I absolutely love creating my own lessons. And, although there have been some rough patches, my lessons are beginning to run smoothly.
But....first I must talk about aisatsu. there is always an aisatsu (or introduction). Awkward. Very awkward. The students are called to attention, bow, and say class is starting. Seems redundant, but it is necessary for the beginning of any class. They require the knowledge of a very specific and rehearsed dialog. This lack of crucial information leads to awkward silences, patient waiting until I start the class. And I try, I really do try. But, I guess sometimes my "good mornings" and "hellos" and "alrighties" and "um....so...." and "are we starting's?" don't always signal the beginning of class. What is the secret word? Please, please, let's start class. At least, for the beginning of class you can somewhat skip past the awkwardness when students don't repeat good morning or anything of that sort. "OK! Let's start!"
If possible, the end of class can be even worse. It took me for-freaking-ever to figure out that all I need to say is "Thank you, bye bye, see you!" This makes everyone happy. When I change the dialog slightly every falls into the dreaded awkward silence. Silence, waiting, the correct signal, the right words. And with my array of teachers accompanied by different teaching styles mean I can be directly told to do aisatsu, or I have to guess by the awkward silence it is my time to say "thank you! bye bye, see you!"
I say "see you" so much now that I can't even remember if I said it back home. Did I? Well, I do now. And I am afraid I am getting a Japanese twang "shii iyu".
Well, to get to the point of my post. I wanted to share something that happened in class. Something sad, but maybe mistranslated.
For Christmas I spared the usual, "This is what Christmas is about" speech (which they have heard from all other ALTs and instead I am focusing on Santa Claus in America. Something the students don't usually know is Santa strategically visits malls all across America in order to fulfill little children's Christmas wishes. They get super jealous that Santa comes to our malls, but not to worry! I am not trying to upset them, I tell them that not all kids visit Santa and the alternative is a letter. A clever way to get them to write English. They love writing letters to Santa, and I focus on the target "I want _____". For 4th grade and below they just have to fill in what they want in English or Japanese, but they have to write their name in the "from, _____" slot making them write some English characters (they usually can write their name and if not it is on their name cards). They love this and today the kids were so into it! They asked Santa for the most ridiculously creative things: submarines, islands, puppies, erasers, fighter jets, toys, helicopters, etc. So to finish the letter writing they give a presentation about what they want. And we went down the line, "I want a helicopter" "I want a DS!" and finally, "I want a father." "I want a father." I was so surprised, and sad. I didn't know how to respond but compliment her English. Nanoka-chan. She is such a darling, so spunky (she wears her hair in half a pony tail on the top of her head, making her hair stick straight up) and always smiling. It reminds me that these kids go through so much more outside of class that I don't see and that I don't understand. I wish that I could promise that Santa would bring her a father.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Teaching
What does an ALT do? Everything imaginable. Working at 9 different schools with…let’s see here… 7, 6, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2 for a total of 31 teachers, really shakes things up a bit. Not to mention that my classes range from 3 to 50 students. I would say, forming a routine has not exactly been an easy task. But, slowly I think that the cloud of chaos is settling into a comfortable state of continued confusion. I never know exactly what they expect, how good the kids are (they are really good at repeating, but not so good at producing random speech). Seriously, what is there motivation to learn English? And as a teacher I have gained a whole new perspective about being a pre-high school student.
I slept, talked loudly, passed notes, wrote on desks, didn’t try on my homework. Class was boring, notes fostered tighter friendship bonds, desks called out as huge creative spaces with limitless opportunities to complain or make someone laugh (and better yet they took a neat 3-dimensional twist once someone started to trace the same etch over and over), and homework was an after though completed only in the mornings or between commercial breaks. Of course, I didn’t always act out, there were some teachers I legitimately worked hard for, but it didn’t always mean my behavior was 100%. But, now I have crossed over to the other side. The teacher side, the side that has to put up with continually disrespect. And, I have to remind myself that students participating in “in-class recreation” aren’t directing it towards me. Now that I have crossed over I want a time machine. I want a time machine to go back and slap my silly disrespecting self. No teacher deserves disrespect even if they are horrible. I didn’t realize how easy it is to tell what everyone in the class is doing. On the student side it seems like your desk, the people in front of you, and the teachers attention will not be drawn to your distractions.
As a parrot for this lesson about travel, I took it upon myself to walk around the room when the teacher was explaining the grammar (so much for team teaching!).When I walked up to a student yesterday at Higashiura Elementary, I noticed (well I noticed before I walked to the desk) that she had masterfully drawn on a piece of paper a rendition of Japanese poop (it looks like the top of a soft serve ice cream cone). Right away when I walked up to her she covered it with her hand. I feel like I crossed the sacred boundary/shield students sitting toward the back of the room feel they are entitled to. She gave me a look like I violated her space. But, I didn’t take it away or tell the 6th grade teacher that she had been writing a note. My instinct to get angry at this girl mixed with sympathy. I remember in Spanish class when I innocently passed a note which the wide eyed Castellan teacher ripped from my desk (the last person that you want to read your letter). Her rage seemed out of control, it was just a note. Even worse, she threatened to read it in front of the class. She had violated my personal desk shield that my three rows back had entitled me. She even wanted to read the slander in the note to everyone in the class. The worst part out of it all was that my misplaced anger of her violation (nothing was my fault back then) rapidly deteriorated my own interest in Spanish. I took it personally.
Strangely I now understand her side. I felt the same passionate urge to take the poop note and ask if she liked poop in front of the class. I wanted to make her feel belittled so she wouldn’t do it again. Hypocritical. I feel like to be good teacher (assistant teacher), and one that the kids want to work for and respect, I cannot forget my own feelings as a student. As an assistant do I have more leeway to acknowledge that she was even writing a note? Did this make her upset that I saw her deviancy? Out of respect for possible controversy of notes, I let her keep it. As a warning I gave her a look to tell her not to let me catch her again. Maybe it is good that she learns to be more careful if she wants to step out of line. I want to teach these kids something that they will remember!
