students speak the truth (i hope)

today, i was told for the 2nd time recently that i have smooth hair. i guess that must be true. haha. the first time was last week in my new junior high school. the 2 kids asked me, complete with hand actions, “your hair, sara sara (smooth). WHY?”

how i know? lol.

and if my students are to be believed, i apparently suit purple very well. it’s a good thing i like that colour then, and i suppose it gives me an excuse to buy more purple tops :)

ya-ho

i have a high school student who used to always say “Ya-HO” as a greeting, and it was only quite a while into meeting him that i realised that what he actually means is “yahoo!”. i have no idea why he greets people in this manner, but he’s stopped now.. what he hasnt ceased though, is him refusing to address me by some variant of my name, choosing instead to call me “gaijin”.

i dunno, i guess i’m ok with him calling me “gaijin” cos he thinks he’s funny and i dont really care about the connotations that word has, but oh well. apart from this, one other characteristic of his is his refusal to speak english – he always insists that i speak japanese since i can do so. i still try to communicate with him in english though; it feels like i have a duty to do so since i’m an english teacher and in japan for that very purpose.

so today, he came into the office where the brit and i sit, and asked if he’ll be able to live in hawaii if he doesnt speak english. of course i said yes, but the brit added that it’s still easier if you can speak english. being a teacher, i had to add that since he’s going there on holiday with his parents later this year, he ought to take hold of htis rare opportunity and practise his english.

and you know what he said? he actually told me that since i’m in japan, i ought to use this opportunity to speak japanese, so i should speak more japanese to him.

diao.

snippets of school

my friday school is next to a park, and seems to be in a rather windy area as there's always a wind or draft of some sort in the corridors and classrooms. the windows of classrooms are also always open, and it was in the 3rd period today that i looked out of the window overlooking the park and was overcome by this sudden sense of calm. the students were doing their work and it was all quiet without; green and tranquil.

it was a similar sort of calm that i experienced yesterday, cycling along a side street from the supermarket in the early afternoon. for some reason, there was none of the buzz of children and their mothers or of office workers, and it was very peaceful.

* * * *

people in japan often form neat, long lines to board trains, and i always bring up this phenomenon whenever someone asks me what i found surprising about japan. as far as i know; of all the countries that i've been to and from talking to all the various JETs here - some of whom are very well travelled - japan is the only country where this occurs, but any japanese you mention this to will be extremely surprised that foreigners (might) find this surprising, as this is what's natural for them.

my teacher feels that this is something to be proud of, and asked what i thought about queuing to board trains in class. frankly, i do see its merits, but i certainly miss the mess of just standing around a train door; the 'strategising' of where's the best spot to place yourself so you can get through the doors first; the tingle of excitement when you've got your eyes on a seat, and the sense of satisfaction when you've actually got one*.

everything in japan is so orderly - at least on the surface, that is - and everyone so superficially polite that i cant remember when was the last time i tried rushing for a seat. i dont even bother to do so anyhow, since when you're in a line its pretty obvious that any of that would be a waste of time anyway.

maybe its the kiasu singaporean in me trying to assert itself, but writers to the forum pages always like to compare us to so-called 'more civilised societies' like the UK, and i have it on good authority that people push to enter trains in the UK too. the bottom line is, there's something about NOT queuing to board a train, and i dont really think that queuing is necessarily something to be proud of.

* * * *

chalk is a scourge that gets on everything, and students are surprisingly incapable of copying words from a blackboard accurately. 

* * * *

there's this teacher in my school who assists students with special needs, and she's this cute, petite lady. so it was somewhat surprising to see her today in a cardigan with prints of beetles, bees and cockroaches all over. wearing something like that probably indicates that she has an edge to her cuteness, which is nice, cos it makes her appear to have character, unlike quite a lot of her peers.

* * * *

my teacher also seems to be a rather interesting man. i suspect that he might be very funny in japanese, spewing dry one-liners, if the things he says to me in english are anything to go by. just today, i offered him some snacks which he declined, saying that he makes it a rule not to snack. when asked why, he gave me this:

"Your hobby is eating. My hobby is drinking. So I'm not interested in food."

what a gem :)

 

*: and the smugness when you've got one in a crowded train!

all in a day's work

my students were made to write a letter to me in class the other day, and one of the girls - whom i think easily has the best english in the level - wrote this which made me howl with laughter for a fair bit of time:

i'm actually very proud that she can use advanced grammar, like "i have heard". her english is excellent, and she's also the one who had a hand in this gem that made me lose it in class.

on an unrelated note, here's a picture of this amazing-looking dog i saw on the way back from work on wednesday:

its fur was so awesomely fluffy! :)

Japanese Graduation Ceremonies

The students in the two schools that merged to form the current school that I work in seem to have wanted separate graduation ceremonies very much, which resulted in me sitting through 2 ceremonies today.

