|
Happy New Year
Sunday,
January, 7th
I'm back with an enormous
update. This year was much more adventurous than last year so it will
take a few days to work it all up, but I'll do it in stages starting
later today.
Chew on This
Tuesday,
January, 9th
I'm still working on my big
update and should have something by the end of the week. I had planned
to finish it all today, but I got called to a meeting in Koriyama and
had to leave around noon. But here is something to chew on for a
while...and yes they are real and living.
Good News
January, 11th 2007
Today has been a relatively good day. It started out with me having
the yearly health check. People don’t really look forward to this, but
I can appreciate how many different tests I get all for free. I mean
I’ve had some physicals in the US, but this one is a 2 hour
comprehensive one. They checked my hearing, vision, weight, height,
blood, stool, EKG, eye glaucoma check, chest X-ray, and last year I
had a stomach X-Ray. This year I opted out, but I will have one next
year. Man it was like a total check-up. But the good part was I seem
to be getting slightly healthier. My blood pressure went way down, I
lost about 7 kg (15 lbs) and other blood related things were getting
better. That’s really the jumpstart I need to get in even better
shape.
The other good news, which is really great is I secretly found out
which teachers are staying next year. The main one I cared about is
the English teacher (the Japanese English teacher). He’s a great
teacher and we work well together. He will definitely leave in two
years, but for this year it will give me a chance to really get my act
together. One semi-bad change I found out about is they are cutting my
2 elective classes to just one. I had planned to have the smaller
class as a test prep class and the larger one as a speaking/listening
class. So now I need to rethink that, but it’s ok.
The other other good news is I found out my request for reduced
payments for my big school loan went through, so now I owe less than
half what I had been paying. That means I will be able to send back
even more toward my other smaller loan and get it down by April. Then
I might take a few months off and build up some savings either here or
in the US or both.
My
only major expenses this year are going to be the car tax of $2,000
USD and then I want to go to some Japanese language school(s) during
spring and summer. My Japanese ability is sad. Last year there was one
other Native Teacher with zero Japanese ability, but this year it’s
me. Argh. I can take a week’s classes in Tokyo during spring break and
stay with Daisuke for free, and then 3-4 weeks worth in summer and
possibly stay for free again.
Although I still can’t fully talk about the details, my gifts to my
parents and sister were a success. I sent one back for a friend and he
hasn’t picked it up yet so I don’t want to post pictures. I think he
reads this. If so Larry go to the shop and get it, I sent you the map.
GO.
I’m
almost finished with my Thailand update. I did a few things that were
interesting. One was the tiger temple as shown above and the other was
to visit a prisoner in Thailand’s infamous Bang Kwang prison. He was
busted for trying to smuggle heroin out of Bangkok to Australia. He
fully admits his guilt and regrets his actions. Many people believe
drug smugglers should rot in hell and don’t deserve a visitor. Well
that’s your opinion. I’ll write up a page about my trip there and how
others can do it if interested.
We Are Za Worldo
Friday, January 12, 2007
Let’s eat.
Ryan are you ready?
Ok.
Today the kid’s will play music during lunch.
(I hear a
strange version of We Are The World).
What’s this?
You don’t know? It’s We Are World.
Oh, yea but it sounds different. Who is singing?
It’s the original version.
By original do you mean Japanese version?
No no, the original version. America copied it from Japan.
Ha ha. Ok, that’s very interesting.
I found out that’s a SE Asian thing, not just a Japanese thing. When I
visited the prisoner in Bang Kwang, he said the Thai people in the
prison thought a Thai person was the first on the moon. He also
convinced them that people in Australia had pet dragons when they saw
a commercial for Eragon.
Tangerine Attack
Sunday, January 14, 2007
The nice lady who runs the Smile Mart (they sell happiness) told me
there was a festival near my apartment today at 4. Ok, cool. I have
nothing pressing to do other than clean my apartment, so I'll go. I
get there at 3:45 and they are just setting up. Here's a page
dedicated to the Konan
machi-Miyo Winter Festival.
Here's the other news I can finally post. I have been hinting vaguely
discussing some Christmas presents I sent back for my parents, my
sister and brother in law, and a friend who owns a music lessons place
(I think there is a better name for that). I couldn't say much about
it since they all (minus the parents) read this so I couldn't post
anything about it. But now it's all done and they have all received
the gifts so I can show the rest of the world.
I sent back three framed Japanese calligraphy pictures. Actually the
framing was done in the US at my dad's company's old location's
neighbor's framing company (wow). They make frames for pictures, they
don't frame people for crimes, though that would be funny. Anyway,
here are the photos of the three things I sent back.
So here they are. On the left we have "The Arts" for Larry my friend
with the music school. The center one is "Sacrifice" for my parents,
and the right is "Faith" for my sister. I had to wait since Larry, who
reads this, hadn't picked his up for a while. I've been thinking of
doing this for years, but haven't been able. This year I got tired of
waiting and had my calligraphy teacher do them and I mailed them back.
Hopefully one day I'll be able to draw them myself, but I have a poor
sense of space which is a big part of writing Chinese characters.
Oh here's a humorous story about the above paintings/drawings. My
sister's one is the faith image. When she took it home she leaned it
against the wall for a day or two and then she was ready to hang it.