They are bored. So bored with English. Bored because the government makes the 5th and 6th graders use an English Notebook (eigo- nooto). Everything is chanting, presentation activities, and activities that foster bad English. The book teaches bad English. The philosophy is that some things in English are too hard for the kids to pick up, so we will teach them a Japanified version that they will understand.
I slept, talked loudly, passed notes, wrote on desks, didn’t try on my homework. Class was boring, notes fostered tighter friendship bonds, desks called out as huge creative spaces with limitless opportunities to complain or make someone laugh (and better yet they took a neat 3-dimensional twist once someone started to trace the same etch over and over), and homework was an after though completed only in the mornings or between commercial breaks. Of course, I didn’t always act out, there were some teachers I legitimately worked hard for, but it didn’t always mean my behavior was 100%. But, now I have crossed over to the other side. The teacher side, the side that has to put up with continually disrespect. And, I have to remind myself that students participating in “in-class recreation” aren’t directing it towards me. Now that I have crossed over I want a time machine. I want a time machine to go back and slap my silly disrespecting self. No teacher deserves disrespect even if they are horrible. I didn’t realize how easy it is to tell what everyone in the class is doing. On the student side it seems like your desk, the people in front of you, and the teachers attention will not be drawn to your distractions.
As a parrot for this lesson about travel, I took it upon myself to walk around the room when the teacher was explaining the grammar (so much for team teaching!).When I walked up to a student yesterday at Higashiura Elementary, I noticed (well I noticed before I walked to the desk) that she had masterfully drawn on a piece of paper a rendition of Japanese poop (it looks like the top of a soft serve ice cream cone). Right away when I walked up to her she covered it with her hand. I feel like I crossed the sacred boundary/shield students sitting toward the back of the room feel they are entitled to. She gave me a look like I violated her space. But, I didn’t take it away or tell the 6th grade teacher that she had been writing a note. My instinct to get angry at this girl mixed with sympathy. I remember in Spanish class when I innocently passed a note which the wide eyed Castellan teacher ripped from my desk (the last person that you want to read your letter). Her rage seemed out of control, it was just a note. Even worse, she threatened to read it in front of the class. She had violated my personal desk shield that my three rows back had entitled me. She even wanted to read the slander in the note to everyone in the class. The worst part out of it all was that my misplaced anger of her violation (nothing was my fault back then) rapidly deteriorated my own interest in Spanish. I took it personally.
Strangely I now understand her side. I felt the same passionate urge to take the poop note and ask if she liked poop in front of the class. I wanted to make her feel belittled so she wouldn’t do it again. Hypocritical. I feel like to be good teacher (assistant teacher), and one that the kids want to work for and respect, I cannot forget my own feelings as a student. As an assistant do I have more leeway to acknowledge that she was even writing a note? Did this make her upset that I saw her deviancy? Out of respect for possible controversy of notes, I let her keep it. As a warning I gave her a look to tell her not to let me catch her again. Maybe it is good that she learns to be more careful if she wants to step out of line. I want to teach these kids something that they will remember!
They are bored. So bored with English. Bored because the government makes the 5th and 6th graders use an English Notebook (eigo- nooto). Everything is chanting, presentation activities, and activities that foster bad English. The book teaches bad English. The philosophy is that some things in English are too hard for the kids to pick up, so we will teach them a Japanified version that they will understand.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Size Medium or Small for your gleen hoot?
Today, as I rushed to get ready for my kindergarten class (so adorable!), the volleyball coach approached my about "night volley" -pronounced naito bolee. As he mentioned before, I need to buy the uniform, of course, to join the team. Not a problem I don't mind TOO much that I end up dishing out lots of money for "optional" office events - such as enkais - and shirts. But what I DO mind that I HAVE to get used to, is giving me two choices when the correct answer, when they expect a premeditated response. Tabata sensei present a choice of sizes, "EEETO, Eidorian-sesei ne...EEETO, naito bolee ne..." (the "ne"s are like conversational glue such as "like", and in this case he was probably trying to figure out how to achieve a desirable answer from me). "Hai." (yes I am listening) "Eto ne, naito bolee no uniformu ne nani saizu ga iin desu ka ne?" (um so, what size is good for night volley?) "Sa, saizu ga otouko no hito no saizu desu ka?" (Well, is it a men's size?) "Un" (Yes) "Okay, sumaru saizu onegaishimasu" (Okay, a small size please) ........Pause....... (This means no!) "Emu ga iin ja nai n desu ka?" (Is Medium not a good size?) I caught on!!! He had never wanted me to say I wanted a small size. Everyone here wears super baggy shirts, but I want mine to be wearable outside of sports. Then not only Tabata sensei, but Kochou sensei (my principle) went into a lengthy explanation about how "in American women wear tighter shirts..." Awkward. I never really wear shirts any tighter or any lower than any of the other females in the office. But, I was running late and I didn't want to fight it. I asked what all the other women bought, and they had bought mediums. Since I am paying a lot for the shirt, I should have battled for a good fitting size because I know from buying a small for sport's day that it is loose fitting. A medium will no doubt be too big and I won't ever want to wear it outside of the several weeks of night volley. So the whole point of my telling this really insignificant and two minute conversation was to point out that I had no choice in the matter, which happens a lot. I am sometimes asked to choose, but the unspoken rule is that everyone should know what to say ahead of time. Before I didn't know the script. So, I wonder why they even ask everyone sizes when they know everyone will say medium? My speculation is that scripted conversation acts as a ceremonial reminder that I will pay for night volley. Maybe it asking for my size is a last minute chance to change your mind and say, "Oh no I don't want a shirt because I am too busy for night volley." Size didn't actually seem to be what Tabata sensei asked me. Oh I have yet to mature my infantile social pragmatics.
