The week continues.
Day Three
I have three classes, all sannenseis (the equivalent of high schools seniors). At Kanano I see the third graders all the time, while I rarely do at my other schools. Sometimes at Akita High, which is quite the contrast to Kanano because Akita High students have the highest English, and Kanano students the lowest. I think the two of those are my favorite schools.
The first class of the day we again played Jeopardy. 3E has 37 boys and two girls, and one of the girls was absent that day. Because it has so many boys, anything involving keeping score and winning is appealing, so they got really into it. We also did shiritori (write a word on the board, the next student writes a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word, and so on and so forth to infinity), and these boys came up with more words than some of the other classes had. I was so proud. These kids don’t really give a damn about English, so that fact they got into anything I had to offer at all makes me happy.
My second class was with 3H, a class with 38 girls and one boy. The gender ratios at this school are all over the board, because of the specialties they choose. E is engineering. H is home economics. I have had 3H twice before, more than any other class there, all of which I have only had once, if at all (there are still two straggler classes which haven’t been subjected to my self-introduction lesson yet. God help them…and me, because I don’t want to do that again). My JTE (the sweetest lady EVER) came up to me beforehand and basically asked if I had time to come to 3H because they really like me, wanted to see me again, and had been asking for me. Of COURSE, I have time! And hey, I give the people what they want. That, and I really like 3H too. The girls had little papier-mâché gyoza drying in the windowsills of the classroom.
Last period was a sannensei class I had never had before. That accused self-introduction lesson. I got cocky, though, about the ‘being able to pick out baseball player’ thing, and so the students had me spend a quarter of the class period figuring out who the seven baseball players in the class were. My hair give-away didn’t really apply this time, since only one of the seven actually had short hair. Every time I had one of the boys stand up, they would all say, “Eeeeeeeeeeeee.” And I’m thinking…Gee, kids, does that mean I’m right or wrong about this one? Eventually, though, we worked it out.
The baseball coach is also an English teacher at Kanano, and he sits behind me in the teacher’s room, so when he isn’t busy (which isn’t that often), we talk. I told the boys I knew their coach, and they all love him, so we bonded over a mutual tomodachi. One of the boys in that class is going to become a sumo wrestler next year, and it’s really interesting to see how much students in each class unite together. Every student in 3L wanted me to know that one among them was destined for fame, was special, because by being associated with him, they take part in that fame and special-ness. Each class becomes a little family. They take care of their own.
When I go to Kanano next month, the students have exams, so I don’t have any classes. Which makes me sad, because I love being in class at that school. I suppose I’ll just wander hallways instead, where my name gets screamed from classrooms and down hallways. It’s all so young and alive – like the plants they grow.
Days Four/Five:
I go to Akita High. Thursday morning I met them at Sensyu Park for a concert of “jazz and pops.” Every year each high school gets some special event for them by the Prefectural Office, and this concert was Akita’s. This was cool not only because I got to sleep in, but because I got to go to a free concert with some famous saxophone player named Malta. It was the strangest thing because he is Japanese, but he came on stage and screamed “Alright, alright, ladies and gentlemen, how are you doing?” into the microphone. I didn’t know what to think. But then he did this long explanation of how jazz worked…I think. It was in Japanese. I heard the word for ‘music’ a bunch of times. Eventually he did Stevie Wonder’s “Pick up the Pieces” with the piano, upright bass, and drum players he had on stage with him. It really took me back.
To America, that is.
On Friday I had two sannensei classes, which I just go to and correct the sentences they write on the board. One class, 3D, I was specially requested to attend by the students. Last time I was there, these two boys in 3D asked me to skip the class I was going to go to and come to theirs instead. So I talked to their sensei and arranged going to that class next time.
When I got to class, we talked about the phrase “a rolling stone gathers no moss” (the sensei gives them an English proverb and a riddle every class period), and whether it had a good meaning or a bad meaning. These kids are sharp.
I recognized the two boys I had talked to last time, and one of them made me a tiny, perfect pink paper crane, and he explained the Japanese custom to me. They also all asked me when I was coming back to that class. I think students are under the impression that I just show up to classes whenever I want, not that scheduling is a beyond complicated affair in these schools, ever-changing and sometimes I am not even informed about those changes until after they happen. But it’s cute they want me there.
And then I went home and watched Twin Peaks. One episode left!
I also watched my first anime episodes this weekend. Students talk about anime all the time, asking me what my favorite character in some series I have never heard of is, but I never have any idea what they are referring to or what information they want from me. And I’m so illiterate on the topic that I can’t even lie my way out it.
Also, I am never going to have a better excuse to watch anime than the fact I live in Japan right now. So now is the time to dapple in this huge culture experience I have never, well, experienced before. And I quite enjoyed the foray.
No comments:
Post a Comment