She told my brother in-law that she knew exactly where she wanted to
hang the faith painting. Say that out loud a few times. Faith
painting. My niece, the elder niece, came running into the room so
excited that they were going to do "face painting". My sister said
that was the hardest thing she has ever had to do, tell her excited
smiling daughter that she misunderstood.
I finished my Thailand update, but I left the files on my laptop which
is at school. I'll bring it home Monday and make the update then. It's
big, about 10 or 15 separate pages. I could write about the two other
things I did while in Thailand, which are
visiting the forensic museum
which cadavers split apart like that horse from The Cell, and then
visiting a prisoner in Bang Kwang prison. I'll work on those soon.
Bruises
Monday, January 15, 2007
Today all the kids have tests, all
three grades for all six classes. I don’t mind since I have some
things I need to do. One is to clean the heck out of my desk. Since I
teach all 9 grades I have lesson plans and activities and planning
stuff for all nine grades. I’ve noticed I have a cabinet drawer that I
never open so whatever is in there needs to be in a less accessible
place. I have too much clutter on my desk and need to sort it better.
My goal is to make lessons a year in advance for all my classes.
Figure out how many classes I will have, the curriculum I want to
teach, and then start planning lessons that build on each other. But
for that I need a lot more space.
I bought the movie Goonies at the
record shop. I haven’t seen it in a while, but my plan is to show it
to the 3rd year students over three class periods. Most are
already accepted into a high school and the others will be taking the
general test soon. There are some things I could be teaching them, but
their attention span goes down day by day. Plus they have really
busted their butts over this past year and the movie will technically
count as listening practice. Paula, a fellow Koriyama Native Teacher,
has been showing the movie to all 10 of her 3rd year
classes and sitting through the movie each time. Ouch, I sat through
E.T. twice last year and that was too much. Oh I had better check and
see when the 2nd years get to the E.T. chapter in the book.
I woke up this morning and felt odd
in some places. Then I saw I had some bruises and I didn’t know why.
Then I remembered getting smacked down with hundreds of tangerines
yesterday. I’m going to try to be on the throwing end next year. Maybe
I will invite some friends since it is a quaint little interesting
festival.
Almost Finished
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
I had no planned classes today, well the one with the 5th
graders, but of course I’m not needed there. I’ve been thinking and I
have been to that class less than 5 times total. When they are JHS
students in two years I won’t have any idea about their level. Sadly I
can’t say anything to the people above me since the teacher is the
best friend of the guy that is the liaison between Koriyama ALTs / NTs
and the Board of Education. I could say something, but this teacher is
well known as being such a good teacher, it would sound like I am the
problem. Technically I do think he is a great teacher, but he doesn’t
use me much and that is wasteful. By “much” I mean never.
I’ve spent the morning fixing some stupid issues I had with creating
the Thailand Trip files. I am finished with the updates, but now I
have to upload them and that’s taking a while. It’s not important what
the problem is, just that I thought I was doing things efficiently by
making the pages offline at school and uploading them later. But
actually I was taking twice the time it would have take to make them
directly online. Anyway, they should be uploaded and done soon like
now or tomorrow. I’ll post the links as well as the links to the page
about the Forensic Museum and Visiting a Prisoner at Bang Kwang
Prison.
I really need to set some goals as far as hobbies go. I have interests
in so many things, but they are all media related. I enjoy writing and
have written a few articles about Japan (and shortly Thailand) for an
online “magazine” called
http://www.GoNomad.com
. My next writing goal is to get an article with photos published in a
real print magazine. [Tangent: I hate when people say “I run a
magazine and I am thinking about doing a print version. EH WRONG Mr.
CHUMPERs. A magazine IS a print version, you run a website. You can
have an online magazine, but the online part is part of the title. A
magazine, like a book, is printed. End Transmission]. Then after that,
or possibly around the same time, I’d like to have a science fiction
story published in a….real print magazine. Later I’d like to work up
to novels, then bestsellers, then something else.
Also I’d like have some photographs published somewhere. I enjoy
photography though I don’t call myself a photographer. Technically I
could since that technically means someone who takes photos, but I am
going to wait until I get paid for a photograph. I wouldn’t mind just
having something published in a magazine and not getting paid, or
getting paid and not having them published, or just getting paid. I
plan to take my regular film camera around when I travel and snap some
nice shots on film as well.
At some point, hopefully within this year, my college friend and I are
hoping to start a small FREE English magazine in Tokyo. Can you
believe there are no free magazines in Tokyo, the city of 712
Gazillion Trillion people? Ha ha Gazillion is a word. Anyway, it will
cost us a bit at first, but I truly think it will catch on. Even if it
doesn’t at least I can say I tried.
What else, it seems like there is more. Oh, I am still working on my
quiz website for my kids. I have decided to stop worrying about
programming it myself and hire someone to do it right in PHP and MySQL.
PHP is a strong and fast programming language for Linux and MySQL is a
strong and fast database. Now I have it in ColdFusion and MySQL, which
works, but PHP is easier to get access to, faster, and will handle far
more people using it at once. I hope to make it so the whole school
can use it for test preparation, then maybe release it to the BoE and
they can tell the whole citywide school system about it, but that will
cause all sorts of new headaches.