Success at kindergarten. Only three kindergarteners at Sakiura Kindergarten. I told the best story ever to the kids. My job: translate the story into English. Easy, and I embellished a bit and the moral was: If kids stay up having fun past midnight they will be taken away to the ghost land and be turned into a ghost forever. Cute as buttons they all looked like they were going to cry and quickly explained how they all go to bed around 9 o'clock. Poor kids, but I had fun telling the story.
Obviously, they could imitate my English almost perfectly, but the kindergarten teachers I think retarded their pronunciation advancements. I would pronounce something like, "green" and they would over-articulate and assume that the "r" I said was actually "l" because they assume it is "l" if they are unsure. So they kept saying, "GLLLEEEEN." And I have to admit this frustrates me a bit. I try so incredibly hard to get the kids to acquire a good pronunciation before katakana English (Japanified English pronunciation: ai laiku apuruzu (i like apples) ). Alas, the kids instead of watching my mouth would watch the two teachers who (in my opinion) had some of the worst accents I have encountered. The poor kids got so confused with green, but I explained to the adults that you don't use your tongue for green. That helped. But, the poor kids when we learned "foot" at first did a great job, but started to pronounce it "hoot" because the two teachers used the Japanese "fu" which is more like "hu" because they don't actually use teeth when pronouncing "fu". So I am ashamed to say that my kids would walk around saying, "gleen hoot" and think they have a perfect accent. I wish teachers would stop trying to pronounce things to the kids, it just screws them up. This happens in other classes. I just need to correct the adult language or tell them not to speak after me, just the kids.
Success at kindergarten. Only three kindergarteners at Sakiura Kindergarten. I told the best story ever to the kids. My job: translate the story into English. Easy, and I embellished a bit and the moral was: If kids stay up having fun past midnight they will be taken away to the ghost land and be turned into a ghost forever. Cute as buttons they all looked like they were going to cry and quickly explained how they all go to bed around 9 o'clock. Poor kids, but I had fun telling the story.
Obviously, they could imitate my English almost perfectly, but the kindergarten teachers I think retarded their pronunciation advancements. I would pronounce something like, "green" and they would over-articulate and assume that the "r" I said was actually "l" because they assume it is "l" if they are unsure. So they kept saying, "GLLLEEEEN." And I have to admit this frustrates me a bit. I try so incredibly hard to get the kids to acquire a good pronunciation before katakana English (Japanified English pronunciation: ai laiku apuruzu (i like apples) ). Alas, the kids instead of watching my mouth would watch the two teachers who (in my opinion) had some of the worst accents I have encountered. The poor kids got so confused with green, but I explained to the adults that you don't use your tongue for green. That helped. But, the poor kids when we learned "foot" at first did a great job, but started to pronounce it "hoot" because the two teachers used the Japanese "fu" which is more like "hu" because they don't actually use teeth when pronouncing "fu". So I am ashamed to say that my kids would walk around saying, "gleen hoot" and think they have a perfect accent. I wish teachers would stop trying to pronounce things to the kids, it just screws them up. This happens in other classes. I just need to correct the adult language or tell them not to speak after me, just the kids.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Back and here to stay
Since I haven't posted in so long, I feel intimidated to start again. I have the long and daunting task of updates. I will try and keep them shot and sweet to encourage people to start reading my blog again.
Already have:
1. made a girl cry in class
2. been told I look fat
3. been open water scuba diving
4. caught lots of fish (inspiration from the new blog name came from Robin, thnx)
5. done a sports day
6. gone to a dutch theme park in Japan
7. gone to 7 out of 9 schools so far
8. eaten whale!!
9. learned how to cut sashimi by myself
10. started to play the taiko drums
11. started adult conversation classes
12. gone camping on an abandoned island
I will expand on more as the days go by! I haven't posted for a whole month...bad Adriene.
My new idea, lets see if it is possible, is to spend as little money on food at the store as possible and fish most of my meals. I made it last week only spending 20 dollars at the grocery store (go Adriene!). This week I only want to spend 15 and see if I can get away with it. If I buy cabbage, some cucumbers, eggs, apples, and bananas it is definitely doable. Wish me luck with my budgeting. If I am successful, it will save me around 230 dollars (which is about two days of scuba diving!)
Already have:
1. made a girl cry in class
2. been told I look fat
3. been open water scuba diving
4. caught lots of fish (inspiration from the new blog name came from Robin, thnx)
5. done a sports day
6. gone to a dutch theme park in Japan
7. gone to 7 out of 9 schools so far
8. eaten whale!!
9. learned how to cut sashimi by myself
10. started to play the taiko drums
11. started adult conversation classes
12. gone camping on an abandoned island
I will expand on more as the days go by! I haven't posted for a whole month...bad Adriene.
My new idea, lets see if it is possible, is to spend as little money on food at the store as possible and fish most of my meals. I made it last week only spending 20 dollars at the grocery store (go Adriene!). This week I only want to spend 15 and see if I can get away with it. If I buy cabbage, some cucumbers, eggs, apples, and bananas it is definitely doable. Wish me luck with my budgeting. If I am successful, it will save me around 230 dollars (which is about two days of scuba diving!)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Nagasaki Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/adriene.giese/8_28_09NagasakiOrientation?authkey=Gv1sRgCLmVlN2l48C0Qg&feat=directlink
My photos from Nagasaki. I will write everything later.
My photos from Nagasaki. I will write everything later.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
booze and kindergarten
I guess I haven’t talked about my junior high school’s enkai, or welcome party. It happened last Friday. And of course, I completely messed up the time it started. Well I showed up slightly late, not too bad. But still, I strolled in a good fifteen minutes late for the party that they threw for me. Even though it was my welcome party, I still had to pay them 3000 yen ($30) for the meal. Everyone has to pay. And everyone has to pay every time that the teachers have a party. So I have to budget for one more thing because enkais are mandatory optional events. By mandatory I mean that if I want to foster good ongoing relationships with my office people I need to drink with them. Bottom line I need to booze it up. Don’t worry. I have learned how to look like I am drinking without actually drinking a lot, which requires skill.
