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So, moving is still problematic… October 13, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre, Student Moments.
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…thanks to Monday’s two-hour exercise extravaganza. I wish I were exaggerating, but the shooting fire-like pains that skitter down my thighs whenever I shift my weight say otherwise.

But in the true spirit of this blog, we shall not linger on unpleasant affairs.

 

These (adorable) penguins wish for us to look on the sunny side of life.

 

Wednesday was rather productive on the whole, and I had a lovely time chatting with Penelope during lunch and Hermione during the lunch recess. Mr. Bayblade made an appearance after lunch as well and we both lamented that Japan wasn’t able to beat South Korea in Tuesday night’s soccer game. I exercised restraint and did not point out that Germany (mercilessly, completely, and fantastically) schooled Kazakhstan with a final score of 0 – 3. See? I told you that that game would put me in a good mood.

The day isn’t quite over yet, I still have dance practice to go to and that may very well provide an entertaining and worthwhile memory to hold on to. Still, looking back over the day itself, I think I want to highlight the classes that I had with my third years.

There are some days when I don’t feel particularly close or of interest to these students, but today wasn’t one of those days. They had a speaking test where they had to recite the first stanza and chorus of We Are the World. Walking around and helping them was a lot of fun. Even The Child got into the activity (albeit about two weeks later than he should have…), and Clemente and I had sang the song together about five times. If I do say so myself, we make a nice duet.

I also had some free time on my hands since the kids were mostly preparing for the test. So, when I wasn’t helping students with their pronunciation or coaching them through the memorization process, I Got Up To Tricks. Specifically, I made it my mission to sneak around and steal things off of students’ desks to then hide them in ridiculous places around the room.  (I should add here that I only harassed students who’d passed their test and were just sitting around.)

Today wasn’t the first time that I’ve done this and it quickly became a spectacular battle of wits. They would try to keep an eye on their notebooks/pen cases/textbooks/erasers, and I would do everything in my power to put those much needed items in locations ranging from on top of the classroom television set to on top of somebody’s head. Any and all attempts to foil me were met with devastating acts of revenge later on in the class period. That’s one way of saying that I may or may not have taken and switched the contents of at least two pencil bags.

I guess I like this memory because it’s of something that the third years and I don’t get a chance to do all that much together these days: play. I’ve known them since they were fifth graders and now that they’re about to go into high school, they seem so grown up and beyond that kind of activity. It’s nice to go back down that path on occasion, and remember how we can make each other laugh through a simple game of cat and mouse. I hope that I never grow too old to acknowledge, or rekindle, the playful and mischievous side of my personality.

Je veux ton amour
Et je veux ton revenge

I think The Scorpions said it best… September 27, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Cultural Exchange, Dance Troupe, Enkai Aftermath, FC Bayern Munich, Student Moments.
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Or at least they said it well:

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change

The world closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close,like brothers
The future’s in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Chorus:
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change…

Setting aside, for the moment, references to the former Soviet Union, there is a lot about the imagery in this song that works for me during these cold, misty early days of autumn. It’s occurred to me more than once over the past week that with this changing of the seasons, it’s going to be a very long time before I again have the chance to enjoy a warm summer day in Mie, Japan.

This is going to be a shorter post than I’d originally intended. After I got home from work on Monday, I sat down at the computer with the intention of cranking out a first-class, comprehensive, previous post-referencing gem of an update for you. The next thing I knew it was 10:30 and I’d fallen asleep on my keyboard. So, you could say that things didn’t go according to plan.

Still, I’ve been quite busy since we last touched base on Wednesday. Here are the highlights:

~ Thursday: Had another draining, but productive practice with The Band. As usual, Mr. Coke was at the center of all humor and there was extensive discussion as to whether or not he would be wearing his Spiderman costume for our concert on October 3rd. (He will not.)

~ Friday: Helped the elementary school set up chairs and tables for the sports festival. I found a job for myself on the second floor of the gm, where I took chairs and tables down from high places and passed them to the children who then carried them down to the athletic field. I was amused to see that something of my work ethic has rubbed off on the girls, because they were determined to carry at least three chairs on their own because “Julie can carry six.”

Julie: Not just for English anymore.

~ Saturday: My last sports festival! My first enkai with the staff of an elementary school! If time permits, I’m going to try to write a longer, more comprehensive post about this day. (Please stop laughing, I can hear you.) I must say that I kept myself well occupied throughout the day, from baking fresh bread for the staff members, to taking pictures, to entertaining students, to interacting with the parents. What was also pleasant, and particularly memorable about this day (besides not doing the mukade race!!) was that I felt I had a chance to interact with the other teachers in a way that we hadn’t before. It felt friendlier, more relaxed, and quite welcoming.

~ Sunday: This was a pretty standard Sunday for me. I worked out in the Gym in the morning, went shopping in the afternoon, and caught up with family in the evening. FC Bayern did not play well on Saturday night, and I have to say that it left a bit of a shadow on my Sunday.  Still, I don’t blame The Guys for the current state of affairs. The team’s been decimated by injuries and the manager is having some … managerial issues. We have a game mid-week and I’m hoping that things will go more smoothly.

