Surely not...

Until today, I had never once felt old. During a 9th grade lesson this morning, my co-teacher and I were explaining the passive voice , using an activity left by a former JET. One of the example sentences was "Princess Diana was killed in 1997". Not only did a scant few of the students know who Princess Diana was, but I realized that next year will be the 10th anniversary of her death. I was in university when that happened. Can that really be 9 years ago?

Lost in Translation II

I had two co-teachers over for dinner last night, one of whom teaches English with me (Mika) and the other Yoshitaka, who doesnt speak much English at all. A humorous moment as they were admiring my apartment and all its decor: Yoshitaka said to me [Mike you are 'beep']. Come again? [You are 'beep'] he repeated. Sure he was trying to get an English word out but couldnt manage it, I asked Mika for help. She said [You know, 'beep']. What? I hadn't a clue what they were talking about. After several more minutes of confusion, we finally consulted my dictionary. Turned out they were going for 'V.I.P.' (there being no 'V' sound in Japanese, it comes out 'B"). Many chuckles, and it seemed they really thought my apartment was something special.

Later in the evening, we were talking about the difficulties of kanji, and I asked Yoshitaka what the two kanji symbols of his first name meant. After several failed attempts to explain in Japanese (I couldnt undestand), Mika tried in English but couldnt get the meaning across either. So again we returned to the dictionary. The meaning of the kanji? The first means "to announce" and the second means "filial piety, devotion to one's parents". I wonder if he was made fun of in grade school?
Mika on the otherhand, is much more pleasant, "fragrant fruit/berry".

I pose a question...

How many people in the US (and the world) follow this line of thinking (or rather, non-thinking) ?

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/sermons/languages.html

Worrisome.

Not just rice and fish

ME: (pointing at a sauce-covered something on my tray) What's this?

Lunchroom Lady: Oishii mono (literally, "a delicious thing")

ME: Is it meat?

LL: Yes.

ME: What kind of meat?

LL: Liver

ME: (trying not to grimace) What? Beef liver? Chicken liver?

LL: Nope, beef liver is dangerous right now. Its pig's liver. Can you eat it?

I wanted to say "Not without gagging" but instead I mumbled a "Sure, no problem."

It turned out to be not as terrible as I expeceted (and better than beef liver), and I managed to eat it all, alternating bites with the egg-salad sandwiches, but I would never go so far as to call pig's liver a delicious thing.

Wednesday laughs

On a self-introduction homework paper, one student wrote "I go to bed at twelven."
Fairly certain that means 11:30pm.

Also, more than one student wrote, "Nice to me too" instead of "Nice to meet you". Funny on several levels, with one being that the common greeting when you meet a Japanese person is "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu", which more or less means "I beg you to be nice to me."

from Zora Neale Hurston

Both of the following quotes are from DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD, from the chapter on Religion I think. Had forgotten them until today, re-discovered while browsing through my quote file. An excellent read if you haven't already...

“People need religion because the great masses fear life and its consequences. Its responsibilities weigh heavy. Feeling a weakness in the face of great forces, men seek an alliance with omnipotence to bolster up their feeling of weakness, even though the omnipotence the rely on is a creature of their own minds.”

“I accept the means at my disposal for working out my destiny.”

Please open your textbooks

Today also marked my return to the classroom, it had been over three weeks since I had a class. Good to feel productive/useful again, after many days of only sitting at my desk and tyring to be busy, but not really having anything to do. Because I am an assistant teacher (read "not-in-charge"), and my co-English teachers were extremely busy this week with their homerooms, it was difficult for me to do lesson-planning on my own.

Two of my three co-English teachers are new (both lovely young ladies), and I must adapt to their teaching styles. One of them, Mika, is starting her first year teaching, and is quite nervous. A humorous moment today in our first class together, in which I, not wanting to steal her thunder, kept deferring to her to lead the lesson and she kept looking back at me lost, unsure of how to proceed. I felt a bit bad for Mika at the beginning--when she greeted the class no one said anything and seconds later when I tried, they nearly knocked the both of us down with their cumulative "GOOD MORNING MICHAEL TEACHER!" (the students all know me from last year of course).

It will take a few classes, but we will get there. I am a lucky man to have such patient and flexible colleagues.

Seconds, please

One of the big changes at my new school is that all teachers and students eat in a lunchroom. This is quite rare in Japan--even at the schools where school lunch is served (at many schools, everyone brings their own), students usually eat in their classrooms with their homeroom teacher and the teachers eat in the faculty room. We do have lunchroom ladies (whom I rank below on the faculty hierarchy!), but students and teachers are still responsible for serving eachother and cleaning up after the meal. Homeroom teachers sit at a table with their classes, most of the rest of the faculty sit at a table together. Usually it is the librarian, the school nurse, the lunchroom ladies, one of the other English teachers, a math teacher, the janitor/office lady, and myself. Being the only male of this bunch, they insist that I sit at the head of the table and always dump more food on to my tray, which already has a generous portion of food. The first few days I politely declined and they put it on my plate anyway, so now I politely accept and eat for fear of disappointing them. Soemtimes the principal joins us, but he always makes me eat more as well. Today after finishing everything on my tray, plus another heaping bowl of rice given by the nurse, the librarian asked if I wanted more fish. Stuffed, I declined; but she said "what? you arent hungry like usual today?" and put the fish on my plate. Hai, Itadakimasu!