If you are not careful at an enkai, your glass will keep refilling magically. As soon as you take a sip five people rush to grab the closest drink and fill your cup up to the brim, whether your cup is full beer or hard liquor. This brings me to rule number one: stick to beer. Drinking beer ensures that your blood alcohol levels are lower than if you drink nihon-shuu (what we refer to as sake) or sho-yuu (Japanese potato wine). With the first rule in mind, it is possible to avoid disaster because if you are like me, you keep drinking anything that is in front of you. As a habit I will drink anything put in front of my at a restaurant. This started with water, but I absent mindedly sip my drinks until they empty. Why? I have no idea, but even with water this because a problem because my bladder fills up quickly and then I have to make innumerable trips to the bathroom. I treat alcohol in a glass like water not because I want to get drunk, but because I don’t realize I am doing this. So, my dangerous habit combined with everyone refilling my drink I get into a vicious cycle that never ends. I can’t stop drinking, but I don’t realize that I am doing it. Solution (and second rule) have either a cup of water or cup of soda along with your beer cup. I can satisfy my constant drinking habit with the soda and not drink too much alcohol. Rule one: ask for beer and rule two: have a non alcoholic drink.
If you have to break rule one (only beer) then you can still maintain sobriety by leaving some sake in your glass. VERY IMPORTANT to leave at least a little. When your Japanese friend sees it empty your glass will be refilled before you can refuse. I think their refilling system kind of works like meerkats. A sentry, “or booze master” also looks out for empty glasses, and this duty seems to shift throughout the night. I am making this up to explain how dangerous drinking with Japanese can be. You are never safely able to finish a glass. BEWARE. I escaped booze disaster my enkai night, but I am lucky that I have played their game before. Making mistakes previously (and bad headaches) enlightened me, and I am now very careful.
The food was absolutely amazing. There was sashimi, tempura, yakiniku, fried fish, edamame, and soup. So, I started with the sashimi of course. I surprised everyone that I could eat everything, and that I like Japanese food. Every time I have mentioned that I like sashimi Japanese people look very impressed. They actually don’t realize that people consume sashimi regularly outside of Japan (which goes to show how egocentric they are). I can tell they don’t believe me when I tell them lots of people eat sashimi in the states. So strange that they can’t imagine foreigners eating Japanese food. Because in my opinion raw fish isn’t that big of a deal. Europeans have traditionally had the smoked salmon, and that is basically raw. Their amazement just reflects the thought that foreigners can’t do or understand Japanese things: food included. So when I used my chopsticks I kept getting, “Oh you are so good with chopstick.” Yes, people in America can use chopsticks. Yes, people in America know about manga and anime. We have heard about some parts of Japanese culture. But, almost everyone knows stereotypical cultural tidbits.
They made a list of questions for me which was by far the most awkward part of the enkai. Some questions asked about my birthday or about what I like about Arikawa. But then they asked me to guess the ages of the male workers. What? The worst part about this was I had forgotten my glasses. My vision significantly hindered my decision making abilities. So this tiny exercise turned into a horrible mistake. There are only five of men in the office and most look around the same age. Since they asked me to do this I didn’t think it was a big deal (after two beers why worry?) and I started selecting. For certain I knew the youngest and the oldest so fill in the rest. But what to do? I had to judge but I couldn’t base my decision on sight because I couldn’t tell easily with visual cues (I was blind after all). I guessed that the vice principal was second oldest because of the age-related hierarchy in business. However, I couldn’t decide for two men how old they were. I guessed the secretary was second youngest and that the assistant director was as old as the principle. ERRRRRR, wrong. The assistant director actually was second youngest. Oops He looks old! Nakamura sensei turned to me and said, “Be careful.” TOO LATE. I had already blundered and I couldn’t take it back. I felt so bad but everyone else thought it was funny. So two huge errors on the night of my enkai: I was late and I made someone (second youngest!) feel really old.
Look through my captions on picasa to see how my weekend went http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/adriene.giese/8_23_09SumoAndNarao?authkey=Gv1sRgCLuwhczj0ObGfg&feat=directlink . I went to an elementary sumo-wrestling tournament and to Narao on the southside of the island to visit Shinju.
Monday, oh joy, a day with none other than my most favorite person on the island! Yup, Toki. Oh my what a day it was. I had great plans for Monday: 8:30-9:30 read linguistic papers on vowels, 9:30-10:30 organize bills and finances, 10:30 – 11:30 continue lesson plans, 11:30- 12:00 blog, 12:00 -12:30 lunch, 12:30- 2:30 med school essays, 2:30- 3:30 study Japanese, 3:30 – 4:15 english board. But my lofty goals suddenly came crashing down when I realized that Monday I had the last half of the day with Toki going to the different elementary schools.
When he showed up he looked flustered. I think, like me, he doesn’t look forward of our time together. In my defense, I really don’t ask him to do very much and he doesn’t tell me anything. I think that he wants to save face, and so he doesn’t enjoy time together because he feels like his English should be better. And it should be in his position. He can’t articulate anything in English to me at all. When he does he often misleads me. So, he just avoids telling me anything at all. For example, he failed inform me that I am also working at kindergartens once a week. But, I had to figure this out for myself and here is how.
We went to the first elementary school Sakiura. At this point I was in a bad mood because I was sitting the car with Toki who smelled like BO and he was making weird breathing noises. It was right after lunch (my down time) and my natural demeanor after lunch tends to fall into the category of sluggish and moody which has nothing to do with Toki. I lack my usual zest. So post-lunch Toki time drags me deeper into a bad state of mind.
