Today's post is a small collection of random pictures I took with my iPhone, some are Engrish pics, but not all. Enjoy!
Taken at an odd souvenir stand in the Tokyo Subway. I was pretty shocked by the "I <3 cancer" ash tray. Interestingly enough, they also had little pocket ash trays that had the same writing on them. They are like a small, flat coin purse that could fit in your wallet. You are supposed to use it when you are out and about, so you won't have to pollute the ground with your cigarette ashes.
This is one of my new favorites.
Those dots on the "BARKING" are rhinestones. This is a poster at the community center where we have our Japanese Conversation class. So in case you were wondering, yes the Japanese do have Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts.
Yep, we saw Harry Potter in the theatre, in English with Japanese subtitles.
"Laugh Yeah! Grow Fat!" I can't even remember what that was written on.
Thanks for reading everyone! We're on summer vacation now (yay!) and of course, the weather decided to start getting bad (boo!). It's still pretty warm, but very cloudy, moist, and often rainy. Here's hoping for better weather!
Or at least back from the burned out, tired, unmotivated place I was living in for the last little while. Hey, I guess I truly know how my father and two brothers feel now - although I actually have it a lot easier; no grading! I'm almost tempted to become a career classroom teacher just so I can have the summers off....but not enough to really go for it. I enjoy teaching, but I think I can do better work for kids outside of the classroom.
Today was an interesting day, being the last day of the term (1 down, 2 to go). I actually taught 3 classes this morning, but the kids were SO over it. Then I sat down for bento (lunch from home/store) with the Kochou Sensei, Kyoto Sensei, #3 Sensei, Secretary, Tea Lady and School Nurse. Talk about an awkward 20 minutes...only one of them speaks any English, really, and he's not even that comfortable speaking to me unless necessary. They would all speak for a few minutes, stuff food in their mouths (the Japanese eat SO fast), then an awkward silence would settle for a bit, everyone kind of looking anywhere but at the rest of the group. Then the Kochou Sensei passed around a little pot of homemade Umeboshi http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Umeboshi. Of course I took one, but man was it hard to swallow. It's like a pitted, extremely sour, pickled fruit. I can usually eat most things, but this was pretty tough...
After lunch I was officially finished with classes, but I still had to go to my last school for their end of term ceremony. The school had asked me to give a speech, although I was pretty fuzzy on what they wanted me to talk about. Anyway, I arrived and was hurried into the gym, where the kids and teachers were waiting. I watched the Kochou Sensei, Kyoto Sensei and #3 Sensei each address the kids, although I can only guess what they spoke about. Then a student from each grade stood up and said something to the crowd, maybe about what they had worked on over the term? Then the Kochou Sensei brought out some kind of placard with antlers attached....yeah, no clue. Maybe a metaphor about watching out for pointy, dangerous situations over the summer break? Finally it was my turn to speak - I was told to please speak in English (although no teachers there even speak it...) So I just talked about what Americans do over their break: swimming, picnics, BBQing, visiting family, playing games, etc. Then I told them what I would be doing over the break in Japan (beach, Kyoto trip, beach, beach, beach, Tokyo, beach). I think a few of my 6th grade students understood some of the words I used, and could get a very basic idea of what I was saying.
Then we were done, and back in the teacher's room someone handed me a neon yellow plastic sash to wear with something in Japanese written on it. I followed everyone out to the field, where after a few announcements and safety reminders, the teachers all walked the kids home. It was actually sweet, kind of safely delivering the kids directly home after a good term. I held hands with a 1st grader the whole way, and though I didn't understand a word of what she said to me, she still seemed happy enough to walk with the English teacher. It was really hot walking them home, but happily the Kyoto Sensei was waiting for us near the last house, and drove us back to the school in his car, with A/C thankfully. Then the Kochou Sensei said something to me about a "secret service" or "secret employment." I figured out they were telling me it was ok for me to leave early (rather than sit there for 2 more hours doing absolutely nothing), and that it was just our little secret. Woohoo!!!
Now I'm home, and the fact that we have 6 weeks completely free hasn't really sunken in yet. In the next week the only plans we have are to drive up to Mito (where company HQ is) to switch out Chris' car, and maybe a trip to Tokyo to do some errands. I do have one meeting with the 5th and 6th grade homeroom teachers next week, where I just might be allowed to give some feedback (I'm dying to give them notes, seriously...).
I hope you are all enjoying your summer - now I am too!!
On a recent assignment, my 3rd year students were asked to write simple 4 line poems in English (not haiku). After writing 2 of said poems, one of my students went and wrote the following poem on his own: -------- Why do people hurt each other? Is there anything good in that way? There is just a decay of their heart. Because they can't have heart, they can't feel sad. But they are still human, they will have grief. So, I'll say, stop beating! I can't understand why they keep beating. Go back to the true heart. ----------
Ok, so I cleaned up the spelling mistakes and the grammar a bit, but I mean come on. That is amazing stuff for a 14 year old who is (most likely) in his 3rd year of learning English. I just wanted to share that with all of you.
Also, here is an excerpt from the 3rd year's textbook. It is a story that I have had to read to them many times, and now they are working on memorizing it and repeating it back to me (in 4 section chunks).
