!). That sounds dramatic, but you know what I mean. Looking back as an adult, almost all the behaviour I'm ashamed of occurred when I was a teen. Occasionally I torture myself by reading old diaries. I can never decide whether I was lucky to have friends, behaving like I did, or whether the question is why I hung out with some of the people who behaved like they did! So I'm not saying you're a bad person for being 16 years old, Laura, merely that you are not quite as good as you are at 11 or 22... :P
Well, this got super off track (although it does raise an important theme all ALTs can tell you about - the NICENESS of Japanese teens), so I will stop here!
Hope you are all well and I will try to blog again next week!
In all fairness, lately I've been pretty busy. The school speech competition is on this afternoon so I've been working late every day for the last couple of weeks to coach the students. Unfortunately it also coincided with the upcoming exam (Mar 2nd), which I was required to write a portion of. The Listening section was ok - I did the same thing last exam - but I really had no idea what was required of me for the Writing section. Usually the instructions are all in Japanese, so even looking at old exams wasn't super helpful. However, in looking through old exams I remembered that last time the teacher had borrowed one of my old in-class vocabulary quizzes and included that in the exam, so I thought maybe that's what the teacher organising this one was on about. He was super unclear, but I made a new vocab quiz and handed it over. He hasn't come back to me with any changes necessary, so I guess it was ok...
The only problem is, the teacher I was working with last exam is very confident. When I first started I got a bad impression of her because she changed my lesson plan, which had a follow-through effect of meaning that in following lessons, her classes had covered different stuff and in a different order to all my other classes, so I needed to make adjusted lesson plans for her group, when everyone else follows the same plan. BUT I quickly came to realise that she's confident because she's good and she's willing to tell me what to change because she knows her students capabilities. In a short time she became one of my favourite teachers to work with. As such, when my exam questions were too hard/easy she was perfectly happy to come back to me and tell me what to change.
On the other hand... the teacher maknig the exam this time is a shy little bird of a man. I know it's not the first time I've scared a bloke, but I'm not used to also feeling physically imposing when working with a guy. He is a slender, quiet man, almost a head shorter than me. I think his English is good, but he's so busy talking around the subject instead of being blunt and he would never be rude enough to tell me he disagreed or didn't understand, so I find him really hard to communicate with. He is one of those people that is so busy trying to be agreeable that it's very hard to find out what they want from a situation. As such... I have no idea if that was what he wanted or not. But I'm guessing that will be what goes in the exam!
Yesterday was a relatively uneventful day at Tode. I'm not sure why I always end up blogging about Tode. Perhaps because it's only my visit school I feel less disrepectful talking about them, Or maybe it's because I don't lead the lesson so I get to observe (and comment on!) the teaching of others.
Anyway, yesterday I DIDN'T scream at my teacher who compulsively translates everything, although I was fantasising about it. I admit I did snap out "I said I will read it three times, so I will read it three times" when he cut me off after once to translate the question for the students and ask a student to answer the question. If he is going to translate it for the students (and sometimes write it on the board), why does he bother preparing me with the question in English, but deletes it from the students handout? I assumed the point of the exercise was listening practise (and English practise), but when he's translating and writing, I wonder why he doesn't save himself the time and leave it on the kid's handouts in the first place...
But I am trying to work in little ways to challenge the kids, even if he is busy undermining his own teaching. I do simple things, like walk around the class to check the students have their textbooks open and at the right page (about a 50% hit rate); tapping their book during listening exercises to draw their attention to the fact they should be listening and writing, not talking or reading a comic; and my latest one being reading the question three times to allow the kids who want to try to get a good listen to the English and take a guess at the answer before the teacher translates it for them.
The other thing he does that drives me crazy is he tells the students who he will ask to answer BEFORE we do the exercise, so only the student(s) who will be called on ever bother listening. I can't blame the students for being so lazy when he never, ever challenges them, but it will really affect them when they change to a different teacher next year.
In the next lesson, with the teacher who often displays an assumption that Japanese culture is world culture ("You don't bow, even if you're really sorry??"), he again didn't really know how to use me. Two weeks ago he had asked me to prepare a slide show on 'travel', which I narrowed down to castles (I think I mentioned it on here?). Anyway, last week he was actually absent, but nobody told me on the assumption that he told me the week before, which he HADN'T. So I had this super awkward conversation with a relieving Japanese teacher, where I was trying to ask if he wanted me in the class but couldn't work out the Japanese to manage. All the English teachers had buggered off somewhere and there was no-one to ask for help. Finally I told him I would do my 20 min castles talk, by which time some English teachers were back in the office to be our translators. Considering there was no translator during the talk, it was pretty successful. I asked the kids if they knew a certain building and they all agreed they didn't. Then I showed a picture of inside - and they all successfully identified it with a scream of "Harry Potter!" Yes, it is the set of the hallways next to the courtyard in that internationally popular film!
Anyway, this week the teacher never mentioned his having been absent and never brought up the slideshow at all (I thought I would be showing it again with translation this time). Instead, he asked me to come in 15 minutes late because the kids had a test. When I arrived, they were still busy doing the test. Finally the teacher asked them to do an exercise in pairs. There was an uneven number, so I went and sat in the spare seat to work with the students. I don't know if it was because I was sitting with the kids so the teacher forgot who I was, or whether because I was tired I was understanding less Japanese and body language than usual, but the teacher kept giving instructions then looking at me expectantly. Only problem, the instructions were all in Japanese. I was too tired to be very helpful, just following the students or looking at him quizically until he threw out a page number of something English. He clearly had no idea he was doing it, because he never apologised or anything. Just gave me strange looks when I gave him my "you know I don't speak Japanese, right?" face.
In my last class, I had an amusing experience (apologies if you already read this on facebook). Three kids were discussing my hair colour and the difference between the dyed ends and the regrowth on top (a year's worth of regrowth, yikes!). I explained the top was my natural colour, that I only had it dyed in NZ. One boy (who looks like he spends a good two hours with the straighteners every morning!) scrutinised me, then declared it was 'pudding coloured'. I thought that was so funny! (For clarification, for those that are not up with Japanese culture, 'pudding' is the consistency of the old Instant Puddings that parents used to make when we were young, with the flavour of creme brulee. Likewise creme brulee colour. Oooh... 'creme brulee' hair... I might have just invented a new colour! I can sell it to L'oreal and make millions!)
Anyway, I totally cracked up, and the class did too. Only I was laughing at the pudding hair colour, while I think the class was laughing in surprise at seeing how much I was laughing. Whatever, it was totally a laugh-with, not laugh-at, because Japanese students are way less malicious than Western ones. Back home teenagers are nasty things (apologies to Laura if you read this!). That sounds dramatic, but you know what I mean. Looking back as an adult, almost all the behaviour I'm ashamed of occurred when I was a teen. Occasionally I torture myself by reading old diaries. I can never decide whether I was lucky to have friends, behaving like I did, or whether the question is why I hung out with some of the people who behaved like they did! So I'm not saying you're a bad person for being 16 years old, Laura, merely that you are not quite as good as you are at 11 or 22... :P
Well, this got super off track (although it does raise an important theme all ALTs can tell you about - the NICENESS of Japanese teens), so I will stop here!
Hope you are all well and I will try to blog again next week!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Jeff's birthday
Sorry that may not be a very appropriate title - I don't have much to say about Jeff's birthday but I have no idea what I intend to tell you in this update. Not that that concerns me. I usually think I'm going to write about one thing, title the post as such, then only remember to mention that thing at the end (because I re-read the title).
As for Jeff's birthday (29!), the one thing I wanted to report was that I got him an All Blacks polo. Jeff was pretty stoked, as expected. The most exciting thing was that it FITTED. None of this trying to squeeze into XXL (or is it LLL? I get confused...). I really went out on a limb to get it. He had been talking about wanting one for ages, so I thought if he knew I was doing online shopping he would immediately realise what I got him. And he would have to know, because my credit card is now an ex-credit card (my old one got changed for a new one, but the new one never turned up - either lost in the mail or lost at my parent's place. Not that I knew until a couple of months later when I was trying to book Malaysian trains. Whatever the case, I told the bank to just cancel it asap).
Anyway, I decided to pretend I had bought something here, but borrowed Mum and Dad's credit card. To make this convincing, I then had to work late, while pretending I was at the mall (I hid in the storage cupboard when he called, as I hoped the echo would sound like the mall bathroom, because my office doesn't have the blaring mall music!). I also hid some money in the wrong compartment in my wallet, so it looked like I had spent it. Sitting at work mucking around on my laptop I had to remember NOT to sign in to facebook, because that would have been a total giveaway that I wasn't where I said I was! (no, I don't have a fancy iphone!)
Mum and Dad's credit card turned out to be the most difficult part. Dad's sausage fingers typed in some wrong numbers, so when I went to buy, it didn't work. I then spent about three hours sitting at work long after I should have gone home waiting first for some family member to come online and rescue me and secondly to physically fetch the details (Laura misunderstood my 'need now' for a 'need soon' and left me hanging for an hour or so while she facebooked or something :P ). That sounds overdramatic, but I had an online voucher for Hallentsteins (where I bought a few other wee gifts too) and if I logged off to wait at home I would have lost my voucher. So I was going to sit at my work desk until midnight if I had to, to get my 20% discount!! While that may not be altogether practical, I was digging my heels in!
The last slight complication was that I wanted the boxes delivered to my school (again, obviously, so Jeff didn't know about them). I asked a teacher for the school address so I could have something sent here. She looked unsure and went to phone the office and ask. She came back to me saying that the office couldn't give out that information, that it was private and teachers couldn't do that, that we had to use our own. I wasn't sure WHAT was going on, but it was pretty clear there was some major miscommunication going on. I tried to rephrase my request, explaining my letterbox at my apartment was too small to put a parcel in, when the penny dropped. "Oh, you don't want an email address?" "Ah, no, like the physical address." I thought that was so strange, that when I used the word 'address', there had been an assumption I meant email! Anyway, another phone call was made, I was given the school's address and the packages were delivered with no further drama.
In the end Jeff was totally surprised and I managed to not say anything to give the game away - even though there were a couple of close calls (you know where you're several words into a sentence when you realise you can't mention that thing...). Not surprising when you look at how much I went through to secure his presents!
As for Japan... We are not doing AWESOMELY atm... We seem to be paying money hand over fist, although we are not sure why. Of course, the parking drama didn't help. Neither did the 20,000 yen I was told I owed a couple of days later (2,500 per month for the time that I've been in my apartment. Only they never mentioned it until now, so I got hit with a hefty sum!). Apparently it covers communal stuff like outdoor lights and sewage. By that point I just sighed and handed over the money. Well, not quite. I had to go to the bank to get out more to pay a bill like that, but there was no way I could get around it. I just wish I had been warned! Of course, it's always the way - when you are trying your hardest to save, all those annoying, unexpected and unnecessary bills crop up (just before we left NZ was the last time we felt like this - we needed all our money for Japan and I went and pranged the car!). A month and a bit from NZ, when we really want all our extra $$ to put in our savings account, we feel like we are pouring our money down the drain. Jeff is further frustrated by the high NZ dollar - the highest it has been against the yen since we came to Japan. Not the ideal time to be bringing home large amounts of cash! We will probably investigate that ASB foreign currency account, so we can bide our time.
It's been a funny time, since we got back from Singapore. All the ALTs talk about is who is staying and who is going. Several of our good friends are leaving, so next year will be quite different. We are bad enough at meeting up with and staying in touch with people, but with two of the ALTs we see the most of leaving (Emma - our 'neighbour' only half an hour away and Gabby - the other ALT who came in at the same time as us and brought her lovely family), we are going to have to make an effort to socialise more with some of the newer ALTs. Although I suspect the ALTs who started in my year who are staying for a second year will be in the same boat. It seems like lots of ALTs are leaving after their first year this time round, so those staying for a second year will probably also be looking to shake up their social circles (yup Katie, you still need to get back to me about Indian!).
It feels like a sad time, actually. The winter makes everyone a little down and we are preparing to farewell lots of good friends. Plus most of us have signed (actually, I think today is the final day to make your decision!), whether we signed to say we are staying, or signed to say we are leaving, and everyone is now having doubts about their decision. There will, inevitably, be people who, come August, will leaave wishing they were staying, or will stay wishing they were leaving. For us, it seemed like a no-brainer - we are finally on a good salary and I'm enjoying the new job. But then (after we had signed!) Jeff pointed our that if we leave after three years, we are currently only halfway through our time here. Because we are signing now for the third year, we FEEL like we are already two years in. But Jeff's point about being only halfway now was a little scary. It's always hard feeling like you have commited to something for a long time (my contracted one year in America was much, much harder than my here-and-there ten months in Europe) and it feels like we have been in Japan for such a long time already. Who knows how we will feel about the place in another year and a half!
Hmm... just heard an intense three teacher discussion. All I could pick out was my name and Monday. Repeated a bunch of times. Who knows...
Ok, time to get myself ready to teach. Have a good day all.
As for Jeff's birthday (29!), the one thing I wanted to report was that I got him an All Blacks polo. Jeff was pretty stoked, as expected. The most exciting thing was that it FITTED. None of this trying to squeeze into XXL (or is it LLL? I get confused...). I really went out on a limb to get it. He had been talking about wanting one for ages, so I thought if he knew I was doing online shopping he would immediately realise what I got him. And he would have to know, because my credit card is now an ex-credit card (my old one got changed for a new one, but the new one never turned up - either lost in the mail or lost at my parent's place. Not that I knew until a couple of months later when I was trying to book Malaysian trains. Whatever the case, I told the bank to just cancel it asap).
Anyway, I decided to pretend I had bought something here, but borrowed Mum and Dad's credit card. To make this convincing, I then had to work late, while pretending I was at the mall (I hid in the storage cupboard when he called, as I hoped the echo would sound like the mall bathroom, because my office doesn't have the blaring mall music!). I also hid some money in the wrong compartment in my wallet, so it looked like I had spent it. Sitting at work mucking around on my laptop I had to remember NOT to sign in to facebook, because that would have been a total giveaway that I wasn't where I said I was! (no, I don't have a fancy iphone!)
