Getting a little too personal...

So anyway I’m at one of my junior high schools and I relieved that the experience is getting better. When the week first started out it wasn’t as I hoped it would be but then it started to pick up for the better. The school I’m at now is a school that my friend had last year. So I assumed that my experience here would not be as drastic as it would be if they never had an ALT before. But things kind of got off on the wrong foot.

Well the teacher comes up and introduces himself and everything looks ok. But then he drops the bomb on me, asking me if I had a game for the two lessons we were going to teach today? I guess I don’t mind that we play game sin class and I become synonymous with “FUN” but 45 minutes before a lesson is uncalled for. I decide to take a stand and not give into this guy but his defense is just as strong. We sit there in stale mate, staring at each other. I’m saying, “I’m not just gonna give you a game with nothing to go on.” And he’s saying, “Your job is ALT, and I ‘m pretty sure that means you have to come up with a game when I ask you for one.” The stale mate lasts for about 25 minutes where he gives up and walks back to his desk. Then my guilty conscience kicks in and I suggest a game to do in his class. But come on. As a junior high teacher he should be the one coming up with lessons and how to teach them. I already have enough freedom in elementary school, I don’t need that kind of attention in junior high.

But as the week came along he seemed to lighten up a bit and I already prepared myself for the dreadful question, “Do you have, game?” I actually feel that the kids here are really good. They all have an enthusiasm for English that is pretty much non-existent in my other schools. The first years here, are ok since most of them came from my elementary school last year.

At this school they have an English elective course with a few students in it. Today was the first day I had one of these classes. Today was a pair of two girls that had pretty good English capability. Then I was asked the dreaded question, “Do you have game?” But not by the teacher but the two kids too. I guess I could think of a game to play in 10 seconds with just two students, female students…wink wink… OY! That would be wrong… We ended up playing Magical Banana…. HAHAHAHA that sounds funny too! Anyway for you non-perverted people Magical Banana is a word association game. You start off with Magical Banana is __________. For example lets say “Delicious”. Than the next person had to say, Delicious is Pizza. As long as the two words had something in common the game could keep going. Anyway the teacher and I played to get it going and on TWO occasions the teacher revealed something… personal. So anyway it was my turn and I was given “Big is the ground” (they call their field “ground” here) So I said, “The ground is dirty.” Then the teacher who is next to me says, “Dirty is my heart.” WTF!? The two third girls went crazy! I was wondering if he did that on purpose to get the students riled up or he was genuinely talking about himself. The girls, grossed out, said that that one didn’t count and he had to make a new one. Then later in the game I get passed, “Green is Jungle” which then I pass “Jungle is Dangerous.” My teacher takes “Dangerous” and links it to “Love.” The kids go crazy again and make comments about how you’re not supposed to put your own images into the game. I just that it was funny that he would actually say that. I mean the word association is there but for third year junior high schoolers, I thought his choices were a little inappropriate.

While we’re on inappropriate, one of the girls was doing something kind of weird. So of’ course you know that junior high school students have to wear uniforms. And these girls had uniforms and were wearing skirts. But the girl that sat across from us kept putting her knees up on the table ledge. So if you can imagine, it’s a straight path down to look, “you know where.” And she was totally oblivious to it. She kept on with game and every once in a while move her skirt up but with your knees like that there’s no way you can’t see. So anyway I kind of moved to the left so the other student would block the view but every time I passed the game to the teacher he was totally looking down her skirt! I didn’t know what to say. Do I tell the girl to put her legs down, because it looks obvious that people could see? I don’t know if she was doing that on purpose or not. But a few times she did “open” her legs too wide to be on purpose… Anyway, NOT THAT I WAS LOOKING but I know for sure that the teacher was. But the elective class was entertaining never the less. I have two more elective classes tomorrow and the teacher suggested we play Magical Banana again. Maybe he just associated “Magical Banana with Junior High School Panties.”

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Hiroshima, BABY!!

Another three day weekend, baby!! This past three day weekend was a trip to Hiroshima. Hiroshima is pretty awesome. I thought of it as kind of like Taipei but not as stink. Everything was pretty clean and I think you could get away with more English than in Taipei. Anyway three day weekend was because of the Autumn Equinox. Last year I believe I was at home because of the crappy weather. But not this year, the weather couldn’t be any better. The weather was hot but with nice trade-ish winds.

