closing time

I have much to share and precious little time to do it in. Moving my small space is bad enough, but add in closing shop at the school and the social whirlwind of closing parties and goodbye lunches, and time flies right out the window.

There's no telling when I will be able to post again - I'm hoping that it will not take me six weeks to get internet at my new place, but I know better than to believe that things are going to be as simple as I want them to be. May the gods of convenience and interwebs smile upon me and offer me their blessings. I get the feeling I might need them.

I did receive some information about my new school. I'll have a much busier schedule this time around: 29 classes, ~75 students. As if I needed a reminder about how good I had it here in Isesaki. The upside of this is that only 8 of them are kids classes, and 11 of them are Sprint classes, which are fast and easy to prepare, especially now that I've been through all of Sprint 7 and half of Sprint 6 and Sprint 8. Also awesome is that I have two Headway classes, which offers the prospect of teaching high-level subjects. The real unknown factor here is that quite a few of my students are going to be businessmen, which is a change-up from the large number of teachers and bored housewives I had in Isesaki.

Perhaps saddest of all: this marks the end of my freedom to wear sneakers and jeans most of the day. I get the feeling that I will once again be considering buying stock in blister treatments. My feet already hurt.

Thus closes the first chapter of my life in Japan. I can only hope that the next one is as fulfilling and entertaining.

fun things that happened this week

(no food, sorry . . . okay, there is a little at the end. the next three posts, I promise)

Despite the rollercoaster ride that has been working for GEOS this month, I still love my job. I mean it, I do. I LOVE my job, which is why I'm willing to fight so hard to keep doing it. I have not once woken up in the morning and thought, "Jeez, I really don't feel like working today." Now, I admit, I've woken up and thought, "Just the toddlers to get through, and I'm good for the day." But that's only on Friday and Saturday. Other than that, I enjoy coming in to work. Even when I have six hours between classes.

Which leads me to one awesome thing that happened this week: Rio's mother looking kind of shocked when I told her that. "You have 6 hours before your first class today? And you still come in? Why? What do you do?"

The answer to this demonstrates how focused I am on my own enjoyment: "Eh, it's more fun here than it is at my apartment. I hang out with Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san, I chat with Benni-sensei's students, I sit in my room and listen to my iPod."

Seriously, I have an awesome job. Two days a week, I can hang around in my jeans because my classes don't start until 6pm. Thursdays, we go out to lunch or make a big lunch at the school (this week, we went to a shabu shabu restaurant, which was highly entertaining). Wednesdays, I ride around in the afternoon and run all my little errands and get lunch at Beisia. Fridays, Benni-sensei and I sometimes go out for ramen and gyoza at 10pm. And on Saturdays, I'm done by 7pm. It's a terrific gig I've got here.

And, yes, I adore my students. Even my kid students have their moments.

1. I've mentioned my class with two 5-year old boys. I really can't stand N, because he will not do anything. I'd be happy if he'd just sit and make paper airplanes, but he's always distracting K, who will work for me. Today, K worked nicely on writing his letters, and then I had him practice writing his name. I wrote it out in the alphabet for him, and he copied it. Then, for the hell of it, I wrote his name in hiragana, and he clapped his hands and grinned at me. Not sure what it was about, but it was funny.

2. I have a class of 4 12-year olds who can be pretty funny and not so bad, if they're on task. For some reason, they got to practicing cursive writing; I have no idea how or why. So, I spent ten minutes showing them how to write their names in cursive. They also found my signature absolutely hysterical, but I've found that most Japanese do.

3. One of my students signed papers to buy a house this week, and he invited the whole class for the housewarming party in April. Actually, this is one of my favorite classes. They're a Tuesday class, so they were one of my first classes, and they welcomed me with sweets and fresh-ground coffee. I am so happy that they're sticking through the move.

4. Naofumi-san goes to Hamamatsu once a month for business, and he always brings something back for us. This time, he brought back tuna & cheese cubes. Now, I like tuna, and I like cheese, and I like it mixed together, so I thought this should be edible. Unfortunately, I was wrong. This may very well be the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten. I'm quite convinced that this is what catfood tastes like, because it certainly tasted the way cat food smells. The upshot is that Benni-sensei and Naofumi-san took great pleasure in laughing uproariously at my suffering.