Mum and Dad's credit card turned out to be the most difficult part. Dad's sausage fingers typed in some wrong numbers, so when I went to buy, it didn't work. I then spent about three hours sitting at work long after I should have gone home waiting first for some family member to come online and rescue me and secondly to physically fetch the details (Laura misunderstood my 'need now' for a 'need soon' and left me hanging for an hour or so while she facebooked or something :P ). That sounds overdramatic, but I had an online voucher for Hallentsteins (where I bought a few other wee gifts too) and if I logged off to wait at home I would have lost my voucher. So I was going to sit at my work desk until midnight if I had to, to get my 20% discount!! While that may not be altogether practical, I was digging my heels in!
The last slight complication was that I wanted the boxes delivered to my school (again, obviously, so Jeff didn't know about them). I asked a teacher for the school address so I could have something sent here. She looked unsure and went to phone the office and ask. She came back to me saying that the office couldn't give out that information, that it was private and teachers couldn't do that, that we had to use our own. I wasn't sure WHAT was going on, but it was pretty clear there was some major miscommunication going on. I tried to rephrase my request, explaining my letterbox at my apartment was too small to put a parcel in, when the penny dropped. "Oh, you don't want an email address?" "Ah, no, like the physical address." I thought that was so strange, that when I used the word 'address', there had been an assumption I meant email! Anyway, another phone call was made, I was given the school's address and the packages were delivered with no further drama.
In the end Jeff was totally surprised and I managed to not say anything to give the game away - even though there were a couple of close calls (you know where you're several words into a sentence when you realise you can't mention that thing...). Not surprising when you look at how much I went through to secure his presents!
As for Japan... We are not doing AWESOMELY atm... We seem to be paying money hand over fist, although we are not sure why. Of course, the parking drama didn't help. Neither did the 20,000 yen I was told I owed a couple of days later (2,500 per month for the time that I've been in my apartment. Only they never mentioned it until now, so I got hit with a hefty sum!). Apparently it covers communal stuff like outdoor lights and sewage. By that point I just sighed and handed over the money. Well, not quite. I had to go to the bank to get out more to pay a bill like that, but there was no way I could get around it. I just wish I had been warned! Of course, it's always the way - when you are trying your hardest to save, all those annoying, unexpected and unnecessary bills crop up (just before we left NZ was the last time we felt like this - we needed all our money for Japan and I went and pranged the car!). A month and a bit from NZ, when we really want all our extra $$ to put in our savings account, we feel like we are pouring our money down the drain. Jeff is further frustrated by the high NZ dollar - the highest it has been against the yen since we came to Japan. Not the ideal time to be bringing home large amounts of cash! We will probably investigate that ASB foreign currency account, so we can bide our time.
It's been a funny time, since we got back from Singapore. All the ALTs talk about is who is staying and who is going. Several of our good friends are leaving, so next year will be quite different. We are bad enough at meeting up with and staying in touch with people, but with two of the ALTs we see the most of leaving (Emma - our 'neighbour' only half an hour away and Gabby - the other ALT who came in at the same time as us and brought her lovely family), we are going to have to make an effort to socialise more with some of the newer ALTs. Although I suspect the ALTs who started in my year who are staying for a second year will be in the same boat. It seems like lots of ALTs are leaving after their first year this time round, so those staying for a second year will probably also be looking to shake up their social circles (yup Katie, you still need to get back to me about Indian!).
It feels like a sad time, actually. The winter makes everyone a little down and we are preparing to farewell lots of good friends. Plus most of us have signed (actually, I think today is the final day to make your decision!), whether we signed to say we are staying, or signed to say we are leaving, and everyone is now having doubts about their decision. There will, inevitably, be people who, come August, will leaave wishing they were staying, or will stay wishing they were leaving. For us, it seemed like a no-brainer - we are finally on a good salary and I'm enjoying the new job. But then (after we had signed!) Jeff pointed our that if we leave after three years, we are currently only halfway through our time here. Because we are signing now for the third year, we FEEL like we are already two years in. But Jeff's point about being only halfway now was a little scary. It's always hard feeling like you have commited to something for a long time (my contracted one year in America was much, much harder than my here-and-there ten months in Europe) and it feels like we have been in Japan for such a long time already. Who knows how we will feel about the place in another year and a half!
Hmm... just heard an intense three teacher discussion. All I could pick out was my name and Monday. Repeated a bunch of times. Who knows...
Ok, time to get myself ready to teach. Have a good day all.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Culture shock part II
So here I was thinking my culture shock weekend was in the past... when the issue of Jeff's parking comes up. To try to keep the saga brief, here is the bullet-pointed story:
* I have to pay to park at my apartment.
* Jeff was parking there too on the two or three nights he came down.
* We received a notice that ONLY those who had paid were allowed to park there.
* Jeff parked at the supermarket and got a notice on his windscreen.
* I told my school that they needed to sort somewhere for Jeff to park.
* They came back to me with a carpark. For 3000 yen ($50) a month. That he will be using two nights a week :S
* Today I was told I also need to pay a one-off fee of 3000 yen to the real estate agent.
* Today I was also told I need to pay the full 6000 in the next two days.
* Today I was also told I need to pay a fee to transfer the money.
* Today I was also told that I can't set up an automatic payment to a private company and therefore must go to the bank to pay every month.
* Today I was also told that I must take an hour's leave to go down to the bank with my supervisor to pay.
I'm picking I don't have to go into the details of why this is very very frustrating.
Oh, ok, the one bit of backstory you need to know (if you're not already Japan-savvy) is that if you need to go on holiday, you take holiday leave. If you need to go to the bank, you take holiday leave. If you get sick, you take holiday leave.
Between our Christmas holiday trip and our upcoming trip to NZ, I have only two days of leave left. Hence I got rather panicky at being told I needed to take some of that to go to the bank ("it's only an hour", "but then, if I get sick and need to take the day off, I have to come to school and throw up for an hour!"). Finally I just said no and went online to get detailed instructions on how to do payments from the ATM. Now I just have to race to the ATM from work to make sure I have plenty of time to work this out!
I should be doing some Japanese study now but I'm just feeling kinda stressed and jittery. It's not like the sky will fall if I don't accomplish this payment tonight, but it does mean a long day tomorrow coming back to Myoodai after teaching at Tode to get my supervisor to help me do the transfer. I'm determined not to need him though!!
It's just super frustrating that my school wants me to take time off for this when they had to do almost NOTHING to set me up when I first got here. Really, they took me to my apartment, that was it. And now they are saying I need to take leave to do this because it's 'personal'. Umm, actually they took me on as an employee knowing I had a husband and knowing that my family is part of their responsibility!! Pain in the freaking ass!!!
Ok, calm down Charly. Not making anything better by getting frustrated at Japanese beauracracy! Hope you're all having a less frustrating day than I am!
* I have to pay to park at my apartment.
* Jeff was parking there too on the two or three nights he came down.
* We received a notice that ONLY those who had paid were allowed to park there.
* Jeff parked at the supermarket and got a notice on his windscreen.
* I told my school that they needed to sort somewhere for Jeff to park.
* They came back to me with a carpark. For 3000 yen ($50) a month. That he will be using two nights a week :S
* Today I was told I also need to pay a one-off fee of 3000 yen to the real estate agent.
* Today I was also told I need to pay the full 6000 in the next two days.
* Today I was also told I need to pay a fee to transfer the money.
* Today I was also told that I can't set up an automatic payment to a private company and therefore must go to the bank to pay every month.
* Today I was also told that I must take an hour's leave to go down to the bank with my supervisor to pay.
I'm picking I don't have to go into the details of why this is very very frustrating.
Oh, ok, the one bit of backstory you need to know (if you're not already Japan-savvy) is that if you need to go on holiday, you take holiday leave. If you need to go to the bank, you take holiday leave. If you get sick, you take holiday leave.
Between our Christmas holiday trip and our upcoming trip to NZ, I have only two days of leave left. Hence I got rather panicky at being told I needed to take some of that to go to the bank ("it's only an hour", "but then, if I get sick and need to take the day off, I have to come to school and throw up for an hour!"). Finally I just said no and went online to get detailed instructions on how to do payments from the ATM. Now I just have to race to the ATM from work to make sure I have plenty of time to work this out!
I should be doing some Japanese study now but I'm just feeling kinda stressed and jittery. It's not like the sky will fall if I don't accomplish this payment tonight, but it does mean a long day tomorrow coming back to Myoodai after teaching at Tode to get my supervisor to help me do the transfer. I'm determined not to need him though!!
It's just super frustrating that my school wants me to take time off for this when they had to do almost NOTHING to set me up when I first got here. Really, they took me to my apartment, that was it. And now they are saying I need to take leave to do this because it's 'personal'. Umm, actually they took me on as an employee knowing I had a husband and knowing that my family is part of their responsibility!! Pain in the freaking ass!!!
Ok, calm down Charly. Not making anything better by getting frustrated at Japanese beauracracy! Hope you're all having a less frustrating day than I am!
Culture shock
I gave Jeff a bit of a fright on Saturday night. We went out for ramen (noodles in broth) for dinner. As we started approaching the restaurant I started feeling a bit unwell, something related to overly tight shoulder muscles from my new workout routine and a car seat made for narrow Japanese shoulders. Inside, I couldn't remember the name of the ramen I usually order (one loaded with sprouts and other veg) but we thought the 'Stamina ramen' looked right (and a healthy high veg diet gives you stamina, right?). We were wrong. Very very wrong. It came out with the noodles wrapped round a fatty piece of bone, with a raw egg cracked on top. I looked at the globules of fat floating on the surface and watched small bits of fattiness break off the bone in the centre and my stomach turned.
I had already spent the previous evening at a work function where I pondered the philosophical question: why is it that the more I spend on a meal, the less I like it? My hugely expensive work dinners are always full of 'delicacies' that I struggle to swallow. At this particular dinner things kicked off with sliced sea slug. Other particularly memorable foods included the obligatory sashimi platter, with several different types of fish, octopus, a whole raw fish and a shell with stuff that even the Japanese didn't know what it was; and a fried chicken dish. What part of the chicken I can't tell you. I have learnt not to eat chicken in Japan, but I took the smallest piece to be polite and immediately regreted my decision. It was very thick fat with maybe a bit of cartilage going on. My chewing didn't penetrate and I realised there was only one thing for it - it was going down whole with my oolong tea. I was thankful I had been 'training' by swallowing four big supplement pills at once, but even so it took me several attempts (and possibly some odd noises, crossed eyes and a purplish facial colour) before I succeeded in swallowing the offending piece of meat. After that I ate a big piece of salmon sashimi because, relative to that, a big piece of raw, but fat free, meat seemed refreshing.
Anyway, when I sat in front of this big steaming bowl of fattiness, the previous evening's efforts came back to me in all their horror. I managed to eat out the noodles - just - and made it out to the car before I had a meltdown. Jeff paid up and came out to find me super upset in the car. After several bottles of iced tea to take away the taste and soothing talk about how everyone suffers culture shock sometimes failed to assuage the tears, Jeff started rustling around in the back seat. "I know what you need!" He put something small and white in my hand. "It's moment's like these you need Minties!" I couldn't help but laugh. He had bought them at the Singapore airport when we found a wonderful wonderful store that stocked Whitakers, licorice allsorts and Minties. And who knew advertising could be so right? A little Minty piece of home was exactly what I needed!
I had already spent the previous evening at a work function where I pondered the philosophical question: why is it that the more I spend on a meal, the less I like it? My hugely expensive work dinners are always full of 'delicacies' that I struggle to swallow. At this particular dinner things kicked off with sliced sea slug. Other particularly memorable foods included the obligatory sashimi platter, with several different types of fish, octopus, a whole raw fish and a shell with stuff that even the Japanese didn't know what it was; and a fried chicken dish. What part of the chicken I can't tell you. I have learnt not to eat chicken in Japan, but I took the smallest piece to be polite and immediately regreted my decision. It was very thick fat with maybe a bit of cartilage going on. My chewing didn't penetrate and I realised there was only one thing for it - it was going down whole with my oolong tea. I was thankful I had been 'training' by swallowing four big supplement pills at once, but even so it took me several attempts (and possibly some odd noises, crossed eyes and a purplish facial colour) before I succeeded in swallowing the offending piece of meat. After that I ate a big piece of salmon sashimi because, relative to that, a big piece of raw, but fat free, meat seemed refreshing.
Anyway, when I sat in front of this big steaming bowl of fattiness, the previous evening's efforts came back to me in all their horror. I managed to eat out the noodles - just - and made it out to the car before I had a meltdown. Jeff paid up and came out to find me super upset in the car. After several bottles of iced tea to take away the taste and soothing talk about how everyone suffers culture shock sometimes failed to assuage the tears, Jeff started rustling around in the back seat. "I know what you need!" He put something small and white in my hand. "It's moment's like these you need Minties!" I couldn't help but laugh. He had bought them at the Singapore airport when we found a wonderful wonderful store that stocked Whitakers, licorice allsorts and Minties. And who knew advertising could be so right? A little Minty piece of home was exactly what I needed!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
I'm going to miss my 3rd years!!
Jeff and I have discussed many times how perfect it is that I was placed in a high school. Although I maintain I was getting better at playing with little kids (not without work - playing with small children does not come naturally to me!), there is no doubt that Senior High School is the best place for me. In that vein, my third year (last year before Uni) class was my favourite because I could really have a conversation with them and I didn't have to behave like a teacher. So I was really really sad when my teacher told me on a Friday, a couple of weeks ago, that the next class would be our last lesson with them! From here on, they just have special study sessions preparing for the entrance exams for the university(s) of their choice. I had no idea and I was so gutted! I put together a class revolving around music (Harry and Laura's Cabaret performances and a Brooke Fraser music video) and photos (pictures from our Singapore and Malaysia trip). I think they really enjoyed it, but it was only half the class because some were already busy cramming. Also, being caught unawares, I didn't think to prepare any goodbye message or anything, or hand out my email address which I intended to do in the hopes they would be encouraged to keep up the communication and travel.
However, just now I had a student come in with a green polkadot envelope. Inside was a really cute card with a message for me:
Dear Charly
Hi! I'm Mina Sato.