Well party in attendance was the couple in C501 Kevin and Val, Helen, and Ms. C606 Amie. The best part was meeting up with Lisa, Jesse, and Josh. I haven’t seen Lisa for like 3 months but seeing her picture over and over again for two weeks when we made her a birthday slideshow I realized that I actually miss her a lot. Oh and it’s been at least a year since I saw her. She looks so grown up… I couldn’t really believe it! And even more surprising thing was that she is starting to look more and more like Lisa. The family resemblance is uncanny. Jesse’s boyfriend was also in attendance in Hiroshima. He was pretty cool and easy to talk to, but maybe more on the quiet side. But nothing a few beers couldn’t take care off. But most of time was quiet and just followed Jesse around.

Well on the first day we had some trouble figuring out our cardinal directions but in no time we were on our way to the hotel. That’s one thing I noticed living in Japan, everyone here uses cardinal directions but back home in Hawaii everyone just uses mauka and makai. Anyway when we got to our hotel we found out that the Peace Park and Hiroshima Atomic Bomb museum was roughly pretty close. We were maybe 10 minutes away from the park. Which was a huge relieve because we had originally thought we would have to use public transportation and in a new city that could be pretty tough. Anyway, we went and saw the Children’s Peace Memorial. The memorial about the girl Sadako. Not the girl from the Ring but the girl who was exposed to radiation the A-bomb caused and in her last few months folded all the paper cranes to make a wish. The first time I heard about the memorial was in sophomore Social Studies in High School. We read books about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We even did a project and that’s how I first learned about Sadako. Anyway when they first made the memorial lots of kids from around the world sent cranes to add to the memorial. The museum that we went to after was pretty crazy as well. It was interesting seeming the whole atomic bomb thing from both perspectives. Not many people can say that they’ve been to the Arizona Memorial and the Hiroshima Museum. I felt they did a really good job in portraying a very factual and non-biased view of what happened during World War II. Although I over heard some generic Caucasian guy over 60 years old bitching in the museum. He said, “I’m not going to fall for this so called museum that is trying to make people sorry for having us bomb them…” People like that are entitled to their opinions but come on. Keep conversations like that for private areas, not a memorial museum for the whole incident. Oh I forgot to mention the area where they had the museum is about 200 meters (200 yards) from the place where the actual bomb exploded. The museum was pretty intense in showing the before, during, and after effects of the bomb on Hiroshima. They even had wax figures of civilians walking around a post-apocalyptic scene (Hiroshima) with skin hanging off their hands and arms. That I would have to say was pretty freaky. The latter part of the museum was about the lasting effects of radiation poisoning and the different kind of things that happened to the people of Hiroshima years after the bombing. This was equally gross. One thing I vividly remember is the story of a brother and sister and what they went through. They were not directly hit with the bomb’s heat wave but they did suffer radiation poisoning. Some of the things that happened to them were constant vomiting, diarrhea, hair falling out, purple spots from bleeding under the skin, and crazy keloids. The story talked about the two siblings trying to survive. The girl was 12 or something and the boy 8-ish. They said that the girl eventually got better and fought off the effects of the radiation but the boy died a pretty horrific death. They said he wouldn’t stop vomiting for a months or so and eventually we threw up his own internal organs and died the next day! AHHHHH CRAZY!

Ok, enough of that. After the museum we met up with Lisa, Jesse, and Josh and went to look for a place to party. The first stop was an authentic Irish Pub, which was really good. They all this pub food that puts the Hub to shame and the beer was very good. After that we headed towards the nearest Karaoke place which was the Hello Kitty Echo City or something like that. The whole place was in theme to Hello Kitty. So you all can imagine how excited Krystal and Lisa were. Anyway we stayed for about 3 hours singing and drinking. We even played a karaoke game where we passed the microphone around every line and whoever the song stopped on would have to down their drink. The person who lost big was Helen. It just seemed that songs always ended on her. I think she lost around 8 times. So by now everyone is drunk and decide to call it a night. Lucky for us we figured out the way to our hotel by cutting across the Peace Park. And evidently Kevin decided he needed to take a leak right there in the Peace Park! While waiting for him I passed out… in a tree. There were these huge trees that kind of looked like snowmen all lines up. The path in between takes you straight to the museum. But I passed out in it and became the butt of everyone jokes for the rest of the weekend. Horoscope Sagittarius: All your friends are laughing behind your backs… kill them. MUWAHAHAHA