Hopefully, they will start inviting me to gym class, too.

Not enough words

One of the many reasons I still struggle with Japanese is the excessive number of homophones (words pronounced the same, but with different meanings). Often in Japanese one pronunciation doesn't just have two or three meanings, but 5-10 or more.

Consider “Kakeru” (one of a 1000 examples I could give):

It can mean 1) to break / be broken 2) to lack 3) to wane 4) to build 5) to be able to write 6) to hang / suspend 7) to put something on / cover something 8) to soar / fly 9) to run / gallop 10) to bet /gamble/ risk.

I suppose Japanese folks can discern the meaning from the context (I am usually in the dark there too), but it still seems awfully vague. The word-play opportunities must abound if you are clever enough, but it’s not so great for Japanese learners.

First day of school, Take 2

Once again the halls are filled with chatter and giggles and teachers barking commands. It’s been several weeks since I’ve seen the students. Walking into the new school this morning, a group of 8th grade girls I know (though their names I couldn't remember) greeted me warmly, carrying themselves proudly in their new uniforms. Gone are the drab all-navy outfits, they are now sporting plaid skirts and fancy, flight attendant bowties in place of the slender red neckties. The majority, however, are still wearing their white knee-hi socks with the playboy bunny logo. As to why these are popular, I have no idea. One smallish boy lingers behind the girls—I notice the boys’ uniform has changed as well. The imperial black suits with the gold buttons and mock collars have been exchanged for more Western attire--navy blazers, blue oxfords, dark gray trousers, and neckties.

This morning we had the opening ceremony (the school year begins in April here), which consisted predominantly of bowing and teachers adjusting the above-mentioned student uniforms (making sure the girls’ skirts reached their knees and that the boys ties were cinched tight). They also attempted singing the new school song, but I couldn't hear anything but the piano.

My appearance too, has been a topic of discussion recently, as I have been wearing a beard for the last couple weeks. Most of the teachers have commented on it, almost all in favor. However, the principal made fun of me several times at the teacher party last Friday (and then later sheepishly apologized and said he liked it), and the librarian has told me to shave at least 3 times. I taught her the word “scruffy”, and she keeps telling me “No scruffy, no scruffy”. The math teacher has taken to calling me Obi-wan and asking me to bring my light-saber to school. It also seems to have upped my cool factor with the students, though one girl looked at me this morning with a disappointed face and said, “Michael. Beard. Why? Why?” I had no answer.

I am very much looking forward to this year, as I will be teaching at the same place each day rather than traveling between three schools each week. Too, the faculty seems a good mix of teachers, with at least 6 others beside myself under 30. So far, the mood seems quite relaxed in the faculty room, a welcome surprise.

New Postal Address

New Address

84-1 Washinosu
Naruko Onsen-aza
Osaki-shi
Miyagi-ken 989 611
JAPAN


Translation:

84-1 Eagle's Nest
Crying Child Hot Spring Village
Big Promontory City
Castle Palace Prefecture
JAPAN

Old Address

84-1 Washinosu
Oguchi-aza
Naruko-cho
Tamatsukuri-gun
Miyagi-ken
Japan

84-1 Eagle's Nest
Big Mouth Village
Crying Child Town
Ball-making County
Castle Palace Prefecture

March, In Brief

My good friend Alison left yesterday after a wonderful month-long visit. Great to catch up with and spend some time with a fellow traveller.


In addition to the two days at the Grand Sumo Tournament, we also had a beautiful morning at Osaka castle,

several days walking many miles in Kyoto visiting markets, gardens, shrines, and temples (including Sanjusangendo, a great hall of 1001 statues of Kannon and 28? followers),

A rainy day at Amanohashidate ("the bridge leading up to heaven"), where after climbing some 700 steps to an observation platform, you can turn your back to the bay and the natural landbridge connecting the two shores, bend over with your head looking between your legs, and see the bridge suspended in air / leading up to heaven. I saw an upside down landbridge. Impressive nonetheless.



An afternoon at Yamadera (literally, "mountain temple"), a nearly 1100+ year old group of buildings built into the mountainside in Yamagata prefecture. We had a beautiful day and some excellent views of the surrounding mountains. The photo is part of our bid for a marketing campaign for Pocari Sweat (the label claims it is close to that of human body fluid), the best sports drink ever.


Also spent a couple days in Tokyo, wandering the many temples and shrines at Kamakura, including the massive Great Buddha statue, as well as a visit to Meiji Jingu Shrine where we saw part of a very formal wedding.

Plus a day snowboarding, two mornings of fishing in the snow (only three 4" fish, but we did happen upon a troop of 5 Japanese snow monkeys, an excellent surprise), and many laughs about the quirks of Japanese culture.

All good times.

First day of school

Today I began work at my new school. During the teacher introductions in the faculty room, the principal presented me as "the #1 cool guy in school". Pretty sure this is a first for me.

Some of the teachers gifted small presents to the others, one of which was a small wrapped cake. The package said this: "Gourmet Baum. Gourmet Baum provides you with rich moments of elegant leisure. Enjoy the superb taste of the cake."

Indeed.