Well anyway, those are all media related. Oh there’s also getting my
black and white darkroom set up first at home and then possibly at
school. I’d like to get back into that as well as slide photography
which is what magazines require. I also need to get some new lenses
and filters and a better tripod, but these are all on the back burner
and smaller projects.
I have made a few other goals which seem to be highly doable, even
though I don’t seem to be doing as much as I could. Here they are in
no order:
☺
Lose 10 kg.
☺
Pay off my second loan.
☺
Have $2,000 in US savings and $1,000
in savings here.
☺
Get better at Japanese.
Well technically I am making plans for all of them, but the losing
weight requires more than making plans, which is my problem. If only I
got credit for my intentions I would be in such good shape. As far as
paying off the second loan goes, I have a plan for that. I am sending
back most of my paycheck for Jan-April. Then I’ll have to save some
for my stupid $2,000 car tax, but I should have it paid off by then.
Then I will keep sending the money back and save it as well as save
some here. The vague last goal will be accomplished by me not
traveling during spring break or summer and going to an intensive
language school in Tokyo. I can stay with Daisuke for either free or
buying him dinners occasionally to save money.
The part
about losing weight would put me quite close to my ideal weight. Well
my realistic ideal weight. The doctor said I should be 77kg which is
167 lbs, but I think my true ideal weight is more around mid to upper
80s which would be 187-198 lbs. 167 lbs for someone 6’3” is really
absurd. They are clearly using the Japanese BMI scale. The principal
suggested I do some cross country skiing, at least around the field at
the school. I don’t have any skis, but that’s a good idea. I don’t
like pure exercise because I get bored at the tedious nature of
running in circles. But moving around an area in cold air might be
alright.
So that’s my
4 part attack plan. I think it’s realistic and doable, though as I
said I need to make hard goals about the hobby related stuff. My aunt
has moved me along a bit as far as writing goes. She graciously bought
me several books regarding writing points that I had in my Amazon wish
list. Well, some folders just showed up that I had ordered so I am
going to continue sorting my desk. I stopped yesterday since I had no
such folders.
I’m about to
whine a bit, even though I am trying to whine less and less this new
year. But anyway, sometimes I want to casually look up some word on
this nice online dictionary called
Jisho.org. When I
am in no rush the school’s network loads lightning fast almost before
I press enter. But when I am in the middle of a conversation and
someone says a big word that I don’t know, it takes 6 years to load
Internet Explorer and then another decade to load the Jisho page. I
love that. I mean it’s really awesome.
I'm seriously almost done with the Thailand page. As a matter of fact,
I might even finish within the hour, or the night.
[The Next Day]
Ok, although some links don't work and I am still checking them, here
is my big page of links and photos from my
Thailand Orphanage Trip 2006. The
two other pages I finished are about visiting a prisoner in the
infamous Bangkok Hilton, Brokedown Palace,
Bang
Kwang Prison (possibly the most brutal prison on earth). Then the
Bangkok Forensic
Museum located in Siriraj Hospital.
Language Differences
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Obviously there are some language differences between English and
Japanese, but some I just can’t remember. The one that keeps getting
me, though only for about 1 second, is when I ask if I can use a
certain room. I ask in Japanese “3rd period, computer
room/gym, is it ok for me to use it?” So I am expecting “yes it is ok
for you to use it”. But the answer is “not use it”. This means, they
are not using it.
I think we are having a party tomorrow. It started as a few people
getting together, then the group thing kicked in and they culturally
had to invite more people. I heard the math teacher telling another
teacher about it. First it was just the math teachers, then the PE
teacher. Then the teacher that sits between them since it was the
whole row minus one. Well that teacher is also a 3rd grade
homeroom teacher, so then they had to invite the other one. Oh the
other one is an English teacher as am I so then I was invited. Then
the teacher beside me since I am part of the 1st grade
group. Then more and more until it was the whole JHS. It was
interesting and works out ok for me since I was going to Tokyo either
tomorrow or Saturday to see sumo and stay with Daisuke. I’ll just get
a cheap hotel room in Koriyama tomorrow and leave from there.
I had two classes today with the 2nd year JHS. I had
planned a running game where I call a word and they have to run to the
other end of the gym and find it. I had all the parts ready and when I
got to the classroom to tell them, all the students were shivering
since it was so cold, even with the heater on. I too was cold and
caved in and altered the game on the spot. I’m actually pretty good at
altering or coming up with games on the spot. I have created an online
ESL blog about teaching ideas so I can keep a log of them as well as
share the ideas with others.
Things that fall into the “Not a Good Idea” category. Number one:
putting small pieces of chocolate in your pocket, forgetting you did,
then putting hand warmers in your pockets. More will come later.
Let’s Play Cards
Friday, January 19, 2007
I played two card games with the 6th graders today. They
thought it was just going to be them playing cards, but I worked some
English into the mix. It was subtle so they didn’t really think it was
a lesson, but I had them reviewing basic numbers, using the
conjunction “of” and then pronouncing the 4 types of cards as in
hearts, diamonds, etc. There was a little discussion on the correct
pronunciation of the suits though. I wrote, in the phonetic Japanese
alphabet for foreign words, dia-mon-zu, which is as close as you can
get. They all laughed and said the “correct” pronunciation, by correct
they meant Japanese, was just “dia”. I explained that we were shooting
for the English pronunciation, but they still laughed at how I was
doing something different.