------- A big, old tree stands by a road near the city of Hiroshima. Through the years, it has seen many things.
One summer night the tree heard a lullaby. A mother was singing to her little girl under the tree. They looked happy, and the song sounded sweet. But the tree remembered something sad.
"Yes, it was some sixty years ago. I heard a lullaby that night, too."
On the morning of that day, a big bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima. Many people lost their lives, and many others were injured. They had burns all over their bodies. I was very sad when I saw those people.
It was a very hot day. Some of the people fell down near me. I said to them, "Come and rest in my shade. You'll be alright soon."
Night came. Some people were already dead. I heard a weak voice. It was a lullaby. A young girl was singing to a little boy.
"Mommy! Mommy!" the boy cried.
"Don't cry," the girl said. "Mommy is here." Then she began to sing again.
She was very weak, but she tried to be a mother to the poor little boy. She held him in her arms like a real mother.
"Mommy," the boy was still crying.
"Be a good boy," said the girl. "You'll be all right." She held the boy more tightly and began to sing again.
After awhile the boy stopped crying and quietly died. But the little mother did not stop singing. It was a sad lullaby. The girl's voice became weaker and weaker.
Morning came and the sun rose, but the girl never moved again. -----------------
So yeah. It's kinda awkward being an American reading a sad story about the horrors of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The students don't really care though, they think it's hilarious to hear the "Mommy! Mommy!" part. Teenagers...When I first read this, I was struck by how sad it was, but that emotion is lost on them somehow...
So I know what you are all thinking, where the heck is Tessa? Doesn't she post on this blog too? She's a bit burned out and promises to post more when our 6 WEEK SUMMER VACATION starts in 4 days. Woooooo! Remamber, ANYONE can post here! Your comments are what helps keep us going! That's all for now. As my students are fond of saying, "seeyou!"
Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I promise to commit to updating more regularly! I also apologize if this post is exceedingly boring. If you don't want to learn about language difficulties, than skip to the bottom, where I quickly recap the past two weeks.
I am constantly impressed with Japan's commitment to learn the English language. It is the only foreign language they teach at any level (except, possibly at college), and it is particularly difficult for the Japanese to learn. First of all, it uses a completely different alphabet, though it is pretty easy to learn, and the Japanese have grown up seeing those letters everywhere they go. The biggest hurdle is the speaking of English. There are many sounds found in the English language that are not found in Japanese, whereas pretty much all the sounds in Japanese can be found in the English language, so it's not too terribly hard for us to speak it, if we know what to say. The Japanese language does not have the following consonant sounds: "th", "v", "l". Also, with the exception of the sound of "n", all of the letters in their alphabet are either a vowel or a consonant followed by a vowel, so sometimes they have trouble not adding a vowel on the end of a hard consonant sound. e.g. "boat" becomes "boato". The "th" is replaced by a "z", the "v" with a "b". They have an "r" in their language, but it is very soft, and actually sounds half-way between an "r" and an "l". Therefore, when my students say "right" and "light" it sounds exactly the same, and they cannot hear the difference between the two when I say it. I have to admit, it can be kind of funny at times, like if they wanted to say "I'm having a problem with my vowels" it would come out "I'm habing a problem with my bowels". Also, they don't have an "s" followed by an "ee" sound, but instead have a letter "shi" which sounds like the English word "she". So "Seattle" becomes "Shiaturu" and "city elections" becomes "shity erections". Most of my students work hard and like the challenge of English.
So, as I have said before, Tessa and I are attending a class and working on learning Japanese. I think we can now finally read the two easier scripts, hiragana and katakana, and I am even picking up a few kanji here and there. Below is a picture of various friends and family members' names in katakana that I wrote while bored passing time in the teacher's room. Below the names is what they would sound like phonetically in English. You probably need to click on the picture to make it large enough to see whose name is whose.
Remember, vowels in Japanese are consistent, so "a" always sounds like "ah" as in "car", the "i" always sounds like "ee" as in "keen", the "u" always sounds like in the word "tune", the "e" like in "get", and the "o" like in "toe".
OK, enough with that stuff. What have we been up to? Last weekend we celebrated the 4th of July in typical American fashion by0 swimming in the ocean, BBQing tasty meats, and lighting off fireworks on the beach that I purchased at 7-11. Our crowd was a surprisingly diverse group of fellow English teachers that (with us) included 5 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Italian, 1 Irishman, 1 Japanese, and 1 Australian. It was a blast. Literally. Then on Sunday we actually went to our local cineplex and watched the new Transformers movie. Apparently they regularly show American movies everywhere here, and in English to boot, with Japanese subtitles. It was pretty expensive at $17 a pop, and the movie wasn't that great, though entertaining at least. It is nice to know we won't have to miss out on our must-see movies when they come out in the theatres, though sometimes we will have to wait a few months for them to get here. One movie we don't have to wait for though, is the new Harry Potter, which comes out next week. Can't wait!
This weekend has been pretty low-key. We went to the one landmark in Namegata, a 4 story tall tower in the middle of nowhere. There is a nice panoramic view from the top, but there is not much else to it aside from a very large and random collection of hundreds of different spherical objects, from salmon eggs to old glass buoys to ball bearings. There was a cool vegetable market nearby though. OK, that's enough for now, more to come later. Bye!
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