Showing posts with label cut and paste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cut and paste. Show all posts
I could write about last weekend or I could...
Tags:
cut and paste,
hanga,
japanese friends
Vocabulary Notes:
Hanga - Japanese woodcut print
Matcha - high end powdered green tea
Mochi - Sticky, glutenous rice dessert
closing ceremonies
Well that was interesting. My school just had our closing ceremonies for winter vacation. It's called closing ceremonies and treated like an end of the year thing, yet the students will come back for one more trimester and the school year actually ends in April. Strange then that they have all of these award ceremonies and formalities for just a 2 week break. I mean most of the kids going to keep coming to school for club sports anyway. Here's what my day has been like so far:
8:30: morning meeting. This happens every day, but the teachers were acting extra formal and excited this morning, and there seemed to be more information than usual. While often only the vice principal talks, this time many teachers stood up to make announcements
8:50: Big clean-up time. Usually the students clean up the school for 15 minutes at the end of the day. Students are broken into cleaning posse's of 10-15 and assigned a location to clean, which periodically changes. Each teacher, also is assigned to supervise a location, and help clean, depending on the individual. I supervise the staff room and i help the students sweep up dust and chat with them in english. So today cleaning time was in the morning and lasted 40 minutes. After the regular cleanup of sweeping the dust around, we waxed the floors. Yeah. Waxed. That was interesting. We didnt have enough mops to spread the wax around so a few other students and I worked it into the floor by hand. My boss was impressed to see me working hard on my hands and knees, but was concerned about my pants getting dirty, lol. After we waxed for a while, I told the students they did an awesome job this year and that i'll miss them next year! (theyll probably get rotated to a new location). I had told them earlier this week that they could give me a letter to bring to America and i would have someone write back to them. And one girl who used to be in my crew but got moved wrote a letter to me!
awwwwwww.
9:30 Students and teachers meet in the gymnasium
We all met up in the gym. The teachers all sat on pre-arranged folding chairs that were set up on tarps so that we could wear our regular shoes inside. Then the students all lined up according to year, homeroom and gender, as they always do. This one group of boys seated near me were all wearing their summer uniforms, which are white, short-sleeved button-down shirts instead of their winter uniforms (a black coat with a stand-up collar). I asked them later what the heck they were thinking and they were like "We wanted to do it together! We are HARDCORE" haha a lot of the guy students like showing off by wearing their shortsleeved uniforms or shortsleeved gym shorts to outdoor PE classes. They have to wear uniforms but the school doesn't enforce which type they wear when. Haha there was also one girl who was wearing her summer uniform until a few weeks ago.
Everyone was then instructed to stand up, attention, bow, then sit down. The teachers do it too.
Then the school song was played on piano and sung by everyone.
Next the principal was introduced by vice principal
Principal climbs up to the stage, stops, bows to the Japanese flag, goes to the podium, bows the audience (audience bows back) and then begins his speech. Our principal... uh... isn't the best orator. He tends to ramble on past everyone's attention span. It's funny how I can notice that rapport between him and the audience even without understanding the speech. Same thing happened at the morning meeting. He kept rambling past the bell. Anyway he began his speech by talking about the "Sub Prime Loan problem" and was talking about other high schools for some reason. Then he suddenly started talking about difficult kanji and japanese words. He had the whole audience repeat difficult words and phrases after him. i had no idea what was going on.
During the speech one kid wearing a sick mask had to leave due to exhaustion, and was ushered out by his homeroom teacher. Another teacher standing next to me had some kind of panic attack while we were singing the school song and had to sit down (we were all standing for the song and the principal's speech). He started rocking back and forth with his head in his hands and sat there for the rest of the time, eventually leaving the room before the end of the ceremony. The same guy had an emotional/stress breakdown last week too and was taken away on a gurney in an ambulance. Of course these kinds of issues don't warrant psychological help or time off from work. One teacher was "helping him" by standing behind him, as if supervising, like he would step in if the guy started flipping out and screaming or something, which only drew everyone's attention to the situation. Awkward.