Poor Planning
Monday, January, 22nd
2007
It’s amazing how you learn a word in Japanese and then suddenly hear
it 20 times a day. I caved in to my addiction while in Tokyo and
bought more Learning Japanese books. I probably have one copy of every
one ever written. It’s like the mere act of buying is all I need, but
more on that later. Anyway, the phrase I learned is “o-mie ni
narimashita”. It’s a really polite way to say “someone has come to see
you”, or really just “someone has arrived” (that was expected). So I
read it on the bus ride back and then forgot about it until just now
when some visitors came from Nagano prefecture and a teacher said it
about 5 times to the principal.
Last week through next week I am showing the seniors “Goonies”, which
is a great movie from the early 80’s I think. I could check the box
for the exact date, but that would require movement. Anyway, they
enjoyed it the first week, but this week they were really drawn into
it since it’s the part where the kids go into the caves and start the
adventure. I will force them all to write in their journals if they
want to see the ending.
It’s really strange watching the movie and reading the Japanese
subtitles. There are so many language and cultural differences. One
example is the kids frequently say “jerk alert” when someone (they
think less of) is coming. But it translates to “someone is coming”.
There just aren’t that many variations on words like “jerk”. In
English I can think of hundreds, if not millions (well at least
dozens), but in Japanese there are less than 5 and I can really only
think of one right off hand.
I’ve been getting tons of junk mail on my phone recently so I was
about to change my address. That’s a hassle because then you have to
notify everyone in your address book and I have hundreds, if not
millions (well at least dozens) of names. Instead, a teacher told me
how to block most of the mail by rejecting all mail except that of
which that comes from another phone. Spammers usually don’t take the
time to write junk mail on a phone and then type in the hundreds, if
not……..several addresses. I’ll see how this goes and consider changing
it later. I did make notes of all the domain names it came from and
have contacted the host providers.
So why did I label this poor planning? Well this weekend I went to
Tokyo mainly to see sumo, but also to do a few other things. My plan
was to get to sumo around 10, buy a ticket or tickets and then come
back around 2 to get a decent seat. I did keep in mind that it was the
final bout and it would be packed, but I let other people persuade me
into not going at 8am and waiting for tickets to go on sale at 8:30. I
got there around 9:30 and asked a guard where I could buy the tickets.
He said they sold out in 15 minutes, 400 seats in 15 minutes. Wowzers.
So I decided to snap some other photos of Tokyo and then take the bus
back rather than the shink. Luckily I took the bus down and stayed
with Daisuke in his old and small Tokyo apartment.
I doubt I can ever live and work in Tokyo, at least not like a local
person. First of all to move into a place you have to pay key money,
which is really just money you throw away. Then there are 2-6 month’s
rent deposit. Daisuke said he paid about $5,000 to move in and will
get back less than $2,000 if the place is ok. What a racket that is. I
had to pay $2,000 total when I moved from the school’s apartment to
the nicer and smaller one in the city 4 years ago and got nothing
back. Part of the money was a "deposit", part was first month’s rent,
but most was money simply as a way of saying “thanks for letting me
live here”. I would have gotten the deposit back if I gave them two
month's notice, but I didn't find out that my successor was married
and would be living elsewhere until 3 weeks before.
The working aspect of me being in Tokyo is less financial and more
having a life. Daisuke works Monday through Saturday from 7am to
midnight. Then sometimes he has to go in on Sundays. I only saw him
for about an hour Saturday. His sister, who no longer lives with him
in the nice 28th floor pad, also works the same hours. How
is that having any form of a life? There is no way I could do that
mainly because a large part of the time he spends working, is not
actually efficient work.
In Japan,
loyalty to a company or job is shown by constantly being there.
Teachers at this school as well as all the one’s I’ve ever worked for
in Japan, constantly stay late. Sometimes as late as 8-10 every night.
I often joke with the other English teacher that he probably can’t
even recognize his 1 year old son. The child is asleep when he leaves,
asleep when he gets back, the teacher frequently comes in or has some
school event on weekends. It’s only on Sundays that he gets to play
with his kid. That is actually not even the best example, some fathers
live and work far away and don’t come home often, others just stay at
work all the time. I almost think “why did you bother to get married
and have kids?”
To me, and I
accept my beliefs are only my own, working is a part of my life. It
doesn’t define who I am or what I think, it’s just part of my life. I
enjoy it, but I won’t put in 12 hours a day 6-7 days a week especially
if I’m not really doing anything. I spend a lot of my time at school
writing this, searching the web (on a limited basis), working on other
projects, and so on. I do plan lessons and work, but I seem to do
these things much faster than other teachers. I know they have other
things to do, but the amount of time we are at school versus what we
get done is disproportionate. But the longer I stay at work, the more
“loyal” I seem. Regardless of what I am doing.
