March 3rd, 2008
New Class At The End Of My Stay.
The alarm rang at 7:30 and I got ready to go. There’s no sneaking around hoping to get to the shower first now that Marc is gone. I usually got up long before he did and hit the shower first thing in the morning, but he was usually in there by the time I wanted to shave in the morning. Today I did what I wanted, when I wanted. Ahhhhh!
Then I rode to Hokaiin Station at 8:40 to catch the 8:57 train to Okayama. At the Okayama Station, I stopped in the “Daily-In” store and bought my lunch, a box with a small sandwich pair or an egg salad and ham/lettuce sandwich in it. I also picked up a little bag of individually wrapped meat snacks like little Slim Jims. That’s 298Y for the sandwich and 210Y for the meat sticks for a total of 508Y. I’ve bought this combination that I’ve started carrying individual yen coins for 8Y part. I figure at that rate I’ll run out of “pennies” in the penny jar in about ten years. Anyway, I caught the 9:11 train to Fukuyama and rode until just about 10:00. I walked along the cold and windy highway to the school, and arrived there at 10:30, with a little break before class started.
I ran into the Vice Principal as I had hoped, and showed me where to go and introduced me to the teacher for today’s class. The Vice Principal asked if I had free time in the afternoon, and I knew what was coming. The next thing I knew I was committed to having lunch with the Principal. Not the man standing in front of me, but his boss. I don’t know what it is with these guys. The Vice Principal speaks at least a little English, but doesn’t go to lunch with me. The main Principal speaks nearly no English, but always wants to have lunch with me. Go figure!
Anyway, the teacher for today’s new class seemed nice, but had very little to say. I have found that most of the English teachers in Fukuyama are very shy about speaking English to me, and this is for reasons I have explained in the past. Their accent is very heavy, and I think it embarrasses them, not to mention they have a hard time understanding me as well. Teaching English grammar and vocabulary an actually speaking to a real live human American is not the same thing at all.
The 11:00 bell rang and I walked into the classroom. This is a group of around 25 students, both boys and girls of around 15-16 years old. They’ll be going to Washington DC and New York City later in March, and this week is set aside so that I can teach them about what they will do and need to know. They’ll also get the benefit of listening practice to an American before getting off the plane. I think it’s a good idea and really good timing for them. The teacher for this class left the room after the first couple of minutes and never came back; I guess he figured the class was going to behave and wanted to let me do my thing. Good; I vastly prefer doing it on my own.
I very briefly introduced myself, since I have all week to talk about me, I didn’t get into that very much yet. I asked them if they had any questions, and as usual, the room was pretty quiet. I have learned a trick or two though, and had an ice-breaking activity ready to go. I handed out little slips of paper and had them write anonymous questions on the slips of paper; tha’s right it’s the same activity we did way back with “my” exchange students. It worked then, and it worked pretty well now too. In the span of five minutes, I had a stack of 25 questions to answer. It was the usual stuff like “how old are you,” “Do you have a girlfriend in Japan,” “What is you favorite food” and so on. There were a couple of on=topic questions like, “How long will it take to fly to America.” There were even a couple of unexpectedly strange ones like “The time is ripe for victory!” Huh? That might be something up there with “All your base are belong to us.” Heh-heh.
And then the ice was broken and they seemed more comfortable talking once they got to ask their questions. I told them to think of more questions for tomorrow, and now that they know the procedure they hopefully will ask more on-topic things then. So that was the first half of the 50-minute class.
For the second half of class, we got into the prepared lesson. This material was all supplied by the school, but it seems like it may have been customized for this trip. It was a worksheet relating to the dialog between the student and immigrations and customs officials. They’ll each go through something like this as soon as the plane lands, so this is both good practice and a way to possibly minimize trouble later. I explained about customs declarations and what it was all about, then read the script to them once. I them read it again, having them repeat the words. Then I had them practice in pairs with one being the officer and the other being the student. I walked around, “interrogating” one student from each of the groups. They “got it” just fine, but they weren’t happy when I told them that the script was just an example and that I didn’t know exactly what they would be asked. They want US Customs officials to stick to the script!