Next the head-teacher gave a speech. He is pretty cool and somehow, this will sound weird, has a voice appropriate for an english speaking dog character in a cartoon. Also, like, he would, like, use the phrase "desu ne" after, like, every few words, which is the equivalant of saying like...like...like over and over again in English. But he cracked some awesome jokes and it got the audience laughing and a little loosened up. He's cool.
Then the hardass discipline teacher gave a speech. He started with a joke, which made students laugh, but then got really serious and was talking about the difficulties of something or another. It's interesting to notice different individual speaking styles even (especially?) in a language you don't understand. Has anyone else ever notice this? It makes me wonder what the overall impression of my speaking style would be for a Japanese person. Probable "not confident enough"
The procedure for each speaker was the same: they climbed the stairs to the stage, then bowed to the Japanese flag, then went to the podium, then bowed again. I love the formality of it all.
Finally there was an awards ceremony for student achievements. The students ran from various places in the audience to line up offstage, where one teacher put them in the order they would be called on. They all took off their inside shoes and stood at attention while someone gave a speech about the award ceremony that was about to happen. Then they were called up in 2 groups of 8. First the whole group bowed to the principal who was at the podium, then he acknowledged each student for his or her achievement, gave em a certificate and stated the date, then they bowed to each other and everyone clapped. after all of them had recieved their certificate, the group would turn to face the audience and bow. We bow back.
Lastly there was one more too-damn-long speech by the principal, then everyone left. I chatted with some of my student pals and thanked Yuka for her letter. Now it's lunch time!
8:30: morning meeting. This happens every day, but the teachers were acting extra formal and excited this morning, and there seemed to be more information than usual. While often only the vice principal talks, this time many teachers stood up to make announcements
8:50: Big clean-up time. Usually the students clean up the school for 15 minutes at the end of the day. Students are broken into cleaning posse's of 10-15 and assigned a location to clean, which periodically changes. Each teacher, also is assigned to supervise a location, and help clean, depending on the individual. I supervise the staff room and i help the students sweep up dust and chat with them in english. So today cleaning time was in the morning and lasted 40 minutes. After the regular cleanup of sweeping the dust around, we waxed the floors. Yeah. Waxed. That was interesting. We didnt have enough mops to spread the wax around so a few other students and I worked it into the floor by hand. My boss was impressed to see me working hard on my hands and knees, but was concerned about my pants getting dirty, lol. After we waxed for a while, I told the students they did an awesome job this year and that i'll miss them next year! (theyll probably get rotated to a new location). I had told them earlier this week that they could give me a letter to bring to America and i would have someone write back to them. And one girl who used to be in my crew but got moved wrote a letter to me!
Dear. Mr Michael
Hello! I am Yuka Ikenono.
I enjoyed talking with you. I was looking forward to going to a staff room to clean.
I think that English is very difficult.
But, it is fun for me to talk it.
I want to develop myself English and whisk through books in English in no time.
By the way, what is a look during Christmas in America? I am sure of lively town.
Do you eat a cake on Christmas?
Thank you for reading a letter. See you again.
from Yuka
awwwwwww.
9:30 Students and teachers meet in the gymnasium
We all met up in the gym. The teachers all sat on pre-arranged folding chairs that were set up on tarps so that we could wear our regular shoes inside. Then the students all lined up according to year, homeroom and gender, as they always do. This one group of boys seated near me were all wearing their summer uniforms, which are white, short-sleeved button-down shirts instead of their winter uniforms (a black coat with a stand-up collar). I asked them later what the heck they were thinking and they were like "We wanted to do it together! We are HARDCORE" haha a lot of the guy students like showing off by wearing their shortsleeved uniforms or shortsleeved gym shorts to outdoor PE classes. They have to wear uniforms but the school doesn't enforce which type they wear when. Haha there was also one girl who was wearing her summer uniform until a few weeks ago.
Everyone was then instructed to stand up, attention, bow, then sit down. The teachers do it too.
Then the school song was played on piano and sung by everyone.
Next the principal was introduced by vice principal
Principal climbs up to the stage, stops, bows to the Japanese flag, goes to the podium, bows the audience (audience bows back) and then begins his speech. Our principal... uh... isn't the best orator. He tends to ramble on past everyone's attention span. It's funny how I can notice that rapport between him and the audience even without understanding the speech. Same thing happened at the morning meeting. He kept rambling past the bell. Anyway he began his speech by talking about the "Sub Prime Loan problem" and was talking about other high schools for some reason. Then he suddenly started talking about difficult kanji and japanese words. He had the whole audience repeat difficult words and phrases after him. i had no idea what was going on.