Thank you very much for a year. I enjoyed playing Charly's class very much.
I am sad to graduate from high school.
But I am looking forward to going to university.
I will study English harder in university and I want to be an English teacher.
Good luck to Charly! I love you <3
Mina Sato
Aww!!! No wonder I miss that group!
Also... can I just point out to all those who suggest I am a mean teacher and am always hard on my students (Jeff and parents!), she likes 'playing' Charly's class! See, I knew I was a fun teacher. Sometimes. If you're not 16 and talking when I'm talking. lol.
In other news... tonight I'm meeting my potential 'new friend'. It feels about as lame as it sounds, but it's a woman we met at a restuarant who happens to live close to my apartment. She teaches English at a community centre and was trying really really hard to talk to us when we were at dinner, so when she gave me her business card (standard practice when you're introduced to someone here), I felt bad for not having anything to return and gave her my email address. Later she contacted me and although the organisation has been super awkward (when I said I was free all week I forgot to explain that I'm in Jinseki at the weekends, she understood 'not busy except for next week' to mean I was free next week, she wanted to meet at 2:30 when I am very very at work, etc), we finally settled on this afternoon, 4:30pm, at the McDonalds by my apartment. From our previous conversation I have reason to believe I will be inundated with vegetables from her parent's vege patch - whoop whoop!
I felt a little like I was just going to be helping a stranger practice their English when their are plenty of other people I would like to spend time with, both ALT friends and teachers at school I would like to be friends with outside of school. But as Jeff pointed out, I should make the effort because it would be great for me to have a local friend. Which sounds stupid, but in winter we are spending about three nights a week apart, so he's right, it would be good to have someone local in case I'm bored, lonely or have a problem. Plus, if I can muster up the energy and courage, she might be willing to let me practise my Japanese on her, too.
Jeff and I had a big talk last night about how hard it is to actually get the spoken practise because it's really nerve-wracking trying out new language when you have no idea if you're saying the right thing or not, and most of the time we work with English teachers so we can get away with only using English. If anyone had told me I would almost never practise my Japanese while living in Japan, I would never had believed them!!
Hope you're all doing well and that you are getting some nice weather.
Two months till NZ, yay!
However, just now I had a student come in with a green polkadot envelope. Inside was a really cute card with a message for me:
Dear Charly
Hi! I'm Mina Sato.
Thank you very much for a year. I enjoyed playing Charly's class very much.
I am sad to graduate from high school.
But I am looking forward to going to university.
I will study English harder in university and I want to be an English teacher.
Good luck to Charly! I love you <3
Mina Sato
Aww!!! No wonder I miss that group!
Also... can I just point out to all those who suggest I am a mean teacher and am always hard on my students (Jeff and parents!), she likes 'playing' Charly's class! See, I knew I was a fun teacher. Sometimes. If you're not 16 and talking when I'm talking. lol.
In other news... tonight I'm meeting my potential 'new friend'. It feels about as lame as it sounds, but it's a woman we met at a restuarant who happens to live close to my apartment. She teaches English at a community centre and was trying really really hard to talk to us when we were at dinner, so when she gave me her business card (standard practice when you're introduced to someone here), I felt bad for not having anything to return and gave her my email address. Later she contacted me and although the organisation has been super awkward (when I said I was free all week I forgot to explain that I'm in Jinseki at the weekends, she understood 'not busy except for next week' to mean I was free next week, she wanted to meet at 2:30 when I am very very at work, etc), we finally settled on this afternoon, 4:30pm, at the McDonalds by my apartment. From our previous conversation I have reason to believe I will be inundated with vegetables from her parent's vege patch - whoop whoop!
I felt a little like I was just going to be helping a stranger practice their English when their are plenty of other people I would like to spend time with, both ALT friends and teachers at school I would like to be friends with outside of school. But as Jeff pointed out, I should make the effort because it would be great for me to have a local friend. Which sounds stupid, but in winter we are spending about three nights a week apart, so he's right, it would be good to have someone local in case I'm bored, lonely or have a problem. Plus, if I can muster up the energy and courage, she might be willing to let me practise my Japanese on her, too.
Jeff and I had a big talk last night about how hard it is to actually get the spoken practise because it's really nerve-wracking trying out new language when you have no idea if you're saying the right thing or not, and most of the time we work with English teachers so we can get away with only using English. If anyone had told me I would almost never practise my Japanese while living in Japan, I would never had believed them!!
Hope you're all doing well and that you are getting some nice weather.
Two months till NZ, yay!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Training, Snowboarding, etc
Last week we had our ALT training in Hiroshima, from Tuesday to Thursday. I fear I gave the Wednesday rather harsh marks in my assesment - mainly because my supervisor turned up and TOTALLY cramped my style! In all fairness, I think every high school supervisor came, but I was unprepared for the shock. The first I had heard of his possibly coming was Jeff pointing out in an email that our supervisors were invited. When the weeks passed silently and my supervisor never said anything to me, I assumed he had declined the invitation. So I did a huge double-take on Wednesday when I walked down into the stairs into the auditorium and two steps after passing Tanto, my brain registered what I had just seen. Jeff had expressed a desire to meet this amazingly surly and sour man I worked with, so I called Jeff back to introduce him. As Jeff has promised he would, he shook Tanto's hand and thanked him effusively for being so helpful to me. Smartarse.
I was moaning about him and trying to hide (apart from anything else, I was letting my wrist tattoo get a few day's fresh air, wearing my thin loose watch instead of my huge rubber one cranked up tight so it covers everything). Jeff pointed out that for the workshops we were split into several rooms and then into several groups, so there were minimal chances I would be in his group. So Jeff had to work hard not to fall about laughing when he saw Tanto was in our room and - you guessed it - in my group.
For the first two workshops we were in a group of four - Tanto, myself and two other ALTs. I noticed that after Tuesday, speaking only to native speakers, our speed of speech had really picked up and the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) were really struggling to follow. So I purposefully busted my ass asking Tanto questions, slowly with simple English, during the ALT discussion, to try to make sure he felt he was adding to the conversation. It was super awkward because often you could see he had prepared an answer to the original question or discussion point, so his answer didn't even fit my question, but the other two ALTs were really good about taking his comment and making a big deal of it. It felt a little like babysitting, to be honest. Trying to find the balance between patronising and ignoring!
For the last workshop, we were with two other high school ALTs and their JTE supervisors. This time one of the other ALTs was sitting between Tanto and I, so I felt relieved of the pressure to spoonfeed him bits of conversation and try to make him interact like a NORMAL person. Luckily for Sophie, sitting between us, he must have showered that day because his body odour was under control. During that conversation, Katie, Sophie and I talked quickly and didn't make any extra effort to include the JTEs. Having said that, both the other JTEs did add things to the conversation, particularly explaining the Japanese holidays that were our 'lesson planning topic.' The woman was trying to be really helpful while the older bloke cracked a few jokes with a big grin. Tanto? He sat in stony silence the whole time. Not a word. Due to the seating arrangements, I couldn't see him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had his eyes closed. Yup, he's that special.
Before that last workshop, in the toilet queue, Katie had laughed at me about my antisocial supervisor being here - he's getting famous! She commented on 'wanting to meet him'. When I came back into the workshop room to realise she was sitting with the delightful Tanto and I, I couldn't help but laugh. I was feeling too tired from the last two workshops to do a 'Oh Tanto, please meet my friends Katie and Sophie', so I just did super obvious rolling eyes to my right to indicate 'that's the one!' Katie gave me a grin and her supervisor, sitting opposite me, gave me a puzzled look.
Other than that, the training was good fun. It was a good chance to hang out with the ALTs we have been meaning to but haven't got around to catching up with since August, find out who is staying another year and catch up over drinks and ugly sweaters. Apologies if I already mentioned the sweaters, but the drinks and dinner evening was themed 'Cosby sweaters'. Jeff went for a subtle black, purple and green (very authentic, I'm pretty sure Dad used to teach in one like it...) while I went for a brown and aqua one that had been knitted by someone with commitment issues - every row seemed a new pattern. Jeff and I were big fans of the theme - obviously cheap and weather appropriate, it also provided bundles of fun both shopping (picture Jeff and I laughing our heads off trying on the ten ugliest sweaters we could find in front of an op-shop mirror, while other shoppers avoid us in case our clothing taste is infectious), then wearing them at the bar. Everyone had made a real effort and there were some truly amazing sweaters. Lots of 80's cool - and some 'wasn't even cool then'. It was a good night.
Of course, anyone who has anything to do with funding might be wondering if I actually did anything but socialise during the training. However, I did get some good ideas - particularly one JET's suggestion of having students keep a journal where they add an entry each week and they get more stamps for more entries. I think it is BRILLIANT because my school is so worried about my students grades that they are changing me Oral Communication textbook for a Grammar one (ugh!), so I think regular composition will be EXCELLENT practise. Of course, more importantly, I'm excited because I think my students will LOVE writing these entries because I'm going to be heavy-handed with stickers, stamps and coloured pens in my marking and replies. Considering my students will do anything for a stamp on their sheet (a full sheet and they get a paper certificate... nope, still don't get the attraction!), I think I'll get some great compositions for shiny stickers!! I have high hopes for this - particularly because the teachers will be really behind me in an effort to get their students grades up.
Having mentioned snowboarding in the title I should refer to it here... On Saturday Jeff and I made it to the mountain for our first boarding this winter. I was blown away how well Jeff did - I think he even managed to not bail on his first run! That's terribly worded, but you know what I mean. He is such a little sports freak that I don't think he's gone backwards at all over the year - I think he has picked up exactly where he left off. He cemented his incredible first day by going over a jump with a dip between the takeoff and landing, so you have no choice but to get considerable air. He didn't land it every time, but he had about a 50% rate. As for me, I had a play around trying some other things I remember from my Ruapehu lesson years and years ago (hmm... was when Jeff and I had been together a short time, so actually about five years ago!), doing a little turny thing up the mountain and leading away on the other foot (feels like trying to use your knife in your left hand!) and jumping random lumps of snow. I am slowly acknowledging a fear of jumping despite all my protective gear and snowboarding is starting to feel horribly like horseriding, where I knew that my own nerves were making me mess up and the more nervous I got, the more I messed up. Vicious circle. But when you are nervous of jumping your horse any higher, you turn to other pursuits - games, trekking, dressage, etc. So I want to figure our some other things I can do on my board that will help me improve without riding off mini cliffs. Besides, Jeff's getting good at that and... err... I wouldn't want to steal his thunder.
Actually the other thing I want to do this winter is try skiing again. I haven't done it since I was 17 - when I went to Ruapehu with Emilie (Anderson) and her mum - but I skiied a fair amount when I was a kid, so I'm curious how much the muscles still remember. I just hope it's not like riding a bike, because I suck at that...
Charly
I was moaning about him and trying to hide (apart from anything else, I was letting my wrist tattoo get a few day's fresh air, wearing my thin loose watch instead of my huge rubber one cranked up tight so it covers everything). Jeff pointed out that for the workshops we were split into several rooms and then into several groups, so there were minimal chances I would be in his group. So Jeff had to work hard not to fall about laughing when he saw Tanto was in our room and - you guessed it - in my group.
For the first two workshops we were in a group of four - Tanto, myself and two other ALTs. I noticed that after Tuesday, speaking only to native speakers, our speed of speech had really picked up and the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) were really struggling to follow. So I purposefully busted my ass asking Tanto questions, slowly with simple English, during the ALT discussion, to try to make sure he felt he was adding to the conversation. It was super awkward because often you could see he had prepared an answer to the original question or discussion point, so his answer didn't even fit my question, but the other two ALTs were really good about taking his comment and making a big deal of it. It felt a little like babysitting, to be honest. Trying to find the balance between patronising and ignoring!
For the last workshop, we were with two other high school ALTs and their JTE supervisors. This time one of the other ALTs was sitting between Tanto and I, so I felt relieved of the pressure to spoonfeed him bits of conversation and try to make him interact like a NORMAL person. Luckily for Sophie, sitting between us, he must have showered that day because his body odour was under control. During that conversation, Katie, Sophie and I talked quickly and didn't make any extra effort to include the JTEs. Having said that, both the other JTEs did add things to the conversation, particularly explaining the Japanese holidays that were our 'lesson planning topic.' The woman was trying to be really helpful while the older bloke cracked a few jokes with a big grin. Tanto? He sat in stony silence the whole time. Not a word. Due to the seating arrangements, I couldn't see him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had his eyes closed. Yup, he's that special.
Before that last workshop, in the toilet queue, Katie had laughed at me about my antisocial supervisor being here - he's getting famous! She commented on 'wanting to meet him'. When I came back into the workshop room to realise she was sitting with the delightful Tanto and I, I couldn't help but laugh. I was feeling too tired from the last two workshops to do a 'Oh Tanto, please meet my friends Katie and Sophie', so I just did super obvious rolling eyes to my right to indicate 'that's the one!' Katie gave me a grin and her supervisor, sitting opposite me, gave me a puzzled look.
Other than that, the training was good fun. It was a good chance to hang out with the ALTs we have been meaning to but haven't got around to catching up with since August, find out who is staying another year and catch up over drinks and ugly sweaters. Apologies if I already mentioned the sweaters, but the drinks and dinner evening was themed 'Cosby sweaters'. Jeff went for a subtle black, purple and green (very authentic, I'm pretty sure Dad used to teach in one like it...) while I went for a brown and aqua one that had been knitted by someone with commitment issues - every row seemed a new pattern. Jeff and I were big fans of the theme - obviously cheap and weather appropriate, it also provided bundles of fun both shopping (picture Jeff and I laughing our heads off trying on the ten ugliest sweaters we could find in front of an op-shop mirror, while other shoppers avoid us in case our clothing taste is infectious), then wearing them at the bar. Everyone had made a real effort and there were some truly amazing sweaters. Lots of 80's cool - and some 'wasn't even cool then'. It was a good night.
