Japanese @ MindSay 
anime
I was scheduled to teach classes at a school to the west of me called Kosaka today. I have never even seen the school before let alone taught in it. As I stepped into the principal's office to introduce myself, I realized that I haven't taught at any schools other than my usual two grade and one Jr. High.
Kosaka was bright and airy. All the woodwork looked new or at the very least well maintained. The staff was very friendly and spoke at length with me in Japanese about where I am from, my hobbies and family, as well as telling me a lot about themselves.
I was introduced to four teachers who spoke pretty good English... actually, one spoke better than my Jr. High teachers (which, admittedly, isn't that hard). I was offered coffee... HOT coffee, and the day’s lesson plans were laid out before me. I decided to use a combination of my flash cards and the ones they provided me with to make a fun lesson for the day. I also decided on some fun games to play and some follow up phrases and questions. I then readied myself for class, and boy, was I in for a shock.
The classroom, just like the rest of the school, was bright and happy looking. The students were all seated on the floor waiting for me to enter. As I walked in, heads turned toward me and smiles started spreading. Not the vindictive, cruel smiles I'm used to, but happy, friendly smiles. Without provocation I received a loud, but not shouted "Good morning!” to which I responded, "Good morning everyone."
Eyes lit up and happy giggles were murmured all around. I started in on my usual spiel. I said in Japanese "Today I will do my introduction, and afterwards we will have a quiz!" The teacher gently nudged me and asked that I use only English. I shrugged and repeated myself in English, adding "but don't worry too much, the questions will be in Japanese. I want your answers in English tho!"
Children started looking at each other and getting ready. I asked if they understood the last part and one repeated it for me in Japanese. Repeated it correctly. I was floored. These kids actually understood simple English. They understood how to pick out key words. These third and fourth graders were understanding and speaking at a level beyond that of my Jr. High kids.
I went through my introduction, and the kids were at rapt attention. I didn't need to raise my voice even once. I acted silly a few times and the kids laughed. No one mocked my English or occasional Japanese. When I asked questions in English they answered quickly. When they asked me questions in Japanese they would speak very clearly so I could actually hear them, and they would repeat if I asked them to.
The biggest shock came when we played the game of the day... Fruit Basket. Usually I have to shout at the top of my lungs just to be heard during a game of Fruit Basket, but today the kids were quiet. They were running around and having fun, but no one was screaming. The boys didn't collide in the center of the circle and wrestle each other to the ground. The girls didn't just slide one seat over at a time so they could stay near their friends and talk. The game played out like a real game... and it was beautiful.
At the end of the day I got to attend the school's English club. It consisted of kids from third to sixth grade who were all regular practitioners of the language. Many could even produce the "th" sound correctly. We did vehicles today and introduced about sixteen types. The kids only had trouble remembering two. It was truly amazing.
After club I had about one hour before it was time to go home. I ended up talking with one of the third grade teachers from my day and he asked me about my regular schools.
"I don't know why" I said, "but this school is so much better than my usual ones. The kids are so well behaved and studious."
"Really?" he asked, "I thought the kids were a little over-excited today. I was going to apologize!"
"How can you say that? They were wonderful! Some of the best I've ever had" I told him.
He then asked me what school I usually teach at, so I answered truthfully:
"Kashida."
There was a moment of silence before he asked "Kashida elementary and Jr. High?"
"Yes... why?"
It turns out that my schools have a reputation. A very bad reputation. Kashida JHS produces the fewest high school students in all of Higashi Osaka. Kashida elementary is know for severe behavioral problems and troubled kids. Both are notorious for poor environment and dilapidated classrooms (which I knew already). The worst bit of news, however, was that Kashida is considered the proving ground school out here. First time teachers are sent here to learn the ropes in the worst possible environment before trading up to bigger and better things. All the problems I have been privy to, all the bad kids running around screaming and hitting me... these problems are mine almost exclusively.
No one actually expects Kashida kids to achieve anything. This is why we have no English club or international room. It's also why I never get to see my kids outside of class for tutoring and why I never get to help with things like festivals. After hearing this from several teachers, I now realize why I have been so miserable. It's not Japan or the weather or even my job in general. Unfortunately, it's my kids.