Today there
was a meeting between the first year teachers (those that teach / work
with the first year JHS students – I can’t remember how to say that in
English). The funny thing is they told me not to go. I didn’t want to
sit through an hour long meeting where they were talking to a travel
agent about the school trip fee, but it was so un-Japanese to tell me
to not go. They didn’t even say I don’t have to go, it was just “don’t
go”. Maybe that’s what they meant and I just didn’t pick up the
delicate nuance of the sentence. I don’t care, I didn’t want to go and
I didn’t have to go. I would like to go on the school trip though,
even though it will be in 2 more years. I might be here then.
Something is Amiss
Tuesday, January, 23rd
2007
We have a
number of students who attend school, but don’t actually do anything
here. Well, “a number” sounds like a lot, but it’s really only 5 or
so. I guess they have learning issues (don’t know the newest
politically correct terminology). Some hang out in the library, some
show up once a month, and some attend classes. One kid attended
classes last year and through winter vacation, but since then I’ve
noticed a teacher goes and picks him up every morning and then takes
him to the counselor’s room where he plays video games all day. I
often wonder why this happens and why he doesn’t just stay home. I’ll
ask someone about this later.
Today I have
two ALT classes and one elementary school class, but I’m not going to
that one. I’m sure you can guess why. I’ve got enough stuff to do to
keep me busy for the day. Then the rest of the week I have 4-5 classes
a day. I’d rather have them spaced out evenly over the whole week, but
after being a Fukushima JET and having no classes at all for three
solid months, I don’t mind having a full load one day and no classes
the next.
Some of my
friends have been emailing saying they just received the post card I
sent. I mailed about 30 from Thailand. Some went to family members,
others to friends, and some went to old acquaintances. I mean like
people I haven’t talked to in 10 years. I should have put my email
address on them so these old friends could send an email and say
hello. This year I have no major, as in interesting, travel plans. I
think I will go back to the US and spend a Christmas there with
family. It would be my first Christmas with family in 6 years. I’ve
been here five, plus the Christmas before I left I had to work at my
stupid job. Plus it will be nice to see my two nieces who will be at
an enjoyable age then. One is too young now and she can’t really enjoy
things, but by then she would be almost 2 and talking/walking. So yea
I guess I can just not go to warm Thailand for one year. Argh.
I finally
mailed some CDs to some teachers who watched my observed class back in
December and wanted a copy of the PowerPoint presentation I used. I
also included a copy of the ABC ordered game. I wasn’t able to mail
them in Koriyama since I temporarily forgot that things that should
make sense, don’t. I forgot all the post offices closed early and
didn’t open on Saturday mornings. So I had to take the packages to
Tokyo and mail them from there. It costs the same and they still made
it here in one day. I know this because one of the packages came to
me.
I thought I
had addressed it wrong or backwards, but I did everything correctly.
It came here because the way you address an envelope in Japan is
silly. I typed the TO address in big letters on the front and my
return address smaller on the back. But here’s the thing that makes me
mad. There is a space on the front of the envelope for the SENDER to
write the postal code of the RECEIVER. That’s what the spaces are for.
The person’s postal code who will receive the envelope. That’s what
goes there, and guess what….drum roll….that’s what I wrote there.
Here’s the real kicker, when you address an envelope you put the
character “-sama” after the receiver’s name. It’s a more polite
version of “-san” which I’m sure you’ve heard.
So I had
these three envelopes written clearly and correctly and one came to
me. I ripped off my return address and gave it to the postal guy when
he showed up and explained the situation. He told me it would be
better if I write the return address nanoscopic in the lower back
corner so there is no question. I asked about the front postal code
and the “-sama” and he said that too will guarantee it gets delivered.
I pointed to the fact that I had done that and he said “yes that’s how
you do it, it will be delivered this way”. I asked why then did I
receive it. The answer had something to do with the fact that the
Japanese way was far too delicate and precise for many to understand.
Then he gave me a “sorry we messed up” gift and took it.
That’s
pretty much the focus of why I get so frustrated in Japan. It’s not
about doing things a different way, that’s what makes the world go
round. It’s about doing it one way and not even acknowledging the
possibility of another way. All I wanted here was the guy to say to
himself “hmmm, we usually put the postal code here, but he did write
“sama” and filled in this postal box correctly and the return address
is on the back, I think this should go to this other person”. But
that’s not what happens, though somewhere someone must have done that
with the two others. I bet he had them in his bag when I approached
him and hid them when I explained it. It’s also like when I asked the
teacher about fundraising at school and he said we couldn’t although
he had a box for fundraising at school by his desk. He couldn’t make
the connection that we can’t fundraise for things not in Japan, but
fundraising itself was ok. All I wanted was the “ah, I get it, the
thing is we can fundraise, but only for this one”, but I just talked
in circles for a while.
Dear GOD NO!!!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
I saw some elementary kids run into the computer room so I went in to
see what they were doing. They were about to play some game or
something. It required a login which was written on the whiteboard.
When I saw them looking at it, I noticed the address to my English
site for students was still up there. It’s been several months plus it
has changed so I went to erase it. I secretly expected what would
happen, but not to the degree it did.