It looks so innocent, doesn't it? And yet, it is a horrible, vile thing.

my Japanese Valentine

Is there any point to St. Valentine's Day other than to coerce people into spending money?

(Alrighty, that's my anti-Valentine's Day statement for the year. I have nothing personal against the "holiday," I just don't see much of a reason for it. It is properly placed on the calendar, I will say that, considering the approach of spring and all.)

I got a little bit of chocolate from my girls today, and that's all (probably a good thing, considering the amount of peanut butter balls that's occupying my apartment), but there's also a good reason for it. Simply put, on Valentine's Day, guys are the ones who get the chocolate. The ladies do the buying and the giving and very little of the receiving. They give chocolates and a personal gift to their special someone, as well as small treats for the other men in their lives (friends, co-workers, family, etc.), so it can get a bit expensive sometimes. From my observation, it seems to be more of a holiday for the younger generations - the vast majority of candy purchasers at the mall on Wednesday were teenagers and twenty-somethings.

My contribution to this Valentine's week was peanut butter balls. I've been meaning to make them for a couple of months now, and I decided that it was about time I made them. They went over quite well, especially with the adults. Handmade treats always seem to please them, and they were amused by the idea of American peanut butter being so different from Japanese peanut butter (which is sweet and thin and not quite as flavorful). Also, most of them were impressed that it was an old family recipe, something that's well appreciated. Actually, the kids were the most reluctant to try it; several of them said they didn't like peanut butter. For the most part, they liked them after trying them. A couple of the boys even asked to take a couple home to their mothers. That's always nice. I'm planning on making them some cookies soon, this time with the shortening my parents sent me.

Returning to the topic of Valentine's Day. The gift-giving is reciprocated on March 14th - White Day. Having received candy, the guys are fairly obligated to return the favor. Interestingly enough, the candies and presents given on White Day are supposed to be more expensive than what one received on Valentine's Day. Say what you will, but Japanese vendors know how to get people to spend more money.

And if you're Korean, you can celebrate Black Day on April 14th if you received nothing on Valentine's Day or White Day. The custom is for these singletons to gather together at restaurants and eat noodles in a black bean sauce to confirm their single status.

Wednesdays are amusing.

Wednesdays are now officially my easy days. I had one class moved to Saturday, so now I only have a kids' class and my two-hour block with Naofumi. Easy-peasy.

The kids' class is a small Intermediate class, with two boys who are between 10-12. One of them is really quiet, and the other one is really bright, and they get along well together. They're nice boys, and I've gotten to the point where I can mess with their heads a bit.

For Christmas, my BFF Heather sent me a ginormous box of goodies, including an action figure-type thing of Obi-Wan Kenobi, my favorite Star Wars character. I have it sitting on my side table in my classroom, and the boys noticed it immediately when they came into the room. They were enthralled, and once I explained how I got it, I'm not sure what they found funnier: the fact that my friend gave it to me as a Christmas present, or the fact that I like Star Wars. In any case, they joked about it quite a bit before settling down for class.

One of today's vocabulary words was "bike," which was partially confusing to them because they identified the picture as a "bicycle." Sometimes the vocab in the GEOS books is a little weird (a track suit is considered a jersey? okay, that's a new one on me, but hey, I'm not paid to publish this stuff ). My quiet boy grinned and started humming and then quite clearly sang out, "Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle!" well enough for me to recognize it as a small snippet of the Queen song. Then they both started chanting it and grinning like maniacs.

I'm fairly astounded at how popular Queen sometimes seems here. I watched a program a couple weeks ago that was solely dedicated to the awesomeness of Queen. There was even a Japanese guy who did a fairly astounding impersonation of Freddie Mercury (the pronunciation was a little off, but he looked JUST LIKE him and the mannerisms were insanely accurate). Also, at the local Cainz Home, Queen is heard quite often over the radio system. I don't complain about this. However, I now have "Bicycle Race" stuck in my head.

Fast forward to my class with Naofumi, which started with a discussion on what we did during the holiday break. (Oddly enough, he participated in a bicycle marathon. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.) Also, he watched movies. We discussed "Dark Knight" a bit before I made him tell me the plot of "Million Dollar Baby," which I have not seen.