At Sakiura he pulled out a schedule to give to the principle, vice principle, and JTE. (WGO) On it, I noticed that new kanji (Japanese characters) appeared at the top of the schedule. He began discussing the schedule while pointing to various circles placed in sections of the spread sheet. I also noticed that new dates appeared that were never on the school schedule I was given. With some consideration I started to realize this new schedule meant I had more dates at these elementary schools and less dates at Arikawa junior high school. Strange. Strange because I have already laid out my schedule (not in stone). So like a responsible employee I asked what the new schedule had to do with me. Oh, I didn’t know? I was going to be working mandatorily with kindergartens. Wait what? Toki hadn’t mentioned anything about three kindergartens before this. Not only that but I am supposed to go to a different kindergarten every Monday and go to the corresponding elementary school that afternoon. I tried to not be upset but I told him in front of the Sakiura people that he hadn’t informed me of this beforehand. Sakiura people looked sympathetic and tried to explain to me my schedule because Toki had failed to do so.
On that day I was furious. I couldn’t believe that he was trying to take advantage of me as an ALT and spread my duties thin. Well, re-read my contract and I do have to work at kindergartens. Also, there is a clause stating that my supervisor can assign me duties that the board of education deems necessary. I don’t think that they will really try and have me do too much, but it is somewhat disconcerting to know that they can make me do whatever they want me to. My understand is the have to make me do extra things during work hours, but in my description they told me I have adult conversation classes. I keep asking Toki when they start and he told me that the adult classes didn’t fit into his job description. Yes they do. His job is to make sure that we are comfortable and taken care of during our time here. Since I have no idea who to contact, wouldn’t it be a good idea for him to call? We figured it out without him, but I am starting to resent his inability to be useful.
On a happy note, the rest of the elementary school visits went well. Everyone boosted my confidence in Japanese (because I could actually understand them unlike Toki) and I got tea at every place. Drinking so much tea nearly made my bladed explode but I love getting refreshments everywhere I go.
One last thing, I have decided that I will do the iron man triathlon next summer here in Shinkamigoto. If I can do it I will feel pretty bad ass.
If you are not careful at an enkai, your glass will keep refilling magically. As soon as you take a sip five people rush to grab the closest drink and fill your cup up to the brim, whether your cup is full beer or hard liquor. This brings me to rule number one: stick to beer. Drinking beer ensures that your blood alcohol levels are lower than if you drink nihon-shuu (what we refer to as sake) or sho-yuu (Japanese potato wine). With the first rule in mind, it is possible to avoid disaster because if you are like me, you keep drinking anything that is in front of you. As a habit I will drink anything put in front of my at a restaurant. This started with water, but I absent mindedly sip my drinks until they empty. Why? I have no idea, but even with water this because a problem because my bladder fills up quickly and then I have to make innumerable trips to the bathroom. I treat alcohol in a glass like water not because I want to get drunk, but because I don’t realize I am doing this. So, my dangerous habit combined with everyone refilling my drink I get into a vicious cycle that never ends. I can’t stop drinking, but I don’t realize that I am doing it. Solution (and second rule) have either a cup of water or cup of soda along with your beer cup. I can satisfy my constant drinking habit with the soda and not drink too much alcohol. Rule one: ask for beer and rule two: have a non alcoholic drink.
If you have to break rule one (only beer) then you can still maintain sobriety by leaving some sake in your glass. VERY IMPORTANT to leave at least a little. When your Japanese friend sees it empty your glass will be refilled before you can refuse. I think their refilling system kind of works like meerkats. A sentry, “or booze master” also looks out for empty glasses, and this duty seems to shift throughout the night. I am making this up to explain how dangerous drinking with Japanese can be. You are never safely able to finish a glass. BEWARE. I escaped booze disaster my enkai night, but I am lucky that I have played their game before. Making mistakes previously (and bad headaches) enlightened me, and I am now very careful.
The food was absolutely amazing. There was sashimi, tempura, yakiniku, fried fish, edamame, and soup. So, I started with the sashimi of course. I surprised everyone that I could eat everything, and that I like Japanese food. Every time I have mentioned that I like sashimi Japanese people look very impressed. They actually don’t realize that people consume sashimi regularly outside of Japan (which goes to show how egocentric they are). I can tell they don’t believe me when I tell them lots of people eat sashimi in the states. So strange that they can’t imagine foreigners eating Japanese food. Because in my opinion raw fish isn’t that big of a deal. Europeans have traditionally had the smoked salmon, and that is basically raw. Their amazement just reflects the thought that foreigners can’t do or understand Japanese things: food included. So when I used my chopsticks I kept getting, “Oh you are so good with chopstick.” Yes, people in America can use chopsticks. Yes, people in America know about manga and anime. We have heard about some parts of Japanese culture. But, almost everyone knows stereotypical cultural tidbits.
They made a list of questions for me which was by far the most awkward part of the enkai. Some questions asked about my birthday or about what I like about Arikawa. But then they asked me to guess the ages of the male workers. What? The worst part about this was I had forgotten my glasses. My vision significantly hindered my decision making abilities. So this tiny exercise turned into a horrible mistake. There are only five of men in the office and most look around the same age. Since they asked me to do this I didn’t think it was a big deal (after two beers why worry?) and I started selecting. For certain I knew the youngest and the oldest so fill in the rest. But what to do? I had to judge but I couldn’t base my decision on sight because I couldn’t tell easily with visual cues (I was blind after all). I guessed that the vice principal was second oldest because of the age-related hierarchy in business. However, I couldn’t decide for two men how old they were. I guessed the secretary was second youngest and that the assistant director was as old as the principle. ERRRRRR, wrong. The assistant director actually was second youngest. Oops He looks old! Nakamura sensei turned to me and said, “Be careful.” TOO LATE. I had already blundered and I couldn’t take it back. I felt so bad but everyone else thought it was funny. So two huge errors on the night of my enkai: I was late and I made someone (second youngest!) feel really old.