I started erasing and one girl turned and said “no no don’t erase it”
all in Japanese of course. I wasn’t erasing the login they needed so I
continued, smiling. Then she yelled it again louder. I kept erasing
and added some gas to the fire. I looked wide eyed and said “uh oh…oh
no…” and so on. She started screaming bloody murder. It was like I was
about to kill her beloved dog or something. It was blood curdling, but
I pressed on erasing my part and saying the little things. Then she
just exploded into a temper tantrum like no other. She was nearly in
convulsions as she screamed and flailed her arms around. Then I
stopped and said “done” and she looked up and said something like “ok”
and kept typing. Wow.
I just received $60 for some overpayment regarding the teacher’s
house. Groovy, though I added $30 to it and gave it to the office lady
because I am slightly late on some school fees. I had planned to catch
up with this paycheck, but I accidentally spent more than I planned on
payday. For example I was going to Tokyo to see sumo, but also to take
some nice slide shots. So I took my film camera, but I no longer have
a bag for it so I needed to buy one. Well that was $33, but I needed
it. Then there was the air cleaner for my apartment since I am always
coughing or have a nasal drip, but only IN the apartment. I figure
there’s something in the air from the tatami mats. That was $100. Then
I bought some film for the camera, and then some books in Tokyo
because I have a book buying addiction. So basically I spent the money
I had planned to pay the school. But now I am only one month behind
and I’ll be able to catch up easily with the February paycheck.
I sent $500 to my 2nd loan bringing it down to $1,800.
Hopefully next month I can pay a bit more. I had to pay extra to my
credit card since I still owe a bit on the things I bought in
Thailand. He let me take them if I promise to pay later. So next month
I’d like to send $800 to the loan place if possible, which I think it
is. But I need to save a little for spring break since I plan to go to
some language school for a week. It will be a thrifty week since I
will bus down and back and stay with Daisuke as well as eat cheaply.
My goal is to “level up” my Japanese.
Well I’m off to English Camp in about 30 minutes. It will be fun as
usual even though they changed it so this is the last time this group
goes together. I told a 3rd year student who went with the
same group of kids (from different schools) for the whole three years
and she agreed that this really sucks. Part of the fun of the camp is
meeting all these new people with an interest (and high level) of
English and then always running into them at speech contests and high
school after graduation. But this time they only go a few times and
stop in their second year. I made diplomas for them which will be
cool, but still not as cool as staying all three years.
Being Negative or Going from
Experience?
Thursday, January 25, 2007
I went to English Camp last night and it was the usual. The first 30
minutes was spent doing the standard Japanese ceremonial procedures. I
spent the time chatting with other Koriyama ALTs and then seeing if I
could be the first and last person to clap. Then we played some cool
game that took far longer than the time we had so it was cut short.
Finally we get to the end and have a short meeting that I requested. I
used the time to explain a few things about some upcoming events.
I also used the time to talk about the Konan Snow Day on Feb 21st
when the Koriyama ALTs come to my school and play with the elementary
school kids. It was going to be just a morning event and they planned
to leave the nanosecond it was over. I told them the principal
requested they stay and eat lunch with the elementary school kids.
Then I asked the big question, to which I already knew the answer.
Would they mind staying for one period after lunch to let the JHS
students interview them for English speaking practice.
How dare I ask such a rude thing? A few of them, the few I expected,
said sure sounds great. The majority didn’t really care, but I could
tell they preferred to leave. Then a few, the few I expected again,
were adamant and loud in expressing their disapproval. They wanted to
take advantage of the free monthly day off and couldn’t be bothered
helping kids learn English.
I often wonder why people choose to come to Japan to teach English.
Most people I know who do this are far more interested in the getting
paid, having time off, and not being at work aspect. I was semi-like
that when I was a Fukushima JET at Higashi High School for three
years, but when there was an opportunity to help people interested in
learning English, I jumped on it.
Then I asked for volunteers to help me with the Global Citizen’s
Festival in March. Again, one or two said they would help, most people
expressed Sunday was their day off and they could not be bothered by
helping with some international festival. I have done it for 5 years
and enjoy working the whole 6 hour shift. I don’t understand why
people are so lazy about helping some times. Oh the funny thing is
when there is a work-type activity, it’s like pulling teeth getting
people to attend. When it’s the beer garden or the FuJET free ski day,
there is a waiting list with too many people. It’s like “will this
benefit me immediately? Yes, I will attend, no…Oh I might be busy that
weekend”. I have often wanted to offer some boring international event
and see how many people volunteer and then after the names barely
trickle in, mention they will receive $200 or something for one hour’s
work. I offered free hot dogs to whomever helps me for the day. We’ll
see if that makes a difference.
TGIF
Friday, January 26, 2007
I just had a class with the Elective B group. I don’t really like the
class as in the structure as well as the members. Most of the students
are ok, but some just took it because they wanted to watch movies or
hang out with other friends. The big reason I don’t like it is because
it is so hard to plan for. There are some high level seniors and low
level 2nd years. Activities are either too hard or boringly
easy. That’s why we were watching movies for a while, but I got tired
of doing only that. Last year I had them start on some English scripts
for movies, but that ended up taking more than 5 classes and they
still hadn’t written them, so I am trying to get out of that even
though they were really excited about doing that. It would take 5-10
classes to make the movies and there aren’t that many left. Today I
played a poor man’s version of Boggle. I wrote some letters on the
board and told them to make words. It went over well, but I felt like
a chump the whole period. It’s just so hard to plan for that group. I
want to make it really strict next year so far less people sign up and
those that do are really interested in learning. I would be happy with
5 or less.