During the speech one kid wearing a sick mask had to leave due to exhaustion, and was ushered out by his homeroom teacher. Another teacher standing next to me had some kind of panic attack while we were singing the school song and had to sit down (we were all standing for the song and the principal's speech). He started rocking back and forth with his head in his hands and sat there for the rest of the time, eventually leaving the room before the end of the ceremony. The same guy had an emotional/stress breakdown last week too and was taken away on a gurney in an ambulance. Of course these kinds of issues don't warrant psychological help or time off from work. One teacher was "helping him" by standing behind him, as if supervising, like he would step in if the guy started flipping out and screaming or something, which only drew everyone's attention to the situation. Awkward.
Next the head-teacher gave a speech. He is pretty cool and somehow, this will sound weird, has a voice appropriate for an english speaking dog character in a cartoon. Also, like, he would, like, use the phrase "desu ne" after, like, every few words, which is the equivalant of saying like...like...like over and over again in English. But he cracked some awesome jokes and it got the audience laughing and a little loosened up. He's cool.
Then the hardass discipline teacher gave a speech. He started with a joke, which made students laugh, but then got really serious and was talking about the difficulties of something or another. It's interesting to notice different individual speaking styles even (especially?) in a language you don't understand. Has anyone else ever notice this? It makes me wonder what the overall impression of my speaking style would be for a Japanese person. Probable "not confident enough"
The procedure for each speaker was the same: they climbed the stairs to the stage, then bowed to the Japanese flag, then went to the podium, then bowed again. I love the formality of it all.
Finally there was an awards ceremony for student achievements. The students ran from various places in the audience to line up offstage, where one teacher put them in the order they would be called on. They all took off their inside shoes and stood at attention while someone gave a speech about the award ceremony that was about to happen. Then they were called up in 2 groups of 8. First the whole group bowed to the principal who was at the podium, then he acknowledged each student for his or her achievement, gave em a certificate and stated the date, then they bowed to each other and everyone clapped. after all of them had recieved their certificate, the group would turn to face the audience and bow. We bow back.
Lastly there was one more too-damn-long speech by the principal, then everyone left. I chatted with some of my student pals and thanked Yuka for her letter. Now it's lunch time!
an email
Tags:
cut and paste,
penpals
今日は、---------先生
I'm Michael, the ALT currently in Japan that you've probably heard about recently through ------. ------ is one of my friends and when she mentioned that she was assisting in your classes, i thought it might be a nice opportunity for all of us.
First I'll introduce myself. I graduated from OPRF in 2004 and went on to college at Clark University in Massachusetts. At Clark, I studied Psychology and Studio Art, and graduated this past spring. I began to consider working abroad, wanting something different and challenging between college and graduate school. I have never studied Japanese language or culture before coming here five months ago (I studied italian language and spent a semester in Florence, in the interest of my art studies), but nevertheless, I have long been interested in Japan. A friend of mine is a JET alumni and he initially recommended that I apply to the JET program. After talking it over I put in an application, and 6 months later (just 8 weeks after graduation) i was on a plane to Tokyo for orientation.
Now i find myself working as an ALT in rural Fukuoka ken. I live in a small town called 甘木 with a population of about 50,000. I work at an academic High School, where the students are very bright, but quite shy and utterly terrified of making mistakes, which is obviously a part of learning and speaking any language. The students' main goal is to get good grades and pass entrance exams so they can be accepted into top universities. だから、motivating them to really use English as a communication tool, rather than study to the test, can be difficult.
I am always trying to think of interesting ways to incorporate elements of the real english speaking world (opposed to the textbook) into my Oral Communications class. I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to communicate with high school students of Japanese in America.
My main goals for this would be:
1. To motivate the students to apply what they're learning.
2. To show the students that English exists in reality and that they can use it to communicate with real people, rather than just studying it from the textbook to pass the tests.