Of course, anyone who has anything to do with funding might be wondering if I actually did anything but socialise during the training. However, I did get some good ideas - particularly one JET's suggestion of having students keep a journal where they add an entry each week and they get more stamps for more entries. I think it is BRILLIANT because my school is so worried about my students grades that they are changing me Oral Communication textbook for a Grammar one (ugh!), so I think regular composition will be EXCELLENT practise. Of course, more importantly, I'm excited because I think my students will LOVE writing these entries because I'm going to be heavy-handed with stickers, stamps and coloured pens in my marking and replies. Considering my students will do anything for a stamp on their sheet (a full sheet and they get a paper certificate... nope, still don't get the attraction!), I think I'll get some great compositions for shiny stickers!! I have high hopes for this - particularly because the teachers will be really behind me in an effort to get their students grades up.
Having mentioned snowboarding in the title I should refer to it here... On Saturday Jeff and I made it to the mountain for our first boarding this winter. I was blown away how well Jeff did - I think he even managed to not bail on his first run! That's terribly worded, but you know what I mean. He is such a little sports freak that I don't think he's gone backwards at all over the year - I think he has picked up exactly where he left off. He cemented his incredible first day by going over a jump with a dip between the takeoff and landing, so you have no choice but to get considerable air. He didn't land it every time, but he had about a 50% rate. As for me, I had a play around trying some other things I remember from my Ruapehu lesson years and years ago (hmm... was when Jeff and I had been together a short time, so actually about five years ago!), doing a little turny thing up the mountain and leading away on the other foot (feels like trying to use your knife in your left hand!) and jumping random lumps of snow. I am slowly acknowledging a fear of jumping despite all my protective gear and snowboarding is starting to feel horribly like horseriding, where I knew that my own nerves were making me mess up and the more nervous I got, the more I messed up. Vicious circle. But when you are nervous of jumping your horse any higher, you turn to other pursuits - games, trekking, dressage, etc. So I want to figure our some other things I can do on my board that will help me improve without riding off mini cliffs. Besides, Jeff's getting good at that and... err... I wouldn't want to steal his thunder.
Actually the other thing I want to do this winter is try skiing again. I haven't done it since I was 17 - when I went to Ruapehu with Emilie (Anderson) and her mum - but I skiied a fair amount when I was a kid, so I'm curious how much the muscles still remember. I just hope it's not like riding a bike, because I suck at that...
Charly
Friday, January 13, 2012
Editing Speeches
I'm supposed to be (am?) working late editing speeches. But it's driving me crazy trying to figure out what the kids are trying to say!! So I've decided that the particularly odd ones, I will type here in the hopes that a) sharing them will help me to stop focusing on the bizareness and move on and b) that retyping them will help me understand them (the way reading something aloud often works). So here we go...
Topic - My Ideal Holiday
- "And I slowly come in a bath"
- "And I sleep soundly harmonizing with others in the bed."
??! I'm picking this 16 yr old has no idea what he's saying...
Topic - My Worst Wednesday
- "Furthermore, I became hollow during movement and had the leg treated in the nurse's office."
With this 16 yr old, I have no idea what he's saying. Unless he goes to Hogwarts??
Topic - ?? Involves a description of her basketball team
- "Finally Tomi is small and am pretty. Paste is good, and a strange face is pride."
Is she calling her friend pasty? Or am I just paranoid? (remind me to put some more fake tan on tonight...)
Phew, finished. Nothing else particularly odd. Relatively speaking. Just normal sentences like "I think one year two set is fine to years" and "Sometimes we are a quarrel." Bog standard, really. Ok, I'll confess the first one there is from a speech I'm returning to the teacher with a sticky note reading "I don't understand. Sorry!" Three of her twenty are being returned like that... oops! Haha, just noticed the topic of the one I don't understand: "I think year". Wtf?
Ok, time for me to supermarket and get some dinner. Poor Jeff had an instant rice thing for dinner because I told him I wanted to stay late and finish this instead of coming home via the supermarket.
Night all.
Topic - My Ideal Holiday
- "And I slowly come in a bath"
- "And I sleep soundly harmonizing with others in the bed."
??! I'm picking this 16 yr old has no idea what he's saying...
Topic - My Worst Wednesday
- "Furthermore, I became hollow during movement and had the leg treated in the nurse's office."
With this 16 yr old, I have no idea what he's saying. Unless he goes to Hogwarts??
Topic - ?? Involves a description of her basketball team
- "Finally Tomi is small and am pretty. Paste is good, and a strange face is pride."
Is she calling her friend pasty? Or am I just paranoid? (remind me to put some more fake tan on tonight...)
Phew, finished. Nothing else particularly odd. Relatively speaking. Just normal sentences like "I think one year two set is fine to years" and "Sometimes we are a quarrel." Bog standard, really. Ok, I'll confess the first one there is from a speech I'm returning to the teacher with a sticky note reading "I don't understand. Sorry!" Three of her twenty are being returned like that... oops! Haha, just noticed the topic of the one I don't understand: "I think year". Wtf?
Ok, time for me to supermarket and get some dinner. Poor Jeff had an instant rice thing for dinner because I told him I wanted to stay late and finish this instead of coming home via the supermarket.
Night all.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
A small post with big news
This is only a quick note - which is shocking, I know, when you consider how much of an update I need to do on our Singapore and Malaysia trip - but right now I just wanted to let you all know...
It's official: Jeff and I are signed on for another year, so we will be in Japan for at least another year and half. So if you couldn't make it last year, start saving because you get another chance!
Btw, do I get bonus points for refraining from making any jokes? I got to 'It's official: Jeff...' and realised it sounded like I was going to say we are having a baby or something (because although re-signing is huge to us, I guess it's not that big to any of you...). So then I was pondering other ways to finish that sentence... 'Jeff is pregnant', Jeff is going to be an astronaut', 'Jeff and I are getting a puppy', 'Jeff is actually a woman'... Most of them sounded a bit mean to Jeff, so luckily I didn't write any of them! :P
It's official: Jeff and I are signed on for another year, so we will be in Japan for at least another year and half. So if you couldn't make it last year, start saving because you get another chance!
Btw, do I get bonus points for refraining from making any jokes? I got to 'It's official: Jeff...' and realised it sounded like I was going to say we are having a baby or something (because although re-signing is huge to us, I guess it's not that big to any of you...). So then I was pondering other ways to finish that sentence... 'Jeff is pregnant', Jeff is going to be an astronaut', 'Jeff and I are getting a puppy', 'Jeff is actually a woman'... Most of them sounded a bit mean to Jeff, so luckily I didn't write any of them! :P
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Merry Rilakkuma Christmas!
Well it is now THAT Boxing Day. The one were I drive "an hour and a half" to work in Fukuyama, then "an hour and a half" back to Jinseki and a last "hour and a half" back down to my Fukuyama apartment. HOWEVER, despite leaving home the best part of half an hour early, I arrived to work at 8:23 - 23 minutes later than normal and 3 minutes after I should have arrived! Luckily the Vice Principal felt I had probably been in the school gate by 8:20 so I didn't need to do 'I'm late' paperwork. Even so, it was very embarassing and I'm very angry at those drivers who felt that it was necessary to drive at 10km/hr down the hill (actually a mountain) because of snow on the road. If you don't have snow tyres and need to drive extra slowly, fine. But a) pull over to let others overtake and b) don't do your driving at 7:30am when everyone who had enough forethought to get snow tyres is trying to get to work! Unfortunately, it wasn't only one driver that had me shouting swearwords behind my sealed windows, but several nervous drivers, so I guess I have to accept that I will repeat this frustrating exercise every time I drive from Jinseki to Fukuyama for the rest of the winter. And that I have to leave well before 6am next time. *sigh*
To update you on last week, poor Jeff came down with a stomach bug on Tuesday. He went home from work early and threw up and had to miss the English Club's end of year dinner. On Wednesday and Thursday he went back to work but was eating like a sparrow and was not up to attending his work party Thursday night. By Friday he was sick of being left out, so he came with me to dinner at J-mum and Sonoko's place. Determined to enjoy himself, he ate plenty of tomato nabe and had some beer. Halfway home I had to pull over because he couldn't keep it down. Saturday was the fundraising concert dinner where we were meeting friends. Once again, Jeff didn't want to be stuck at home, so he gave it a go. Although he wasn't feeling top-notch he didn't throw up (yay!) and he was all set to enjoy Christmas Day!
Christmas Day turned out to be a Skype marathon. We spoke to Jeff's parents, then my sister Harry, then my family, then Jason and Shelley (albeit briefly). By then it was gone midnight in Harry's part of the world, so she Skyped us again so she could open her present over Skype! Everyone seemed to be having a good day - especially Mum's puppy, which was running around with a cracker hat round it's neck.
Our Christmas dinner turned out AWESOME. We had bought a pre-roasted chicken (Christmas special - only time of the year you can buy whole chickens at the supermarket!) and used Luc's wee oven to roast potatos, carrot and onion. Peas done in the microwave completed our meal. To top it off, Sarah kindly gave us two Christmas crackers (sent all the way from England!) so we could have hats while we ate dinner. It may not seem extravagent to you people reading this from home, but for us it was definately the most Christmassy thing we've had in the last year and a half!!
On the present front, Jeff seemed taken with his very sharp handmade knife from Onomichi. He marvelled at how easily it sliced things and got a bit carried away on slicing open the packet of peas - several times - exclaiming with delight that he had just sliced a pea in half. Jeff had struggled to think what to get me, so he decided to go with a theme - Rilikkuma theme. For those that don't know, Rilakkuma is a bear character that is popular in Japan - a little like Winnie the Pooh is popular on everything back home. For myself, I'm a big fan :)
So Jeff hooked me up with Rilakkuma chopsticks, mug, fingerless gloves and an awesome 'poncho blanket' with a bear head hood. Perfect for the cold Jinseki winter - warm hat and blanket in one! I didn't take it off all day, although Mum complained she couldn't have a serious conversation with me while I wore the bear head. I also got a cute new backpack which I'm excited about using in Singapore and Malaysia - as cool as my handbag is, it weighs a ton BEFORE I put a Lonely Planet in it! I reckon this backpack will improve my mood when I travel by up to 80% :D
That is about all there is to say... Tomorrow we fly out for Singapore and ten days/eleven nights of exploring Asia. So this is my last update for 2011. I hope you all had a great year and that 2012 brings good things. Happy New Year for next week!
Now I'm off to share cake. We were given not one, not two, but THREE cakes by neighbours yesterday, so Jeff and I ate cake till we felt ill yesterday and I have two to share out at work!
To update you on last week, poor Jeff came down with a stomach bug on Tuesday. He went home from work early and threw up and had to miss the English Club's end of year dinner. On Wednesday and Thursday he went back to work but was eating like a sparrow and was not up to attending his work party Thursday night. By Friday he was sick of being left out, so he came with me to dinner at J-mum and Sonoko's place. Determined to enjoy himself, he ate plenty of tomato nabe and had some beer. Halfway home I had to pull over because he couldn't keep it down. Saturday was the fundraising concert dinner where we were meeting friends. Once again, Jeff didn't want to be stuck at home, so he gave it a go. Although he wasn't feeling top-notch he didn't throw up (yay!) and he was all set to enjoy Christmas Day!
Christmas Day turned out to be a Skype marathon. We spoke to Jeff's parents, then my sister Harry, then my family, then Jason and Shelley (albeit briefly). By then it was gone midnight in Harry's part of the world, so she Skyped us again so she could open her present over Skype! Everyone seemed to be having a good day - especially Mum's puppy, which was running around with a cracker hat round it's neck.
Our Christmas dinner turned out AWESOME. We had bought a pre-roasted chicken (Christmas special - only time of the year you can buy whole chickens at the supermarket!) and used Luc's wee oven to roast potatos, carrot and onion. Peas done in the microwave completed our meal. To top it off, Sarah kindly gave us two Christmas crackers (sent all the way from England!) so we could have hats while we ate dinner. It may not seem extravagent to you people reading this from home, but for us it was definately the most Christmassy thing we've had in the last year and a half!!
On the present front, Jeff seemed taken with his very sharp handmade knife from Onomichi. He marvelled at how easily it sliced things and got a bit carried away on slicing open the packet of peas - several times - exclaiming with delight that he had just sliced a pea in half. Jeff had struggled to think what to get me, so he decided to go with a theme - Rilikkuma theme. For those that don't know, Rilakkuma is a bear character that is popular in Japan - a little like Winnie the Pooh is popular on everything back home. For myself, I'm a big fan :)
So Jeff hooked me up with Rilakkuma chopsticks, mug, fingerless gloves and an awesome 'poncho blanket' with a bear head hood. Perfect for the cold Jinseki winter - warm hat and blanket in one! I didn't take it off all day, although Mum complained she couldn't have a serious conversation with me while I wore the bear head. I also got a cute new backpack which I'm excited about using in Singapore and Malaysia - as cool as my handbag is, it weighs a ton BEFORE I put a Lonely Planet in it! I reckon this backpack will improve my mood when I travel by up to 80% :D
That is about all there is to say... Tomorrow we fly out for Singapore and ten days/eleven nights of exploring Asia. So this is my last update for 2011. I hope you all had a great year and that 2012 brings good things. Happy New Year for next week!
Now I'm off to share cake. We were given not one, not two, but THREE cakes by neighbours yesterday, so Jeff and I ate cake till we felt ill yesterday and I have two to share out at work!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Christmas, I'm coming!
Gosh, sorry about the long drought. It wasn't even me putting off doing this, I guess I've just been busy at work recently. It's not like they work me really hard, but lately they have put an extra three classes into my week, as I'm meeting each of the nine second year classes for a self-intro lesson. A bit of a funny time for them to 'meet' me - when I've been around for four months, but I guess they have a bit of downtime before the winter vacation. I'm not sure 'nervous' is the right word, but I have been a little tense about those classes. It's always awkward going into a new class, not knowing what to expect, and most of the classes thus far have been with new teachers that I'm not used to, too. This morning was an exception - I taught my regular first year class with Inohara-sensei, then we went to her second year class. The fact we are used to teaching together really showed - the students were relaxed and comfortable and we covered much more than I had managed in any other second year class so far. So while an extra three classes a week isn't a huge deal, I have been noticing the change in my schedule.