Here are the links to my trip photos and info. A few pages have bad
links and missing pictures because I made the pages on a different
computer and tried to upload them to the server. It was my new
improved super efficient time saving way of doing it. I've spent 5x
the amount of time it normally takes going back and correcting each
page. Learned my lesson. I am in the process of fixing all the bad
links as you read this (as long as you are reading this on Sunday,
January 28th, 2007, around noon - Japan time).
Baan Dada Thailand Orphanage Trip
Bangkok Forensic
Museum
Visiting a prisoner at Bang Kwang Prison
Staying in a coffin sized hotel (capsule hotel)
Mr. Squeakers
Monday, January, 29th
2007
We have a mouse in the teacher’s room. Somehow it gets into my desk
and eats any food scraps I might have had in there. I accidentally
left some chocolate in my desk once and when I opened the drawer later
it looked like a mouse had nibbled on it. The thing is, we have no
idea how a mouse would get into the places it does. For the drawer on
my desk, there is less than a centimeter gap between the drawer and
the side of the desk. Plus it would have had to climb the side of the
desk or something. I guess the moral is don’t leave food bits in the
desk.
Four of us had a meeting at Paula’s house about trying to plan a
curriculum for the Native Teacher program. It was a bit disappointing
in a way, though I did bring back some new ideas. I really hoped we
could set down a foundation and say “this is what I want the kids to
know by the end of each year”, but it was more of an idea exchange. We
found out that most of us have completely different teaching
philosophies. I want to improve test scores for both the high school
entrance test and Eiken standardized English test. That includes the
test part as well as the speaking interview part. Others only show
movies, which improves listening. Others say forget the tests let’s
get them speaking naturally. I aim to improve test scores mainly to
help them advance with English through their academic life, and
because I know from years of experience managers want quantifiable
results. It’s called job security.
This week I have a slightly smaller load, well at least by Japanese
standards. I plan 6 classes and attend 6 others as an ALT. Teachers in
western countries please hold your resentment. 4 classes is a heavy
load here for one day. 5-6 is brutal. Yes I know you have to work all
day and have maybe 1 planning period. Maybe soon you will learn the
advanced Japanese way. Mwah ha ha ha.
I didn’t leave the apartment once on Sunday. I meant to go into
Koriyama, but then I started watched some DVD and then I wanted to see
the next episode and so on. Then it was 3pm and then I called the
local restaurant (singular) and had them deliver dinner. Oh we ordered
pizza on Saturday which was really good. Even though the “Deluxe” had
squid and some other Japanese nonsense on it. They put such odd things
on their pizzas here and still manage to mock the American style
pizza. I’m pretty sure they think they invented the pizza, which is
most definitely an Italian dish.
Sometimes I exchange these small notebooks with various elementary
kids. They write a little note about nothing in Japanese and write
back and occasionally drop in a simple English word for them to use.
The 4th graders love it and I am always passing out more
notebooks and recently some 2nd graders wanted in so I gave
them some notebooks. It went fine for a few weeks and then two kids
just returned them with “I quit the notebook exchange, I’m sorry, bye
bye” all in little kid Japanese. I was really shocked since so many
other kids in the class have been begging me for notebooks. I don’t
know if it has to do with the teacher or some other student in that
class (it is the brat girl class) or if their parents don’t like it. I
don’t care who reads it, we just chat about things like “thanks for
the last letter, what sports do you like”. It’s just odd.
I’m back tracking a bit… one good thing that came out of the Native
Teacher meeting on Saturday was the other guy there talked about his
money/point system. I do money just like him, but he has a lot more
ways of getting it back. First they get money for various things. Then
they have the option of joining a Fite Club” since his last name is
Fite. Then they can pay to “level up”, then the top members of the
club get to decide things like what movie people watch in class. Also
there is an auction as well as big things each term like buying an
American style football or something. He said it makes the motivation
go way up.
I am so tired of getting all these nonsense junk memos. At first I
tried to translate them to see what they were about. Then I would
realize they were dumb and not worth translating. Anytime anyone
remotely related to the school does something that gets in the
newspaper, rather than post a copy of the paper on a bulletin board,
someone copies it and passes it around to everyone. That gets us that
much closer to our minimum paper overuse quota. Sometimes people make
memos for things that could be said in the morning meeting. Better
yet, sometime people say them in the meeting while we are reading it
on the memo.
The reason I am mad now, is because I think I threw away some
important work by students for the English newspaper I wanted to
produce by the end of the year. I remember they wrote it on the back
on one of the millions of nonsense memos I get. Now I can’t find them
and I fear I tossed them in a purging fit from before. Over the
weekends or any days that I am not here, I get a small mountain of
these forms.
Lack of Sleep
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
I woke up, rather was woken up, twice during the night with stomach
pains. It’s from eating something and I am leaning towards the Ritz
cheese sandwich things. That’s a good thing actually since I don’t
need to eat them. I wouldn’t mind getting violently sick every time I
ate something bad like that. I mean 12 hours worth of vomiting and the
other thing, convulsive fits, hallucinations, and so on. (Dear
Universe, that was satiric writing, I don’t really want that to
happen). But it would, as it is doing, cause me to eat better. So
anyway the point I was going for is now I am sleepy since I was up a
lot, and I couldn’t drink coffee this morning since my stomach was
upset.
