What I Get Away With

I wasn't too sure how to title this blog, but I find it really interesting how laid back my schools are. So I guess it is more appropriate to say, it's amazing how much the schools get away with. If the same practices were to happen in an American school, it would have to close down due to being sued every week.

Thankfully in Japan, no one sues each other. What happens is just a part of life and you have to suck it up. Take the jungle gyms for instance. Built on top of hard earth (no sand) and around 10 feet high, as the kids navigate these monstrosities of iron (no plastic here), it reminds me of a level from Mega Man, where one slip has you falling to your death on a bed of spikes.

In Kijoka (the small area of Ogimi that I live in), there is an old Swedish man who has built a log cabin from materials he shipped from Finland. It is one of the most surreal things I have ever seen, and for that reason, it makes a great field trip. So when I arrived at my Tuesday school, I was approached by my 2nd grade teacher if I would help drive the kids there after lunch.

That's right, no parent permission slips in Okinawa. After lunch, all the girls got into the teacher's van, and all the boys got into the Wonder Wagon. There were 5 of them, one in the front who I made buckle his seat belt, and then four sitting in the back seat belt-less.

And that's it. Just a moment of, "This would never happen in America." while at the same time thinking, "Maybe we just need to chill out."

Another Wedding, Running, and English Thoughts

Next July, two of my friends from Florida, Tyler and Mana, will be getting married in Tokyo. Mana's parents are Japanese and she has lots of family in the Tokyo area, so I believe the plan is to have the wedding ceremony in Florida, and then the wedding reception in Japan. The two were (are?) both active in the Japanaese Club and they credit me as the reason they met in the first place (aw, shucks).

Awhile back, I was asked to do an impossible thing. A Herculean task. They wanted me to come to Tokyo to MC the wedding in both English and Japanese.

I sat on it for a couple of months, but near the end of November, they needed of a decision. Leaning on the advice of local JET Vaughn who said, "sometimes it's good to play outside your comfort zone", I accepted. I think I have no idea what I've gotten myself into.

The only thing I have to go by is the MC I saw at the Okinawan wedding I went to, and I remember thinking, "they probably payed a lot of money for that guy".

But if he can do it, that means people are capable of MC-ing a wedding in Japanese, and since I am a person, I think statistics are in my favor.

***

And in other crazy news, I've signed up for my first race in Nago. All 10K of it!

Before coming to Okinawa, I had heard about how a lot of people get into running here. I managed to avoid it until I went to go watch a race on Ie Island last April. Being surrounded by people getting ready to run, I began feeling like a fat slot for not participating. Then in November, I went to Iheya Island to sit around and drink and watch my second marathon. I felt like a fat slob after that too.

So in London, I bought myself a pair of size 14 (oh yea!) Asics Stratus. Japanese food plus doing basketball and karate every week has kept me in average shape, but it is now time to step up my game. I started training two weeks ago and I should be more than ready for the race in the beginning of February.

***

I took the JLPT Level 2 on December 7th. Level 2 is infamous for the large jump in difficulty between it and the test I took last year, Level 3. Last year, I walked into the test thinking I was going to blow it out of the water and walked out worried that I just blew it because of the listening section. This year, I walked in thinking it could go either way, and I walked out with pretty much the same feeling. Maybe with a little more confidence on the passing though.

In 2010, they are changing the tests to a N1-N5 format (according to Wikipedia). I'm going to take N1 regardless of if I pass or fail this test. To me, why run a race over and over again just to achieve 2nd place?

***

I have decided to officially revoke the 3 years of Japanese study I took at UF. Why? Because saying I studied for 3 years prior to living in Japan is a lie. When I met Yuka's brother in London, he was practically fluent in English. I asked him how much English he knew when he first moved there, and he said he had to start with his ABCs. Yes, I'm sure he knew his colors, some animal names, and could count to 10, but that's not knowing a language. In 4.5 years, he has reached a really high level of English communication. Part of it was that he was lucky enough to meet a guy who spoke 4 languages and told him that if he's going to learn English, he has to live English. That means English everything: TV, movies, books, friends, etc.

So then what did I learn during my 3 years at UF? I would say about 6 months worth of material. I'm picking that number based on the new English teachers that arrived in Okinawa in August. A lot of them knew no Japanese, and now they know about as much as I did coming in.