Of course, my real source of tension could be Christmas. Jeff and I had noticed we had been down recently - taking it in turns experiencing wee bouts of culture shock then having to bouy the other up. But when we caught up with friends, we found it is clearly not limited to us. It seems everyone is finding it a hard time of year to be away from family - with the likely exception of those who went home for the holidays! I'd heard how winter is such a hard time for ALTs and Jeff and I totally disagreed because the snow is beautiful and the snowboarding is great fun, but maybe it's actaully being away from family for the biggest celebratory day our culture has that is so hard. Last year we were lucky enough to have Kate here until the day before Christmas (poor her - she spent Christmas Day on the plane!), but this year we have struggled like all the rest of the ALTs.
However, this is the week of parties - no more moping. Tomorrow we have a 'Tea Party' with our ancient English group. This involves the group of us sitting around a low table while the Japanese people stuff the foreigners with an insane amount of food. What we can't eat then is bagged for us to take home.
- Thursday Jeff and I both have work parties, mine in Fukuyama, his in Sanwa (where his Board of Education is based and about half an hour from home). Sucks for him - he can't drink and drive! For myself, I'll be training home :)
- Friday we are having dinner with our good friends Sonoko and Nishikawa - also known as J-Mum. J-Mum is prepared to cook us huge, sumptuous meals on the condition that Jeff drinks excessive amounts of beer with her. She eats like a sparrow so she can keep her figure without cutting back on the beer. Hilarious, awesome woman!
- Saturday we are attending a fundraising concert at a buffet restaurant. One of the teachers from my school is in a gospel group who will be singing Christmas carols - in English. 500 yen from our ticket price will go to the Tohoku area, so I'm really happy about that.
- Sunday, of course, is Christmas. The other local ALT is letting us borrow his oven for the day, so Jeff and I will attempt to gather the necessary components to do a roast. We are very excited about this! We also went to the import store and bought a number of tasty goodies that we wouldn't normally allow ourselves - Jeff buying the favourites he always craves, while I bought all the exciting things I have been wanting to try for ages. That way we figure, although they may not be the traditional Christmassy foods we eat back home, at least we are ensuring the day is dedicated to eating and presents. I'm particularly excited about the feta-like cheese and the lemon white chocolate. Not together...
The day after Christmas I will go to work. It'll be strange working Boxing Day, but by the time I take time off for our Singapore/Malaysia jaunt and for our trip home in March, I have only two days of leave left (excluding my summer leave, which can only be taken during a certain period in mid summer). It will be a pain in the ass - I will drive from Jinseki to work, do my hours, then drive back to Jinseki to meet Jeff, who will drive us both back down. Roughly 4.5hrs on the road in one day. But I feel it's better to do all that driving and have an extra holiday day available to me next year. Jeff gets more leave than me, so he will be relaxing at home on the 26th...
Well, I should stop procrastinating my favourite job - that is, hoovering. I don't know what my issue is - it takes less than two minutes to hoover my tiny apartment - but of all the jobs around the house, it's the one I procrastinate the most. Stupid because I almost like sweeping (I mean, if I've got to do some form of cleaning!), but the hoover is the only thing that will work on the tatami. Oh, the neighbours are going to hate me - the walls are really thin and it's 9:30pm. But I'm not going to bed tonight until I've done it, so the neighbours will have to deal. Serves them right for washing dishes before 6am and taking ages to turn off their bloody early alarm in the morning! It's the oddest thing, being woken by the alarm from the stranger's apartment next to you. Shows how much you can influence a stranger's life without ever knowing them.
Night,
Charly
Monday, December 5, 2011
Back online!
Phew, yesterday was stressful! My adaptor plug, allowing me to plug my NZ laptop into the Japanese wall plug, had been steadily getting more and more difficult to connect - requiring lots of jiggling to get it going. Then yesterday ten minutes jiggling had no effect. I declared it officially dead. Unfortunately, I was plugging in because my laptop had only seven minutes left, so that meant my laptop was also dead! It's amazing how much time you have when you have no computer. Mainly because I couldn't do anything! No blog, no emailling, no searching google for images to use for my Thursday lesson, no using itunes to play my Japanese study CD, no listening to music... I ended up doing the only sensible thing: putting my laptop back in the car and bringing Harry Potter up to the office!
Jeff had done a bit of shopping around for me last week, looking for solutions to my laptop problem (surprisingly, NZ adaptors aren't easy to come by in a city that Lonely Planet says to skip!). I managed to convince a computer store to sell me the cord that goes from wall to the in-cord adaptor. The guy made it specifically clear that if it didn't work they wouldn't give me a refund (how's that for inspirising enthusiasm in the customer!), but it was only about $15 and it WORKS. Yay!
To update you on the weekend, my work dinner (Friday night) had an unexpectedly good twist - at lunchtime Nakamura-sensei (who I was supposed to meet at Fukuyama station so she could take me to the right bus stop) came to tell me we had been invited to the onsen in the hotel first. She was really hesitant, saying she knew many foreigners felt uncomfortable going to onsens (we're not used to the naked thing), but I assured her I loved them and we were set. In all honesty, I don't know any women who don't like onsens. It's so liberating to not be worried about looking sexy in bikinis or anything. It's just everyone, starkers. You have a wee shower/wash first, so there's no makeup or anything (as you sometimes, strangely, see at the beach). There are women of all ages and shapes and everyone is just there to relax. When all you have to protect you modesty is a cloth the size of a small tea towel that goes on your head when you're in the water, there's not much you can do to make yourself look good. It's too late, let it go and relax. So I do :)
This onsen was particularly cool as it was several stories up in the hotel, so the outdoor pool looked over the waves crashing on the rocks below and out to the lights of Fukuyama city glowing across the bay. To the right you could faintly see the outlines of the mountainous islands that dot the water round the Fukuyama-Tomonoura-Onomichi area. I'm not good with hot water for extended periods of time, so I loved being able to raise my shoulders out of the steaming water to feel the delicious night breeze lick me with its chilly tongue. The others went off to the sauna leaving me to absorb the amazing view in an intense silence created by the rain, waves and quiet chatter of elderly Japanese ladies.
Of course, after that the party would have to have been mind-boggling to top that experience - one of my favourite moments in Japan. As it was, the party was fun if a little confusing. Seating was done by pulling a seat number out of a box on your way in, so I ended up between two slightly alarmed-looking teachers who didn't appear to speak English. The younger one on my right was trying valiently, though, while the one on my left laughed at his appalling English and supplied words for him when he was stuck (wouldn't this be easier if I remembered names!).
Later the one on my left was the only one left for me to chat to, so I rounded on him. It turned out he has pretty decent English, is the school rugby coach and has taken a group to Christchurch to play rugby before. Of course I got all excited about the idea of arranging for his team to visit NZ and meet the Massey team. The teacher said, "Oh yes, and they can play a game." I keep cringing at my condescending response, "Hmm... or at least practice together. The team at my high school are... very big." It seems so rude to suggest they can't even play the Massey team. And then I remember that he had just told me they only have ten students on the team at the moment and that at Massey guys often repeated their last year once, even twice, just to stay on the first 15. I think of pitting 10 little Japanese kids against 15 guys aged up to 20, many of Maori or Island ethnicity, and I realise why I said what I did. I hate that, when you regret how you said something, but when you review the conversation, you realise why you said what you did and that you would probably say it the same next time.
The most important thing about the party, though, was definately the food. There was an incredible amount of food - the number of courses more than made up for the fact I didn't eat or only partially ate several of them. The meal opened with sashimi, a quarter lobster filled with tofu and mushroom over a gas burner and a bunch of little dishes that I ate but still don't know what they were. One was maybe tofu, one was some sea critter in a shell that was impaled on a toothpick (the most... err... texturally challenging food of the evening. I needed a BIG swig of beer to get that one down!) and the rest were unknown. Other dishes that followed included two legs of raw crab (King crab? Queen crab? One of those big ones), fish cooked in some kind of leaf, oyster in some kind of batter that made it look like a root vegetable (maybe my favourite thing I ate. I thought of you, Jeff... oh, err, only cos you love oysters, not because... I'm stopping here), an entire, if smallish, fried fish and three small pieces of steak and a slab of butter that you put on what looked like a flat-topped incense burner so it cooked in front of you. By this time I was getting really full and I struggled to get through the clear soup with fish paste and the egg custard thing with mushroom. Finally (I sigh as I write this, the memory of how full I was is still that fresh!), there was a lemon jelly for dessert. As I said, I couldn't bring myself to eat all of it (I ate one piece of sashimi, but when they replenished me with two more, I realised I wouldn't win that and just told the kimono'ed waitress that I was finished with it), but as everyone was flitting from table to table and some people were much more focused on drinking than eating, I didn't embarrass myself.
Other than that, there was some game based on a Japanese game show that I couldn't follow at all and the very thin calligraphy teacher dressed as Santa giving out the numbers for a Bingo game. I found out why the tickets were so expensive when I saw that everyone got a Bingo prize! I won a disc that you stand on - one side is reflexology points (if only we could read the kanji to know how to target what!) and the other is a balance board for exercise. I was pretty happy with that prize - the guy next to me won a clock and letter drawer combined. Lovely, I'm sure... On the whole it was a funny evening and everyone tried their hardest to look after me, so that was really cool.
On the Sunday we went to a school show at Jeff's favourite primary school, Kurumi. It's a really small school, 40-something students I think, so he is able to get a good relationship with all the students. We watched a small play or educational talk from each of the different year levels, though we privately agreed the first year students was the most interesting. It wasn't only that they got all the cuteness points, and that I'm a sucker for little ones in kimono, it was also that theirs was entirely a play so we could follow along. There was a farming couple and two ladies in kimono who formed the 'locals', then a red devil moves in (played by a slightly ADD student in a red shiny wig, red sweatshirt and hilarious poofy very short girls shorts). Everyone was frightened until the red devil fought off a blue devil that started terrorising the locals (played by a kid similarly dressed but in longer shorts, with only one horn on his wig). Everyone is happy - and cute!
Jeff was going nuts taking photos of his students with our new camera. The Vice-Principal noticed and asked Jeff to give the school copies of his pics later, so that made Jeff nervous, which made him take about a million more pictures to make sure he got ones the school would like. The whole show finished with a dance that included all the students. They were dressed in colourful happi/hapi (not sure on spelling), first and third years in red, second and fourth years in blue and fifth and sixth graders in a few different colours depending on their position in the dance. The start of the music sent shivers down my spine, it was so beautiful and chilling. The students did a really great job at the dance, even trying hard to accomodate the special needs student who hadn't attended any of the rehersals and wanted to dance, while not having a clue where he was supposed to be or what he was supposed to be doing.
One of Jeff's favourite students was at the front - her mother teaches with Jeff at a different school. Her father is Korean and uses English every day at work, so both her and her little brother have names that easily translate to English and their mother tells them they must always talk to the ALT to practise their English. As a result, when the little boy saw me in the hallway he stopped for a look. "Hello." "Hello, how are you?" Jeff overheard from the next room and tells me I said it too fast, so I only got a quizzical look. However, ever mindful of his mother's instructions to always practise his English, he thought then asked me, "What's your favourite subject?" "I like English" I told him. Solemnly he told me, "I like Science and Maths." Just then Jeff came into the hallway. When the little boy saw us together he clicked who I was and squealed in excitement to see Jeff and his wife. Too cute!
Ok, now I'm going to end this before this update moves from short story length to novella. Sorry, folks!
Charly
Jeff had done a bit of shopping around for me last week, looking for solutions to my laptop problem (surprisingly, NZ adaptors aren't easy to come by in a city that Lonely Planet says to skip!). I managed to convince a computer store to sell me the cord that goes from wall to the in-cord adaptor. The guy made it specifically clear that if it didn't work they wouldn't give me a refund (how's that for inspirising enthusiasm in the customer!), but it was only about $15 and it WORKS. Yay!
To update you on the weekend, my work dinner (Friday night) had an unexpectedly good twist - at lunchtime Nakamura-sensei (who I was supposed to meet at Fukuyama station so she could take me to the right bus stop) came to tell me we had been invited to the onsen in the hotel first. She was really hesitant, saying she knew many foreigners felt uncomfortable going to onsens (we're not used to the naked thing), but I assured her I loved them and we were set. In all honesty, I don't know any women who don't like onsens. It's so liberating to not be worried about looking sexy in bikinis or anything. It's just everyone, starkers. You have a wee shower/wash first, so there's no makeup or anything (as you sometimes, strangely, see at the beach). There are women of all ages and shapes and everyone is just there to relax. When all you have to protect you modesty is a cloth the size of a small tea towel that goes on your head when you're in the water, there's not much you can do to make yourself look good. It's too late, let it go and relax. So I do :)
This onsen was particularly cool as it was several stories up in the hotel, so the outdoor pool looked over the waves crashing on the rocks below and out to the lights of Fukuyama city glowing across the bay. To the right you could faintly see the outlines of the mountainous islands that dot the water round the Fukuyama-Tomonoura-Onomichi area. I'm not good with hot water for extended periods of time, so I loved being able to raise my shoulders out of the steaming water to feel the delicious night breeze lick me with its chilly tongue. The others went off to the sauna leaving me to absorb the amazing view in an intense silence created by the rain, waves and quiet chatter of elderly Japanese ladies.
Of course, after that the party would have to have been mind-boggling to top that experience - one of my favourite moments in Japan. As it was, the party was fun if a little confusing. Seating was done by pulling a seat number out of a box on your way in, so I ended up between two slightly alarmed-looking teachers who didn't appear to speak English. The younger one on my right was trying valiently, though, while the one on my left laughed at his appalling English and supplied words for him when he was stuck (wouldn't this be easier if I remembered names!).
Later the one on my left was the only one left for me to chat to, so I rounded on him. It turned out he has pretty decent English, is the school rugby coach and has taken a group to Christchurch to play rugby before. Of course I got all excited about the idea of arranging for his team to visit NZ and meet the Massey team. The teacher said, "Oh yes, and they can play a game." I keep cringing at my condescending response, "Hmm... or at least practice together. The team at my high school are... very big." It seems so rude to suggest they can't even play the Massey team. And then I remember that he had just told me they only have ten students on the team at the moment and that at Massey guys often repeated their last year once, even twice, just to stay on the first 15. I think of pitting 10 little Japanese kids against 15 guys aged up to 20, many of Maori or Island ethnicity, and I realise why I said what I did. I hate that, when you regret how you said something, but when you review the conversation, you realise why you said what you did and that you would probably say it the same next time.