This was surprisingly difficult for him and not because of a language issue. He was genuinely concerned about offending me by talking about "sad" and "nasty" plot points. I'm not sure how paralysis from the neck-down is considered "nasty," but that's how he referred to it while describing the fight. He kept pausing and asking me if it was okay to continue. To be fair, I probably should have let it pass and spared him some discomfort, but really, he should have known better. After all, I had just told him how much I liked "Dark Knight," and I've mentioned before that I love westerns and war movies. Paraplegia, welfare fraud, and euthanasia aren't difficult topics for me, but that's not saying a lot. I'll generally discuss anything and everything without much embarrassment. Besides, I'm not sure anything can top the catheter and prostate exam discussion I had with one of Benni-sensei's students.

Still, I found it interesting. He has no problems discussing politics with me, but he felt uncomfortable bringing up sensitive plot points in a movie. He kept saying how sad it was. Which prompted me to say that I love movies with sad endings, and he looked at me like I was a little crazy.

I dunno, maybe I am. All I know is, after putting up with me for three months, he'd know better by now. Oh, well, just goes to show that nothing is as it seems. Life is full of little surprises.

In other news, during my second hour with Naofumi, my throat started to clench up and it became hard to swallow. And now, I feel the makings of a full-bore sore throat starting. Which tells me that I have a cold and will probably not be in the best of health tomorrow. It had to happen eventually. Personally, I'm surprised that I've managed to avoid illness thus far. And I was actually getting a little worried. After all, if I don't get sick, my immune system doesn't get the chance to strengthen itself. Not that I'm excited about getting a cold. It's just nice to put an end to the anticipation. It was only a matter of time.

I don't feel like total crap yet. If Murphy's Law is truly in effect, my worst day will be on Friday, when I need to be at 100% to deal with my three kids' classes in a row. Or on Saturday, when I deal with the 2yo twins for the first time. With any luck, I'll survive to spend Sunday in bed.

watashi wa eigo no sensei desu

Today I had my first official Japanese lesson with Benni-sensei. Up to this point, my Japanese education was limited to watching "as much TV as possible" and tracing hiragana to practice learning it. My Japanese handwriting sucks but at least I'm getting the hang of recognizing the kana.

I mentioned that I bought a Japanese textbook a few weeks ago, and this was our first chance to use it. My first lesson was on introductions - how to ask someone's name ("Namae wa nandesuka?") and how to respond ("Sara desu."), followed by how to ask about someone's job ("Shigoto wa nandesuka?") and how to respond ("Watashi wa eigo no sensei desu.") Also got an intro to meeting people ("hajimemashite" ~ "how do you do" and "doozo yoroshiku" ~ "it's nice to meet you"). It's not much, but it's more Japanese than I could understand and say this morning! It's a start.

Also, she's having me practice writing my name in katakana, which is both important and not overly easy for me. As I said, my Japanese handwriting sucks wholly and completely (at least, I think so) because it takes a certain finesse to make it look "right." Japanese writing is almost like a form of art, with precise strokes that blend together so nicely. My penmanship looks like geometry, which I would definitely NOT consider art, but maybe that's just me.

Anyway, after my lesson, Benni-sensei had me practice on Hitomi-san, which is incredibly fun because she's always thrilled, no matter what. But then, Japanese people tend to be impressed when non-natives put any kind of attempt into understanding/learning/practicing anything to do with Japanese culture. It's a nice change from Americans, who expect everyone to adapt and adopt as quickly as possible (this is, of course, a gross generalization, but it seems to me to be the attitude of the majority). It's like how Hitomi-san was so excited when she found out I liked Japanese food or how gleeful they can be when I try something new and like it. And they don't treat me with contempt if I don't understand or don't like it. Granted, they treat me a little like a silly gaijin, but that's what I am, so it's okay. It's way better than frowning and acting like I'm less than them.