~ Monday: Good things about this day: a letter from Kanemoto, absurd lunch conversations with Penelope, a relatively successful speaking check with the second year students, and reminders as to why I really like this first year class (even if they’re hyperactive to the point of being dangerous to themselves and others).

Not so good thing: Being the object of The Child’s emotional turbulence after school.

Monday was the day when all of the third year students officially retired from clubs and student committees and passed the reins on to the second year class. I think that The Child was feeling really sensitive about this ceremony, and the prospect of having to leave middle school. As such, when I went out to the bicycle racks to say goodbye to the third years, he used me to vent his frustrations and told me that I was a bothersome and annoying person who needed to just be seen in English class.

It’s been a long time since he’s turned on me in this way, and so I really wasn’t prepared to respond to such an aggressive tone. I knew that although he was serious, his words weren’t genuine. Still, they did kind of sting and I retreated to the second years to give him his space.

I’m certainly not upset with him for his behavior; The Child is in fact, a child, and I know that he is still learning how to control and handle his emotions. Because of his intelligence and sensitivity, this is particularly challenging for him. The only thing I can do is go back into class on Tuesday and treat him as I always have. I think that the best thing I can give him is constancy and stability, even if he is determined to lash out against it.

Ah, teaching. And people say that this is an easy job?

Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever…

Keep on Chasing Rainbows, Fly High April 20, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Cultural Exchange, Japanese GET, Julie Gets Philosophical, Student Moments.
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Okay, so I may or may not be in the throes of a very intense Avantasia obsession. For those not in the know, Avantasia is a side project created by Edguy front man Tobias Sammet. It is also one of my favorite groups. It just came out with two new albums; I will probably listen to very little else for the next several weeks.

This song is my favorite.

Pay particular attention to way that the chorus, Tobi, Jorn Lande, and Bob Catley dance around each other from 5:37 to 6:04. This may be my most beloved 27 seconds in the world of music.

~ So ~ that has very little to with Japan. But my day was (understandably) Japan-focused. So let’s direct our energies towards my memories, shall we?

Today’s weather was rainy and miserable, but I enjoyed myself. I’m also happy because I’m going on a field trip with my first years tomorrow and I think that it will be a lot of fun. I’ll be traveling with My #1 Fan and Kanemoto, so goodness knows what will happen.

Looking back, there are two particular events that I’d like to highlight.

The first happened after lunch (which in itself was enjoyable because I had a great chat with Penelope).  Before I could return to the teacher’s room, my first years dragged me into in a mosh pit so that they could speak English and get “Julie Money” from me. (I used to give out stickers to reward efforts to communicate with me in English, but Julie Money is easier. It is also significantly more popular. ) This was entertaining and a quite fun.

Eventually the crowd died down, and I decided to walk around the school to see if I could inspire some stragglers to speak with me. On the second floor by the library, I found a mixed group of first and second year boys (mostly members of the ping-pong club). They greeted me with a surprising amount of enthusiasm and we proceeded to chat for about fifteen minutes. Other students eventually gathered around as well, but it was more civilized than the mosh pit.

I’m fond of this interaction because I had the chance to talk to students who are not part of my usual crowd. These are boys who I don’t speak with unless it’s related to a classroom activity, and so prior to our talk I couldn’t have said much about their ability to freely converse. I wasn’t unhappy with the content of our conversation; they genuinely wanted to know certain things about me and they did their best to ask it in English. I also gave away an absurd amount of Julie cash, and so they were happy with the exchange as well.

The rest of my day was busy preparing lesson plans for my elementary lessons, and it was while I was meeting with teachers at Thursday’s elementary school and speaking with The Mentor that the second Noteworthy Memory took place.

I don’t think I’ve ever properly explained my situation with The Mentor. I hint at it on the Cast of Characters page, but I think that’s about as much background as I’ve given you. It’s a kind of epic story, with a lot of twists and turns that I don’t understand and probably never will. The short version is this: I’ve worked with him since I arrived, when I first got here he was dismissive although not unfriendly. I went through a period where I had very poor lessons, he became dismissive and angry with me, and I grew to fear him more than any one else on the planet. In an attempt to redeem myself and wrestle my circumstances into submission I began to plan lessons in such a way that I felt he would be comfortable. Over time, my efforts paid off and he began to treat me like a human being. A few outside of school seminars, several after school meetings dedicated to discussing education and problem students, and almost four years of team teaching have finally Melted The Ice.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that we’re friends, but he is most certainly one of my favorite people.

Okay, so that was … not … short.

Well, like I said: it’s an epic story.