The most important thing about the party, though, was definately the food. There was an incredible amount of food - the number of courses more than made up for the fact I didn't eat or only partially ate several of them. The meal opened with sashimi, a quarter lobster filled with tofu and mushroom over a gas burner and a bunch of little dishes that I ate but still don't know what they were. One was maybe tofu, one was some sea critter in a shell that was impaled on a toothpick (the most... err... texturally challenging food of the evening. I needed a BIG swig of beer to get that one down!) and the rest were unknown. Other dishes that followed included two legs of raw crab (King crab? Queen crab? One of those big ones), fish cooked in some kind of leaf, oyster in some kind of batter that made it look like a root vegetable (maybe my favourite thing I ate. I thought of you, Jeff... oh, err, only cos you love oysters, not because... I'm stopping here), an entire, if smallish, fried fish and three small pieces of steak and a slab of butter that you put on what looked like a flat-topped incense burner so it cooked in front of you. By this time I was getting really full and I struggled to get through the clear soup with fish paste and the egg custard thing with mushroom. Finally (I sigh as I write this, the memory of how full I was is still that fresh!), there was a lemon jelly for dessert. As I said, I couldn't bring myself to eat all of it (I ate one piece of sashimi, but when they replenished me with two more, I realised I wouldn't win that and just told the kimono'ed waitress that I was finished with it), but as everyone was flitting from table to table and some people were much more focused on drinking than eating, I didn't embarrass myself.
Other than that, there was some game based on a Japanese game show that I couldn't follow at all and the very thin calligraphy teacher dressed as Santa giving out the numbers for a Bingo game. I found out why the tickets were so expensive when I saw that everyone got a Bingo prize! I won a disc that you stand on - one side is reflexology points (if only we could read the kanji to know how to target what!) and the other is a balance board for exercise. I was pretty happy with that prize - the guy next to me won a clock and letter drawer combined. Lovely, I'm sure... On the whole it was a funny evening and everyone tried their hardest to look after me, so that was really cool.
On the Sunday we went to a school show at Jeff's favourite primary school, Kurumi. It's a really small school, 40-something students I think, so he is able to get a good relationship with all the students. We watched a small play or educational talk from each of the different year levels, though we privately agreed the first year students was the most interesting. It wasn't only that they got all the cuteness points, and that I'm a sucker for little ones in kimono, it was also that theirs was entirely a play so we could follow along. There was a farming couple and two ladies in kimono who formed the 'locals', then a red devil moves in (played by a slightly ADD student in a red shiny wig, red sweatshirt and hilarious poofy very short girls shorts). Everyone was frightened until the red devil fought off a blue devil that started terrorising the locals (played by a kid similarly dressed but in longer shorts, with only one horn on his wig). Everyone is happy - and cute!
Jeff was going nuts taking photos of his students with our new camera. The Vice-Principal noticed and asked Jeff to give the school copies of his pics later, so that made Jeff nervous, which made him take about a million more pictures to make sure he got ones the school would like. The whole show finished with a dance that included all the students. They were dressed in colourful happi/hapi (not sure on spelling), first and third years in red, second and fourth years in blue and fifth and sixth graders in a few different colours depending on their position in the dance. The start of the music sent shivers down my spine, it was so beautiful and chilling. The students did a really great job at the dance, even trying hard to accomodate the special needs student who hadn't attended any of the rehersals and wanted to dance, while not having a clue where he was supposed to be or what he was supposed to be doing.
One of Jeff's favourite students was at the front - her mother teaches with Jeff at a different school. Her father is Korean and uses English every day at work, so both her and her little brother have names that easily translate to English and their mother tells them they must always talk to the ALT to practise their English. As a result, when the little boy saw me in the hallway he stopped for a look. "Hello." "Hello, how are you?" Jeff overheard from the next room and tells me I said it too fast, so I only got a quizzical look. However, ever mindful of his mother's instructions to always practise his English, he thought then asked me, "What's your favourite subject?" "I like English" I told him. Solemnly he told me, "I like Science and Maths." Just then Jeff came into the hallway. When the little boy saw us together he clicked who I was and squealed in excitement to see Jeff and his wife. Too cute!
Ok, now I'm going to end this before this update moves from short story length to novella. Sorry, folks!
Charly
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
NOT a morning person!
Stay out of my way world, I hate mornings and today I'm not holding back. I'm totally buggered from a couple of weekends of sightseeing (read early mornings) and 5:30am starts to drive to work from Jinseki, without a chance to sleep in and restock my sleep supplies.
Today I was really really struggling to stay awake for the hour and a half drive to work (safe, I know!) and when I got to work my lunch had leaked in my handbag. Jeff kindly suggested it was stupid of me to have put a bento box in my handbag, which wasn't really the reaction I was hoping for.
I know this is a really stupid, petty thing to mind, but I hate the walk up to my fourth floor office where I feel obliged to say 'Good morning!' all bright and cheery-like to every student I pass. I feel like a performing seal - watch the gaijin show model morning greetings! I don't mind - no, I enjoy real interactions (like the student who just came into the office to ask me a question), but I hate the passing comments where the students would actually rather I didn't say anything so they weren't forced to respond to me in English! Plus at this time of the morning I really struggle to jump back and forth between English with the students and Japanese with the teachers (which is encouraged to show respect because you're not here to force your language on the teachers!).
Finally, this has nothing to do with the morning except that I'm cranky atm, but it's really really bothering me the way the Japanese don't use soap when they wash their hands. Of course that's not a golden rule, but I don't think I've ever seen a student at Tode use the soap (many of the bathrooms have only recently been stocked with soap) and it's a max of about one in five students at Myoodai who use the soap. That might be generous - if I use the left soap for the first half of the day, then pick up the soap on the right side, it's usually dry and hard. For a country that wears face masks so frequently and pride themself on being super clean, it's hard for me to get my head round the soap aversion. I used to just ignore it, but it's been bothering me and grossing me out lately. I'm sure we used to get in trouble at primary school if another kid told the teacher you hadn't used soap to wash your hands!
Anyway, I now have to go and record some dictation for my darling supervisor. He told me I WOULD be doing it first period, as opposed to the other teachers who asked me if I was free at any point to help them with recording dictation! Another funny thing with my lovely supervisor is that he just came to ask if I did paperwork for working in Tode on the 22nd. I said yes, that I had put it in kyoto-sensei's inbox (Vice-Principal). He then proceeded to tell me he would call the Vice-President and after the phone call to tell me that the Vice-President didn't have my paperwork so I had to redo it. He must have talked about the Vice-President half a dozen times. It's kinda mean, I should correct him, but I'm weak and shallow and enjoy smirking at his mistake. So petty... so human.
***
After the recording:
That went fairly well with only one real concern. My stomach did a huge rumble in the middle of it and I have a strong suspicion it will be heard on the tape! Awkward, but not quite bad enough to make me go through that torturous process again - 'Read through three times. First, read it slowly. Second, read it out including speaking the commas and periods and pausing five seconds after commas and ten seconds after periods. Third, read it slowly.' By the time I finish counting ten seconds, I have forgotten I'm supposed to say the commas and periods (it's so unnatural - and I've always called them full-stops!). So I end up having to redo it a few times. Kinda painful with my smelly, silent supervisor. So if the students all hear my stomach rumbling, so be it!!
Today I was really really struggling to stay awake for the hour and a half drive to work (safe, I know!) and when I got to work my lunch had leaked in my handbag. Jeff kindly suggested it was stupid of me to have put a bento box in my handbag, which wasn't really the reaction I was hoping for.
I know this is a really stupid, petty thing to mind, but I hate the walk up to my fourth floor office where I feel obliged to say 'Good morning!' all bright and cheery-like to every student I pass. I feel like a performing seal - watch the gaijin show model morning greetings! I don't mind - no, I enjoy real interactions (like the student who just came into the office to ask me a question), but I hate the passing comments where the students would actually rather I didn't say anything so they weren't forced to respond to me in English! Plus at this time of the morning I really struggle to jump back and forth between English with the students and Japanese with the teachers (which is encouraged to show respect because you're not here to force your language on the teachers!).
Finally, this has nothing to do with the morning except that I'm cranky atm, but it's really really bothering me the way the Japanese don't use soap when they wash their hands. Of course that's not a golden rule, but I don't think I've ever seen a student at Tode use the soap (many of the bathrooms have only recently been stocked with soap) and it's a max of about one in five students at Myoodai who use the soap. That might be generous - if I use the left soap for the first half of the day, then pick up the soap on the right side, it's usually dry and hard. For a country that wears face masks so frequently and pride themself on being super clean, it's hard for me to get my head round the soap aversion. I used to just ignore it, but it's been bothering me and grossing me out lately. I'm sure we used to get in trouble at primary school if another kid told the teacher you hadn't used soap to wash your hands!
Anyway, I now have to go and record some dictation for my darling supervisor. He told me I WOULD be doing it first period, as opposed to the other teachers who asked me if I was free at any point to help them with recording dictation! Another funny thing with my lovely supervisor is that he just came to ask if I did paperwork for working in Tode on the 22nd. I said yes, that I had put it in kyoto-sensei's inbox (Vice-Principal). He then proceeded to tell me he would call the Vice-President and after the phone call to tell me that the Vice-President didn't have my paperwork so I had to redo it. He must have talked about the Vice-President half a dozen times. It's kinda mean, I should correct him, but I'm weak and shallow and enjoy smirking at his mistake. So petty... so human.
***
After the recording:
That went fairly well with only one real concern. My stomach did a huge rumble in the middle of it and I have a strong suspicion it will be heard on the tape! Awkward, but not quite bad enough to make me go through that torturous process again - 'Read through three times. First, read it slowly. Second, read it out including speaking the commas and periods and pausing five seconds after commas and ten seconds after periods. Third, read it slowly.' By the time I finish counting ten seconds, I have forgotten I'm supposed to say the commas and periods (it's so unnatural - and I've always called them full-stops!). So I end up having to redo it a few times. Kinda painful with my smelly, silent supervisor. So if the students all hear my stomach rumbling, so be it!!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Week of Saving
Well, yesterday we dropped Steve at the bus that took him to the airport. While we were in the big city (Okayama) we made the most of it, picking up a few of our favourite things - Starbucks coffee (Jeff) and Body Shop products (me). Before anyone knocks Jeff for drinking Starbucks, you clearly haven't lived in Japan with only Japanese cafes. And me... well I'm getting much better at not stockpiling beauty products, but Body Shop continues to be the only place in Japan where I know what I'm buying. I'm sure the Japanese products are lovely, but most of them are whitening and this pakeha doesn't need any more whitening! If I get any whiter I'll be able to audition for Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter: the Stage Show (yeah... I'm four books into the series at the moment and my head is 70% in Hogwarts, 30% in Japan).
While it was lovely having Steve here and doing all the touristy things, when we dropped him off yesterday I realised that in exactly a month we would be flying out for Singapore. So we have a month of hard saving coming up so we will have spending money for Singapore and Malaysia. I'm working hard at reading lots to clear my bookshelf (I know, tough job for me...), so we can fit all the new books I intend to buy in Singapore. Other than that we might try to find shirts in Jeff's size (wish us luck!) and... eat! We have been assured that there is lots of delicious food for us to try in both Singapore and Malaysia, so we look forward to our culinary tour!
Of course, the month before Christmas is a bad time to attempt to save money - we need to send gifts home, get gifts for each other and pay for work Christmas parties. At least I combined touristing with Steve with Christmas shopping, picking up little things in Hiroshima and Sekaiminato (crazy anime town). But my work party is on this Friday. My ticket is costing 8000 yen - roughly $135. I don't know what is happening to be so darn expensive, but everyone always tells ALTs that they need to go to any work parties they can manage, because it's the traditional Japanese way to bond with your workmates. Apparently at work parties Japanese people drink excessively and really let their hair down. So far I'm tempted to believe it's an urban myth, as the only work party I've attended was a tame dinner affair, and despite the fact Jeff has been here a year and a half, working at something like eight different schools, he's only been invited to one party. Maybe people in Hiroshima are more restrained (I can't remember the example, but I've got that impression before. Not that I know any non-Hiroshima Japanese very well). Anyway, I'm curious as to how this big party will go down. I am nervous about interacting with the teachers who don't speak English, but I also know some of them are really keen to interact with me (I know this because one of them baked me cake today!) so I have to stop being a wuss, suck it up, have a beer and start butchering the Japanese language!!
In preperation for that, I should keep going on trying to catch up in my Japanese book. I still haven't done the test that I meant to do on Friday, so I need to finish last week's study so I can knuckle down. I won't have time tonight as I need to go shopping for Jeff's Christmas present... No, I don't know what to get him. It's really really hard to buy gifts for each other here - they have to be useful (so they don't end up getting thrown out when we leave, or costing lots to send home!), but we don't fit clothes. Also we try not to spend money from home so I TRY NOT to use the credit card. It will be a last resort!! Jewellery is really difficult because you have no idea what you're looking at - cheap metal, silver or platinum... we can't tell! We also live a long drive from the big malls that have things like cool shoe shops, the Body Shop or different import stores, so there's really not much range. There is one mall that we always go to that we have implicitly agreed to both shop at, but on different nights. Wish us luck!
While it was lovely having Steve here and doing all the touristy things, when we dropped him off yesterday I realised that in exactly a month we would be flying out for Singapore. So we have a month of hard saving coming up so we will have spending money for Singapore and Malaysia. I'm working hard at reading lots to clear my bookshelf (I know, tough job for me...), so we can fit all the new books I intend to buy in Singapore. Other than that we might try to find shirts in Jeff's size (wish us luck!) and... eat! We have been assured that there is lots of delicious food for us to try in both Singapore and Malaysia, so we look forward to our culinary tour!