And that was pretty much it for the first class. The bell rang, I waited ten minutes for the next group of around 25 students to come in, and then did the same exact thing a second time. It went flawless both times. It was probably the most successful “first day” I have had yet.
Then it was lunch with the Principal. The cafeteria was serving Tonkatsu curry today, so that wasn’t bad. I just know if this keeps up, I’m going to eventually get something really nasty (“squishy”). The portions they serve in the cafeteria are just incredibly huge, and it’s not just because I’m a guest; they all get bug mounds of food. I asked him when the sakura time (famous cherry-blossom searson) was in Fukuyama and he replied “First week in April.” That was the complete transcript of our lunch conversation. Then it was time to go, and I walked back to the station and rode home.
Reaching Okayama, I decided to ride the bus form the station all the way up the mountain to the university rather than go home first. I’d have to walk back to Hokaiin Station later to pick up my bicycle, but it was getting late in the day and I was hoping to avoid the walk up the mountain by taking the bus. The bus dropped me off at the base of the escalator up the mountain, and the next thing I know I’m standing outside Y-San’s office door.
Did I really want to do this? Did I really want to go in there and tell her I decided not to stay on here over the summer? Yes. I ma the most indecisive person I know of, but once I have it worked out I don’t usually dwell on past decisions. I pretty much “solved” my thinking on this last night. I went in and told her. She didn’t really seem surprised. Actually, see even seemed a little relieved. It could be that my staying on here complicated things in their own right; if nothing else she’d have to prepare another apartment. I had planned on sticking around up there and printing off lessons for Wednesday, but I decided it was probably better not to stick around today. So I apologized once again, and walked back to the apartment.
I then sat around the house for a couple of hours listening to Podcasts with half an ear listening for the phone to ring. I think if the Fukuyama Elementary folks were going to call, they would have done it right away, so each day I am a little more relieved at not having to make that decision. Y-San didn’t ask my reason for not staying, so there’s not much chance of her offering me plane fare or offering any kind of alternatives to stay. So the phone was quiet this afternoon, and that’s fine with me.
After it got dark, I walked over towards Hokaiin Station. I went into the Lawson store near the station and picked up some chips and a donut. The Yamazaki convenience store at the corner of my street closed up last Friday; it appears they are remodeling and won’t re-open until the 23rd. After Lawsons, I collected my bike and rode home.
That’s pretty much it for today. I started two new classes, and closed the door on one Summer opportunity. Tomorrow will be a repeat of today, but the two classes will be working on general conversation and personal introductions. “My name is____,” “I am from ____,” “My favorite sport is ____,” and so forth. Little things to work into conversation with people they meet in America. I suspect this will be pretty easy for them, so I should probably come up with some kind of short game or activity to fill leftover time. I’ve done lessons on this particular material repeatedly in the Junior High classes, so it’s nothing new for me. My biggest worry for tomorrow is how to avoid lunch with the Principal!
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March 4th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Sounds like you have a hard decision to make but I’m sure whatever you decide will work for you and everyonelse.
Brian -I am writing to you to let you know that your cousins daughter will be sending you a letter hopefully before you return for the USA. They are sending a ‘flat Stanley’ in hopes that he can travel with you and get some photos and then you send this information back to her so she can then take to school to share with her other classmates. She is in 2nd grade. They wanted her to send it to someone out of the state. But I thought why not out of the country and see how much fun Stanley can have until he returns to the USA. I hope you don’t mind. I am hoping it reaches you before you return home. If you decide your coming home.
By reading your information thus far it sounds like it has been an adventure and that you are loving what you do to help others master english. Just keep up the good work.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:10 am
I have no idea what a “Flat Stanley” is, but I’ll watch for it. Remember, I have just barely another week, but if it gets here, I’ll do whatever it is.