Also, the JLPT tries to determine your ability, not by the number of "years" you have studied, but by the number of hours you have studied. The numbers they use to separate you is retarded, but the idea is sound.

So at UF, I probably studied...8 hours a week...16 weeks a semester...2 semesters a year...3 years...768 hours! Wow, that's a lot! Now divide that by 24 hours a day and you get...32 days. So the equivalent of living in Japan a month.

So when people ask me, how long have you studied Japanese? I will now say (as of today) 2 years. With the goal of being as good as Yuka's brother is in English by the 4.5 year mark.

*Note: The teachers at UF are awesome. I'm blaming my work ethic and just trying to develop a more accurate picture of how much I have actually studied.

***

And speaking of UF, it's so awesome to have been a part of the best university with the greatest football team EVER. A local JET who also went to UF and I are currently writing a childrens book of Tebow bedtime stories:

"And then with the other hand, he picked up the other team... and carried them into the end zone for a touchdown!!"

Weirdo

I think I have a stalker, and no, it's not Ebi-chan.

The week before London, I get a phone call from a Japanese guy who wanted to come observe my classroom. He came by on a Thursday and introduced himself as Nobu, a 50ish year old English cram school teacher in northern Okinawa. His English was near perfect. He use to work as a high school English teacher and spent several years in America getting his Master's in linguistics. He has also visited 47 states.

Having taught English at various levels, he had never seen an elementary school class. So I invited him to sit in on my 3rd/4th grade class. Everything went as normal, and I had a moment of amusement when he asked the kids what they like to do. One of the kids said, 'I like karate!', the American way. Nobu went, 'Huh?' and after the kid did a little demonstration, he goes, 'Oh, karate!, in the Japanese way.

American pronunciation - 'kuh-RAH-tee'
Japanese pronunciation - 'KAH-rah-teh

After the class, he said he was interested in seeing a 5th/6th grade class, but he wasn't able to stay today, could he come to see me tomorrow?

The next day was when it got weird. The walk to the classroom takes you by a small rock garden. As we were walking to class, he stopped and made the following reflection:

"I like nature. I have a secret place in the middle of the woods where I hide from my wife. It has a rock garden like this."

I nodded and then went ahead with my class. Afterward, he wanted to talk with me for about 20 minutes. I thought it would be about English education and the like, but it turned out to just be a casual conversation where we talked about where he studied, his thoughts on America, etc. I soon realized he just wanted to talk to me and wasn't interested in my English class at all. Finally, he asked me, 'Would you like to come visit my rock garden today?'

I politely decline because I told him I had to pack for London. 'Well, I'll contact you when you get back.'

And that's exactly what he did. I got a call from him last week. He wanted to know how to spell 'ribbit', and did I know 'ribbit' in Japanese was gero gero? Ha ha ha. We hung up, and then he called back 5 minutes later telling me he couldn't find 'ribbit' in his Japanese-English dictionary. Did I spell it right? I told him to Google it and that I had to go.

Haven't heard from him for the past two weeks though. I think I'm in the clear.

ALT For a Day

I've mentioned many times before that my job title is an Assistant Language Teacher, but I actually run the classroom since teach at the elementary level. The government, however, has decided that starting in 2012, English will be a mandatory subject for 5th and 6th graders. At that time, my job will change from teacher to assistant teacher, and the current homeroom teacher will be in change of the English. In Ogimi, this system begins this year as one of the trial villages.

Some of the head-education-honchos came to Ogimi Elementary today to observe and videotape one of my classes. For some reason, they wanted to see me teach 1st graders. Completely unrelated, but I somehow suspect the 1st grader teacher was responsible for getting her class to be the demonstration class. She is known as 'English Michiko'-sensei, because everyone, including herself, thinks she can speak English. She just knows a lot of cliched Japanese-English that she pushes on the kids and I try to tear away. One phrase is the infamous "See you!" Also, in preparation for this class, she decided to teach the kids 'What is this month?' It may be correct, but no one says that. Besides, this is 1st grade. When would I ever want to ask a 1st grader, 'What month is it?'

About two weeks ago, we had a meeting to discuss what we would do, and we had the following conversation:

English-Michiko : In two weeks, we have a demonstration class. I will be the teacher and you will be the assistant.
Me : Ok.
EM : So, what do you want to do?

