9.25.09

Boy what a day. Nagawasho from first period so I was out the door by 7:30am, had a few minutes to rest after getting off the bus, and then was in classes all day. Didn't check the schedule to know how long I'd be at the school today, barely even went to the right school. First period were the fourth graders last time I thought had sort of a twisted sense of humor. Today they were mellow, but the teacher didn't really give me any instruction and just kinda stood off to the side so it was hard to keep things rolling. We played a heated game of Simon Says and I tried to get the kids to remember elbow with the letter L and a picture of a bow. Of course bow is リッボン in Japanese so that went right out the window. We tried head shoulders knees and toes but it seems they weren't as familiar as I thought and seemed frightened by the exercise.

Returning to the principal's office from first period the second graders found me, surrounded me in a herd, took my wrists and arms, and wrapped their arms around me as we tried to walk (making it rather hard to move in any one direction) as is their custom, but I wasn't actually sure if I was meant to go with them or not. I was introduced by the kids to a new boy, one of those painfully quiet ones who seems on the verge of crashing and burning at all times (I wonder if he isn't related to the new little boy at Usuchuu, it's unlikely, they just look alike), and it went surprisingly well. The whole class did another round of "my name is" for the lesson and then we learned colors by coloring pictures of crayons based on what I said. It really is good to know that there are some ages and classes where completing the picture is reward enough to motivate the kids to do it. My 43 apples boy was as full of pep as ever. The girl with the biggest stars in her eyes over me turns out not to be Ayaka as I expected (I'd recieved a drawing of myself, a blackboard, and a mouse from a second year Ayaka) and I didn't catch her name. Want to learn it though. We finished out the lesson by playing おにごこ. The rules of this version were that the oni stood in the middle of the gym and chose a color. Everyone then had to run and try to touch that color to be safe. I was of course pulled to safety by a little girl on each arm, except when someone said "Black" when they would touch my pants and I would have a hand on someone's head. I ended up as the oni a few times and couldn't catch anyone but they had so much fun darting just out of my grasp. After I was pushed/pulled/enveloped over to the principal's office where they kinda piled on the couches and noisily retreated little by little. The principal really is a kind man.

Almost immediately after, the first graders showed up with even less manners than the second graders, plopping down on the couch and grinning mischeviously, not entirely focused in why they'd come at all. One of the teachers began coaching them and they asked me along. Somehow first grade was the tragic class today as it resulted in not one but two kids crying. Strangely enough kids always feel the need to report to the teachers when their classmates are crying, bringing a lot of attention to them, and then the teacher assumes why they're upset. I'm never sure what to do about these situations. The first tears came from a girl who was chastized by the teacher for goofing off during the lesson, and somehow the intensity of everyone's focus on her failure was awfully strong for a group of such young kids. Before I likened this teacher to a bear in an apron, and I still got that impression, but I was sad to realize he speaks quietly but has just the same harsh words as some of the more critical teachers. The game we played seemed a bit unfair to me as well since the students were given a common goal to touch but one group was placed fairly far away while the other was right beside it. I think the boy who cried was probably upset that the game was unfair and so he lost. I was feeling a bit down in the dumps thinking moral was poor, but right after class I was enveloped in happy children again and realized something. They didn't attribute those low points to the teachers messing up or being unfair. They put it on themselves. In the case of the girl it might be valid but it still seemed weird.

Fourth period was the third graders, whom I have decided I like very much. The teacher provided a bunch of really cute animal cards and I went over the vocabulary over and over with the kids. Girraffe and Hippo threw them off over and over. The learning itself didn't go so smooth and the whole class was pretty bubbly and disruptive, but we played animal basket (fruit basket) and had a good time. All through lunch I chatted with the group and they were all unusually curious about vocabulary, places in America, subjects I like, what money is like in America. Very chatty class. We barely stopped talking the whole lunch break and afterwards they sang me two songs, loudly and full of heart. They all wanted me to play with them so I stopped in and asked the principal who said there was time. The one girl who was just hopelessly unable to remember anything and barely tried during class surprised me by handing me a little note and telling me I mustn't look at it, so we went straight to the principal's office and I was going to put it in my bag, but she said, "It's ok if you look at it here". When I read the English on her stationary she was impressed, and I had her read her note to me. It read: りあなせんせいへ
きようはえいごをおしえてくれてありがとうございましな
みくより
When I told her it was a precious item and placed it in my binder so it wouldn't get bent she seemed on the verge of tears. 遊ぼうか? I asked, and she and her friend happily led the way to the gym and told me, "If only I could speak English". Her attitude had somehow swung around during lunch and I'm not sure why.

Lunchtime onigoko was the first kind I ever played where the oni tags other oni and then they take hands, and when there are four they split into two groups of two. I can't run anywhere near as fast as those little buggers so we got three people and that was all before time was up, but I was pretty pooped. Went straight to fifth period with the fifth graders, the tiny class with only one boy student. All those kids are high above average and even managed to conquer the unfairly stacked lesson, although it seemed clear the unneccessary difficulty quelched some confidence. The lesson started as "Do you like yellow shoes?", turned into a shop situation ("Do you have a red tshirt?" "Yes, I do. Here you are.") and all the kids got a turn being shopkeeper and customer. They were doing great, handling a lot of stuff, but the teacher dropped in an extra element I thought was unneccessary. Instead of just "Do you have?" The student playing the customer then had to say, "I like the yellow shirt with the green star."

I've come to recognize in my time in the classroom that if it is too difficult for me to explain in my Japanese, it is too difficult a topic to bring up as a one time lesson filler. My language level is low, but so are the student's, and expecting them to be able to handle complex material instantly is too demanding. As I expected, the two most ambitious students pulled it off and the rest struggled and looked as though they felt defeated by any mistakes they made. As usual the teacher pulled few punches, though thankfully the whole crew got through it really well. I think it was an unnccessary slap to their egos though- they did very well and didn't need such a complex afterthought. The teacher got the material from the CD recording, which often uses language not gone over in the book just as listening practice. I doubt it was intended for the students to memorize and speak.

In any case all those kids did great and then I had about a minute in the principal's office alone before a boy from sixth year came to get me. He was obviously really nervous and very polite. I asked how many students and he said the school has about 76 and there is only one sixth grade class, so I said it was like my middle school. When I commented on the weather his response reminded me a lot more of an adult's than a kid's. So sixth grade was roughly the same thing as the fifth graders at first (yeah I don't know why the fifth grade is so far ahead) and then we played the key color game where we have to try and grab an object when the keyword is said. I managed to win a fair amount of times, a rarity.

And then I returned to the principal's office to rest and talked with him for about thirty minutes. He is a tremendously kind man, but his Japanese is so hard for me to understand. Even simple questions that are like second nature to me now are worded a lot differently when they come from him, and I think he uses a lot of different vocabulary too. For basic stuff I can get by, but I have to concentrate hard and if I stop talking it gets very very quiet, so I have to try and keep the ball rolling regardless of how well I understand the conversation, or so I feel. I don't mind talking about myself but it is tiring and I was already pooped. I got a ride back with another teacher since the next bus wouldn't be for a while, and of course spent the whole ride in conversation. Thankfully her Japanese was a lot more standard. Gave up on trying to remember the phrase for keeping cattle since I couldn't study anymore.

So yeah, thank god it's friday, I'm pooped, and on Sunday I'm gonna be a volunteer interpreter for cruise ship guests over in Muroran(?) with Naoko and Aki. I am so excited about that it's crazy. Here's to hoping I don't accidentally kill myself somehow (I'm waiting for some signifigant depression since i've been feeling so damn fine lately).