3. Seeing and relating to students in an American High School; understanding that American students also struggle, just like they do, to learn and use Japanese. Maybe seeing that it's hard for ANYONE to learn a new language would make them feel more comfortable with the potential of making mistakes.
------ asked me to create a list of some of my students personalities, but unfortunately I have so many kids that this is not really possible in a short timeframe. I have 320 一年生 students, who's personalities range from quiet and reserved to outgoing and creative. Their interests range across the board, from sports to art to math. I spoke to my Japanese colleagues about the idea this week, and mentioned that you might want to pair individual students together. The teachers felt that this wasn't really feasible. I mentioned the idea of having the project be something that students sign up for, but they pointed out that the students would then need to work outside of class, which is both difficult to coordinate, and unlikely to work because the students already have no extra time outside of school between all their homework and club activities. The English teachers i work with are hoping that we can get the students involved as whole classes. They suggested picking just a few of our classes to use. We could select the classes that are less skilled at speaking but more skilled at writing. Each class contains 40 students. But we can talk about these details later. I do also coordinate an English Club, but we have only five members, and I was hoping to get more kids involved.
Anyway, I was wondering if and when you may have time to meet with me while i am staying in America for the holidays. I will be in Oak Park/River Forest with my family from Dec 20 until Jan 2. Would it be possible for us to coordinate a meeting during these 2 weeks? Please let me know of any openings in your schedule when you could meet with me.
Sincerely,
Michael
ALTの甘木
I'm Michael, the ALT currently in Japan that you've probably heard about recently through ------. ------ is one of my friends and when she mentioned that she was assisting in your classes, i thought it might be a nice opportunity for all of us.
First I'll introduce myself. I graduated from OPRF in 2004 and went on to college at Clark University in Massachusetts. At Clark, I studied Psychology and Studio Art, and graduated this past spring. I began to consider working abroad, wanting something different and challenging between college and graduate school. I have never studied Japanese language or culture before coming here five months ago (I studied italian language and spent a semester in Florence, in the interest of my art studies), but nevertheless, I have long been interested in Japan. A friend of mine is a JET alumni and he initially recommended that I apply to the JET program. After talking it over I put in an application, and 6 months later (just 8 weeks after graduation) i was on a plane to Tokyo for orientation.
Now i find myself working as an ALT in rural Fukuoka ken. I live in a small town called 甘木 with a population of about 50,000. I work at an academic High School, where the students are very bright, but quite shy and utterly terrified of making mistakes, which is obviously a part of learning and speaking any language. The students' main goal is to get good grades and pass entrance exams so they can be accepted into top universities. だから、motivating them to really use English as a communication tool, rather than study to the test, can be difficult.
I am always trying to think of interesting ways to incorporate elements of the real english speaking world (opposed to the textbook) into my Oral Communications class. I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to communicate with high school students of Japanese in America.
My main goals for this would be:
1. To motivate the students to apply what they're learning.
2. To show the students that English exists in reality and that they can use it to communicate with real people, rather than just studying it from the textbook to pass the tests.
3. Seeing and relating to students in an American High School; understanding that American students also struggle, just like they do, to learn and use Japanese. Maybe seeing that it's hard for ANYONE to learn a new language would make them feel more comfortable with the potential of making mistakes.
------ asked me to create a list of some of my students personalities, but unfortunately I have so many kids that this is not really possible in a short timeframe. I have 320 一年生 students, who's personalities range from quiet and reserved to outgoing and creative. Their interests range across the board, from sports to art to math. I spoke to my Japanese colleagues about the idea this week, and mentioned that you might want to pair individual students together. The teachers felt that this wasn't really feasible. I mentioned the idea of having the project be something that students sign up for, but they pointed out that the students would then need to work outside of class, which is both difficult to coordinate, and unlikely to work because the students already have no extra time outside of school between all their homework and club activities. The English teachers i work with are hoping that we can get the students involved as whole classes. They suggested picking just a few of our classes to use. We could select the classes that are less skilled at speaking but more skilled at writing. Each class contains 40 students. But we can talk about these details later. I do also coordinate an English Club, but we have only five members, and I was hoping to get more kids involved.