The reason that I’ve gone to all of these efforts to get into The Mentor‘s favor is that he’s quite simply the best teacher I’ve ever seen in my life. His control over his classes is absolute, and the adoration and affection that he receives from his students is unparalleled. He works himself into the ground eight times over for their benefit; no activity is too time consuming and no personal crisis is beneath his notice. He was the one who taught me to think about why students do what they do. He showed me how, as a teacher, my responses to student behavior are critical and can have tremendous consequences without me even knowing it. Because of him, I was compelled to find a reason to make my position in this town a position that others could respect. The thought that this incredible teacher would find my lessons expendable or annoying was Not Acceptable. His anger with me indicated that I had alternative ways of conducting myself, and so I truly owe any and all my success to him.

On a more personal level, is also the only teacher to have ever reached out to me when I’ve needed help. He’s the only one who has been willing to cross cultural and linguistic lines to help me improve my lessons. Over time, he’s extended his assistance into other areas (like culture or sports festivals), and so I also owe a lot of my non-English activities at Thursday’s school to him as well.

So … that’s The Mentor. And, as I said about 400 words ago, he figures into Tuesday’s second memory.

I got to Thursday’s elementary school at about 4:15, and I briefly met with the first through fourth home room teachers to discuss some ideas that I have regarding the content of this year’s lessons. When that was finished, I went by to chat with The Mentor about this week’s class. What began as a discussion about our lesson turned into a discussion about the English curriculum, and then we started to talk about how the new first years were adjusting at the middle school. This topic led to dialogue about problem students and books that he’s reading now to help him understand how he can work with them and integrate them into the rest of the class. He wants me to read these books, but he knows that the Japanese is still above my level. By the time that we finally parted ways, we’d talked for almost an hour.

I think what made me so happy about this exchange is that I feel as though he was telling me that he believes that I could be a teacher that works well with problem students. Given our history, I am (understandably) Ridiculously Happy whenever I receive positive reinforcement from him. I’m so glad that I was able to meet with him on a level playing field and discuss topics that we both find interesting. In addition, something exceptionally pleasant about our exchange was how much we laughed. To me, shared laughter is an indication of shared perspective. When I first got to Japan, he was the last person in the world I thought I would intellectually and socially reconcile with.

I am so glad that in that respect, I was totally and utterly mistaken.

Oh boy the ice will break
You’ll just feel your heart rending

Tuesdays Begin and End with ICE CREAM April 6, 2010

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Ice cream is definitely the theme we’re working with for Tuesday’s “memory to cherish forever.” Not only is it impossible for me to choose just one meaningful moment out of so many, but in the afternoon, The Awesome Vice Principal (in an action true to form) surprised the staff room with delicious soft cream and Popsicles.

So, let’s get started. ICE CREAM.

~ I really enjoyed seeing my new first year students, and was very proud when they officially matriculated. I think that they were happy to see a familiar face at the middle school, and I was able to help them with small bits of etiquette and direction throughout the morning. It’s nice to know that they trust me, and that I can assist them through this transition.

~ There were lots of opportunities to interact with my 2nd and 3rd years, too. I spent some quality time with Hannah Montana, The Child, Penelope, Avril, Aphrodite, Clemente, and Hermione. Listening to their opinions about school politics and gossip is one of the best parts of my job.

~ Speaking of Clemente, he said one of the nicest things to me during one of the mid-morning breaks. Every class year is assigned a home room teacher and a sub-home room teacher. They take care of class planning and various administrative tasks. He told me that the third years thought I would be assigned as their sub-HRT and that they were really disappointed when I wasn’t. I explained that my position as an ALT keeps me from doing things like that, but I was touched by the thought. As I’ve said in the past, little comments like that one make me happy.

~ After all of the students had gone home, the middle school staff dragged tables and chairs outside and we had a huge picnic lunch underneath the cherry blossom trees. The weather was absolutely perfect for it, too: warm and sunny with a slight breeze. The new school nurse is a really funny lady, and she declared the dessert platter the property of the female staff members and told the men that they’d have to pay rock-paper-scissors with us if they wanted anything from it. With stunts like that one, I can tell that she and I are going to be friends.

~ In the afternoon, I had a really nice meeting with The Mentor at Thursday’s elementary school. As I previously surmised, not a whole lot is changing about my schedule this year (despite the heart attack and nervous breakdown that my town’s administration gave me last February). I will still (more or less) be teaching the first through fourth years. The only real change from last year is that I’ll be teaching the fifth and sixth grades once a week, and so that increases my class load a bit. I’m not really worried about it, though. I have a feeling that things will work out fine.

~ A final memory from yesterday that I’d like to hold on to happened just before I left to go home. After we’d finished our ice cream, Apollonius invited us to the lunchroom so that he could show us how to use the new electronic Smart Board that our school just bought. It’s an electronic whiteboard that connects to computers, televisions, projectors… just about anything really. We spent about half an hour looking at its various features, and even took about ten minutes to play a game using Japanese kanji. Running back and forth to this blackboard to win points for my team was surprisingly fun. I liked how this rounded out the events of the day, and put many things into perspective. We’re all here to learn – even the teachers – and we’re supposed to do anything we can to help each other in this process. I like being a part of a team that takes this task seriously.