The second day we checked out the Hiroshima Castle and had some Subway. On the way to the castle we passed the Hiroshima Carp Stadium where they were playing the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers are the team for everyone in the Osaka and Kyoto area. Anyway we debated whether or not to and decided that we should get moving. Anyway the second half of the day was going to Miyajima. It’s an island that has a Tori (gate) in the waters off the island. It is one of the top three sights of all of Japan. Being about 30 minutes away we can’t miss that right? Anyway we took a ferry and went to the island. The Tori was pretty cool but the town around was just like a tourist trap. It had a whole bunch of souvenir shops and local tasty treats. Another thing they had were deer. The deer roamed around amongst the tourists to get any kind of food possible. At one point Josh bought corn on the cob and was harassed by a deer for 15 minutes. Anyway the deer there looked pretty mangy and dirty. They smelled nasty and didn’t want to go near one. Anyway we saw the famous sight and made our way back to Hiroshima. That night instead of getting pissed drunk we decided to chill and bring the booze to our rooms. There we played some drinking games and called an early night.

Sunday was a pretty relaxed day where we got to eat authentic pizza from an Italian cook and check out the shops in the area. I got a chance to go into a few toy stores and some video game places. Then we were off to train station heading for home. It was supposed to be a smooth travel but at the gate we seem to have over looked something. The return ticket that the lady got for us was marked for a different day. That meant we didn’t have any seats. It was a long 2 hours back to Kyoto and we were not going to stand. We tried to fix the situation but the best we could do was get seats in the smoking car. Actually the seats weren’t that bad but the fact that the lady screwed us over before we eve left pissed us off. But we made it home safe and sound and added another tick to the places we’ve been in Japan.

It was nice to Lisa again, and it won’t be long until my family comes to visit. Actually they are due to land in Kansai International Airport on Friday. That only means only one thing… clean, clean, clean.

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Camp Gettinbettaeberityme

Although there are many things that are happening, its seems harder and harder to write these “blogs” that I end up writing a huge one once a week or so which makes it even harder to keep these the blog updated.　Anyway the things that happened this past week…

We had another Mauka Kids camp this past weekend. It was a three day weekend so the camp was a little longer than usual. This time the camp was a pirate themed. I thought it was pretty cool. The kids this time around were 100% better than last time. Well it just so happened that September is a Sports Festival and sometimes they take place on the weekend so the numbers this time around were really low. The minimum number of kids is 10, we had 11 sign up. At first I thought this would be a problem but it turned out to be a blessing. The lesser kids there are the easier it is to manage them as a group. In attendance we had 8 girls and 3 boys. Well usually the number of girls is bigger than the number of boys. Best part of having just three boys was because 2 of them were from one of the school’s I teach at. And as at added bonus they speak perfect English! They went to an international school for eight years and they loved in San Jose for a while also. The third boy didn’t speak English but made up for it by having one of the most modest and kind personalities I’ve see in Japan. He was such a nice boy. He never complained about anything, always asked if he could help and always did his best during our activities. The boys were so sweet. The best part was being able to trust them to do things on their own. For example I would just go into the room and tell them, “You got 30 minutes of quiet free time and then go and take a bath” and like clockwork it would be done. I even asked them to go to the vending machine to grab me a drink. The first time I did it they were more than willing to go for me and as a reward for their generosity I asked if they wanted anything but they modestly denied the offer, but the second time I asked them to go they seemed really excited and told me that they were waiting for me to ask them to go to the vending machine because they really wanted something to drink too. Ahhhh, so heavenly.