Tonight I am going into Koriyama to see Paula and we are going to work
on some pre-fab activities. That’s what we both wanted from the Native
Teacher meeting on Saturday anyway. We are going to pick 5-10 grammar
points and think of some activities that we can “copy-n-go”. We are
also going to figure out a foundation of things we’d like to pass
along. I’m looking forward to it, plus I get to eat out somewhere, but
I wish it were on Wednesday. That’s her fiancé’s day off so it can’t
be. But Tuesday is ok. We’ll go eat somewhere that we have a little
waiting time and can spread some papers around. Then go back to her
place for a bit and work a little more til her man gets home around 8,
even though he gets off at 5. You gotta love the Japanese working way.
I happened to stumble across a book about the standardized national
English test and noticed the kid’s version is next Monday. I didn’t
even know it existed until I had lunch with the Endo family in
December. No one has told me anything about it whatsoever. I can
understand that when I think in Japanese. We Japanese can speak
English, why would we need the help of a native English speaker? It
fits my mathematical calculations perfectly. Think of what is logical
and makes sense, then think of the opposite and that’s what happens.
It sounds negative, but it really helps me anticipate what will happen
many times. It also lets me understand things like “why didn’t anyone
mention this test, much less as me to help?”
Today I have one official class with the ES 3rd graders. We
are going to review a little and then I’m going to teach them the
annoying “Hello How Are You” song from genkiEnglish.com. Yes it is
annoying, but they do remember it and can then answer the question
with one of eight responses. The 2nd graders can still
respond to that because of the song and that’s great English
interaction. That’s stuff they can really use especially when the
Koriyama ALTs come on the 21st to play in the snow (or not
play and whine about it). I need to plan a few more activities for
that day although we really aren’t going to have more than 30 minutes
per activity with all the gathering, waiting, moving around,
preparing, and so on. Sounds negative again, but it’s from experience.
There’s always some schedule that says “10-10:05 students gather,
10:05-10:10 opening remarks…..”, but the fact is we always run late
because the times are not realistic.
I just had the above mentioned class. It went fine, though they were
slightly rowdier than usual. By rowdy I mean I had to say be quiet
three times as opposed to once. We reviewed a bit first and then I
taught them Hello How Are You and I played the annoying song. They
danced around and sang and then asked for the song again. So from
tomorrow I have to start asking them as well as the 2nd
graders. The 2nd graders are really quick to respond now.
I’m hoping to break them of “I’m fine thank you and you”.
Tweet Tweet
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
I was trying to write some prophetic for the soon-to-graduate 6th
graders (Japanese schools are 1-6 7-9 10-12), but I wrote something
pathetic. I meant to write “children eagerly want to grow up”, but I
wrote “children eagerly want to become adult birds”. It’s actually the
same pronunciation, but a slightly different Chinese character. La ti
da. Details…blah blah. Luckily I practice everything before I commit
it to something official and I am not so arrogant as to have it
checked by a native speaker. The teacher laughed and showed me the
problem. When you write Japanese on a computer, you first write the
plain curvy characters, then you hit the space bar and it shows the
Chinese characters available for the letters. So I picked the wrong
one. It would have been funny if they let it pass.
We just had a JHS meeting that was supposed to start at 4:15, but
actually started at 5. I was secretly happy since I always get bored
and leave right at 4:55, but I want to stay and show my “loyalty”.
That’s how you show loyalty in Japan, just be at work all the time. So
it started late and teachers said I could go home, but I said “No, I
am part of this team and I am going to stay and participate in the
meeting”. By participate, I meant sit in the farthest seat from the
head honcho and scribble. They were all happy I was showing such
loyalty.
I studied some Japanese and then read the memo that was being read to
us and the doodled a bit. Finally we reached the last two parts which,
in reverse order, are my most dreaded parts. The worst thing is the
last part. It’s called “sono hoka”, which means “is there anything
else?” But there is a pattern to it. Someone asks the question, then
waits, asks again, we wait, there is small talk about something else,
he asks again, we wait, then someone who actually has “something else”
asks it. Then we discuss that for a bit, then start the process over.
The second most dreaded part, which is always second to last, is the
discussion of personal problems of students. I always laugh to myself
about how this would last 12.5 seconds in the US. “Jim was absent
today because he had severe diarrhea. His father lost his job last
week and they haven’t been eating well. Susan, who has mental
problems, stays home and doesn’t participate in class, but recently
she said she might be up to coming in occasionally.” I hate it because
A) it’s grossly personal, B) I don’t care who has severe diarrhea each
week, and C) there are six classes and each teacher talks for about 5
minutes (including follow up questions from others).
Today was especially bad since there was a pre-sono hoka at the end of
the first page and I assumed that was the final one, but then he said
“and next is #8” which was on the back of the page. #8 was the list of
who had the poopies this week and then #9 was the long drawn out
closing. But now it’s 6pm and I can go and I get credit for staying
late, even though part of it was me typing this. But they don’t know
that. I wonder if I should make a bowel movement chart and report it
next week.
February's Journal
|