Wednesday will be the first day that the students are in school during the mostly-normal hours, although the first years will go home early. I’m sure I’ll have more than a few memories to regale you with when all is said and done. I anticipate a lot of very loud, very spastic interactions.

I’m a friend by your side
Never gonna be alone

Soup and Sentiment March 8, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre.
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So… first things first. I present to you this week’s soup, as made by the International Father-Daughter Team. I have a lot of dried beans that I’m trying to use up, so I suggested that we make something with red lentils. This was what we found:

Turkish Red Lentil Soup (courtesy of this site)

  1. Bring 12 cups of water to a boil and add red lentils and 2 tsp salt. Simmer for 30 minutes.
  2. While lentils are cooking, put the olive oil, onions, and potatoes in a large saute pan and saute for 4 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Add the bulgur, paprika, cumin, cayenne, and stir until browned about 2-3 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, and stir for 2-3 more minutes.
  3. Add the contents of this pot to the lentils along with the additional 4 cups of water. Simmer for another 40 minutes or until the lentils and bulgur are soft.
  4. Some recipes recommend that you put the soup in a blender when finished and puree it. Normally, when I have it in restaurants it is pureed. The family recipes do not add this step, and I served it without pureeing. Either way it is equally delicious. If you want to impress guests, you might try pureeing. Otherwise, just serve as is.
  5. When ready to serve, add the lemon juice. You may want to serve with sliced lemon, fresh mint, plain yogurt, or sumac to add after serving, or you can add to each bowl for a beautiful and tasty finish!

My dad and I both left out the bulgur, and I used a can of tomatoes instead of fresh ones (since they’re still not really in season here). We also cut the recipe in half, since 16 cups of soup is a lot of soup and freezer space is limited.

I very much liked this soup. The texture makes it great for pairing with bread (in particular this bread, which I also made yesterday) and a glass of wine. The taste is very earthy and has a lot of layers to it. I definitely recommend adding something sour at the end (lemon juice, yogurt, sour cream…) ~ I think that the balance is strange if it’s left out.

Culinary-wise, I’m particularly pleased right now, because thanks to The Meat Guy I finally found veal bones and lamb bones so that I can make something besides chicken or vegetable stock. I’ve asked my dad that we make this week’s soup beef-stock oriented and he promised to find something interesting.

So… besides cooking, what’s been going on? What kinds of memories have I been making?

To tell you the truth, whatever force it was that awoke in February and decided to Mix Things Up in my life, it has decided to stay for the month of March as well. Given the way things are looking at present, I have a feeling that it’s going to make itself at home for the duration of 2010.

The more that I think about it, this force, whatever it may be, isn’t exactly malignant. It’s not something as simple as Bad Luck. The things that are happening, I can see why they’re happening so there’s method to this madness. In many cases, what starts out as difficult and frustrating ultimately resolves into something positive. The process by which we get from the frustrating to the positive, however, is what’s taking a lot of energy out of me.

In addition, there is no middle ground as far as my experiences (and memories) go. I am not having “okay” days. I’m having days where my activities and interactions are EXTREMELY GOOD or EXTREMELY UNFORTUNATE. The highs are high, the lows are low, and there is most definitely not any “in between” to speak of. Moderation has all but left the building.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Let’s examine what happened to me on Saturday.

~ Got up, had breakfast, enjoyed a lengthy conversation with my father = Very Good!

~ Drove to the gas station and had a lovely conversation with the attendants (an older couple) who are very interested in me and asked a lot of polite, well-meaning questions = Very Good!

~ Went to an Italian Restaurant and was not given certain menus because they didn’t think I could understand Japanese. Was forced to order a more expensive meal than I’d wanted to = Somewhat Unfortunate

~ During the meal at this restaurant, the pizza crust chipped one of my tooth implants = Extremely Unfortunate

~ Went to see Mozart’s Don Giovanni = Very Good!

~ Got Starbucks and great cooking supplies on the way home = Very Good!

~ Woke up several times throughout the evening sick because of aforementioned overly expensive Italian meal = Unfortunate

So, in the end, I can’t say that Saturday was a bad day, per say. But the Goods were good, the Unfortunates were unfortunate, and I am trying to keep things in perspective as best as I can. My situation could most certainly be worse (knock on wood), and to mope about the Unfortunates would take away from the Goods, which I refuse to let happen.

Still, Saturday is more or less the paradigm that I’ve lived through almost every day since the start of February. This is one of the reasons it’s been difficult to write about my memories; I’m not really sure what to say since each day is such a marbled mixture of both Positive and Negative. By the time that the end of the day rolls around, I’m really only good for making dinner and listening to heavy metal on repeat. It’s as if… and forgive me the slight hyperbole in this statement… it’s as if my experiences are a little too vivid. I feel overwhelmed by the sharpness of my experiences right now, and it’s been difficult to write about them.

Thinking about this, it occurs to me that (as I more or less said before) trying to keep a grounded perspective is the best thing I can do right now. I suspect that such a perspective, more than anything else, will help me to navigate through the bizarre waters that I seem to have drifted into.

