Brian's Japan Adventure

October 18th, 2007

My Phone Gets a Workout

This morning went well enough. I slept in a bit since my first class was up on the hill adjust a little before eleven. At least I thought I’d sleep in, but Mom called me at 9:00 (actually my alarm went off during the call, so she didn’t wake me up by much).  She had a few questions about my next package. She had a bunch of kindergarten supplies that I told her not to send. I can get crayons and construction paper here, there’s no point in paying postage on that stuff. Even so, there are nearly 80 kindergarteners, so they couldn’t send enough stuff anyway. Teacher books with ideas and things are fine, but I’m going to make do with the supplies I can get over here. But we discussed more important items like winter coats and gloves and such, and that stuff I need, probably sooner rather than later.  I am 7000 miles form home, and I still managed to get my little brother into trouble; Mom didn’t know about my niece’s report card until she read it in my blog.

I figured I could catch up on the Internet after class. Just before walking out the door, I got a call from Mrs. Y telling me what was going to be happening from now on with my Fridays. The elementary school finally got their act together and decided that Marc and I could come on every other alternate Fridays. What that means is that I go on the third Friday of the month and Marc goes on the first Friday of the month. Yes, that’s right, I work one Friday a month. Yeesh, why bother at all?  Oh that’s right, they were told they have to do it. Still, I’m not going to complain too much about having mostly three-day weekends for the rest of my stay. I’ll just cry and moan all day over that decision.

But since I was thinking about the phone call, I got halfway up the mountain before I remembered that I had forgotten to bring my USB stick with me. Oops; no Internet today after all. That’s OK, I was current as of yesterday anyway.

So I went on to K-Sensei’s class and explained all about an article on DNA. I thought the article was pretty short, but managed to talk about British understatement, the structure of  a long paragraph: “they once thought…however…they now realize.”  I even got to throw in another old saying. The article describes the shape of DNA. I managed to squeeze in “A picture is worth a thousand words” at which, K-Sensei’s eyes lit up. When finished, he asked me a few questions about the article, which I had no problems with, and he sent me one my way, telling the class that “another good presentation, again from Brian-sensei”; OK, now I know he’s happy!

I then zip down the mountain (since walking slowly down a mountain isn’t as easy as it sounds) and do my laundry. While it’s drying, I read over my Japanese vocabulary, which I haven’t had much time to study since Monday. Before I know it, it’s once again time for Japanese class. After Monday’s Bandit-free class, today couldn’t possibly be any more dramatic, could it?

“Mr. Bandit, meet Mr. Smoky”

Class starts at 3:30, and I’m there. Y-Sensei is there. That’s it. There’s a piece missing out of this puzzle. Will anyone notice? Oh, yes. Y-Sensei is fully able to count to two in either language. No Marc; no bandit; no study partner; no big orange hat. She doesn’t wait; she has me call him immediately. I dial him and the phone rings; then I am suddenly disconnected. At this point, it’s obvious that he’s not just late. She asks me what do I know about it, and I answer honestly, “not a thing.”  He was fine this morning and went to his own class (as far as I know) and didn’t say a thing about skipping class. I’m not surprised that he did it again, but I wasn’t expecting it either.

She says at least six times in the next ten minutes that nothing like this has ever happened before. OK, at least Marc is going to be memorable and a unique case. We talk for around five minutes about Kanji letters, and she gets up out of her chair and asks me if I can wait for five minutes.  Japanese people don’t turn red and stomp about like Americans do, but you can tell when it happens. This was one of those times. She was gone a while, and when she came back, the language school principal was with her.

Mr. Principal wasn’t looking too happy either.  They both asked me about Marc’s health, “I said fine.” Was he homesick? “Not that I have really noticed.”  There were some other questions that I didn’t really understand and said so. They spoke Japanese back and forth really fast, and they knew I couldn’t follow. When the principal put his hand to his mouth and moved his head back in a “gulp-gulp” motion THAT I caught. Meanwhile, I can see that this is going to be a big deal, and I’m really trying to minimize my involvement in the whole thing, giving as noncommittal answers as I can. There are some things I can’t play ignorant on without looking like I’m lying for him. I am NOT going to lie for him, but then again, I have to live with the guy for five more months.  I don’t like doing this.

Eventually, someone calls Mrs. Y. Mrs. Y likes a well-organized group that does what it’s supposed to. Y-Sensei asked me if I had suggestions to help Marc. The thing is, he doesn’t need help; he needs an ass-kicking by someone important.  Y-Sensei knows this; the principal knows this too, but I guess it’s just a cultural thing where they have to assume there is a problem other than Marc just doesn’t care about Japanese class. This is just something they have never dealt with before. That really does surprise me a little; it’s never been a problem before? Wow.  This is a full-scale professional school to teach foreigners Japanese. They have LOTS of students. It’s hard to believe that Marc is the first Slackass in Japan.

Nothing came of this today, but something will. After the principal left to call Mrs. Y, we got on with out lesson.  Toward the end, she asked me if I wanted to split the class. We can continue to have two classes a week with Marc, or split the class so we each have one individual lesson once a week. I don’t know that I like either option. Sticking with Marc means things are going to slow way down until he gets caught up, if that’s even possible. Splitting the class means I get to go once a week, which will result in fewer sessions and less to learn. I told her it was up to her, but I’m not thrilled with either option right at the moment.

When class was done, I rode over to Happy Town for groceries and when I got back, no one was home. I have no idea where he is or what’s up.  I wonder if anyone’s called him about any of this or if he thinks everything is fine and dandy right now?

[update] Marc claimed to have just fallen asleep again. I don’t see why this should make any difference in anything.  He’s going to have to learn that this is NOT the USA. They take schooling very seriously here. Mrs. Y did call him tonight, and he apologized profusely. Is this  over? I don’t know. He thinks it is, but after seeing how upset they were at the school, I’m not so sure. I guess we’ll see.

Also, after a little more consideration, I think I will take her up on the offer to split the class if she suggests it again. Better to have half the number of classes but work at the level I want rather than be dragged down time and time again by an uninterested partner.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Japan, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.