But, yeah, I got mad praise for my pronunciation and my memorization, so I'm not a complete failure when it comes to Japanese. Actually, pronunciation is fairly straightforward, as it's a lot like Spanish, in that everything's pronounced pretty much as it's written. It's not tricky the way English is. As for memorization . . . yeah, that's to be expected too, because even I'll admit I've got a mind that retains way too much information. There's a reason I'm good at Trivial Pursuit. Hopefully that will continue to serve me well.

my new favorite holiday

I love my Headways class with my horticulturist student. It's always amusing. Naofumi is probably my most advanced student. He spent 7 years as a child growing up in California, and his reading and conversation are excellent. He takes classes mainly to practice English and keep it honed and because his job encourages it. Headways is the most advanced class GEOS offers, and it's pretty intense. The book was published at Oxford, so it's painfully British at times, to the point where I've had to look stuff up because I had no idea what they were saying. But, he's a smart guy, so we've had some pretty interesting conversations regarding the text.

Monday was a Japanese holiday: Culture Day. I asked Naofumi what it was for, and he explained that people were supposed to go out and get cultivated, by going to a museum or a concert or something (yay for Sarah and Nick! I just went to the ￥100 store). He added that most Japanese people just take the opportunity to be lazy and do nothing. He seemed to be of the opinion that those kinds of holidays (Culture Day, Sports Day, etc.) were kind of useless, except for the fact that it's a three-day weekend for a lot of people.

"Sounds like some holidays we have in the States," I replied.

"Yeah." A pause. "Like what?"

"Like Columbus Day, for one. He discovered Hispaniola, not the North American continent."

Naofumi kind of chortled at this. "Wasn't the continent discovered by some other guy from Scandinavia or some place like that?"

"Yeah, Lief Ericsson."

"Hmm. So why don't you have Lief Ericsson Day?"

See? I love this class.

Speaking of holidays, I find it amusing that head office sent out an email encouraging NETs to tell their students about Guy Fawkes Day in an effort to convince them to travel abroad and "experience holidays unlike their own." For some reason, when I think of foreign holidays that I want to observe, Guy Fawkes Day isn't the first one that comes to mind. Just hope no one uses V For Vendetta as their reference point.

Sara-sensei is a teacher.

I know it's fun to hear about all the food I've been consuming, but I do other things too, like teach. That's my job after all, and I've had a couple people ask me to talk a little bit more about it. What, Sara-sensei takes posting requests? Sort of. I have a list of things I want to post about, but since my apartment is still not exactly in the greatest shape, I'm putting that off a little longer.

So . . . about being a Native English Teacher in Japan. It's fun. It's hard work, but it's fun too. I don't know if I think that because I've only been at it about two weeks now, but I love the English language, and being a big, gigantic nerd is a real boon with this job. I thoroughly encourage my students to ask me questions about obscure grammar/spelling rules because it sends me off on a quest to find the answer. I like puzzles. I told one of my private lesson students that, and she laughed and said I was in the right job then.

I have a total of 21 classes, which I divide into four types: Sprint, Active, Kids, and Private (which actually go back to being one of the first three classes, but they pay more, so they get their own category.) My favorite classes are Active classes with 2+ students because you can get more conversation going, and I'm there pretty much as a mediator and helpful grammar checker.

Sprint classes are firmly structured and focus on learning a grammar point (such as the proper way to word a sentence when giving a compliment), followed by a period of using that grammar point in conversation. I wasn't so keen on these at first, but they're growing on me. I still follow the structure, but I've found that if I get a little creative, students respond better. I only have two lower-level Sprint classes, and one of them is with a guy from Peru, and I understand his natural speaking pattern a little better than I do with my Japanese students. He puts a Spanish twist on a lot of his words, and since I can recognize that, we have a common meeting ground. He's actually really good with conversation, he's more concerned about learning the proper grammar. It takes me 30-45 minutes to write a Sprint lesson plan, depending on what else I'm doing (I usually watch a movie or listen to music while I work, it actually goes faster that way because the noise helps me focus). I'm lucky because my school has a whole library of lesson suggestions for Sprint classes, and a lot of the props are already prepared. Usually, I just have to decide what I want to use and then make copies and keep everything organzied. For a couple, I've had to make my own props (cutting out magazine pictures, for example, to match with adjectives), but that doesn't take too long either.