So, skipping over the second part of last week because, well, I can’t remember that much of it ^_^;; … let’s try to focus on Monday.

Today was, not surprisingly, somewhat bittersweet. It was the last full day of school for the third years; their graduation ceremony is tomorrow. On one hand, everyone at the school is proud of the them and we want them to move forward. On the other hand, they’ve been a really great class and the school will feel empty without them. The students themselves have similar feelings, and so everyone’s emotions are wildly fluctuating between merriment and, well, misery.

I spent as much of my day around them as was humanly possible. I went to see them in between classes, ate with them at lunch, cleaned with them, and signed dozens of yearbooks. Mary Sunshine, Macho Man, and, yes, The Savant stayed close to me, too, I noticed. Mary Sunshine made me promise that we would go running on weekends and during the summer, and that she would always be welcome to do a home stay in the States. We also took moments here and there to sing Jay Sean songs and to dance together. Macho Man and I spent most of the day flexing our muscles and proclaiming to any-and-everybody that “We ARE Macho!” The Savant took several opportunities to tell me that he respected me very much and that he still maintains that He Is Perfect.

I did manage to catch some time with the first and second year students as well. I spoke with Penelope, Aphrodite, Snow White, Avril, Clemente, and The Child at some length while we were cleaning the gym in preparation for tomorrow’s ceremony. I think it’s good for me to spend time with them, because although they’re sad about the third years leaving, they’re also looking forward to becoming third year students themselves. It will be their year to shine, and this is a bunch that notoriously covets the spotlight.

My first years were functioning on a completely separate plane of existence today; although they’re interested in the graduation, they’re more focused on what teachers will be staying at the school for the next school year. The teachers themselves won’t know their assignments until Wednesday, and the students won’t be told until the 24th. I suspect that we won’t see a lot of teachers reassigned to other schools for this next year, but that’s just a theory. The first years were particularly concerned with my assignment, apparently unaware that I don’t get moved around from school to school like regular Japanese teachers. They were happy to know that I’d be staying for another year, and violently adamant that I was not allowed to leave after that.

I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So, I suppose what I’m trying to communicate via this long, winding post is that things are busy. Not wretched, confusing, or disheartening. Just …  overwhelming and taxing on all levels. I’m certainly not bored, and I suppose I should be grateful for that. Every day is challenging and I’m having to think fast and move even faster. I suppose these conditions are what makes it difficult for me to stop, reflect, and select one ripened, meaningful moment from the day.

But, I’ll muddle through somehow – that I have no doubt of. I’m not sure where we’ll be at the end of tomorrow, this week, this month, or goodness knows this year. But, that’s more or less the way that life goes, now isn’t it?

Even if you don’t wanna speak tonight
That’s all right, all right with me.

Countdown to Graduation: 1 Week March 2, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Student Moments.
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This title means that as of Tuesday evening we have only two days left in the company of our snarky, funny, glorious third years. I just finished making their graduation presents and I can already feel the Empty Nest Syndrome hovering around the edges of my consciousness. I take refuge in the knowledge that the incoming first year class is going to be spectacularly fun, and that things will settle into a new and interesting routine. In the end, graduation is an emotional roller coaster whose highs and lows need to be put into the proper perspective.

This is what I keep telling myself.

We have a lot of little things that happened on Tuesday, so let’s ICE CREAM this post, shall we?

~ The Boss was really funny during lunch, and we now have a running joke about how we’re absolutely furious with each other. He claims that I told him he was gay (which I swear upon Galileo’s orange, rubbery soul I did not), and my claim is that he’s been trying to sabotage my happiness for the last year and a half. I regret to say that diplomatic discussions quickly degenerated into name calling via a rather unorthodox use of my electronic dictionary (I don’t anyone has ever called me a placenta before, even if it was in the heat of feigned anger). Now, our meetings in the hallway inspire mock rage, characterized by squinted eyes, and vague snarls that expose only the edges of our canine teeth. We part from these encounters yelling warnings about how the other needs to be sure to watch his or her back.

~ Mary Sunshine has been more or less attached to my person since the week began. If I sit down, she sits on top of me. If I stand up, she tries to climb on my back. It’s nice to know she’ll miss me, too.

~ Macho Man is really such a fun person for me to interact with. Although he and I don’t have thoughtful, intense discussions, I enjoy our exchanges because we say so much in so many unique ways. Take lunchtime for example. He was sitting at the table next to mine and we were facing each other.

I looked up and saw he was looking at me. I nodded my head. He nodded his head.

I nodded my head again.

He nodded his head and gave me a little wave.

I copied the wave.

He started to laugh, and I gave him a sharp look in rebuke.

He copied the look and then we regarded each other with suspicion.

Cue staring contest.

It was a tie – we blinked at the same time. (We may or may not have crossed our eyes in an attempt to break the other’s concentration.)

He flexed his right arm. It’s macho.

I flexed my right arm. This is also macho.

And that’s pretty much the end of the conversation.