Of course, the month before Christmas is a bad time to attempt to save money - we need to send gifts home, get gifts for each other and pay for work Christmas parties. At least I combined touristing with Steve with Christmas shopping, picking up little things in Hiroshima and Sekaiminato (crazy anime town). But my work party is on this Friday. My ticket is costing 8000 yen - roughly $135. I don't know what is happening to be so darn expensive, but everyone always tells ALTs that they need to go to any work parties they can manage, because it's the traditional Japanese way to bond with your workmates. Apparently at work parties Japanese people drink excessively and really let their hair down. So far I'm tempted to believe it's an urban myth, as the only work party I've attended was a tame dinner affair, and despite the fact Jeff has been here a year and a half, working at something like eight different schools, he's only been invited to one party. Maybe people in Hiroshima are more restrained (I can't remember the example, but I've got that impression before. Not that I know any non-Hiroshima Japanese very well). Anyway, I'm curious as to how this big party will go down. I am nervous about interacting with the teachers who don't speak English, but I also know some of them are really keen to interact with me (I know this because one of them baked me cake today!) so I have to stop being a wuss, suck it up, have a beer and start butchering the Japanese language!!
In preperation for that, I should keep going on trying to catch up in my Japanese book. I still haven't done the test that I meant to do on Friday, so I need to finish last week's study so I can knuckle down. I won't have time tonight as I need to go shopping for Jeff's Christmas present... No, I don't know what to get him. It's really really hard to buy gifts for each other here - they have to be useful (so they don't end up getting thrown out when we leave, or costing lots to send home!), but we don't fit clothes. Also we try not to spend money from home so I TRY NOT to use the credit card. It will be a last resort!! Jewellery is really difficult because you have no idea what you're looking at - cheap metal, silver or platinum... we can't tell! We also live a long drive from the big malls that have things like cool shoe shops, the Body Shop or different import stores, so there's really not much range. There is one mall that we always go to that we have implicitly agreed to both shop at, but on different nights. Wish us luck!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Week of Steve
This week we've had Steve (sorry, Stephen!) visiting from NZ. That sums things up in a way - an intense week of touristing to show a visitor everything we can about our region. Last weekend was spent in Kyoto, where we got soaked with heavy heavy rain and were totally overwhelmed with the number of 'must see sights'. We managed to hit a temple with 100 small (Buddhist?) god statues surrounding one huge gold-plated one (would give you the name but I don't remember it. It's long and Japanese...), the Nijo-jo castle (it may be Nijijo. Or Noji-jo. Or Jo-nono. You get the gist. I failed to wrap my head round the names. End of story) which had awesome 'nightengale floors' that make bird-like noises when stepped on so intruders can't creep in undetected. Must be the only place in the world where a crowd of tourists tramping around sounds like native birds cheeping in the forest! We finished up the afternoon at a food market, trying different things and buying sake... mmm. Yuzu (type of citrus fruit) sake... I love you.
The Sunday was rather drier so we went to the something-mizu-something shrine (I only know that much because mizu is water), where we wandered round taking pictures of the changing leaf colour and made a wish on the turning stone in the PITCHBLACK depths of a side temple. We then hit what was probably the highlight of our weekend - Kinkakuji (I think that's at least 3/4 accurate. At least, if I say it quickly no-one laughs at me, so it's fairly correct...). It's a three story building on the edge of a man-made lake and is completely painted in gold - $6 million worth. We were lucky enough to have sunshine while we viewed it, so we got the full effect. It was built as an ostentatious display of power and, hundreds of years on, it still works! We had a particularly good time there because Jeff was approached by three uni students wearing homemade 'Guide' badges. They explained they study languages and are in some kind of English club, so they like to get practice by volunteering as tourist guides at some of the big attractions in Kyoto. There were three guides and three of us, so we had fun chatting to locals as we went around. I'm not sure how successful Steve and his super-cute little Japanese girl were; he's not used to Japanese English and she's not used to superspeedNZEnglish. But all three of our guides were very friendly and we got a picture with the group before waving them goodbye.
This week I've been working while Jeff showed Steve round the more local sights (I'm having issues choosing between sites and sights... most sentences I'm using they are interchangeable, despite the totally different meanings!). However, Wednesday was a holiday, so J&S headed down to Hiroshima on Tuesday morning and I took the train down to join them after work. That was quite a mission - I had to drive back from Tode High School (about 40 mins), get changed and made-up for town (always odd before 5pm! Was hoping I wouldn't meet students!), walk up to the train station with my luggage and take a train down to Hiroshima (about an hour and a half), before tramming from Hiroshima Station to our hotel. It was a long journey but fairly simple. The only hairy bit was when I had to change trains. Mentally rehersing the Japanese in my head, I turned to the woman next to me and pointed out the window at a train on another track. 'Excuse me,' I asked in my best Japanese, 'is that the bicycle to Hiroshima?' She did one of those bite-your-cheeks-to-hold-in-the-smile things and answered in perfect English that no, it wasn't. She pulled our her timetable and told me I had to wait 17 minutes on track 2. 'Oh, thanks.' I answered. Silence for a moment. 'I said bicycle, didn't I? Man, I'm lucky I'm sitting next to you!'
That night we took Steve out to an all you can eat, all you can drink restaurant before hitting karaoke (Steve's big request). My big achievement for the night was not falling asleep (it was touch and go at the restaurant after two drinks and a big feed. Jeff started making me weak Coke-based drinks to try to keep me awake!), while Jeff's was joining in and... dare I say enjoying it?? Beforehand I had been talking about doing an hour, but they had a deal on where for the price of two hours you could stay as long as you liked between 11pm and 6am. I was sceptical, but we did it. Initially we figured we'd drunk enough at the restaurant, but Jeff soon declared he needed lots more beer to sing, so we topped up our deal to all you can drink karaoke. Four hours later I had sung myself hoarse and told the others we were leaving. Steve was encouraging us to stay longer, even as we protested four hours was quite enough. As we paid up, Steve asked the time. "3:30am" I told him. "Oh, damn, really?" he asked. "You mean, we actually have been here four hours?" "Ah, yeah, yeah we have!" Someone was clearly smiling on us because we were even able to talk the next day and the guys (who had taken on board plenty of booze) weren't looking too seedy - or no worse than you expect on not a lot of sleep.
The last two days I've had peace and quiet having my Fukuyama apartment to myself while J&S explore Jinseki (much of the time the three of us have been sharing one tatami 'bedroom' so we have been living out of each other's pockets!). Tonight I will go up and join the guys in going out for ramen for dinner. Tomorrow we will do Matsue (awesome castle and moat. The coolest castle we've found in Japan so far) and Stoehroagobgoehroeh (small town famous for its street lined with manga characters. And one day I will remember the name...). It will be a huge day for Jeff, who will be driving; it's three hours drive each way and a bit of a drive inbetween. But it saves paying for accomodation and we have to get Steve to the Okayama airport bus on Sunday morning, so it's a good way to pack it all in! Our American friend Emma will be coming to Matsue too, so it will be cool to catch up with her. I'm a little nervous for my poor little car - this will be a hell of an ask for it. Four big adults (no Japanese sized people in our group!), with a little 500-600 cc motor! I hope I don't kill it one of these days - I'm really attached to my tiny, cheap little thing!
With regards to Jeff being approached by the guides at Kinkakuji, he was also approached in one of the underground malls that weekend. We were surprised because usually Jeff never gets approached - if someone Japanese is going to approach one of us, it's always me. But he had a gaggle of tiny 17 yr olds (I teach high school and these girls looked even younger than usual) come up and ask him some questions for a school project. He had to take a note the girl had written and write one in return, then get a photo with her. The top of her head reached his elbow. We had a few different theories as to why Jeff was getting approached that weekend, but I think the best suggestion is just that they are more used to foreigners up that way, so people aren't intimidated. Down here, unless the kids have a tall, broad bloke for an English teacher, they have no exposure to people Jeff's size.
Then in Kyoto we had another... err... interesting discovery. Turns out my favourite food, famous in Hiroshima, that we have taken all our visitors to try, well I've been saying it wrong the whole time. Turns out if you say something quickly with confidence, no-one notices your mistake! It wasn't until I broke it down for Steve that Jeff noticed I was saying 'oKInomiyaki', instead of 'oKOnomiyaki'. Not a huge difference, but bad when it's my fave Japanese food and I use the word regularly! Ooops!
After all this negativity about my Japanese ability, there is one positive. I have noticed that when we have visitors Jeff and I speak a lot more Japanese to each other. Nothing major - we can't have heartfelt discussions or even chat each other up (Jeff might be able to manage 'your head looks nice', but I don't think he knows 'hair' or 'outfit'. And I wouldn't understand him anyway). We are pretty much limited to stuff like 'Let's go', 'ok', 'it's cold', 'yes it is', 'are you alright?' 'yes I am', 'it's delicious', 'yet it is'... I think you notice a pattern. I'm the reply. Anyway, we do it much more when we have visitors. On one hand I feel rude talking in front of people in a language I know they don't understand, but on the other hand I always need the practice and it's kinda fun to show our visitors that we do know some Japanese! But mainly... mainly I think we do it as a kind of support for each other thing. Like other couples use personal nicknames or something. Ironically, when we have visitors we can use Japanese - a language spoken by 130 million other people in the country, to convey a sense of intimacy when it would be inappropriate to hug or anything. I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I have just noticed it's a pattern. Maybe I just notice it a lot more in front of visitors. But I'm pretty sure that's because we do it more when they're here.
Now I better stop procrastinating and get back to my Japanese study. With the free correspondance course provided by the JET Program you get books that have four pages to do each day. I was doing really well until the extreme exhaustion of this week, so I'm currently four and a half days behind. Today I'm supposed to finish the book and do the test, but I'll have to do that next week. I have until the 9th to get the test in, so I have a little time up my sleeve, but I don't want to leave it to the last minute. I'm going to need that free time for when we go away on our Christmas holidays.
Until next time,
Charly
The Sunday was rather drier so we went to the something-mizu-something shrine (I only know that much because mizu is water), where we wandered round taking pictures of the changing leaf colour and made a wish on the turning stone in the PITCHBLACK depths of a side temple. We then hit what was probably the highlight of our weekend - Kinkakuji (I think that's at least 3/4 accurate. At least, if I say it quickly no-one laughs at me, so it's fairly correct...). It's a three story building on the edge of a man-made lake and is completely painted in gold - $6 million worth. We were lucky enough to have sunshine while we viewed it, so we got the full effect. It was built as an ostentatious display of power and, hundreds of years on, it still works! We had a particularly good time there because Jeff was approached by three uni students wearing homemade 'Guide' badges. They explained they study languages and are in some kind of English club, so they like to get practice by volunteering as tourist guides at some of the big attractions in Kyoto. There were three guides and three of us, so we had fun chatting to locals as we went around. I'm not sure how successful Steve and his super-cute little Japanese girl were; he's not used to Japanese English and she's not used to superspeedNZEnglish. But all three of our guides were very friendly and we got a picture with the group before waving them goodbye.
This week I've been working while Jeff showed Steve round the more local sights (I'm having issues choosing between sites and sights... most sentences I'm using they are interchangeable, despite the totally different meanings!). However, Wednesday was a holiday, so J&S headed down to Hiroshima on Tuesday morning and I took the train down to join them after work. That was quite a mission - I had to drive back from Tode High School (about 40 mins), get changed and made-up for town (always odd before 5pm! Was hoping I wouldn't meet students!), walk up to the train station with my luggage and take a train down to Hiroshima (about an hour and a half), before tramming from Hiroshima Station to our hotel. It was a long journey but fairly simple. The only hairy bit was when I had to change trains. Mentally rehersing the Japanese in my head, I turned to the woman next to me and pointed out the window at a train on another track. 'Excuse me,' I asked in my best Japanese, 'is that the bicycle to Hiroshima?' She did one of those bite-your-cheeks-to-hold-in-the-smile things and answered in perfect English that no, it wasn't. She pulled our her timetable and told me I had to wait 17 minutes on track 2. 'Oh, thanks.' I answered. Silence for a moment. 'I said bicycle, didn't I? Man, I'm lucky I'm sitting next to you!'
That night we took Steve out to an all you can eat, all you can drink restaurant before hitting karaoke (Steve's big request). My big achievement for the night was not falling asleep (it was touch and go at the restaurant after two drinks and a big feed. Jeff started making me weak Coke-based drinks to try to keep me awake!), while Jeff's was joining in and... dare I say enjoying it?? Beforehand I had been talking about doing an hour, but they had a deal on where for the price of two hours you could stay as long as you liked between 11pm and 6am. I was sceptical, but we did it. Initially we figured we'd drunk enough at the restaurant, but Jeff soon declared he needed lots more beer to sing, so we topped up our deal to all you can drink karaoke. Four hours later I had sung myself hoarse and told the others we were leaving. Steve was encouraging us to stay longer, even as we protested four hours was quite enough. As we paid up, Steve asked the time. "3:30am" I told him. "Oh, damn, really?" he asked. "You mean, we actually have been here four hours?" "Ah, yeah, yeah we have!" Someone was clearly smiling on us because we were even able to talk the next day and the guys (who had taken on board plenty of booze) weren't looking too seedy - or no worse than you expect on not a lot of sleep.
The last two days I've had peace and quiet having my Fukuyama apartment to myself while J&S explore Jinseki (much of the time the three of us have been sharing one tatami 'bedroom' so we have been living out of each other's pockets!). Tonight I will go up and join the guys in going out for ramen for dinner. Tomorrow we will do Matsue (awesome castle and moat. The coolest castle we've found in Japan so far) and Stoehroagobgoehroeh (small town famous for its street lined with manga characters. And one day I will remember the name...). It will be a huge day for Jeff, who will be driving; it's three hours drive each way and a bit of a drive inbetween. But it saves paying for accomodation and we have to get Steve to the Okayama airport bus on Sunday morning, so it's a good way to pack it all in! Our American friend Emma will be coming to Matsue too, so it will be cool to catch up with her. I'm a little nervous for my poor little car - this will be a hell of an ask for it. Four big adults (no Japanese sized people in our group!), with a little 500-600 cc motor! I hope I don't kill it one of these days - I'm really attached to my tiny, cheap little thing!