I liked almost every single kid I came into contact with today. They were all fun and cheery. At my normal schools I actually have spite, real spite for most of the kids I see. I am going to request a school change for the next semester. Maybe I can get into Kosaka as it's not that far from me and I really like it now. In order to make my current situation more pleasant I will start treating my regular schools like everyone else does and stop caring. I have a little under three weeks until summer vacation, and in that time I plan on working as little as possible.
Despite this, I feel good. Very good in fact. It's like having a severe pain in your neck and then one day finally finding out it's because of your pillow. I know the source of my unhappiness now and I can take steps to rectify it. With some luck I will have a very pleasant and rewarding final six months in Japan. Hell, maybe I'll have something more to write about and update more than once a month too!
-Maru!
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO SEE LARGER IMAGE
Last weekend was fun and interesting! But i'm so busy working full time now (and often too tired to write a bunch by the end of the day-- also from getting over a cold)... as well as other activities like Ruhi study circles and Aikido... so i haven't found time to write about it until now!
Anyway, so last weekend, on Saturday, was many Olympians' annual favorite: The Procession of the Species. Which is a long parade of people and floats dressed as endangered species and coincides with Earth week. For more info and pictures of it you can click here X. Apparently a 27,000 member crowd of tall 'n's and munchkins gathered and watched. (i.e adults and children). And i was one of them. It was a beautiful sunny day the whole day. With the flowers up and trees also in full bloom. :^)
Upon arriving downtown a little after 16:30 i parked near the place where the parade would end where the wonderful Traditions Cafe is. I was surprised and happy to find colored chalk all around and adults and kids drawing all over the road (which was blocked from traffic) and side walks. I first walked a few blocks until i came upon a place where the parade was going by. After watching a while, i went back to were the parade would end and watched the beginning of the parade go by. I then found an area of sidewalk i liked with the Capitol Park to my back and sat down with some colored chalks and started drawing with out a plan other than for it to be on the Baha'i theme of "unity in diversity" it got bigger and bigger until ended up with the final result (see photos included). I didn't have my camera, but my attempt at art was still there on Sunday at noon, when i went back there after almost completing Ruhi Book 2.
I ended up being very happy that i didn't have my camera the day before because otherwise i wouldn't have stumbled upon Olympia's 2008 Dragonboat Festival! I noticed lots of tented booths in the distance, next to Capitol Lake. When i walked up to them i found out from one of them that was handing out event programs that the 2008 Olympia Dragon Boat festival was in progress right then and there! It's sponsored by neighboring town Lacey's Saint Martin's Uni. So i spent the next few hours watching the races and meeting the team from China-- from the Shanghai Maritime University, (i was eager to practice my Chinese a bit) which is also the team which won the First Place for the whole competition! By 14:00 i was getting quite hungry and started strolling into town to find a place to eat. On the way i stopped off at some interesting booths, first was one for the Olympia Area Chinese Fellowship which was doing free calligraphy of Western names transcribed into Chinese characters. I already have a Chinese name (Kuò Lì Yà --阔利亚) so i had him do that (on a bookmark sized piece of paper) and chatted to them about China and found out about local Tai-chi and Chinese language classes that i hope to take once i have money to spend on such things (the Aikido instructor, Will Sensei, is very kind and compassionate in allowing me to participate in his classes already now even though it'll be a couple months before i'll be able to start contributing financially).
Eventually i pulled myself away from that booth only to get stuck at a booth with Japanese students who were doing the same with Japanese Characters (in Japanese my name is Ko Ri Ya or Ko Ya and there's 3 different scripts in which it could be written!). I enjoyed meeting and chatting with them (and getting my name written in Katakana) and so it was around 15:00 by the time i actually got to the restaurant (i chose the Indian restaurant which has an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet for about $8). It's yummy! ... I was wearing a Baha'i pendant and while i paid for the meal the owner enjoyed identifying the religious symbols of the world's major religions that are on it.
After lunch i headed back to the lake and practiced calligraphy (writing Ai Ki Do) with the Japanese students (from St. Martins Uni) under their tent at which time it started raining and then pouring. After getting my coat i then watched the finals of the Dragonboat races. The Shanghai team won the first place (see photo) as they did the last time they were here, in 2006.
On Monday evening and this morning (Saturday) i attended Aikido classes in Olympia for the first time. It's great fun-- but i noticed how out of shape i've gotten in the year since i was an Uchideshi at Nippon-Kan in Denver! I was very sore on Tuesday and Wednesday! But i think i'll be able to stay healthier now that i'm getting regular exercise-- despite being around little kids all the time, hopefully!