~ Hyde, bless his little rocker soul, listened to my recommendation and tried out Edguy. It is no surprise that he enjoyed them, because they are in fact the best band in the world. Really, with the knowledge that he is aspires to follow their every move on twitter, my work here is almost done.

~ Because of all the focus on my third years, I decided to take time out and reconnect with my second years during the lunch recess. Penelope, Clemente, Aphrodite, and Avril were in attendance and all were fantastically hilarious. I guess they’re having drama with the first year class, and so they regaled me with stories of their grievances. Ah, middle school.

~ And last but certainly not least: The Child. The second years had a speaking test this week and I wasn’t sure how he would do on it. He worked really hard during the class when we introduced the test and practiced for it, but he is notorious for not studying *after* class. It was anyone’s guess as to how he would perform. I am pleased to announce that he did a spectacular job. He had moments of confusion, but he was really good about correcting himself, and (I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again) his pronunciation was amazing. I feel that now the time is right for me to push him with this Othello Rap for the culture festival.

I suppose I still have high hopes for reconciling these universes of mine.

Even… with graduation looming ahead of us … even if these universes are changing.

When you and I are alone
I’ve never felt so at home

Now we, too, shall start preparing for the new year. February 2, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Background, Student Moments.
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First and foremost, I’d like to apologize for the rampant grammatical errors that wrecked havoc with my last post. I think I’ve managed to catch and neutralize most of them, but I suspect that it damaged my well-educated and scholarly image. I wasn’t joking about the necesity of using the ICE CREAM format; I only had about twenty minutes to write yesterday’s post and so there wasn’t nearly enough time to edit.

Okay, so now that that’s out of the way, on to Tuesday’s post. Thankfully (for all of us), I’m writing this in the evening and I have time to devote to all the joys of writing. The brainstorming, the webbing, the flow charts, the … awkward moments when I can’t think of the phrase I want to use to convey the actual process of writing without using the phrase “actual process of writing” because it sounds wordy, and the editing to make sure that my tenses are consistent!

Today was interesting because although my third years were back, they were so busy with preparing for their high school entrance examinations and interviews that I didn’t have many opportunities to interact with them. We’ll have a class tomorrow (the first time in a while), so I’m looking forward to that. In the meantime though (and as I tried to indicate indicated in yesterday’s post), I’ve been spending more time with my second and first year students.

I had a particularly entertaining conversation with Aphrodite today, because Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and it’s the Japanese custom for women to give men hand baked chocolate goods on February 14th. (The boys are supposed to return the gesture with [store-bought] white chocolate products on March 14th.) The problem here is that Aphrodite hates (and I do mean HATES) cooking, and so she suffers through this holiday year after year. I think her problem is hilarious and find great satisfaction in teasing her about it.

The feeling of camaraderie that I felt with her and the other second years during this exchange was tangible. I wouldn’t say that it’s on part with the comfort I have with, say, Mary Sunshine, but I could feel the potential for a more substantial “older sister” kind of relationship. I do know everything about her love life, after all.

So, in the spirit of the season, I think that it’s time for us to get ready for the next school year as well. We can do this by reminding ourselves of our key first and second year students and including some new names. Tomorrow, assuming that nothing absolutely extraordinary happens, we can do the same with the sixth year elementary students.

So, what do we have?

2nd Years:

The Familiar:

The Child
This student is one of my favorites. Ever. But he has been my greatest challenge since I first conceived of striving against adversity in any form. He is temperamental, extremely intelligent, unapologetically sarcastic (which is kind of amazing because Japan doesn’t do sarcasm), easily bored, easily frustrated, easily discontent with losing, easily discontent with winning. Some days he loves me and no one else is allowed to talk to me, and some days he requests that I go somewhere and die. His English is the best in the school as far as pronunciation goes. He likes to collect English translations of Japanese comics.

Clemente
Like Roberto Clemente, this student is the epitome of charity and work ethic. He is also one of the most genuine individuals that I’ve ever met and is honest beyond question. He often helps me work with The Child and he’s just a fun kid to be around. Clemente is in the baseball club and he is both a fantastic first baseman and an amazing catcher. Recently, I’ve been talking with him more often and he’s quite hilarious.

Penelope
Just as Penelope is the literary icon of faithfulness, ingenuity, work ethic, sincerity, this girl plays this role at the middle school.  She’s the kind of person to go to a presentation that nobody else cares about. She will not only go to it, but she will sit up straight the entire time, take notes, and then ask questions afterwards and it’s all completely authentic. She cares that much. This is one student that has made me a better person for having known her. She is the current Student Council President.

Aphrodite
She is one half of the school’s Super Couple – we spend a lot of time talking about our love lives (both the good parts and the bad parts). She’s quite lively and sweet; I really enjoy interacting with her and I get most of my romance gossip from her. She’s also one of my best letter writers, so I’ve learned a lot of great Japanese from her. I suppose it would probably be okay to mention here that she’s been dating Macho Man for the last year.