Anyway, I was wondering if and when you may have time to meet with me while i am staying in America for the holidays. I will be in Oak Park/River Forest with my family from Dec 20 until Jan 2. Would it be possible for us to coordinate a meeting during these 2 weeks? Please let me know of any openings in your schedule when you could meet with me.
Sincerely,
Michael
ALTの甘木
Tags:
cut and paste,
observations
This i culled this snippet by rin from the forums at ithinkimlost. I think it succinctly addresses what i've been struggling to put my finger on, regarding Japanese English education.
Wisdom.
It would be best to accept that English education here is not intended as an actual foreign language cirriculum[sic], but as a sorting method, and highlighter. As a sorting method, English is ideally suited because it is a highly complex system with a lot of idiosyncracies. By placing it on entrance exams, you can generally sort the good students from the bad by their English skill (the general thinking being that if you can master the complexities of English, then you can master anything else - the SAT and ACT is guilty of this same thing, only they test you on how many ten-dollar words you know). As a highlighter, English serves as a backdrop from which Japanese and Japaneseness are contrasted, thereby helping to instill nationalism in the students. Similar results are achieved through "Internationalization".
English education here would be radically different if they actually intended for these kids to learn the language, as opposed to mastering a complex system.
They could save a lot of money by inventing a complex cypher and having the kids learn that, instead of paying ALTs to come to Japan and suffer through watching their language gang-raped repeatedly day after day.
Wisdom.
Tags:
busy,
cut and paste,
festivals,
japanese friends
I've been writing fewer articles lately. But not because there is less going on, my dear readers, i assure you. In fact the problem is that there's too much happening to keep up with. I am getting more invitations than i can accept and for the first time in my life, I am literally finding myself with too few hours in a physical day. My apartment has been only "the place i sleep" lately and I am feeling a little burnt out. I am going to make an effort after this weekend to tone things down a little bit and schedule some "me time" amidst all the really fun engaging activities i have with new friends. A lot as been happened so i'll catch you up a little bit, moving backwards from today.
Today- I woke up around seven today, despite it being saturday, because my apartment building had its monthly "weeding" session. Every month all the men in the apartment don coveralls, weed-whackers and rakes to combat the overgrown grass that regerates every 30 days. So i spent the morning raking cut grass into piles and throwing it into a heap in one corner of the Jutaku parking lot. It was actually kind of fun to have a manly bonding experience with the few other residents of my (mostly abandoned) building. I was silly and wore short sleeves, so i am now plagued by cuts from rough grass and bug bites.
Around ten i was picked up to go to festival in Haki (even more rural than amagi by about five-fold) with Mizuki san, the 61 y/o super energetic and active office lady who is like my best friend at school. The festival was really cool; with a focus on organic farming and eco-friendly living. They had an electric car by mitsubishi on display and several stalls not selling, but simply informing passersby of products they could by for their homes like recycled rubber garden substrate and super-efficient LED light fixtures. There was also an assortment of farm-fresh fruit and vegetable stalls, and homemade ceramic-ware (i stocked up on these).
Mizuki san was working the ticket booth, so i spent most of my time wandering around with my camera like the creepy foreigner i am, and hanging out with kids and chatting to people in very very bad japanese. I can pretty much get by enough just to say my basic stats like "i am ....amagi. I am an english teacher at Asakura High school. My home is in Chicago in America. What is your name? Where do you live?" stuff like that, and of course the usual array of "thank you" "thank you very much" thank you very very much" "Are you okay?" "it's okay" "it's delicious" and other conversation smoothers.. It's really exciting because even though my japanese is by NO means developed and i have little to no grasp of grammar, my key phrase use is getting smoothe enough that people have been telling me i "speak japanese well" for the first time. It's important to note that this doesnt mean they think i have any talent, but recognize that i have made an effort. Before i was making an effort and it wasn't even noticable. NOW THATS WHAT I CALL PROGRESS!
Mizuki san sang karaoke on the stage and there were lots of other singing and dancing events. I spent most of my time hanging out with Mizuki san's 11 y/o grand daughter and her two friends. there was one area that had a giant pool with fish swimming around in it, and kids would jump in and try to catch the fish with their hands. If they got one, the "ride" operator would bag it up for them to take home, where, i guess they would be cooked cause those fish were way dead by they time they made it to the too-small bag. I shot some really great photos of that whole event. little kids holding up live fish victoriously.
