A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Gakko

Jon and I love the fact that there is so much to learn here. Now that we have gotten over the first 'newness' of life in Japan, we are learning much more about the details of the culture we're immersed in.

I am a words person, so one of my favorite things is learning new 'fun' words in Japanese. There are always unexpected 'double entendres' when words in your native language sound the same as words in another language. I wondered when I was introducing myself to the students at the beginning of the year why they laughed when I told them my nickname was "Vero". Yeah, that means "tongue" in Japanese. I imagined my introduction from their perspective: "Hi, my name is Veronica, I'm from America, but YOU can call me tongue!" Ha ha. This week I learned that if I were to say "vaccuum" to someone here, they would think I was talking about something you do in the toilet. We went to a meeting for all the ALTs at an elementary school a few weeks ago and the Japanese teacher told the kids in English "now we will show you a skit!" "Show you?" A student exclaimed. I started laughing - "shoyu" means soy sauce in Japanese. "Now we will soy sauce a skit!" Huh?!

Jon and I have been asked a few times by students what our favorite Japanese words were. Jon likes "zehi" (certainly) and I like "toki doki" (sometimes). However, when we gave them these answers they seemed disappointed. This week a teacher asked me the same question and when I answered her she frowned. "No, in Japan, we have a phrase or a word that defines our life" she answered. "So?" She and a group of students were waiting for my answer - and under pressure the only thing I could think of was "ocean". Yep - not impressive. I couldn't come up with a sentence surrounding it either. What would your 'defining' word or sentence be?

No matter where you are, people are people. I almost fell out of my chair laughing this week when a middle aged male teacher (who is slightly larger than the typical Japanese body size) came up to me, flexed his calf muscle and told me to feel it. "Hard as a rock! That's cuz I'm a runner!" Yeah, dad, how many times have you done the EXACT same thing to me? In response I flexed my calf and held out my leg to feel. "Me too!" I said.

I was reminded that I AM teaching at a junior high school - even though they are Japanese students - when I walked out of a classroom to find the hallway and a nearby classroom flooded. It was raining, so I immediately thought that the building was leaking, but found out quickly that some student in the boys bathroom had opened the tap, clogged the drain and then left. There was so much water that it leaked through to the floor underneath! All the teachers not currently in class spent more than 30 minutes trying to use squeegees, buckets and dustpans to clean up the water. (No mops were in the school at all!) It was kind of funny to find myself using a dustpan to scoop up water, but not funny to think that since no one knew who had done the prank, no one would be punished for it. (Even if they did find out, I don't know what the considered punishment is for a student! I haven't seen a punishment yet.)

Although people's behavior can be often very similar, their roles in society are of course very different. We've mentioned before that students have long days at school and teachers have even longer (a lot of the time teachers don't leave school until 9 pm!) and this week I found out one reason why their days are so long. In Japan teachers' roles encompass many more things than simply being a teacher. One day this week a student was hit in the ear by another student. So the procedure that followed was: many teachers talk to injured student. Then many teachers talk to the student who injured him. Then the offending student's parents are called to the school, many teachers talk to the student and his parents. Then the parents go to the injured student's house and apologize, all while the teachers wait at school. Then the parents return to school and talk about what happened with the offending student and the teachers. Wow. No wonder their day is so long! Teacher's responsibilities include: teacher, counselor, mentor, coach, friend, therapist...and the list goes on. Everything seems to be a very long process involving many people (collectivist culture it is!), however when it comes to discipline in the classroom - there is none. The 'bad kids' are just ignored and they do whatever they want, all while they prevent the other kids in their class from learning anything.

I am definitely being kept on my toes when it comes to the schedule at school. There are many changes it seems, from day to day and even hour to hour - some that were planned in advance and that I didn't know about until the last minute, and some that are last second decisions. This week I stood up more than once to go to class (with a prepared activity in my hands) only to be told that I didn't have to go to class because they were going to do something else. It can be frustrating at times, and this week was especially bad since it included finals (or midterms, I'm not sure), so teachers were scrambling to get the kids caught up. However, everyone is always so kind, and this week with all the chaos going on I was again reminded of that.

Aside from language and society learning this week, we also went to the only 'big tourist attraction' in Ashikaga that we hadn't been to. Gyodo Temple is at the top of a mountain just outside Ashikaga, and the hour long, uphill bike ride was definitely worth it for the view we received of the fall landscape.

We are very happy that it is December already and that we are experiencing high 50s weather at least several times a week! We hope that wherever you are, you are enjoying this festive time of year and are not too stressed. Ja mata atode! (See you later!)