Look through my captions on picasa to see how my weekend went http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/adriene.giese/8_23_09SumoAndNarao?authkey=Gv1sRgCLuwhczj0ObGfg&feat=directlink . I went to an elementary sumo-wrestling tournament and to Narao on the southside of the island to visit Shinju.
Monday, oh joy, a day with none other than my most favorite person on the island! Yup, Toki. Oh my what a day it was. I had great plans for Monday: 8:30-9:30 read linguistic papers on vowels, 9:30-10:30 organize bills and finances, 10:30 – 11:30 continue lesson plans, 11:30- 12:00 blog, 12:00 -12:30 lunch, 12:30- 2:30 med school essays, 2:30- 3:30 study Japanese, 3:30 – 4:15 english board. But my lofty goals suddenly came crashing down when I realized that Monday I had the last half of the day with Toki going to the different elementary schools.
When he showed up he looked flustered. I think, like me, he doesn’t look forward of our time together. In my defense, I really don’t ask him to do very much and he doesn’t tell me anything. I think that he wants to save face, and so he doesn’t enjoy time together because he feels like his English should be better. And it should be in his position. He can’t articulate anything in English to me at all. When he does he often misleads me. So, he just avoids telling me anything at all. For example, he failed inform me that I am also working at kindergartens once a week. But, I had to figure this out for myself and here is how.
We went to the first elementary school Sakiura. At this point I was in a bad mood because I was sitting the car with Toki who smelled like BO and he was making weird breathing noises. It was right after lunch (my down time) and my natural demeanor after lunch tends to fall into the category of sluggish and moody which has nothing to do with Toki. I lack my usual zest. So post-lunch Toki time drags me deeper into a bad state of mind.
At Sakiura he pulled out a schedule to give to the principle, vice principle, and JTE. (WGO) On it, I noticed that new kanji (Japanese characters) appeared at the top of the schedule. He began discussing the schedule while pointing to various circles placed in sections of the spread sheet. I also noticed that new dates appeared that were never on the school schedule I was given. With some consideration I started to realize this new schedule meant I had more dates at these elementary schools and less dates at Arikawa junior high school. Strange. Strange because I have already laid out my schedule (not in stone). So like a responsible employee I asked what the new schedule had to do with me. Oh, I didn’t know? I was going to be working mandatorily with kindergartens. Wait what? Toki hadn’t mentioned anything about three kindergartens before this. Not only that but I am supposed to go to a different kindergarten every Monday and go to the corresponding elementary school that afternoon. I tried to not be upset but I told him in front of the Sakiura people that he hadn’t informed me of this beforehand. Sakiura people looked sympathetic and tried to explain to me my schedule because Toki had failed to do so.
On that day I was furious. I couldn’t believe that he was trying to take advantage of me as an ALT and spread my duties thin. Well, re-read my contract and I do have to work at kindergartens. Also, there is a clause stating that my supervisor can assign me duties that the board of education deems necessary. I don’t think that they will really try and have me do too much, but it is somewhat disconcerting to know that they can make me do whatever they want me to. My understand is the have to make me do extra things during work hours, but in my description they told me I have adult conversation classes. I keep asking Toki when they start and he told me that the adult classes didn’t fit into his job description. Yes they do. His job is to make sure that we are comfortable and taken care of during our time here. Since I have no idea who to contact, wouldn’t it be a good idea for him to call? We figured it out without him, but I am starting to resent his inability to be useful.
On a happy note, the rest of the elementary school visits went well. Everyone boosted my confidence in Japanese (because I could actually understand them unlike Toki) and I got tea at every place. Drinking so much tea nearly made my bladed explode but I love getting refreshments everywhere I go.
One last thing, I have decided that I will do the iron man triathlon next summer here in Shinkamigoto. If I can do it I will feel pretty bad ass.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
WGO's
I don’t want anyone to think that I am complaining all the time. However, what stands out to me usually has some type of culture shock value. The more I am here the more I realize how American I am.
For instance, a Japanese person will complain about the heat while wearing long gloves that go up to their elbows. But they sacrifice temperature to make sure they don’t tan. So different from America where most people try to take advantage of any sun available. I remember this summer I tried so hard to get tan (with little result), but in Japan women want to be paler. Women in particular apply bleach creams and wear sleeves in order to look sexier for member of the opposite sex. From my point of view I think it is crazy because I associate pale with sickly, but they associate pale with beauty. Well I guess many Japanese men will find me sexy because I can’t get tan even if I want to. One point on the Japanese attractiveness scale for Adriene, but many points deducted for not being petite. Don’t worry I am not calling myself “fat” but honestly even the bigger Japanese girls are smaller than me.
So about this week. Well, how should I put it…I feel like a blind person being led by a group of mutes who point to things but forget about my condition: I can’t see the direction they’re pointing. I don’t understand what happens most of the time and no one really takes time to fill me in. One mute, not hard to guess, is Toki-san, and the others are my colleagues at school. Toki-san (god bless his soul) still hasn’t been able to fully inform me about events. Either he forgets or assumes I know, but none-the-less there’s lots of miscommunication. For instance, he failed to tell me about a meeting I had yesterday. So, I had made plans to take a day of summer vacation and scuba dive. But, he called on Wednesday to “remind” me. Well Nakamura-sensei tried to help and asked to cancel it, but apparently it couldn’t be. Something something about my elementary school teachers? They would come to my school? And Nakamura sensei was also surprised I didn’t know and thought that she had told me. Furthermore they tried to blame it on me by saying that it said “clearly” (in complicated Japanese characters) on a sheet that I had an appointment. How was I supposed to figure that out? Toki-san, seriously, inform me! In the end Nakamura sensei apologized and told me that I should have been told in advance. So I rescheduled with Nice Buddy for next week, but I still felt horrible about cancelling so suddenly.
