11.26.09

Part 1 is today at Datesho. Part 2 is from last night's party with Akiko and Yayoi.

First period today was 5年生３組, the class with the best teacher I've seen here (and, I thought, with Kino-chan, who gave me the pictures of Moko- I asked her after class and she said Moko was fine, but now i am wondering if Kino is actually part of the 6th year class. One of the girls I saw in the back there looked painfully familiar but I couldn't place how we've interacted). We did the 外来語 lesson and as to be expected, it was taught more effectively than I'd ever done before. Ignoring the items in the textbook entirely, he had the students write all the gairaigo they knew on paper, then each group presented a few and he put them up on the board with room for the English translation. The kids enjoyed the writing very much but seemed to get a bit boke at the English part. The teacher was surprised that we don't use W.C. and since we both felt it was important enough to interrupt the main lesson, we taught the kids to ask, "Where is the bathroom?"
(Note to self, トイレ doesn't have as rude of connotations as I thought. It seems the most basic way to say it over here is 便所.) We didn't get to go over all the words the kids thought up because we lingered a bit on personal computer and subsequently the bathroom. But it was still interesting.

Next class was 1kumi? The male teacher who ran out the room at first to get the papers, giving me time to draw a melon in one girl's sketchbook. I was surprised by the number of kids who drew for fun. Anyway he gave the kids a full 10 minutes to write words. Pretty boy and hazardous girl are in his class and the general attention span is spotty. I'm a bit unclear but I remember a game I tried playing going kind of badly. I had the idea to have the groups compete for points. It ended up just being the names of different guns, although one group brought out the word "survivor" and understood its meaning. There were some really good responses, but once they figured out I'd say "sniper rifle" I think they all just penciled in whatever gun name they could think of.
Ah, that's right! I told them they had to choose the #1 most unusual on their list, and if someone said a word that wasn't English they'd lose. Bad wording on my part. They did end up listing a few non-english words, likely because they wanted them to be the most unusual.

In the third class (with the lady teacher- she seems to have stepped up her discepline from the sweet and quiet young woman she was) this same game worked very well, possibly because I presented it differently. I told the kids one hint- Writing the stuff in your textbook is ok, but try to think of very interesting words. (obama and michael jackson were on the list, of course). If they said a word someone else had said, they wouldn't get the point. I didn't tell them what the rules of the game were until the end. But they took to it well. Each group presented their most interesting word. Since no group lost a point, I said we'd decide the winner by pronunciation. The rules were that any number of them could present. I actually told them to choose 3 words but they went with one, which turned out to be easier. We went over all the words written on the board and the kids seemed to be trying hard. They dissolved into fits over "afro", "zombie", "chimpanzee"(?), and one girl seemed to especially like "papaya" for some reason. When I asked if there was any word they wanted repeated, they did so alertly and I gave them about two minutes to practice. Ultimately the same people who presented, for the most part, pronounced the words, but one brave group of three girls took up my offer to do it with more than one person. They said Mirror and it wasn't very clean, but that the three of them did it and chose a very difficult word made me give them the win. The second winner was the tall boy in the back who said Zombie perfectly, and the third winner was the boy in the first group who said something I still cannot remember for the life of me. Something plain but difficult (personal computer?). Everyone was practically pleading for the win and really worked up. I asked if there were any words they wanted to practice again and they continued to ask and respond (very cleanly- they were working hard at it). When time was up, we said, "sorry, last one (papaya)" and some of the boys actually complained, wanting it to continue.
Now that is successful motivation!

I don't remember which 組 I went to first in the sixth graders, but the teacher didn't even know what lesson we were doing. Neither did I, but to be fair I'm visiting a lot of schools and dealing with a lot of different classes. He wanted to push on into the "time" section but the class had just been preparing to present the country they wanted to go to + why. Honestly wasn't a good use of class time. The teacher gave them the entire period to write where they wanted to go and why, and even though I explained "I want to" at the start of class, it was clear most of the students didn't understand very well. I think it was a cop out to keep from having to do more. In any case I spent the period going around talking to different kids about where they want to go. I professed my love for American sandwiches and told a kid about the Sherpas in the Himalayas, and another about the high-class of French movies. Loud boy and his friends had a pencil case with Piccolo's eyes and when he held them up to his face with a big goofy grin I couldn't help but laugh. A boy and girl in the back asked me about pokemon and naruto and I gave my tried but true answer that I like Shikamaru (I always have to ask for help to remember the name though, lawwl). It was basically a throw away social hour.