The girls were also really good except the choice few. If you refer back to one of my May posts there is a blog about the last time I went to camp, titled, Camp Wannabitchsumore, or something like that. In that blog I talked about a certain girl that had it out for me and made the last camp a living hell. Well, she came again. And she brought a friend. The weird thing was that the friend was really nice and tried to use English as much as possible. But anyway the Hellion came again. I was really afraid for what would happen. The first day she was up to her own tricks of picking on me, bothering me, trying to get me pissed off. But then the weirdest thing would happen. She would actually be really nice to me. It’s almost as if she wanted to be nice but forgot that she needed to keep up her mean streak. But what she did accomplish was create new hellions to take her place as she became the leader. The ironic part was that the hellion she created was a girl that was from another school of mine. Actually she isn’t all that bad but her first impression from the “Leader” was to complain and be negative about everything. So from that point on she became a Hellion. The other kids were not as bad but then you could easily tell which kids were from good upbringings and which were not. Some kids were so selfish and demanding that it was hard to tell who was worst the Hellions or the Brats. But there were a few good girls that shared the same qualities as the humble boys.

I guess the MVPs of the camp were a pair of high school girls that came as volunteers to help out. The girls being older yet closer to their age than us, able to speak they girly language and actually like girls holding their hand made them perfect Brat and Hellion shepards. Everywhere the high school girls went the bad kids followed. Well I guess they weren’t bad but you know what I mean. The staff especially the girl staff was so relieved that the high school girls were there to watch the girls. The only part that was shady was when one of our staff members over heard one of the Brats asked the high school girls about S-E-X. Did we talk about it when we were in 4th and 5th grade? I don’t remember taking about that stuff until intermediate school. Anyway one of the Japanese staff members sat them down and explained that they should stay away from those types of topics just in case it comes back to the camp. Would you want to send your kids to a camp where they learned about the birds and the bees from a high schooler? Anyway it turned out that the high school girls were indeed smart and used very political answers like, “everyone has does it and you’ll learn when you get older.” That’s just more the reason for them to come back again.

We also have a trip to Hiroshima for the second three day weekend coming up. It seems like we might even get a chance to meet up Lisa, Jesse, and the new Boyfriend. The tickets weren’t too bad and it seems like we all got good deals on the hotel. The only thing that is bothering Krystal mostly is that the room that we got didn’t have a private bathroom. They have this weird thing in Japan where its ok to see other people naked if its in the bathroom. Actually to my understanding I think Japanese people actually prefer the Japanese style baths to the private ones at home. I don’t particularly care for it either and try to stay as far away form the idea as possible but being in Japan I have taken a number of baths with foreigners already so what the hay? Not that I like that kind of thing…

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I See the Light!

Have I reached enlightenment? Have I made it past countless sufferings and meditations to reach a point where everything is clear? Maybe…

Ok so I finally figured out how to endure Junior High school! There were no new concepts uncovered or realized. All you need are pieces of previous/current ALTs’ advice, suggestions, and anecdotes that you put together in the right amounts to create the “Elixir” to survive. I have been in junior high school for the past week and a half. Today was no different than any other day where I came to school, did my lessons, and sat at my desk and read. Except something weird happened in class today. I started listening to the students…

What a revelation, huh?! Listen to the students! Listen to the students! Why? Because they say and do some funny ass stuff! Since last April, while in junior high I haven’t listened to the students once. I was too focused on the lessons, what the students need to learn, and what I needed to do during the lesson. Where the hell did I get that from?! When and where did the concept of me caring what the lesson was get into my head? It has never been about the lesson in my case. In junior high schools, lessons are made pretty much before you even get there. In fact the lesson are made in the textbooks that are given to the students in the beginning of the year. So why do we as ALTs care so much about the lesson? It’s because we have been brain washed to think that we as native English speakers can bring more to the classroom. We can bring more experiences, culture, and a non-Japanese perspective to English. AND WE CAN! The question is whether or not the Japanese class, teachers, and/or students are willing to accept it.

For too long I fought to keep the students utmost attention. Too long have I fought for my suggestions to become reality, too long have I wanted the acceptance of the English teachers that I’m an important asset. I understand that coming from an elementary school background where you are the top teacher and you are the main resource in English education.

