Speeches and Keeping the Peace

So Japan, along with the rest of the world, is in the early stages of a long influenza season. The only thing is, around here, influenza is visible. Most people are wearing masks 24-7. That includes Veronica and I while we're at school. Both of our schools have made it mandatory that all students and staff wear masks all day to prevent getting the flu. Even though the WHO (the World Health Organization--working out of the United Nations) states that there is no evidence to support that wearing of masks by healthy individuals helps to prevent them from getting sick. This is of course assuming that nobody who is sick (and not wearing a mask) sneezes into your face at some point throughout the day. What is important for flu free individuals, however, is practicing proper and frequent hand washing throughout the day and NOT touching your face (i.e. eyes, nose, mouth) where the virus can easily enter your body through one of your moist, mucus membrane tissues. Until recently, I was under the impression that all modern nations understood these illness prevention techniques. I know you're thinking, "Jon, stop whining and just wear the mask." I would if that was all there was to it. Please ponder the following and leave a comment after this blog entry if you still think I'm over reacting. Issue number one: I am the only man who washes his hands always, often, or ever in my school. I know this because the same bar of soap has been in the men's restroom since I started working there on September 1st and it hasn't gotten much smaller. When I purchased some liquid hand soap to donate to the men's restroom in hopes of making washing one's hands even an easier activity than it already is, I noticed that the bar soap started to dry up and crack from lack of use (and I also don't think anyone has used my liquid hand soap besides me). I only hope that in the women's restroom the situation isn't identical. Issue number two: Since gargling with water is encouraged and brushing one's teeth after lunch is also encouraged (this is mostly for show, not true hygiene purposes), there is a glass in the men's restroom next to the faucet that I've been encouraged to use if I would like. Obviously, it's not being washed ever. Issue number three: Teacher's have now started to spray an isopropyl alcohol solution onto their new mask before putting it on their face every morning. They don't allow it to dry before securing it to their face. Umm, why not just spray the rubbing alcohol directly into your mouth? Whatever goal you are trying to achieve, I'm pretty sure it will work even faster that way. These are only three of the things that I've witnessed at my school (Veronica has some great stories as well) that not only don't prevent illness, but actually encourage the spreading of it. Some other things like running humidifiers in every room of the school I just find humorous. I was told that they help prevent the flu from spreading. To which I responded with, "Who, really, I didn't know that."


These illogical practices remind me of one of the cultural expectations here in Japan concerning the repression of questioning. As we've stated before, you're just not supposed to ask too many questions. If you do, you run the risk of people assuming that you don't know what you're doing. Kind of like boot camp. Just do, don't think or ask any questions. Maybe, just maybe, some questioning concerning influenza (What is a virus anyway? How is it spread? etc...) would be beneficial to our students right now. I don't think I am the best candidate (considering my foreigner status) to be testing these uncharted waters.


Since our last blog, Veronica and I were able to see the fruits of our labor (since September 1st) come to fruition in the form of the Ashikaga Junior High School English Speech Contest. We've both been spending extra long hours at school helping four students (four at each of our schools) prepare for the contest. Over eleven junior highs and forty students participated in the event. All of the long hours squeezing enthusiasm and pronunciation out of our students paid off with 5 of the 9 speech contest awards going to either my students or Veronica's students. Actually, one of my students came down with the flu and couldn't go to the contest so only one student from each of our schools didn't get an award (of the students who participated). Not bad huh? One of the other ALTs who was sitting next to me said that he didn't work on pronunciation with his students at all because he thought he didn't have enough time and that it was too difficult of a task to tackle all together. So much for trying. After meeting a number of the other ALTs and receiving numerous mass e-mails "To All ALTs" from Heart (our employer) that have a disciplinary tone to them, I've come to the conclusion that most of the other ALTs don't take their job too seriously.


Last Thursday I went with my school to the large theater venue in town for my school's choir contest. Basically, every student in school (all 750 of them) was expected to participate. Each homeroom class was a choir. Also, the accompaniment and conducting was also done by students from that homeroom. Pretty amazing right? And believe it or not, most classes actually sounded pretty good. Not only are Japanese students more physically fit than American students, but as a whole they are more musical as well. I've read (and witnessed) that students who have some type of musical influence at a young age often excel in other subject too. Pretty scary. Hey students back in America, if that one doesn't have you thinking, I'll close today's entry with something that will. This is a quote from a student's speech that I heard at the recent speech contest. The fact that the student giving the speech didn't feel the need to clarify what she meant by this line speaks volumes about the Japanese work ethic here. The student was talking about difficult challenges in her life and concluded with...."No matter the challenge...I'll handle it like a Japanese person." What vision enters your mind if you were to replace the word Japanese with the word American in this quote? Just wondering........