The JET Journal 2005 is an average enough publication, obviously circulated yearly, but it does have some nice photos and stories taken and written by JET participants. In fact, I've read through most of the stories and some are very well written. They hold my interest and are paced well, and some have even made me chuckle. But people never talk about good things, especially in blog form, so I will instead focus on one person: Dougal Phillips.
JET Journal runs a yearly essay contest and this particular year they started running a Japanese language version of the contest as well. According to the stats page 23 people in total submitted a Japanese language essay for consideration, and it is here that I was introduced to Mr. Phillips. It seems that Dougal Phillips is apparently proficient enough to write an essay in Japanese without making any grammatical error, as in the intro it mentions that grammar was the number one reason that participants were disqualified. I also found out that Dougal Phillips is a CIR, or Coordinator for International Relations, which once again proves his proficiency in the language as a CIR must have a good command of the Japanese language (as stated on the JET recruiting website). The one thing linguistically that Dougal Phillips seems incapable of is writing an interesting story.
But a boring story about his going to meetings and learning about internationalization is no crime and does not deserve my ire. No, what makes Dougal Phillips special is not that he's a boring writer, but that he's an asshole.
I've never met the man and I'm likely to never as he apparently is from Australia, although I wouldn't put it past someone like him to live in Japan for the rest of his life. No, I make my decision about Dougal Phillip's disposition based solely on his acceptance essay. Well, more like his acceptance paragraph.
In it, Dougal Phillips writes about how he got a "C" on his last Essay in High School Japanese. Now, eleven years later, he wins this award. We are obviously very impressed at this point, so he then offers up some advice. He then proceeds to explain why we (the unwashed masses) don't write in beautiful Japanese. See, the problem is we don't try hard enough. We convince ourselves that our lack of Japanese proficiency is someone else's fault (that is almost a direct quote), and thereby limit ourselves. Now, armed with this sage advice, he informs us that he "look[s] forward to seeing your essay here next year." This is a short lead in to what I have already described as a rather boring short story.
In his essay, Dougal Phillips clumsily takes us from one paragraph to the next in an attempt to explain to us non-verbal cues, high and low-context cultures and internationalization. Unfortunately, he spends only enough time on each subject to basically mention it, almost as if in passing, and then immediately shifts to the next. He complains about work and how it would be so much more efficient if things were done his way and as a sappy final note mentions in the last three sentences about how he has learned to accept people for who they are. No wait, I'm sorry, his exact words were "...Japanese people whom I accept as they are" (emphasis mine).
So why waste time writing about some asshole with a boring job? Because I want to. I personally write because I like to and this was on my mind. This brings me to my final point.
Because of the problems with flow and basic storytelling that Dougal Phillips had with his essay, I got the feeling that he is not inclined to write anything very often. He had months to finish this essay and yet it still read like something a semi-proficient high school student would think is good because Dougal Phillips doesn't spend enough time refining his style; the irony being that, according to his acceptance essay, he claims people don't spend enough time getting their Japanese papers corrected.
Most people look at writing as the art-form that anyone can do. If you can't paint, write. Can't sculpt? Write. Can't draw? Just write! The truth is writing isn't easy, and most writers fall into the trap of just regurgitating whatever is popular at the moment and maybe riding a mild wave of success (case in point: sure were a lot of penguin movies lately, weren't there?). Others, like Mr. Phillips, confuse a small award with being truly proficient as a word-smith. So why did I write about Dougal Phillips? Because I try to write about anything that inspires me so that I can improve my own writing ability, and inspiration can sometimes come in rather unexpected forms.
That, and Dougal Phillips is an asshole.
-Maru!
Post script: You may have noticed I used Dougal Phillips name a lot instead of the personal pronouns "he" or "him" and the like. This is because I would like to see if Dougal Phillips ever Googles his own name. I'm looking forward to the results.
hee hee, dougal google...
Today was the tanjoubi of Aurora's. :] Curt and I stayed over at her house and had fun. ^^ I got her a rocking horse and I was so nervous to give it to her. She said she had been looking for one for a while. You know, I should really put ACWW entries on my Hello Kitty blog.
Lately, I've been trying to get back into the mood of speaking and writing in Japanese.
Ohhh boy. ^^ Haha.♥
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