The Newcomers:

Snow White
There is just something about this student that tugs at my heartstrings. She is incredibly sweet, and she has this unusual combination of insight and innocence that makes her remarkably genuine and empathetic. I think that I feel the most like a teacher when I’m around her. Perhaps she is one of the few that looks at me as an authority figure, and she takes what I say to heart.

Avril
Smart, sassy, and more than a little rock and roll, Avril will say the things that other people are thinking. This isn’t to suggest that she’s rude or mouthy, she’s just very clever and does not suffer fools. I like her because she’s very direct and clear about her opinions, and this makes interacting with her both entertaining and enlightening.

1st Years:

The Familiar:

The Whistler
My favorite first year student. He’s genuinely interested in English and always goes the extra mile to make sure that he understands what’s going on. I call him The Whistler because we have a thing (dating back to his elementary school days) where we whistle when we’re around each other. It’s quite fun – we copy each others’ responses, try out various songs that we both know, and comment on what happens around us.

Hannah Montana
This girl knows more about current American pop culture than I do, thus the name. High School Musical is, I believe, her favorite. She’s Penelope’s younger sister and she has that same honest spirit. I like to eat lunch with her and her friends because she always does her best to use the recent classroom grammar to communicate her feelings. She’s on the kendo team and I respect her a lot for trying such a difficult club. Recently, she’s started to write me letters about once a week and so we’re starting to get to know each other better.

Sailor Moon
Kind of a Japanese culture reference here, but let’s just say that this girl has two unbelievably long pigtails, an overwhelming addiction to junk food, and an equally overwhelming addiction to the spoken word. Still, she is hilarious, and she says the most ridiculous, sensational things. Her mom and I are buddies and we always spend a lot of time together at festivals (usually with her mom repeating the only five English words she knows while I try to keep up).

Newcomers:

Hermione
Just like her namesake (from Harry Potter), Hermione is extremely studious (at least about English) and very energetic. She takes great pride in overcoming the challenges that I throw at the students in class, and is extremely vocal when I do things she doesn’t like (say, for example, not showing Michael Jackson videos). She thinks that my Japanese is funny and takes it upon herself to quiz me whenever she can. I haven’t been doing so well recently and she’s starting to declare me a lost cause. I told her that we could trade and SHE could teach English, but she was pretty vocal about not liking that idea.

Britney
Brittney is interesting. Normally, it would be easy to categorize her as one of the non-studious popular girls that only cares about boys and makeup… but she’s very intelligent. Extremely intelligent, really, and she likes English so she does well in my class. I’m not exactly sure what it is about English that she likes and I can’t say anything about how she performs in math or science class, but she always knows what’s going on in my lessons and I like the kinds of things that she says. And, outside of class – you guessed it. We talk about boys and makeup … in English.

Lewis
Lewis was particularly taken with The Jabberwocky, and even to this day greets me by saying: “Julie! One, two! One, two! And through and through!” Lewis is entertaining because if he doesn’t talk, I think he forgets to breathe and loses consciousness. So, he pretty much talks all. the. time. Still, what he says tends to contribute to the conversation/lesson/positive nature of the environment, and so it’s pleasant to hear – once you’ve gotten used to it.

Carroll
Lewis’s partner in crime. Also a fan of The Jabberwocky, although not exactly a fan of English. He’s a very nice boy, though, so I forgive him for more or less spending my entire class praying for the clock hands to move faster. My entire plan for the rest of the third term revolves around getting him caught up so that the second year of English doesn’t destroy him.

And, there you have it. The big names that will be playing more prominent roles over the next few months. I’m sure that there will be others that we’ll have to add in the future, but this should do for now.

I believe in miracles
They happen every day

Shall we gyre and gimble in the wabe? January 13, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Student Moments, Taking Initiative.
Tags: , , , , , ,
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I would like first to take the opportunity to tell you that it’s currently 46 degrees in my apartment. Well, generally speaking, that is. The temperature is about 63 where I’m sitting, but if I go too far from my space heater then I can see my breath.

Winter. I love it because of it’s the time of year where I can enjoy my birthday, the Christmas season, the baking season, and the multitude of hot, tasty beverages. I also like it because Japan’s nasty, poisonous centipedes are nowhere to be found. I am slightly averse to it, however, because central heating is more of a gift than a given here, and there are some days where I miss feeling my toes.

~ ~ ~ Moving On ~ ~ ~

 Today, I did something kind of daring. I’m hoping that it wasn’t stupid, but we’re going to have to wait until next week to see if I grievously erred or not.

You might recall that last October, I had my first year JHS students memorize a stanza from Vincent Price’s monologue from Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It was a risky move on my part, because the grammar and vocabulary were far beyond their abilities and they’d never had to memorize anything in English. Still, about 95% of the class rallied and did a remarkably good job on their speaking tests. After seeing this success, My Japanese Sister told me that she’d be interested in doing something like it again.

Today was the day when we were finally able to do this activity again. After a lot of thought, I decided to assign the students the first four lines of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky.