But it’s completely ass-backwards in junior high. You don’t need to be there. You don’t need to read the model dialogue. You don’t need to read the “new words”. You don’t even need to understand what the teacher is saying. Put all of your focus on the students. Listen to what they say, talk to them, ask them stuff that has nothing to do with Ms. Green and whether or not she’s from America. Laugh at their jokes, make jokes, bother them, pick on the nerds, pick on the jocks, do what ever you need to do to be distant from the actual lesson at hand. The Japanese English Teachers (JTE) will always be there to let you know when you have to read a passage, how to pronounce a word, and “how things are in America/Hawaii?” So ignore the lesson. Do what you need to do to keep sane in a class that has nothing for you to do.

i.e. In class 2-2 (Second year, second class) there are a pair of jocks/delinquents. They do their best to make all the other students laugh and distract them from the lesson. From the beginning I took the persona of a teacher and told them to be quiet, stop fooling around, or take notes. But I found out that their jokes are really funny. Yeah, they may be in Japanese but their humor is adolescent so the Japanese isn’t hard. So anyway the other day one of the guys forgot to bring his notebook. The teacher told him copy notes from the board, which he quickly responded, “I have no nooto.” And then said, “What can I do?” in perfect English. I guess to you (The reader) this is not funny but in the classroom, from students who hate English, to be speaking in English, in perfect accent, intonation, and context, this is some funny stuff. So what happens? You laugh out loud, they comment that they made you laugh, and try their hardest to use broken, messed up English just to make you laugh the rest of the period. I thought this might be a fluke day but through some experiments and forced situations I found out this is what you need to do to leave your mark as an assistant language teacher.

i.e. Remember all the bad kids I was telling you about? The ones I where I was trying to reprimand/remind them about the lesson at hand? Instead of being the bad guy, talk to them. Almost encourage their misbehavior. There are so many weird things that the kids do to occupy themselves during the 50 minutes of English class. They cut up sticker pictures, arrange them in their album, make glue boogers, draw on their desk, write letters, organize their pencil cases, put make up on, and etc. Talk to these kids. Obviously they don’t want to do English so talk about something else. IT IS NOT OUR JOB TO DISCIPLINE THE KIDS. Someone once told me… Anyway ask them questions about what they’re doing. Where did they get it, how much was it, what happened to this thing, who is that for, and etc. They want you to ask them about their stuff. They want the attention.

But at the same time don’t ignore the good kids too. They can be really motivated and enthusiastic about English and the least that they need is a jaded and totally disgruntled ALT. Talk to them too. And don’t always make it about English. You can ask them about other things because the good kids will always be able to get back on the listening and learning track. They won’t get distracted as easily and they already know what the lesson is about anyway.

So from this moment on I pledge to listen to the students more often and put no stress on the lesson at hand. The lesson has already been created in the eyes of the JTE and there is nothing I can do to change it. Be the tape recorder and English Word Pronouncer. Talk to the bad kids AND good kids about anything, and if it happens to be about English good for them, if not then oh well.

Oh I almost forgot, bring a good book to read. If you bring an interesting book you can read them during your off hours and trust me you will have lots of time to read. Reading also builds your vocabulary. It can take you to lands far, far away. It can also aid you as a useful prop to sleeping in the staff room. I’m talking about quick 10-15 minutes naps that can hold you over for the next 45 minutes of reading. I must also recommend the erotic trilogy by Anne Rice, The True Story of Sleeping Beauty. The three titles are “Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty’s Punishment, and Beauty’s Release.” This story is pretty erotic and graphic need I say more? It gives you a glimpse into a lifestyle that you might be interested in as well as might want to try. WARNING for guys: this book does have a lot of graphic scenes and stuff but I would say most of them are between guys. So if you can’t handle that stuff this trilogy is not for you. But on the other hand all the stuff between girls might be well worth the read.

Sorry for the preaching but this is for all the other ALTs that might read this and to my friends around the world that might want to know what I’m doing for the last thee and half hours in my days in junior high school.

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Ventilation?

Have I become accustomed to the new year starting? Yeah RIGHT! I couldn’t hate school more at the moment. Well to start off I’ve been having a pretty shitty week. I don’t remember if I told this story before but there’s one elementary school that scheduled me for 6 lessons in one day, and it just so happened that day I got sick and had to go to the doctor. So when I came back the next day I was asked over and over again, “when can you make up the lessons that you missed?”
a) Hello, I was SICK!
b) Since when do teachers have to make up any lessons, especially when they have taken sick leave?
c) They never have to make up any lessons.
d) I’m the ASSISSTANT language teacher, if they feel that English is important that not even one day can be missed than maybe their homeroom teachers should do something about that.