I'd always thought that Japanese graduation ceremonies are very formal and rather funeral in terms of the colours worn by the attendees. One of the JETs was sort of told off for wearing a pink tie to his school's graduation ceremony, so I was rather surprised to see male teachers wearing bright coloured ties. Even more surprising were the attire of some female teachers*: not only were some of them in suits that were not black (beige, blue, non-matching jacket and skirt/pants), quite a few of them werent wearing formal shirts or blouses inside their jackets (like polo-tees) or were even in collarless tops.

Apart from that, the ceremonies were rather formal indeed. The graduating batch filed into the hall after their entrance was announced by the emcee, and the national anthem was sung. Then, the homeroom teachers read out the names of all the students in their class, and students had to stand up when their names were called. This is only possible in Japan where schools are small - 2 classes and 4 classes of about 30-39 students for my 2 schools - as I cant imagine them doing the same thing back in my junior college where were about.. 20 classes at least? A representative from each class was given some certificate after that, although I didnt manage to find out what that was all about.

Next came the principal's address, after which the big shot guests were introduced, such as people from the PTA, ward representatives, board of directors, etc. A representative from the immediate batch of juniors then gave a speech addressed to the graduating seniors, followed by a speech from the representative of the graduating class that's addressed to the principal and school on stage. One of the schools sang a song after that - it apparently was a song of thanks to the teachers - but in both cases the school song followed, and then the ceremony came to an end.

It was actually rather short despite the speeches: probably about an hour or so? But oh my.. the first graduation ceremony was for the smaller school, and I think their small size mattered a lot to them, as both students who gave a speech brought up the fact that graduating means that there will be less people wearing the school uniform out on the streets, which made them really sad.

They also seemed to miss the old school building very much. I didnt manage to catch a lot of what the graduating student said in her speech, but I could make out enough to understand that a lot of it was her looking back on memories in the old school, and I think she spent some time taking the audience on a tour of her mental journey through the school building and all the time she spent there.

Both speeches by the students were very emotional; the graduating student was sniffling throughout her 15min speech, which made it somewhat difficult to concentrate! It was rather affecting to see them moved to tears by their speeches and touching too, to see the principal wiping away his tears when they spoke (the principal's speech was quite good too; and he sniffled a bit during his own speech).

That ceremony was somewhat depressing though, and I quite prefered the second ceremony, which happened to also be for the school whose students I teach. I dont know if the fact that this time, it was boys who made the speeches, but the students seemed more forward looking and optimistic about graduating and graduation. It was nice :)

I happened to meet a few of my students on the way home, and they're surprisingly not sad at all about graduating. I suppose it's reflected in how different their ceremony was from the other school - a lot of the graduating students were crying during the speeches - but I didnt expect them to have no sad feelings at all! I think they're really looking forward to post-high school life. One is going to be a hip-hop dancer, another is going for teacher training and the last is going to be a zookeeper. Some interesting fields there!

:)

*: The female teachers who are homeroom teachers of the graduating classes wore hakamas, which is a type of kimono that is usually worn by priestesses in shrines and looks like the korean hanbok.

cold.. and busy.. and hard pressed for ideas..

i dont understand how my students havent gotten used to the cold by now.. i walk into class and students who say that they're cold over and over, and i see big(gish) boys shivering and muttering that they're cold.. one of them was even clutching a hot water bottle in class the other day, on top of the 4 layers of clothes that he was wearing. and i was only wearing 3 but feeling cool..

plus they wear the same amount of layers both in school and out of school, and although the corridors are indeed chilly due to the draft, it's nowhere as cold as it is outside in the open, and i dont understand how they can survive outdoors if they feel that indoors. more unfathomable mysteries, i guess.

speaking of mysteries, it really seems like the kids that drive u nuts sometimes can be the sweetest (note that that's a relative term though.. heh) ones too.. the two noisiest and most disruptive kids in class today actually said bye to me proper as they walked out of the class cos this is our last lesson this term.. and one of them even wished me a good week too.. so sweet rite? although they're in high school they're sometimes really nothing more than children in teenager's bodies.. were we like that back then too?