Active classes are way more flexible, and that seems to be a little scary with Japanese students sometimes because they have to offer more original responses. Getting opinions out of them is like pulling teeth, but I like these classes because when the students do start talking, they usually have good things to say. All of my students are pretty intelligent (they're learning a foreign language, so they'd pretty much have to be), and they run the gamut from bored housewives to teenagers to office workers to scientists (seriously, one of my students is a horticulturist who crossbreeds onions). So, they've all got really good opinions and can back them up well, once they get going. The hard part is getting them to talk. They'll sit and think about their answers for a few minutes, and it's less getting the English right and more figuring out exactly what their opinions are. Active classes are really easy to plan, especially because the books come with Teacher Guides and there are plenty of activities in the books to fill class time. I can do an Active lesson plan in about 15 minutes, with a little extra time for making copies if I need them. One book was published in England, so I've had to look up a couple of phrases/words here and there to figure out exactly what they're saying, but otherwise, it's my favorite. The last class I did with this book (with my horticulturist student) studied a Shakespeare sonnet, and I had a blast. The student was completely intimidated, but he did an awesome job and ended up feeling pretty proud of himself. Easily the best class of the week.

Kids classes are the hardest to prepare, I think, because I have to make sure that I have enough activities to keep them busy all the time. I have six kids classes (not including a private lesson with a four-year old, but she's so well-behaved and on the ball that I have no problem with her), and they're arranged according to age. This is a somewhat bad idea, I think, because some of the classes are terribly mismatched. I have one class with 2 10-year olds who are on very different levels. Fortunately, the higher level student is a girl and she's pretty well behaved if I have to slow things down to help the boy. In a class with four 12-year olds, though, the one girl is a little slower (no less intelligent, just slower with her replies), and the rest of them get a little impatient with her. I consider myself lucky the boys are actually nice boys; they may make a snide comment or two, but they listen to me and do as I say if I keep on top of them. The only class I really am not overly fond of is the one with two 5-year old boys because they haven't quite figured out who's in charge here. I'm starting to wonder in Japanese kids don't get any discipline until they get into school, because these two can be outright brats sometimes, and one of them has a younger brother who's even worse. On a good day, they're okay; on a bad one, the only thing I can do is keep them focused on doing something to distract them from wandering around the room and causing trouble.

Kids classes also have Teacher Guides, which I use profusely for writing lesson plans because there's a lot more going on here than just grammar. They're learning phonics, writing, listening, speaking - a whole bevy of things. It's pretty intense, but at least it keeps them busy. Fortunately, I only have to write three lesson plans because I have two classes of each type. It takes me about 45 minutes to do one of them, mainly because I'm having to stop and find games to play, or make lots of copies, or listen to the cds to figure out what work they're going to have to do. For the younger kids, I also have to learn songs and the hand gestures that go along with them. My private lesson girl stopped me once and showed me the "right" way of doing one song, so at least she's being patient with me too.

And then there are the private lessons, which are usually a conglomeration of the above. I have a couple who come together, and they don't like the book (which is too advanced for them and was probably pushed upon them by the old manager), so their class is mostly just conversation. I use the book as a jumping off point to ask them questions, and then we just go where we please. It's quite pleasant. Last week, we had a long discussion about the relocation of American Indians and the Japanese government's treatment of the native Ainu in Hokkaido. Another private lesson is with a woman who wants to learn business English so she can work for her husband's company. So, again, that's a lot of conversation, using a book to help her learn new phrases and how to use them correctly. And then I have one woman who has Sprint classes with Benni-sensei (the JET) but wants private lessons with a NET so she can practice conversation with a native speaker.

So, it's a variety of classes, and if I take a couple hours a day, I can get all my lesson-planning done in a good amount of time. And they're fun because it's a subject I know pretty well and love quite a bit. The only classes I generally feel a little nervous about are the kids classes, mainly because I'm never sure if I have enough prepared for them (so much so that I generally over-prepare for them, which makes me feel better), but they go by so quick that I usually don't have time to worry about it.

And there you have it. It helps being such an English geek, because even simple grammar rules (such as the proper usage of simple present tense) make me happy. And the students have noted that I seem to enjoy it, so that probably helps. Maybe the novelty will wear off in a while, but for now, I'm loving every minute.