Yesterday when I expected to be greeted by the principles at my school, a BOE (board of education) member came to pick me up. Huh, what? And when I got to the BOE Kelly, Shinju, and Robin were all waiting. They had the same questions as me, “What are we doing here? Where are the principles?” Soon we found out it was literally a five minute meeting. The “meeting” of the elementary school principles ended being an introduction in front of all the principles of not just my school but all of the others as well. So no meeting. It looked like a UN conference the way the tables were set up in this gym. Individual tables were lined up in three columns and each table had a name plate of the school. Arikawa elementary school principle happened to be seated right in front of where I was told to stand. We all stood in a line (the four of us ALTs) and each stepped forward to give our introduction. My day of scuba cancelled for, “Hello, My name is Adriene, I like sports, I studied linguistics in college, thank you very much.” But, Japanese are very much into ceremony so it makes sense why this was so important. To me, it seemed unnecessary, but I have a lot to learn about the importance of self introductions. I have given but each time Toki-san reads our information first so why do we have to repeat everything?
The same thing happened when meeting the board of education and the mayor. The BOE meetings basically reflected the principle meeting (but the BOE meeting happened first). Like I described earlier, when all of us ALTs gather we couldn’t predict what to expect. Toki-san never told us to prepare a self-introduction. Metaphorically, my blindness prevented the sight to see his mute gesturing. Toki-san might have told me beforehand, but when he gets nervous he starts speaking in really fast Japanese. Fast complicated Japanese that I just don’t understand yet. Funny enough he even does this to Kelly even though he knows that she can’t understand any Japanese.
I am going to title my unknowing moments as WGO’s (what’s going on?). Well another WGO just happened sitting at my desk writing my blog. All of a sudden students flooded in an all the teachers told me to clean. Cleaning time! What? And this morning when I walked into another WGO when all the teachers rushed out of the teacher’s lounge and they told me there was a school assembly. Why can’t I get a schedule? I am so confused. Yesterday I was getting ready to leave when all the teachers walked outside and told me it was time to pick grass on the brick driveway in front of the school. WGO? Mind you, I had dressed nicely that day in preparation of my meeting the principles and so my outfit was hardly suited for gardening. They gave me a bent thick wire and set me to work using this wire to dig weeds out of the cracks. Any heard of weed killer? I guess not. During this weed hooking I almost got bit by a mukade! Dangerous and poisonous, mukades are the Japanese centipede.
No gloves and without regard, I reached for a small weed. As soon as I touched a leaf a mukade about four inches long furiously scurried out from its hiding place! I screamed, and everyone of course turned towards me. I yelled, “MUKADE!” And several teachers ran over asking if I had been bitten. Luckily I escaped the poisonous bite. My brave JTE Takase sensei crushed the mukade with her foot. But that thing wouldn’t die. She had to step on it at least five times with powerful blows before it stopped moving. My life had flashed before my eyes and my heart started beating out of my chest. I wish I could explain how much I fear the mukade. Even though that was the first time I saw one, I don’t want to be bitten. I live in fear of them and as such I shake out my shoes every morning and I shake out my sheets. Better safe than sorry. But, I had not expected the mukade to come charging from under a small weed. I have to be even more careful than I thought. I live in fear.
Meeting the mayor was formal, but relaxed. He had us sit down, gave us delicious tea and presents. Cute little whale key chains and his card. Each card had a different place on the island with Catholic significance. I think he told us that he would take us by boat to a place called Saint Maria cave on the island. Missing my opportunity to ask about where I can go to church, I hope he does take us by boat so I can ask him again.
One more WGO. Preface- toki-san told us all to dress formally for the day’s events. After the two meetings on Wednesday we had our enkai (party). Usually this takes place at a restaurant, so we didn’t feel the need to change out of our clothes. Toki drove us to a place I am calling nowhere. At this nowhere we got out of the car and he handed us things from his trunk. OH, a BBQ! Finally we understood why we drove away from civilization, our enkai was a BBQ not at a restaurant. So at nowhere we climbed a steep staircase and ended up on the most beautiful hill and the perfect time of day when the sun cast a beautiful warm glow over everything. Dragon flies darted around our heads and we could see all the way to the neighboring island Ojika. Beautiful, but wrong. Are you surprised that Toki-san couldn’t get us to the right place? Soon he herded us back down the mountain and this time made it to the BBQ area.
Soon all the other BOE people showed up. And they all wore casual clothes and jeans. It was a BBQ of course. Oh Toki-san. Outside in formal wear was not my idea of a good time. I didn’t want to ruin my pants! Well I guess we couldn’t have changed if we wanted to because Toki-san didn’t tell us to bring an extra change of clothes.
My life continues to be one big WGO right now, constantly. Maybe I’ll catch on, but I feel like things will continually happen that I don’t expect. Either people don’t bother explaining because they feel like we won’t understand or they assume that our American social pragmatics match Japanese ones.
For instance, a Japanese person will complain about the heat while wearing long gloves that go up to their elbows. But they sacrifice temperature to make sure they don’t tan. So different from America where most people try to take advantage of any sun available. I remember this summer I tried so hard to get tan (with little result), but in Japan women want to be paler. Women in particular apply bleach creams and wear sleeves in order to look sexier for member of the opposite sex. From my point of view I think it is crazy because I associate pale with sickly, but they associate pale with beauty. Well I guess many Japanese men will find me sexy because I can’t get tan even if I want to. One point on the Japanese attractiveness scale for Adriene, but many points deducted for not being petite. Don’t worry I am not calling myself “fat” but honestly even the bigger Japanese girls are smaller than me.
