12.22.06
Last Day of School
My blippin kids have been cleaning the teachers room for an HOUR now. Having a million students milling about and looking over my shoulder whilst “Its a Small World” blares over the intercom is NOT the way I like to start my day. Especially since I’ve been reading tard-blog.com the entire time (thank goodness they can’t read English).
One of the kids came up behind me and started miming an Asian language to me (you know, like when you simulate Japanese or Chinese). It was funny cause I guess he was trying to make me think he was speaking Japanese and I just couldn’t understand. So I turned around and mimed it right back at him, speaking really fast. He was floored.
Airline ticket to Japan: $800
Teaching at a Japanese School: Sanity
The look on my student’s face when he thinks I have answered his gibberish in real Chinese: Priceless.
12.20.06
Christmastime Comes Once a Year…!
This week I’ve been doing Christmas lessons with my students. Even though most of them are not Christian, the Japanese celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday. Of course, they’ve got their own spin on things.
In one of my second grade classes the teacher handed me a list of questions to ask the students. If they got the answer right, they got a prize.
Most of the questions were ok. “What is the special day on December” etc. So imagine my surprise when I asked “Where does Santa live?” and these were the answers I got:
Santa Village
“Swiss”
Australia
Denmark
Sweden
One student finally hit on the correct answer: FINLAND
Santa Claus lives in Finland.
12.16.06
More Japanese Funnies
The worksheet we did in class yesterday asked the students to name their favorite band/singer. I know there are some crazy band names in America/England/wherever but these ones made me laugh:
Pop band: Mr. Children
Mellow Rock: Bump of Chicken
Then I went to the drugstore where there was a big display of small blue boxes with this label:
“Healthy Food From Europe”
So I bought ten boxes…Healthy food from Europe, hell yeah!
12.05.06
Japanese School
In Japan, students must attend Elementary and Junior High school. What this actually means is that students must “go through” these grades in order to take the test determining what high school you will attend (or if you’ll go to high school at all). So…the classrooms are filled with kids who don’t pay attention, don’t do their work (its not even surprising any more to have 10 or so completely blank worksheets handed back at the end of class) or just don’t come to class at all. Because…they pass to the next grade no matter what. It doesn’t matter if they get zeros on everything or just don’t hand it in…they’ll move on with the rest of their class.
Here are some things I saw in class today:
1) A boy who played a gameboy the entire class time.
2) Two boys playing a regular sized version of Japanese scrabble laid out across their desk (while class was in session).
3) A boy kick a girl in the stomach twice and then slap her. He was punished by…well, uh, he wasn’t. The teacher made them sit one desk apart. That’s all.
These are the kids who are making it through the Japanese school system. Of course there are some really good and smart kids who try hard but seriously…who thought this was a good idea?
