Junior High School

"Students of Ames Senior High, proud of our school are we

Cheering the orange and the black onto a victory (rah rah rah)...

...Doing the best for our high school, Ames High, AIMS HIGH!"

So began our year of teaching at Japanese junior high schools. Oh wait...actually the song went something like this "mumble mumble mumble (encouraging by teachers) mumble mumble (prodding by teachers) [short lived] la la la la! (back to) mumble mumble!"

Next, kyoto sensei (the vice principal) walks up to the stage, bows, "bla bla bla" motions toward me to come up to the stage, then gestures me toward the microphone. Feeling the temperature in my face start rising, I manage to say "Ohiyo gozaimasu! Hajimemashite, watashi wa Veronica desu. America kara kimashta, Eigo no sensei desu, Nihongo skoshi wakari mas. Sushi ga ski desu, hashiru koto ga ski desu. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

Whoo! My official introduction to the students was over. Now two more weeks of detailed introductions in English would follow. Jon and I both tried to make the best of talking about ourselves over and over, and when eyes glazed over we would turn it up a notch. I started including my "special skill" (which is wiggling my ears) and was pleased to see students responding. For the most part I've found that students are generally quiet, and try to avoid being called on. As you would expect in any classroom, there is the class clown, the 'bad boy' (waru gaki) who never comes to class, doesn't dress in the school uniform and has brightly dyed hair, the smart kid asking all the questions, and the hyperactive student who keeps asking questions in Japanese to which the Japanese teacher responds with a slight laugh and a shake of the head, indicating it was an inappropriate question.

What interested the kids the most was that 1) I'm engaged 2) My fiance lives here, in Ashikaga! (Pause for classic double take look and a round of OOOOOH) 3) I have 4 brothers and 1 sister! (Most kids have 1 or 2 siblings at most) 4) I was born in Mexico where they speak Spanish! (Whaaa? Spaingo?) 5) I like to drink horchata - rice mixed with milk and sugar - "rice juice"! (Yuckyyyyyy) One teacher had me introduce myself briefly in French and Spanish as well and that also drew a good reaction.

Some things that drew no response at all: 1) Minnesota has 10,000 LAKES! (Blank look, even as I say lake in Japanese, and write 10,000 on the board) 2) Mexico has UNDERGROUND rivers I like to swim in called cenotes! (Eyes are starting to close) 3) My brother is a BREAKDANCER! (Showing picture, making bboy movements, nope, nothing)

After the introductions were completed, we got to the business of studying English. I must say: We LOVE the students! We have been trying to spend as much time with the kids as possible. So, when not in the teacher's room grading papers, etc and when we aren't in class, we've been spending time helping the kids do o-souji (cleaning the school), eating lunch with them, watching their club activities (seen here is the running club running around the track) and helping them with their English speech competition. They are all so polite and when approached in small groups, do their best to try to communicate with us in English. On Thursday I had a particularly good time at lunch when one of the students in my lunch group asked me if I liked "Friends". "Yes, I love 'Friends'!" I replied. "Do you know 'Smelly Cat'?" he responded excitedly. "Yes, I do! Smelly cat, smelly cat..." He was so excited he came over and asked me to teach it to him. Needless to say the rest of the class was entertained with our repititions of "It's not your faaauuuulttt" (No, say FAULT. 'Fauss'. FAULT. 'Fauss.' Faaaaulllllt. 'FAAAAUUULLLLT'. Very good!!)

Outside of interacting with the students, life at school has been very different for Jon and I. Jon works in a big junior high school with 9 English teachers. He usually is in class every period of the day. I work in a smaller junior high school with 3 English teachers and usually have 2 or 3 periods (out of 6) in class. Jon has been bringing some work home and staying later in the day to finish up grading papers, wheras I have been trying to find things to do and have now made 9 drawings to put up on the 'English board'. I haven't drawn anything since I was in junior high. We're figuring out what we're supposed to be doing but are still fish out of water at this point. We did figure out that we made a faux pas in telling everyone about our trip to Mount Fuji but not bringing any omiyage (souvenirs usually in the form of sweets) for our coworkers. Over these past couple weeks I've received over 10 omiyage gifts from coworkers. Oops! (Otto!)

Diet has been different, and a little difficult to get used to (as expected). One of the Japanese customs we need to abide by is eating all the school lunch. It's good, but it's big(ger than we're used to). We've had to adjust by reducing the size of our breakfast and dinner, and now that the headaches and tiredness have passed, have begun to resume normal exercise activities. Yea for running and lifting weights! Yea for cookies! Boo for excess packaging!

I'll close by explaining the mystery of the dripping hands from the last blog entry. There are almost NO public bathrooms anywhere that include paper towels or automatic hand dryers. People come out of bathrooms with dripping wet hands and go to the washcloth they carry around everywhere with them to dry their hands. Naturally we now carry a washcloth everywhere with us. This probably has something to do with the interesting (complicated) trash situation in Japan. I'll let Jon explain that one later.

Until next time, dear bloggers!