It took me awhile to come up with this idea; I had a lot of problems finding a poem that would be near their level, and I couldn’t find any songs with lyrics that were easily divided into four or five meaningful lines. After hours of scouring the internet, I was irritated and almost to the point of giving up when, suddenly, I remembered The Jabberwocky. More specifically, I remembered that I was in first grade when I memorized The Jabberwocky. It’s a pretty demanding poem for a six-year-old, but in spite of this (or perhaps because of it), my first grade teacher was adamant that we needed to know this poem. I think it took me a couple of weeks, but I was able to memorize all of it. And now, almost twenty years later, I still remember it.

So, then it hit me: why not make my first years memorize this poem? After all, *I* certainly didn’t understand it when I studied it for the first time, so in that way my students would be going into this task about as blind as I was. Getting the materials together to make a viable lesson plan was a little tricky, and it took me forever to find an acceptable video to show them so that they’d understand what was happening in the poem (the language may be obscure, but the words do tell a story).

Still, I pulled everything together and I think that class went well today. Initially, the students were a little put off by the level of difficulty, but all it took was one repetition of “jubjub bird” and they were hooked. I like to think that my dramatic reading of the poem also helped to sell it to them.

Considering that these students don’t even know how to use the continuous tense yet, much less the past tense or passive voice, this still may not have been one of my best ideas. -_-;; Still, I want them to have opportunities to memorize English that has a place in our culture, and that sounds interesting and fun. Even if they can’t understand all of the words, I think that they’ll gain confidence from being able to say them.

At least, that’s my theory. I suppose we’ll just have to see how they do on their test next Wednesday.

*Also, I’d like to note, even though it’s not central to today’s memory, that Penelope really is a gem, much like Mary Sunshine. I had an absolutely enchanting lunch with her today, where she asked me a lot of great questions about my trip and tried her hardest to speak to me in English. She and Aphrodite are beginning to ask me serious questions about how they can go about doing a home stay with me when I finally move back to the States. It’s nice to see that this story continues to twist and turn in unexpected ways.

  

Here’s the story of a brother by the name of Othello
He liked white women and he liked … green … jello….
And a punk named Iago, who made himself a menace
‘Cause he didn’t like Othello, the moor of Venice

  

 

Better Late Than Never: December 22nd January 10, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Japanese GET.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
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Welcome back!

I have another post that I want to write regarding my trip back to the States, but before I get to that, I think that we should go back and examine the last day of the second semester: December 22nd. Already a fantastic and noteworthy day in its own right (*coughit’smybirthdaycough*), it was particularly chaotic because:

a) I was up until 2 o’clock in the morning baking cookies and getting dough ready for

b) the three-hour cookie baking extravaganza, which was slightly interrupted by

c) a quick trip to Thursday’s elementary school so that I could deal with a student who thought it would be a good idea to steal some prizes from me, but this didn’t ruin the day for me since

d) I got to give all my middle school students the cookies that I made in (b), and there was much rejoicing, which gave me enough energy for

e) all the preparations I had to do for my trip on the 23rd (think: mass shopping and packing), which were only slightly complicated by

f) a visit in the evening from My Japanese Sister, who gave me a lovely birthday gift and who was followed by

g) Aunt Mia and her mother, who wanted to stop by my apartment (also with birthday tribute) and so that we could have tea, cookies, and a chat

Still with me? Okay, good.

The 22nd was one of those days where it seemed as though I had to be everywhere at once. I like these kinds of days, because interesting things happen and you need to think on your feet. My memories from this day are kind of hazy at this point, but even now a few moments stand out.

~ The Savant, upon receiving his Christmas cookies, telling me in a very loud voice: “THANK YOU. I RESPECT YOU. I LOVE YOU. YOU ARE A VERY NICE JULIE.”

~ The Child deciding to sneak into the kitchen throughout the morning (although the students were expressly forbidden to do so) so that he could comment on my music (mostly the Trans-Siberian Orchestra) and attempt to steal cookies. He stayed around in the early part of the afternoon, and we chatted while I cleaned up the kitchen.

~ Penelope and Clemente going to great lengths to thank me for the cookies and encouraging their classmates to do the same. It was quite cute.

~ The Awesome Vice Principal sneaking in during the morning to taste test the cookies. He also let me leave school early so that I could get some shopping done, and I was very grateful for that.

And so forth.

The evening visits were also lovely memories, but they were kind of stressful, too, seeing as I had a lot to do to get ready for my trip. I found it odd (and, actually, I still find it odd), that while normally I never have people swing by my house to chat, people felt the need to do this on the night before I was to leave for a big vacation. Granted, it *was* my birthday, but still.

I’m not really complaining about the slight inconvenience, though. It was a fitting end to a very social and chaotic day. I suppose that you could say that it was a day where I felt as though things were happening, and I was at the center of it all. Some of the day’s events were my doing, and some were just tangential activities that touched my life at one point. In the end, it left me feeling very appreciated, and it was a wonderful feeling to take with me to the States.

Ah, the States. Now that is another story.

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