Around 3:30, Mizuki san dropped me off at the Jutaku after a ride home talking about the names of fruits in english and japanese with her granddaughter Ana. I found a praying mantis hanging out on my bike, so i ran upstairs to my room and brought down a blender. I caught the mantid in the blender where it's now sitting in my kitchen. Later i will buy a critter keeper and start catching insects to feed it. Who can say "first pet"?? yay! i hope it's the first of many exotic pets from the local ecosystem. the cool thing about living in the "inaka" is that the bugs are huge! (ok that is mostly scary, but somewhat cool). Only a few of them are extremely poisonous. the others are just interesting to see. there are giant wasps that can apparently eat birds and hand-sized spiders, and 6" long centipedes that can send you to the hospital with a single bite. Anyway, i'm happy with my mantis friend.
Now i am on my way downtown to meet some other ALTs, Chris, Laura, Patrick and Laura's b-f walter. We are having thai food for dinner and tomorrow some of us are going to a metal show downtown too. I am hoping to convince some of them to come hang out at my apartment tonight in Amagi to play wii and hang out. thatll more likely happen tomorrow or monday though.
Moving on backwards, Last night was another celebration with my friends at OISCA. These are the international kids that i described in an earlier post-- my Captain Planet friends. OISCA is a live-abroad scholarship program that has participants all over the world learning agriultural techniques. I had been exchanging emails with Mahmood from Pakistan regarding our second meetup:
___________________________________________________ Yours Friend Mahmood Pakistan
Mahmood Oisca
Dear Mahmood
No problem! Just let me know when and where an OISCA event will be happening in the future, and I will do my best to attend.
Michael Seidman
mehmood and syam.....OISCA......
I found the event with only minor difficulty and it was even more PBS Special than the first celebration, and equally fun. OISCA was in amagi for some training which culminated in the celebratory dinner. They are halfway through their one year stay in Japan. This time everyone was wearing traditional clothes representative of their culture. between chinese silk dresses, embroidered pakistani vests and flourescent printed shirts from fiji, it was unreal. In case the clothes werent enough, after dinner they all got on stage and sang together. one boy from the phillipines played accompaniment on the guitar while everyone else swayed arm in arm and sang in Japanese. Quite the "we are the world" moment. I loved it. Afterwards there was japanese dancing with people in creepy masks and more back patting and hand shaking
I was talking to one of the japanese girls there, having the same conversation to be had with everyone else (I teach english at asakura koukou, I havent been studying japanese very long. it's difficult) and outta the blue she asked me for my number! seriously, flirting is so easy here. even accidentally. I cant even begin to imagine what itll be like once i know even semi-decent Japanese. My friend pat is constantly chatting up Japanese girls and has a fair bit of success even in his stained "patrick star" spongebob tshirt and cargo shorts. it's like for foreigners there are no standards. we just look foreign, and some people are inherantly drawn to that. somewhat unfortunate in the long-run perhaps, but most definitely exploitable
well this is getting long so i'll cap it off here. you can see the photos on flickr (click the link on the right) and please remind me to add some of the extra successful images later. when i have a private life again. Being an English teacher in the inaka really is like being a public servant. they told us this during orientation but only now can i really understand it. It's a big honor to be such a "representative" but at the same time, it's difficult and exhausting.
keeping up the pace! signing out.
Today- I woke up around seven today, despite it being saturday, because my apartment building had its monthly "weeding" session. Every month all the men in the apartment don coveralls, weed-whackers and rakes to combat the overgrown grass that regerates every 30 days. So i spent the morning raking cut grass into piles and throwing it into a heap in one corner of the Jutaku parking lot. It was actually kind of fun to have a manly bonding experience with the few other residents of my (mostly abandoned) building. I was silly and wore short sleeves, so i am now plagued by cuts from rough grass and bug bites.
