IrishOboe

This week has been oral exams. I have to step back and remember how scared the kids were when I first came and then to see them come in and have a conversation with me is so exciting! Unfortunately, I don’t have much time with each student, but again I’ve been proud of how hard they’ve worked and how far they’ve come. There are a lot of problems in my teaching, but I think they’ve learned some things. For one thing their pronunciation is much better because I hound them about it all the time! For this interview I ask them to tell me something about themselves and they say for memory a prepared piece that they wrote on a topic of their choosing then I ask them a few questions about themselves based on what we studied. With good students I go off the beaten path and over all it’s been quite fun, though hard to do all 20 students in 50 minutes. I asked them to sign a card for me while they’re waiting in the classroom after their test. Some students are so creative and I have a number of colorful cards filled with cute messages and drawings. I’m going to miss those kids! Next week is exams (I’m using the last week of classes to do the oral exams) then they become ninensei students. The new school year starts in April (on my birthday to be exact). I’ll get to see them, but I won’t teach them. I’ve come to love the students even in the classes I had problems with. I can see each different personality now and I’ll miss having an excuse to see them every week!

As for the after school activities, Monday for ICC we watched the first part of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was very proud of my students because they decided to try to watch it in English with English subtitles. Some understood more than others, but I was happy that they decided to try! I’ve enjoyed it so far.

Tuesday I had planned to go home but I decided to stop by kyudo club. Impatiently I asked when I could shoot an arrow and I got the same answer: after three months of practice. I discovered then that I never really accepted the idea that they might make me practice that long. I don’t want to wait that long! Why? It doesn’t seem to matter how much I practice or how good I am, I just have to put in my time. However, they did seem to hint it might be a little less for me because my form is so good. But I want to shoot NOW! Hm, there is where American instant gratification and Japanese rigid methodology come into conflict. I can be patient! I can learn a lot from watch and practicing, I’m sure. Maybe it really works and all the practice and watching will pay off when I finally get and arrow. We’ll see!

Wednesday I stayed after brass band rehearsal. My fascination with the way they do things is wearing a little thin as I think of all the ways I could help them improve. I may get a chance to work with them but for now I’m a guest and don’t feel right about correcting them. I’m impressed with the work of the ninensei conductor and his frequent attempts to use English in order to include me. Still, I wish they would give me a little more credit in terms of my language ability. It seems they expect me to know no Japanese and are shocked to find I can read hiragana and katakana. I don’t express as well as I understand so they think I know less than I do. If they’d just slow down and speak clearly (and maybe not use so much slang) I might be able to follow! Oh well, I’ll get there.

Thursday I stayed after to help some ninensei students were are preparing for a national English interview test. I was impressed with some of the students’ ability. Nobody was very comfortable, but a few were able to put together complex and grammatically correct sentences. It proves to me again that they do learn stuff in English class and some actually retain it, but still everyone takes a very long time to recall and put it to use. I also don’t know when they choose to speak and when they don’t. After working with one pair I said they spoke English well and I asked them a question to start a casual conversation. They sat there and gave me the usual blank stare that could be read to mean just about anything except “I’m interested in communicating.” After a bit of that I play-acted a sixth question as part of the exam using the same question I asked casually. This time they answered and answered well! I wish I understood this so I would know when to wait for a slow response or move on so as not to humiliate them. I wish there was a difference in facial expression between “I have no idea what you asked me.” And “I understand you and can answer but it will take me a while to formulate the sentence.” Ah!

Friday I told everyone that I was going home on time and that I did. I was nice to have the extra time! I had organized a dinner at MammanPumpink (Indian) and Fred, Courtnay, Kasia (all JETs), Samira and Aruna (from Sri Lanka) came. The list started out longer but people couldn’t come for various reasons. It was a bit of a pain to organize it and make it happen. I have so much more respect for people who actually organize significant things. I’m so lazy I’d rather just stay at home then make all the phone calls and arrangements. I even make the reservation by phone in Japanese all by myself! Okay, so Naito sensei helped me prepare what to say, but I did it! I believe that was the first call in Japanese I’ve made. Go me!

The dinner was a lot of fun. I wanted to get some interesting people together and have some interesting conversation and that’s exactly what happened. It was fascinating to learn more about Sri Lanka and the experiences of other JETs. Did you know that Sri Lanka has the same population as Australia?

I spent the night at Courtnay’s and watched the Olympics. It’s been nice to get a little Olympic watching in. I always enjoyed it when we had a chance to watch them growing up.

The next day after a nice brunch with Courtnay I decided to walk back home. It turned out to be a great idea. It was a beautiful warm day and I stopped in a few local places on the way to get information so I can prepare for Mom and Dad’s visit. There are some really interesting local places. I think we’ll have a great time hanging around Yamanashi.

As a side note, for those of you who care about the health of my back, I have been doing my abdomen exercises every day. I’ve also been studying German a little bit everyday. I hope to keep that pace up because I’d like to get comfortable with German quickly when I get to Switzerland.