So anyway to get the teacher off my back I tell her that I’ll be at junior high next term and that usually they don’t schedule me classes in the afternoon. So maybe I could come by and do a lesson in the afternoon. Which worked until the plan backfired on me and as soon as I came back from summer vacation she kept asking, on which days I could come. Well just for this occasion I had another excuse ready for her. So when she came and asked me I told her that I haven’t received a schedule for the school yet so I have no idea when I could come. So the way I wanted to play it off was to go to the school and tell my teacher to keep me at junior high. But one thing I didn’t think of was the all-ALT meeting we had that Friday before the “make up week.” I assumed that it would just be the ALTs but it just so happens that a teacher from each school had to be represented at the meeting also. Which means that my junior high teacher and the crazy school would also be present at the meeting. Anyway they got together and decided my fate for the next week, which is junior high classes in the morning than ONE elementary class, and then back to the junior high school to help with some speech competition. And so half of my days this past week have been me on the bus going from school to school and back again. To make matters worse, the task might have not been too bad if I could ride my bike but there was a Typhoon that was threatening to come since Monday, which made the days rainy and humid. Anyway its Thursday now and there’s just one more day of this hectic schedule. Everyone around me has been telling me that I’m crazy for going to two different school in a day and maybe I am but the kids at the crazy school are really good and I would do almost anything for the kids. The teachers on the other hand…well not teachers but the manipulative politician of a principal and non-informative English supervisor can go (Add Vulgar Verb) my ASS!

Ok so what has happened this week… this past Saturday we went to look for tickets to go back home during the winter. We thought it would be pretty easy but we were totally wrong. Lots of the tickets have already been booked and it seems that we might have to use more vacation days than we originally planned. So anyway we reserved a pair of tickets and went to another place to check out prices. It seemed like the first place we went was our best option but the only thing was that we needed to buy the tickets within three days. So we waited it out until the last moment and bought the tickets. So yesterday I went to pick up the tickets and everything was good until I opened my email. The second place we went to said that they had good news and they were able to get us cheaper tickets and better dates. ARRRGGGHHHH! What do we do? We bought the first pair of tickets with a credit card so it should be easier to get a refund right? Another thing is that the first place we went to is the person we always go to see if we want a ticket of any kind. She helped us a lot by extending the dates for deposits and getting us the best possible seats and etc. So it feels kind of un-loyal to go with someone else. Anyway we still don’t know if we can return our tickets so let’s not fret…yet.

On Tuesday we had our first Japanese lesson. We’re getting lessons from the Kyoto-Shi Prefectural Advisor’s wife, Michiyo a.ka. “The Miich”. She’s really cool and because we hang out with the P.A. so often that Miich has become a good friend too. Anyway Krystal and I decided to take Japanese Language Proficiency tests. Why? I guess to get the internationally recognized certificate that says that you have a certain proficiency level in Japanese. Anyway the tests range from Test 1-4. 4 being the easiest and 1 being the hardest. I’m taking 3 and Krystal is taking 2. Everyone said the fourth test is really easy and for people that didn’t know any Japanese before coming here. But I have taken a lot of Japanese in my academic career so I didn’t want to cop out with taking the easiest test. Yet you need to be mildly converse-able like Krystal to take level 2 or 1. So anyway Miich was giving us an idea of what the test might be like so that’s what the first lesson was like. She’s really good in explaining the material in easy English so I think the test is going to be fine. Krystal on the other hand has to work her ass off to know 1000 kanji to be at level 2 caliber. I only have to know about 300 and supposedly I leaned them somewhere in high school and/or college. Supposedly the gap between level 3 and 2 is the biggest compared to the other test levels.

So other than that nothing much going on here in Kyoto. We’re trying to organize a trip to Hiroshima during on of our three-day weekends in September. We might even be able to meet up with Lisa and Jesse and her boyfriend. It was kind of weird hearing that Jesse got a boyfriend. It’s not like a care or anything but because we hang out with Lisa so much that I kind of thought of Jesse like a younger sister too. Ehh what can I say, I’m getting old.

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