Around ten i was picked up to go to festival in Haki (even more rural than amagi by about five-fold) with Mizuki san, the 61 y/o super energetic and active office lady who is like my best friend at school. The festival was really cool; with a focus on organic farming and eco-friendly living. They had an electric car by mitsubishi on display and several stalls not selling, but simply informing passersby of products they could by for their homes like recycled rubber garden substrate and super-efficient LED light fixtures. There was also an assortment of farm-fresh fruit and vegetable stalls, and homemade ceramic-ware (i stocked up on these).
Mizuki san was working the ticket booth, so i spent most of my time wandering around with my camera like the creepy foreigner i am, and hanging out with kids and chatting to people in very very bad japanese. I can pretty much get by enough just to say my basic stats like "i am ....amagi. I am an english teacher at Asakura High school. My home is in Chicago in America. What is your name? Where do you live?" stuff like that, and of course the usual array of "thank you" "thank you very much" thank you very very much" "Are you okay?" "it's okay" "it's delicious" and other conversation smoothers.. It's really exciting because even though my japanese is by NO means developed and i have little to no grasp of grammar, my key phrase use is getting smoothe enough that people have been telling me i "speak japanese well" for the first time. It's important to note that this doesnt mean they think i have any talent, but recognize that i have made an effort. Before i was making an effort and it wasn't even noticable. NOW THATS WHAT I CALL PROGRESS!
Mizuki san sang karaoke on the stage and there were lots of other singing and dancing events. I spent most of my time hanging out with Mizuki san's 11 y/o grand daughter and her two friends. there was one area that had a giant pool with fish swimming around in it, and kids would jump in and try to catch the fish with their hands. If they got one, the "ride" operator would bag it up for them to take home, where, i guess they would be cooked cause those fish were way dead by they time they made it to the too-small bag. I shot some really great photos of that whole event. little kids holding up live fish victoriously.
Around 3:30, Mizuki san dropped me off at the Jutaku after a ride home talking about the names of fruits in english and japanese with her granddaughter Ana. I found a praying mantis hanging out on my bike, so i ran upstairs to my room and brought down a blender. I caught the mantid in the blender where it's now sitting in my kitchen. Later i will buy a critter keeper and start catching insects to feed it. Who can say "first pet"?? yay! i hope it's the first of many exotic pets from the local ecosystem. the cool thing about living in the "inaka" is that the bugs are huge! (ok that is mostly scary, but somewhat cool). Only a few of them are extremely poisonous. the others are just interesting to see. there are giant wasps that can apparently eat birds and hand-sized spiders, and 6" long centipedes that can send you to the hospital with a single bite. Anyway, i'm happy with my mantis friend.
Now i am on my way downtown to meet some other ALTs, Chris, Laura, Patrick and Laura's b-f walter. We are having thai food for dinner and tomorrow some of us are going to a metal show downtown too. I am hoping to convince some of them to come hang out at my apartment tonight in Amagi to play wii and hang out. thatll more likely happen tomorrow or monday though.
Moving on backwards, Last night was another celebration with my friends at OISCA. These are the international kids that i described in an earlier post-- my Captain Planet friends. OISCA is a live-abroad scholarship program that has participants all over the world learning agriultural techniques. I had been exchanging emails with Mahmood from Pakistan regarding our second meetup:
___________________________________________________
Dear Michael Seidman
we r very glad to read your mail.Thankyou very much for remember us.we should make new friends in this life because this life is very importent for human. it would be good experience for us that we may become close friend.I hope u come to my center as soon as posible. Thank you
Dear Mahmood,
Thank you for your email!
I am doing very well and I was very grateful for the opportunity to meet all of you yesterday. I had a really great time and being with so many wonderful people from around the world, was truly a special experience for me.
I hope we can spend mroe time getting to know each other in the future. I am certain that we will become close friends.
I am quite busy being a new teacher in Japan, but i would like to make trips out on Sundays to see you soon. Mizuki-san has offered to take me, so I hope to be seeing you again soon!
Take care, and please give my best wishes to everyone at OISCA
Michael Seidman
thank u Mahmood Pakistan Fukuoka
My dear .i thank u forget us ,May be u r busy.how r u .pls tell me. Mahmood Oisca
My Dear Mike Goodevening
how r u.we r very happy to meet u.maybe next time we will togeater again.we r very importent students in japan and u for us. pls send mail us.
