These are transcribed entries from the journal I am writing in at school. I started the journal for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being that I didn’t have internet yet so I couldn’t post things online. The other being that I had free time on my hands. These entries are slightly modified, but mostly for grammar. I suppose you’d never know either way. Surprisingly, I had way more to say than I thought. Unsurprisingly, I have been bad (abysmal) at keeping my online entries up to date with my written ones. Someday, the dates will match but for now…These are the voyages of a long time ago in a galaxy far far away:
May 8, 2009 Friday (kinyobi)
I pretty much always know the day and date now. Used to be, I would never know what the date was; “May… uh, something” was a good guess for me. A perk of teaching the kids the days and date, I suppose. Also, everyone knows that most dates end in –th – thirteenth, eleventh, ect. – but not all of them follow this rule. Of course, I knew about the first, second, third, but I never noticed the extra “i” that we put into our multiples of 10: twentieth, pronounced twenty-ith, thirtieth pronounced thirty-ith. Except for 10: tenth. Crazy English. Discoveries like this makes me feel more and more sorry for kids that have to study this silly language. I mentioned my revelation to Winston, but he was unimpressed.
I am endlessly amazed at how difficult the English language is to understand. This is probably a nice state of mind (at least a considerate one) for my current position, because I am always impressed when my students (or really Japanese people in general) can actually speak my crazy language. I’m doubly impressed if they can use it properly. I told this to one of my English teachers, and she laughed at me; I’m relatively sure she took it as a compliment.
Less impressive and more just extremely awkward is the ability for teenage boys to say really outrageous things – in any language. Yesterday, some third year boys and I went through pretty much all the basic vocab for sex. And by the boys and I, I mean they shouted “penis” and “sex” at me while I stood there trying not to laugh too hard. I could barely bring myself to say “good English!” and I decided against trying to correct some of the pronunciation. As they ran out of English, they just moved on to charades and gestures, and that was about the time where I gracefully bowed out. Thank goodness I still have my dignity…
Not having any real authority does make some situations a bit more tricky – sexpletives in the hallways aside – especially, for example teaching class by myself! Oh yeah, that’s right, both Ky. Sensei and K. Sensei (both the English teachers) are going to Kyoto with the third year students for a multi-day field trip, and won’t be back until next Thursday. That gives me three classes to teach solo. I’m pretty sure that this is not supposed to happen – not according the Board of Education or Interac – but I’m not making a fuss, I’m stoked! Ok, a little terrified, but finally, I get to do something! Also, the teachers trust me enough to let me handle the classes, so that’s cool. I’m teaching “he is/ she is” to the first years, and have yet to hear about the plans for the second year classes.
I’m just going to bank on pure enthusiasm to bridge the language barrier; that’s how its seemed to work best so far. However, today was not a high energy day for me; I am pretty tired, and I have no idea why. Winston said he was tired yesterday, and pointed out that our 5 day weekend (while totally righteous) was not that restful, but I felt fine yesterday. *Shrug * not that I have much to complain about, it’s a 2 day work week.
May 11, getsuyobi (Monday)
I think I had a bout of culture shock last weekend. We learned that we might not get internet for two more weeks, and I spent the entire weekend in a funk. I felt particularly frustrated with my inability to understand or make myself understood in this country, and I was grumpy all weekend. I tried (and failed) to get a haircut on Sunday because I couldn’t find the barber, and, being in Japan, I couldn’t ask for help or directions. I tried to ask Winston, but he gave me some really vague answers that I could not decipher. The whole adventure bothered me a lot, which, especially in retrospect, it probably shouldn’t have. Diagnosis: culture shock.
I did find one barbershop (I think) but as a walked in, I realized that I had absolutely zero vocabulary regarding haircutting inquiries, and so after a bit of gesturing, broken Japanese, and broken English I concluded that the shop I walked into was not open for business, and that I should leave. Sumimasen, sumimasen, gomenasai. Excuse me, excuse me, I’m very sorry.
That evening, we threw the disc around at the park, and that cheered me up quite a bit. I get grumpy when I’m bored/don’t go outside to play. The park was pretty busy, but we managed to avoid hitting any kids, although there were a few close calls. Mostly, we got heckled (good naturedly) by some Japanese dudes who kept shouting “jump!” at us, which was cool. I think we impressed them with our mad gaijin skills. I’m pining for the day I get to actually play frisbee in Japan, or really in anyway at all.
I keep reading about Ultimate in the US. I just learned last week that CAL made it to nationals – nice job Joey D’s! – and everything I read makes me crave the game a little more. The worst part is that I can’t really do much research for pickups in Japan without internet at home!
Anyway, there was talk of games in Chiba among the other ALTs, so hopefully that will start panning out soon. Now, I’m psyching myself up for my class today with the second year students that I’m teaching by myself. We, mostly by myself, A. Sensei will be there to maintain discipline, but she doesn’t really speakie so much of the English, so the teaching is up to me, “yay!” – uh, I’m mean, “eep!” or maybe “bring it on!” More on this to come…
(Fast forward a few hours) So the classes were a success, but who cares, because my vice principal (Kyoto sensei) I. Sensei just showed me his freaking racing car, a 2000cc beast that he races on weekends. He told me about is racing days and how he was some racing champion back in ’98! Totally ridiculous! He was a teacher by day, speed freaking racer by weekend. I would never have guessed. At the same time, this is soo Japanese. Having some really random, really intense hobby (that they do god-knows-when between their like 12 hour work days, and sports practices/meets on weekends) just on the side that they also happen to excel at. Oh Japan.
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