Lunch was late- almost 12:30 when I got done with class. Not getting overtime for it, though. Anyway had lunch with the 3rd grade class that one of my mice club kids is in. She proudly reminded me while we ate our spaghetti that she remembered triangle and oval. The other kids were pretty involved with themselves and I figured I wouldn't get to know them much. But after the meal I started challenging the kids to make their fingers go from the "Live long and prosper" gesture to the two middle fingers stuck together and the pointer and pinky shooting off the sides in a W. I was just showing one boy but more and more kids came and tried, and we ended up just doing weird things with our hands for a few minutes (making them move like water, pressing the fingers against the desk to show how far back they'd bend, showing off our double-jointed fingers). After that someone started ゆびずも and I showed them the thumb war. This encouraged a few challengers. One of the boys challenged me to arm wrestling and won. After that the girls stood in a circle with their palms against each other and pushed or pulled back to try and make the others fall. This splintered into one on one matches, the first of which I lost, but after that I won every time (except for when one boy pulled me, the cheat). The girls praised and played with my hair, one girl tickling my face with it and then her own (something I do often as an idle habit- I thought it was pretty cute she did that), and, apparently done with the rough stuff, brought out origami paper and taught me how to make a heart (taking my paper and folding it the right way when I couldn't, of course). My mice club friend gave me a yellow airplane. Sitting in the desk waiting for the ごちそうさまでした the little gal who'd sat next to me for lunch asked me to write something in her book. I drew her a dog and all the kids were praising it (one even saying it was the most skilled in the world... seriously, anyone with self esteem issues should teach 3rd graders). I was able to finish but then it was time to go.

I returned to the teacher's office to find Megumi and the most controlling teacher waiting. They planned things out, as usual, and as usual I interrupted the class halfway through to wake the kids up. This time I had them stand and explained how to play the pushing game I'd just done with the 3rd graders in English. The kids looked positively estatic to have an excuse to be up and moving. Telling them to play only once and the loser sits, then giving them about two minutes before ending the game seemed to work well. They sat and I jumped right into telling them to look at the picture and asking Megumi about her schedule. They listened well for the rest of the period, only sagging towards the end. I've gotten more comfortable with making little teasing or interactive gestures with kids who look like they're about to crash and die. They're starting to smile at me more when I do.

The next class I didn't even get past the weather before derailing the conversation to tell a story about how seeing the blue sky and the snow falling all around, I was shocked, but this time only one girl seemed to get it. She's a sharp one though. The rest of the kids are reluctant to listen. Things went kind of slowly and the teacher did a lot of explaining in Japanese. It was really hot in the classroom. A few kids were sleeping and I would have enjoyed trading places with them. They wouldn't listen to us very well and there wasn't time to shake them all up. Was surprised the teacher asked me to have the kids repeat the numbers from 1 to 60 again, and probably flubbed it by having everyone do it as fast as possible this time, stopping on numbers I didn't hear a loud response to. I would love to have them do it as slowly as possible to get the pronunciation absolutely correct, but I also want the class to stay awake. Maybe botched that and will avoid doing it again since I think the teacher may not have liked it much (though most all of the kids counted right along with me as fast as possible).


As always I think it depends more on the class than on what I do. If the main room teacher is good or knows what they're doing, I get a good response. If they're lousy, so is the class.

Part 2: recieved a lot of sashimi, made my first temakizushi and hanamaki, ate delicious chocolate, and watched The Goonies for the first time in Japanese dub on a tape that's easily ten years old. And then some Kiki's Delivery Service. We talked about the value of diamonds (Me:"Yes, but if you sleep with it, it isn't warm and fuzzy. Taking it into the bath is purposeless. You can't eat it.") and strangely enough was given some pads (body fit is a good brand, sophia or something is supposedly trash) after we saw an ancient commercial. I was kind of on guard and there were times I felt they were being ignorant of America ("Does everyone own a gun? That's scary!") and I couldn't talk as well as I wanted. But it was a very good time and they were easy to get along with. I liked Akiko's more genuine face, even if it reminds me of the kinds of girls I never hung out with growing up.
For the first time I understood why someone might desire a diamond. To be able to quit a temp job that hires you year after year but might let go of you at any time, to avoid needing to seek out a husband based on salary because after the age of 35 you will no longer be able to find work (the office needs an "office flower" to brighten up the atmosphere), and to be able to buy friends wherever you go would indeed be desirable for a woman trapped in this system. But I also realized the other side of it. Desiring treasure because you can use it to trade for the things you need is fine. But if you already have the things you need, there is no need for the treasure, is there? If a person has good food to eat, good friends, and is grateful for the things they have, money is not so important.

I know not everyone is so lucky as me to think this way, and I am sure if I were in the same situation I would be more serious. But until the world is healed of all its broken parts, I think we all just have to be happy with the parts that aren't broken. I'll think about a better way to phrase this at some point.


PS- Megumi told me her mother is acting in a little skit for their ministry, and plays the role of an American who is approached by a Jehova's Witness. Because she had to choose her stage name on the spot and only knows one American name, she's to be called "Rianna". ;)