So about this week. Well, how should I put it…I feel like a blind person being led by a group of mutes who point to things but forget about my condition: I can’t see the direction they’re pointing. I don’t understand what happens most of the time and no one really takes time to fill me in. One mute, not hard to guess, is Toki-san, and the others are my colleagues at school. Toki-san (god bless his soul) still hasn’t been able to fully inform me about events. Either he forgets or assumes I know, but none-the-less there’s lots of miscommunication. For instance, he failed to tell me about a meeting I had yesterday. So, I had made plans to take a day of summer vacation and scuba dive. But, he called on Wednesday to “remind” me. Well Nakamura-sensei tried to help and asked to cancel it, but apparently it couldn’t be. Something something about my elementary school teachers? They would come to my school? And Nakamura sensei was also surprised I didn’t know and thought that she had told me. Furthermore they tried to blame it on me by saying that it said “clearly” (in complicated Japanese characters) on a sheet that I had an appointment. How was I supposed to figure that out? Toki-san, seriously, inform me! In the end Nakamura sensei apologized and told me that I should have been told in advance. So I rescheduled with Nice Buddy for next week, but I still felt horrible about cancelling so suddenly.
Yesterday when I expected to be greeted by the principles at my school, a BOE (board of education) member came to pick me up. Huh, what? And when I got to the BOE Kelly, Shinju, and Robin were all waiting. They had the same questions as me, “What are we doing here? Where are the principles?” Soon we found out it was literally a five minute meeting. The “meeting” of the elementary school principles ended being an introduction in front of all the principles of not just my school but all of the others as well. So no meeting. It looked like a UN conference the way the tables were set up in this gym. Individual tables were lined up in three columns and each table had a name plate of the school. Arikawa elementary school principle happened to be seated right in front of where I was told to stand. We all stood in a line (the four of us ALTs) and each stepped forward to give our introduction. My day of scuba cancelled for, “Hello, My name is Adriene, I like sports, I studied linguistics in college, thank you very much.” But, Japanese are very much into ceremony so it makes sense why this was so important. To me, it seemed unnecessary, but I have a lot to learn about the importance of self introductions. I have given but each time Toki-san reads our information first so why do we have to repeat everything?
The same thing happened when meeting the board of education and the mayor. The BOE meetings basically reflected the principle meeting (but the BOE meeting happened first). Like I described earlier, when all of us ALTs gather we couldn’t predict what to expect. Toki-san never told us to prepare a self-introduction. Metaphorically, my blindness prevented the sight to see his mute gesturing. Toki-san might have told me beforehand, but when he gets nervous he starts speaking in really fast Japanese. Fast complicated Japanese that I just don’t understand yet. Funny enough he even does this to Kelly even though he knows that she can’t understand any Japanese.
I am going to title my unknowing moments as WGO’s (what’s going on?). Well another WGO just happened sitting at my desk writing my blog. All of a sudden students flooded in an all the teachers told me to clean. Cleaning time! What? And this morning when I walked into another WGO when all the teachers rushed out of the teacher’s lounge and they told me there was a school assembly. Why can’t I get a schedule? I am so confused. Yesterday I was getting ready to leave when all the teachers walked outside and told me it was time to pick grass on the brick driveway in front of the school. WGO? Mind you, I had dressed nicely that day in preparation of my meeting the principles and so my outfit was hardly suited for gardening. They gave me a bent thick wire and set me to work using this wire to dig weeds out of the cracks. Any heard of weed killer? I guess not. During this weed hooking I almost got bit by a mukade! Dangerous and poisonous, mukades are the Japanese centipede.
No gloves and without regard, I reached for a small weed. As soon as I touched a leaf a mukade about four inches long furiously scurried out from its hiding place! I screamed, and everyone of course turned towards me. I yelled, “MUKADE!” And several teachers ran over asking if I had been bitten. Luckily I escaped the poisonous bite. My brave JTE Takase sensei crushed the mukade with her foot. But that thing wouldn’t die. She had to step on it at least five times with powerful blows before it stopped moving. My life had flashed before my eyes and my heart started beating out of my chest. I wish I could explain how much I fear the mukade. Even though that was the first time I saw one, I don’t want to be bitten. I live in fear of them and as such I shake out my shoes every morning and I shake out my sheets. Better safe than sorry. But, I had not expected the mukade to come charging from under a small weed. I have to be even more careful than I thought. I live in fear.
Meeting the mayor was formal, but relaxed. He had us sit down, gave us delicious tea and presents. Cute little whale key chains and his card. Each card had a different place on the island with Catholic significance. I think he told us that he would take us by boat to a place called Saint Maria cave on the island. Missing my opportunity to ask about where I can go to church, I hope he does take us by boat so I can ask him again.
One more WGO. Preface- toki-san told us all to dress formally for the day’s events. After the two meetings on Wednesday we had our enkai (party). Usually this takes place at a restaurant, so we didn’t feel the need to change out of our clothes. Toki drove us to a place I am calling nowhere. At this nowhere we got out of the car and he handed us things from his trunk. OH, a BBQ! Finally we understood why we drove away from civilization, our enkai was a BBQ not at a restaurant. So at nowhere we climbed a steep staircase and ended up on the most beautiful hill and the perfect time of day when the sun cast a beautiful warm glow over everything. Dragon flies darted around our heads and we could see all the way to the neighboring island Ojika. Beautiful, but wrong. Are you surprised that Toki-san couldn’t get us to the right place? Soon he herded us back down the mountain and this time made it to the BBQ area.
Soon all the other BOE people showed up. And they all wore casual clothes and jeans. It was a BBQ of course. Oh Toki-san. Outside in formal wear was not my idea of a good time. I didn’t want to ruin my pants! Well I guess we couldn’t have changed if we wanted to because Toki-san didn’t tell us to bring an extra change of clothes.
My life continues to be one big WGO right now, constantly. Maybe I’ll catch on, but I feel like things will continually happen that I don’t expect. Either people don’t bother explaining because they feel like we won’t understand or they assume that our American social pragmatics match Japanese ones.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)