* * *

i've also been getting busy lately.. and forgetting important stuff like birthdays! and having no time in school to try to study japanese when i was previously so bored i had to try hard to occupy myself till i could go home. time in school goes by a lot quicker these days, and i have no idea why. having begun yoga and calligraphy classes at the community centre nearby has made me a lot less free outside of school too. havent watched tv or dramas in quite a while!!

the weekend was spent in hiroshima, and pictures will be up soon..we took neoprints too - i still cant call them purikura, which is the proper japanese term - and it's really wonderful how you can now get digital copies of your prints :) i really love the way we all look so good and airbrushed in neoprints too!

   

 

i dont know if i've posted pictures of all of them before, but anyway there's the korean-american girl, the indian-american girl, the philippino-american girl - who's the only JET around who doesnt drink alcohol, and it's really nice to hang out with her cos she's more like me than quite a lot of the rest, plus she's such a nice darling - and the only guy there is the irishman who lives in the flat above mine. the philippino-american girl lives in the same building as us too.

* * *

meanwhile, i've been invited to one of the teacher's house for a christmas get-together, and The Brit will be bringing a christmas cake that his sister brought over with her.. i'm trying to think of something from singapore, but am kinda stuck, especially if i want to at least match The Brit's extremely appropriate gift.. so please share with me any suggestions and ideas that you might have please!!

the interesting things that happen in class

well, maybe they're not that interesting after all, but they sure make class time really enjoyable!

i sort of look forward to fridays cos that's when i have 2 of my most interesting classes. they're both senior high year 2 english classes with this particular teacher, and though we do the same thing for all 3 of the classes we have together (another one is on wednesday), it isnt boring at all cos the students in each class are bundles of fun.

one of the classes is enjoyable cos the students are so cute. actually, it's only a few that are cute, but they're the loud, noisy and chatty ones, mainly comprising 5 girls who sit in 5 different rows and talk across the classroom almost all the time. one of them is the cutest of the lot, and she tends to say things such as what she said today:

"I want Kit-to Kat-to! (i.e. kit-kat) I am smart student, so give me Kit-to Kat-to!"; "Joanne, I love you! Kit-to Kat-to please!"

written like this, she sounds somewhat obnoxious, but really, you have to listen to her voice and see her - not forgetting the curls in her bob that frame her face - to understand what i mean. haha. there're also 2 boys who are quite nice, in that you can always count on them to answer your questions. that has got to be one of the best ways to make teachers like you! things got competitive today, such that when i asked them how to spell some words - 7 in all - some of the noisy girls and the two boys sort of competed to see who could spell the fastest in the loudest voice. oh my. it was SUCH FUN and they are SO endearing!! i see quite a few kids in this class twice a week*, and i think that helps in the dynamics with them too :)

the other class is really interesting and fun too, but in a different way. while the girls 'dominate' in the previous class, boys in this class are more 'prominent', though in a different way. basically, there are about 6 boys here, all of whom are either manga addicts, arent very interested in doing their work or a mixture of both. and they're rather blatant about reading manga in class too, partly because teachers here are rather 'soft' on students who dont pay attention in class***. because there's a significant number of them - and some are rather tall - it's so obvious when you have all 6 of them with their heads bowed down and reading at the same time.

so last week, one of them went to the manga stash next to his friend - A-kun - at the back of the class to occupy himself when he was meant to be completing his worksheet. another friend saw that happening and asked A-kun to pass him a few manga. now, the manga stash was in the middle of the aisle right in front of me, meaning that i had a clear view all the way to the back of the class where the 'action' was happening (and classrooms here have a raised platform where the teacher stands, which means an even better view from which to observe students!). deciding that enough was enough, i walked straight down the aisle all the way to the back and took away the plastic bag that contained the stash of manga...

... and i couldnt believe how just easy that was! A-kun didnt even notice me approaching even though it's soooooooo obvious what is going to happen when your teacher walks purposefully straight up to you.. it was only when i reached down AND had the bag grasped firmly in my hand did he let out a shout of protest.

my goodness.. he was super S-L-O-W can... i would never be able to pull off something like this back in singapore, unless i've improved a lot since my stint in -cough- "singapore's premier institution" back then, which i seriously doubt.

and today, two of the kids - who happened to be sitting next to each other - were reading manga again. one of them was asleep last week (over these 10 or so weeks, he has been awake only at the beginning and end of class to say hi and bye to me, so it was rather surprising that he was awake during the ENTIRE lesson today) and so probably didnt know what happened last week, while the other simply doesnt care (one of the few things he says to me is "-pointing to himself- english very goot-to!")