With regards to Jeff being approached by the guides at Kinkakuji, he was also approached in one of the underground malls that weekend. We were surprised because usually Jeff never gets approached - if someone Japanese is going to approach one of us, it's always me. But he had a gaggle of tiny 17 yr olds (I teach high school and these girls looked even younger than usual) come up and ask him some questions for a school project. He had to take a note the girl had written and write one in return, then get a photo with her. The top of her head reached his elbow. We had a few different theories as to why Jeff was getting approached that weekend, but I think the best suggestion is just that they are more used to foreigners up that way, so people aren't intimidated. Down here, unless the kids have a tall, broad bloke for an English teacher, they have no exposure to people Jeff's size.
Then in Kyoto we had another... err... interesting discovery. Turns out my favourite food, famous in Hiroshima, that we have taken all our visitors to try, well I've been saying it wrong the whole time. Turns out if you say something quickly with confidence, no-one notices your mistake! It wasn't until I broke it down for Steve that Jeff noticed I was saying 'oKInomiyaki', instead of 'oKOnomiyaki'. Not a huge difference, but bad when it's my fave Japanese food and I use the word regularly! Ooops!
After all this negativity about my Japanese ability, there is one positive. I have noticed that when we have visitors Jeff and I speak a lot more Japanese to each other. Nothing major - we can't have heartfelt discussions or even chat each other up (Jeff might be able to manage 'your head looks nice', but I don't think he knows 'hair' or 'outfit'. And I wouldn't understand him anyway). We are pretty much limited to stuff like 'Let's go', 'ok', 'it's cold', 'yes it is', 'are you alright?' 'yes I am', 'it's delicious', 'yet it is'... I think you notice a pattern. I'm the reply. Anyway, we do it much more when we have visitors. On one hand I feel rude talking in front of people in a language I know they don't understand, but on the other hand I always need the practice and it's kinda fun to show our visitors that we do know some Japanese! But mainly... mainly I think we do it as a kind of support for each other thing. Like other couples use personal nicknames or something. Ironically, when we have visitors we can use Japanese - a language spoken by 130 million other people in the country, to convey a sense of intimacy when it would be inappropriate to hug or anything. I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I have just noticed it's a pattern. Maybe I just notice it a lot more in front of visitors. But I'm pretty sure that's because we do it more when they're here.
Now I better stop procrastinating and get back to my Japanese study. With the free correspondance course provided by the JET Program you get books that have four pages to do each day. I was doing really well until the extreme exhaustion of this week, so I'm currently four and a half days behind. Today I'm supposed to finish the book and do the test, but I'll have to do that next week. I have until the 9th to get the test in, so I have a little time up my sleeve, but I don't want to leave it to the last minute. I'm going to need that free time for when we go away on our Christmas holidays.
Until next time,
Charly
Thursday, November 17, 2011
On the down-low
Ok, so nothing is official yet, but a little bird told me (ok, my workmate told me) that my supervisor is changing! Anyone who has asked me about my new job may have noticed that my explanation boiled down to: supervisor = sucky, everything else = awesome. So the news that he is changing is greatly appreciated! The other ALT is particularly pleased - he has been campaigning for years to have the supervisor changed and has watched five JET participants like myself come through and have problems with this guy. I had already planned how I would warn my replacement not to take it personally how rude the supervisor is and not to hold back on asking for help, even when he does try to push it back onto the ALT ("Hello, I can't read this Japanese form! That's what you're for!!").
Having said that, this supervisor hasn't caused me too much stress. Because I've been married to an ALT - one with an excellent supervisor, I should add - I know what supervisors do and the kind of random issues they expect to help out with. So I've had no qualms about TELLING my supervisor what I need him to do, and if he tries to tell me I need to do it myself, I tell him I can't and I need HIM to do it. That has worked fairly well and my biggest issue with him, really, has been about personal hygiene. I am very very very appreciative this means no more journeys in the car with him and his body odour!! Unfortunately, his no longer being my supervisor won't stop him standing in front of the office fan in summer, while it propels his personal stench all through the room, but you can't have everything!
I have no idea who will be taking over, but as my supervisor is currently the most antisocial member of the staff (so bad that the nurse was giggling at me having to share a car with him), anything is up from here. In all seriousness, every other member of the English department is super lovely and I'm very excited to see who is my official minder as of December!
Having said that, this supervisor hasn't caused me too much stress. Because I've been married to an ALT - one with an excellent supervisor, I should add - I know what supervisors do and the kind of random issues they expect to help out with. So I've had no qualms about TELLING my supervisor what I need him to do, and if he tries to tell me I need to do it myself, I tell him I can't and I need HIM to do it. That has worked fairly well and my biggest issue with him, really, has been about personal hygiene. I am very very very appreciative this means no more journeys in the car with him and his body odour!! Unfortunately, his no longer being my supervisor won't stop him standing in front of the office fan in summer, while it propels his personal stench all through the room, but you can't have everything!
I have no idea who will be taking over, but as my supervisor is currently the most antisocial member of the staff (so bad that the nurse was giggling at me having to share a car with him), anything is up from here. In all seriousness, every other member of the English department is super lovely and I'm very excited to see who is my official minder as of December!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
A Note on Internationalisation
I had the coolest experience today. In my classroom I have a big photo board with lots of NZ pictures (and a couple of tea towels - one with our map and one with the haka!). One of my third year (18 yr old) students was looking at it and he took a fancy to a picture I took back in uni, on a Bio field trip, of the sunrise over the Waikato, taken from Mt Pirongia (as seen below).
He then approached his teacher asking if she would ask me (he's really shy!) if he could have a copy of my picture, to use as the background of one of his calligraphy paintings. My photo is going to be a star! I am tickled pink by the idea of a picture taken on a beautiful NZ mountain will be used as the background for a traditional Japanese form of art.
I really really really hope I can get a copy! If nothing else, I will make sure I get a photo of his completed work. I'm so flattered!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The best and the worst
In my new tradition of writing two posts in one day when I get around to updating here, I wanted to share my day with you. I had two classes, both covering the same lesson (Shopping - something I consider myself pretty knowledgable about!).
The first class was with Nakamura-sensei, one of my favourite teachers to work with. I anticipated a fairly cruisy class, having a good time with the teacher. However, the game, variation on Bingo, dragged by. It depends on the losers standing up and receiting the alphabet as a 'punishment' - something the classes find either funny or dreadfully embarrassing. This class just found it awkward and uncool. There were miscommunications (am I the only one who doesn't know what a 'reach' in Bingo is??) and it was pretty much hell in a 3x3 grid. I was really releived to get that over and done with and I handed out the new vocabulary quiz. Only it WASN'T the new quiz! What I hadn't realised was that the other ALT who teaches on Tuesdays - using my lesson plan and class materials - had put my scrap paper (old quizzes) into my lesson folder, so I had handed out the wrong quiz! The students never said a word and it wasn't until they were finished and I was about to start giving the answers that I noticed it was titled with the wrong topic! Having wasted their time so badly, the rest of the class was a bit of a blur as I just hung out for the bell to ring, trying to focus on the rest of the lesson and not how I felt sorry for myself for looking like an incompetant dickhead in front of the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) and 20 students!
This did not bode well for the second class... My second class for the day is a class that is new to me. The other ALT had got into some kind of battle of wills with them; he told me that in 14 years in Japan he has never had such a frustrating class. They basically just talked straight over him, while their JTE didn't have the strength of character to control the rowdy class. If it sounds like I'm knocking him for not coping with them, I don't mean it at all. If there is anything I have learnt over the last year and a bit, it's a) that you never know what students are going to drive you crazy and b) once a student or group of students gets you worked all up, that's it, you're probably never going to get things smooth again. At my first school in Japan I mentioned to my boss that I was struggling with one particular group (about six kids, average age roughly 10. They once spent an entire half hour lesson laughing at my skirt. Apparently black skirts are funny??) and he straight away said he would try to avoid ever rostering me on with them. He said he also had a group he couldn't handle - hence why I taught them every Thursday evening! Anyway, the point of all that is that I'm NOT knocking the other ALT for letting them get him wound up (wind, wound... is that right?? Hey, both wind and wound have two different pronunciations with very different meanings. Man English is confusing...). But all the same, I was pretty darn nervous about taking them on. One part of me said (is still saying) "You're the new teacher! They'll be awesome for you... today." The other side of me said "What if they've enjoyed infuriating the ALT and intend to do it again for kicks?"
As the kids all filed in I got a number of "Charly!"s and one "Good morning!" (full marks for enthusiasm, but it was 1:30 in the afternoon). We did the game and they thought it was FUNNY singing the alphabet as punishment! Yay! They were getting into it and being a model class - which I was really releived about as no less than three senior staff members stuck their heads in during the lesson to check how things were going! The Head of English stayed the whole second half!
To continue with the lesson, they were then given the quiz. They did that and looked pleased at my marking system - students who speak up with the correct answer get a point on their little 'hanko charts' (when they complete the chart they get a certificate and a mini KitKat). We then moved onto practising the names of items of clothing in preparation for the shopping dialogue. Having taught the same activity this morning it was a dream run and they played straight into my hands (needing prompting for 'sweater' - although I explain the NZ word is sweatshirt - and explaining that the Japanese term 'short pants' gets shortened down to 'shorts'). They then completed the handout QUICKLY with enough time to practise in pairs. Despite looking unused to having to stand up and practise dialogue, they quickly did what they were told and, being a louder class, they really enjoyed activities which involved lots of speaking.
I felt like the cat that got the cream after, with their teacher and the Head of English looking at me with grateful relief because the class went so perfectly! I think everyone was at their wits end how to fix the situation, so the fact it has been resolved so well is a huge weight off their shoulders. Concerned about counting chickens before they hatch, I did say that if they gave me any trouble, I was sure it would be in a week or two, but the Head of English looked like he didn't really appreciate that suggestion, so I added quickly, "But I'm sure it'll be fine." I promised both of them that I would keep this 'noisy' class busy with speaking activities and that it would all be easy. Now as long as no-one from high up the food chain drops into any of my classes where I have to bang the whiteboard marker on the filing cabinet to get any attention, I get to go down in history as an Awesome ALT! Whoop whooop!
The first class was with Nakamura-sensei, one of my favourite teachers to work with. I anticipated a fairly cruisy class, having a good time with the teacher. However, the game, variation on Bingo, dragged by. It depends on the losers standing up and receiting the alphabet as a 'punishment' - something the classes find either funny or dreadfully embarrassing. This class just found it awkward and uncool. There were miscommunications (am I the only one who doesn't know what a 'reach' in Bingo is??) and it was pretty much hell in a 3x3 grid. I was really releived to get that over and done with and I handed out the new vocabulary quiz. Only it WASN'T the new quiz! What I hadn't realised was that the other ALT who teaches on Tuesdays - using my lesson plan and class materials - had put my scrap paper (old quizzes) into my lesson folder, so I had handed out the wrong quiz! The students never said a word and it wasn't until they were finished and I was about to start giving the answers that I noticed it was titled with the wrong topic! Having wasted their time so badly, the rest of the class was a bit of a blur as I just hung out for the bell to ring, trying to focus on the rest of the lesson and not how I felt sorry for myself for looking like an incompetant dickhead in front of the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) and 20 students!
This did not bode well for the second class... My second class for the day is a class that is new to me. The other ALT had got into some kind of battle of wills with them; he told me that in 14 years in Japan he has never had such a frustrating class. They basically just talked straight over him, while their JTE didn't have the strength of character to control the rowdy class. If it sounds like I'm knocking him for not coping with them, I don't mean it at all. If there is anything I have learnt over the last year and a bit, it's a) that you never know what students are going to drive you crazy and b) once a student or group of students gets you worked all up, that's it, you're probably never going to get things smooth again. At my first school in Japan I mentioned to my boss that I was struggling with one particular group (about six kids, average age roughly 10. They once spent an entire half hour lesson laughing at my skirt. Apparently black skirts are funny??) and he straight away said he would try to avoid ever rostering me on with them. He said he also had a group he couldn't handle - hence why I taught them every Thursday evening! Anyway, the point of all that is that I'm NOT knocking the other ALT for letting them get him wound up (wind, wound... is that right?? Hey, both wind and wound have two different pronunciations with very different meanings. Man English is confusing...). But all the same, I was pretty darn nervous about taking them on. One part of me said (is still saying) "You're the new teacher! They'll be awesome for you... today." The other side of me said "What if they've enjoyed infuriating the ALT and intend to do it again for kicks?"
As the kids all filed in I got a number of "Charly!"s and one "Good morning!" (full marks for enthusiasm, but it was 1:30 in the afternoon). We did the game and they thought it was FUNNY singing the alphabet as punishment! Yay! They were getting into it and being a model class - which I was really releived about as no less than three senior staff members stuck their heads in during the lesson to check how things were going! The Head of English stayed the whole second half!
To continue with the lesson, they were then given the quiz. They did that and looked pleased at my marking system - students who speak up with the correct answer get a point on their little 'hanko charts' (when they complete the chart they get a certificate and a mini KitKat). We then moved onto practising the names of items of clothing in preparation for the shopping dialogue. Having taught the same activity this morning it was a dream run and they played straight into my hands (needing prompting for 'sweater' - although I explain the NZ word is sweatshirt - and explaining that the Japanese term 'short pants' gets shortened down to 'shorts'). They then completed the handout QUICKLY with enough time to practise in pairs. Despite looking unused to having to stand up and practise dialogue, they quickly did what they were told and, being a louder class, they really enjoyed activities which involved lots of speaking.
I felt like the cat that got the cream after, with their teacher and the Head of English looking at me with grateful relief because the class went so perfectly! I think everyone was at their wits end how to fix the situation, so the fact it has been resolved so well is a huge weight off their shoulders. Concerned about counting chickens before they hatch, I did say that if they gave me any trouble, I was sure it would be in a week or two, but the Head of English looked like he didn't really appreciate that suggestion, so I added quickly, "But I'm sure it'll be fine." I promised both of them that I would keep this 'noisy' class busy with speaking activities and that it would all be easy. Now as long as no-one from high up the food chain drops into any of my classes where I have to bang the whiteboard marker on the filing cabinet to get any attention, I get to go down in history as an Awesome ALT! Whoop whooop!
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