I don't like the idea of changing the way I normally run a class just because some big shots are coming. I want them to see what it is actually like. I was also upset that these people would be viewing this particular class, cause there are only four kids. My average class is around ten, and that is perfect. Four is just too few. Plus, it's 1st grade, and I don't like teaching that grade level.

To make a long story short, since she said, 'What do you want to do?', I gave her the lesson plan of what I do in class EVERY WEEK and told her I wanted 1st and 2nd graders combined to make the class bigger. She had a few of her own suggestions, though, such as the "What is this month?" stuff. Needless to say, I threw that out, and in the end, she complied with everything I said. I taught the class the way I wanted to: my way with her in the background, the way it always is.

The future problem will be how long can I get my way? I know English-Michiko is going to try to be the 5th and 6th grade homeroom teacher next year, even though there is another teacher more qualified than her that would let me do what I want. But I guess it's good experience to be in a team-teaching situation with someone you don't like. Teaches you to work well with others and all that stuff.

Afterward, the big shots and all the school teachers had a meeting where the big shots tried to reassure the teachers that they are more than capable to teach English and not to worry. None of the teachers want to teach English and none of them can speak it. It would be like Florida deciding to make 5th and 6th grade have mandatory Spanish classes.

So after lots of talking and complaining, they showed a video. The video was entertaining from an English perspective. Two funny points were:

-The title of the DVD was, 'You can do it!'.
-There was a part where the kids were singing a numbers song, and the teacher crossed out all the 3's on the board where the kids were suppose to clap. So she pointed to all the 3's and went, 'crap, crap, crap, crap, crap'.

***

To pat myself on the back a bit, this same school did a student questionnaire where the kids would give their opinions on all the classes and activities they are currently doing. Guess whose class was the only class/activity to get a 100% 'fun' ranking by every student in the school (all 50 of them)? Hint: he's the tallest guy in Ogimi.

London

Last week, I took a week off from school, and Yuka and I went to London to visit her brother, Kaz. We stayed at his apartment, and I found staying with someone gives you a completely different perspective of a place than staying at a hotel. Yuka only wanted to shop, and I had already visited most of the tourist stops the last time I was there. So we basically spent a week walking around, hanging out with Kaz's friends, and eating lots and lots of food. It felt like I was lived there and it was a lot of fun.

Here are some of my observations:

-There is a huge diversity of people in London. Walking down the street, you would see Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Polish, American, French, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and many other types of restaurant. Riding the tube or bus, you would also hear all of these languages. This may come as no surprise to people, but it did catch me off guard after spending a year and a half in a country with no diversity.

- The number of people speaking English as a second language is amazing. This is a bit of a tangent from the first point, but as someone who is trying to master a second language, and as an English teacher, I was a lot more aware of the people around me. I hung out with a lot of Kaz's friends, and all of them were near fluent. So to the people who complain in Japan about how Japanese people can't speak English, I would say you're looking in the wrong country.

-London felt safe. The last time I stayed in a large non-Japanese city was when I accidently booked a hostel in Harlem during Christmas 2 years ago. I enjoyed my vacation then, but knew that I could never ever live in New York City. I could easily live in London. The only complaint is that it's a bit dirty. After riding the subway for the day, I would wipe my nose out with a tissue and it would be black. Gross.

-Heathrow sucks. It's big, dirty, and ugly.

-The Heathrow electronics shop is awesome. Bought a 16 GB iPod touch for about 8,000 yen cheaper ($80) than if I had bought it in Japan. However, since it's 2nd generation, I can't jailbreak it.

-Sad that I left before I could see J. K. Rowling. I was standing in line at Borders, and an employee says to another, "So, are you seeing Rowling on Wednesday?" I interrupt with them with an "Excuse me? Did you say R-R-R-Rowling?" Turns out she's visiting that very store, and I left 2 days before she arrived.

-Oxford lives up to the hype. We took a half-day trip to Oxford and Yuka humored me as I marveled at architecture. I will definitely be sending a grad school application here, even if my chance of acceptance is low.

All in all, a very fun trip. I did not have jet lag there, and I did not get jet lag coming back. I arrived in my apartment Monday night at midnight, and I woke up at 7 Tuesday morning to go to work. That's how hardcore I am.