i gave them quite a few warnings, as did the other teacher, but they continued reading, so i tried to take away their manga but failed the first time round. the guy who doesnt give two hoots actually said to me - in japanese, of course - that i have to be quicker if i want to succeed, which made me want to slap him even though it's a fair and true comment. haha. but he stopped reading his manga - though he still didnt do his worksheet - so that meant only the sleepy one who still insisted on continuing his manga reading.

and woohooo! some time later, sleepyhead was reading while his 5 friends in the seats directly adjacent and around him - all boys i think - were slacking off. i headed towards his table ready to snatch away his manga, while looking at his friends who were watching me approach, expecting them to nudge him any time now to alert him that i was reaching his table, cos that's what any kid back home would do right?

but no, they just sat there and didnt do anything, perhaps because they wanted to see if 有没有好戏看. that was Unexpected No. 1. Unexpected No. 2 was that sleepyhead was sooooooooooooooooo slow as well. i actually paused for a moment when i was AT his table before reaching out to grab his manga, and he didnt even notice me!

my goodness. of course, i succeeded in taking his manga, which made me really pleased, cos i've been itching to do something like that ever since i saw them reading manga in class a few weeks ago****. and his friends whom i'm sure enjoyed the 'show' actually said that i was "as fast as the wind", which definitely made me feel even better about myself. -beams-

hahahaha. it's times like these that make me really like working here, in this particular school, with these particular students. some classes arent as great, but others, like these two especially, simply rock.

i do think though, that japanese students, or at least those whom i teach, are a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to hiding their actions from their teachers, and sort of lack the teacher-radar - which allows you to detect when the teacher is in your vicinity - that singaporean students i've encountered possess. besides the two examples above of really my slow students, i've also experienced kids here exclaiming among themselves that i "いきなり来た" - approached out of a sudden - to check if they're doing their work when it wasnt sudden at all, or i can stand a little behind students and look over their shoulders at what they're reading - while trying to decipher the japanese - for like 5 seconds before they realise with a slight start that i'm there. (5 seconds doesnt seem like a long time, but try counting 5 seconds to yourself now while imagining having a teacher looking over your shoulder!)

also, there're things like handphones.. while we were able to type messages under our desks or behind our chairs while looking straight ahead at the teacher, kids here look down at their screens while typing, and then give a guilty smile when they're caught at it. perhaps that they've gotten very good at appearing guilty in order to appease their teachers over the years, or that they dont care at all.. but either way it's just very interesting how things are.. :)

i realised that i havent actually talked about the stuff i do in school and the classes that i teach - and yes, there had been a request to describe that aspect of my life here - so maybe i'll do that sometime soon..

 

*: the kids in my school - i dont know about other schools - take "credits" like how we do in university, so a class for a certain subject** would comprise students from various homeroom classes.

**: even this term is misleading, as a subject like english would have classes like "english II", "english conversation", "L.L." (which is listening i think), "writing class" and so on.

***: being 'soft' is how things are in japanese schools, because of the way the relationships between teachers and students are. teachers are meant to be like mother and father figures, which affects the attitudes adopted towards kids sleeping, not doing work, doing work unrelated to the current lesson and so on in class.

****: plus i've never succeeded (and i dont think i've actually ever tried) in taking things from students. besides, i think my stint in -cough cough- "singapore's premier institution" probably shaped the 'evil teacher' in me considering i dealt with classes of teenage boys who think that just because you're young they're gonna be able to walk all over your head.

japanese students

do a lot of part-time work!

i've always known that most of them work, but i was quite surprised when all but 2 students out of the 35 that i teach in this particular high school year 2 class are not working.. and for those 2, i think it's because they're in between jobs and nothing else!

and some of them work many hours a week.. one guy works on tuesdays, thursdays, fridays and weekends, which is 5 days out of 7. he works 3 hours/day on weekdays, 4 hours/day on weekends, earns about 900yen/hr, making him a very rich high school boy. some only work on weekends, but i think most work at least 2 to 3 weekdays and at least one day on the weekend, with their average salary being about 800yen. the lowest is 700yen i think, and the highest is 1150yen!

for the 2 boys who earn 1150yen/hour, they work 11 hours - crazy!! - delivering pizza from 11am to 11pm.. it's madness! that's damn lot of hours, and a lot of money! - 12650yen!!! i think they only work that many hours a week, but even then, it's still a whooping 50600yen a month!

most of them are waiters and waitresses or cooks and/or servers though.. some work in convenience stores or "home centres" - these big shops that sell various stuff from furniture to daily necessities and snacks - as cashiers, there's one who moves baggage for this transportation company, and i think that just about covers it all..

so interesting!