Thanks Mahmood,
good to hear from you again.
I would like to join you at the center someday soon. I will ask Mizuki san when her next trip will be. Perhaps i can go with her.
Mike, United States.
My dear .i thank u forget us ,May be u r busy.how r u .pls tell me.
thank u
Dear Mehmood,
Of course i have not forgotten about you! Since we met two weeks ago, I have been somewhat busy, and I know that you are only free on Sundays. Unfortunately my last few sundays have been occupied by my school's Sports Festival, and I have not been free. This weekend I will be in Kumamoto Prefecture, but perhaps next Sunday we can do something.
Are there any events i can attend?
I have been asking Mizuki san about OISCA events. She said that there was going to be an OISCA event on Friday, September 9, but today she told me she cannot attend. Can you give me information about what is happening on Sept. 9? Maybe I can join you.
MikeMy Dear
sorry so sorry my dear sep9 we will work.we can ,t attend you,pls next time we will try for other program.Pls don,t mind . thank u
Dear Mahmood
No problem! Just let me know when and where an OISCA event will be happening in the future, and I will do my best to attend.
Michael Seidman
My Dear
we will be there on amagi on 11th. sept. as per our shedule, we have some official programmes and home stay.
the programme starting from the Asakuracity office at 9 O clock morning. on that day we will stay in amagi and in the next dayalso we have tight schedule. but we have a party on the same day at 6 O clock. i dont know the venue of the party. please ask to Mizuki san the name of the place where the party is going on....
nothing more at this time... take care... bye....
regards
sugoi!
perhaps i will see you at the party! i will try to ask mizuki san for details.
Mike
_____________________________________________________I found the event with only minor difficulty and it was even more PBS Special than the first celebration, and equally fun. OISCA was in amagi for some training which culminated in the celebratory dinner. They are halfway through their one year stay in Japan. This time everyone was wearing traditional clothes representative of their culture. between chinese silk dresses, embroidered pakistani vests and flourescent printed shirts from fiji, it was unreal. In case the clothes werent enough, after dinner they all got on stage and sang together. one boy from the phillipines played accompaniment on the guitar while everyone else swayed arm in arm and sang in Japanese. Quite the "we are the world" moment. I loved it. Afterwards there was japanese dancing with people in creepy masks and more back patting and hand shaking
I was talking to one of the japanese girls there, having the same conversation to be had with everyone else (I teach english at asakura koukou, I havent been studying japanese very long. it's difficult) and outta the blue she asked me for my number! seriously, flirting is so easy here. even accidentally. I cant even begin to imagine what itll be like once i know even semi-decent Japanese. My friend pat is constantly chatting up Japanese girls and has a fair bit of success even in his stained "patrick star" spongebob tshirt and cargo shorts. it's like for foreigners there are no standards. we just look foreign, and some people are inherantly drawn to that. somewhat unfortunate in the long-run perhaps, but most definitely exploitable
well this is getting long so i'll cap it off here. you can see the photos on flickr (click the link on the right) and please remind me to add some of the extra successful images later. when i have a private life again. Being an English teacher in the inaka really is like being a public servant. they told us this during orientation but only now can i really understand it. It's a big honor to be such a "representative" but at the same time, it's difficult and exhausting.
keeping up the pace! signing out.
new cute correspondence
Tags:
cut and paste,
predeparture
It's like i'm already friends with everyone in Japan. Yay for different culturally ascribed social practices!
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Hello Michael,
I'm an English teacher at Asakura High School, for which you are soon coming to work. I work for a night school, not for a daytime one. I live quite close to your accommodation in Japan. You are supposed to live in
an apartment for teachers working around this area. I heard today that most ALTs living there are leaving, and I'm afraid that you might feel lonely without other ALTs to talk to. As I said, I live near the apartment building, so I can be of some help. Anyway, if you have any question about teaching in Japan, or whatever, please feel free to ask me by e-mail. And after arriving in Japan, don't hesitate to get in touch with me. Unfortunately, though, I am in Hawaii to take part in a workshop held there from August 2nd to 10th. But after that I hope I can be with you if you need some help.
I'm looking forward to seeing you soon. Till then, take care
Osamu Matsu
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