The Newbies

I’m sitting in the office drinking coffee on the first sunny day in a week. The quality of the coffee at this office has gone downhill since Coffee-Sensei got transferred God knows where at the beginning of the new school year about a month ago. My first day back after spring vacation I didn’t see him, and I was worried but thought it was possible he had just taken the day off. The next day I didn’t see him, and I knew that he was gone – moved to another school to make coffee for some other desperate, caffeine-addicted ALT, and never again for me. Alas.

In addition to the unforeseen disappearance of Coffee-Sensei, I also have a whole new round of ichinenseis. Since it’s the only grade I teach here, everything kind of changed around me (except my desk position, which is in a prime location to watch everything else that goes on in here…including when a fresh pot gets made). I have new (to me) JTEs to teach with and all new students. The ichinensei class, at this school and my others, has surprised me with how immediately genki they all are. Nearly all the classes have, of their own accord, asked me questions, wanted to chat in English, and are generally less shy and more confident in their English than the ichinensei class last year (they are now my badass ninenseis, and they have improved a lot since nine months ago).

I think part of it is due to the fact that I’m not the new kid this time around, which means that the students don’t have to put up with me not having any idea what is going on and not understanding anything they try and say to me in either Japanese or English. I can now confidently answer questions like, Do you watch anime (Sometimes), and, Who is your favorite Japanese artist (Arashi). I know what One Piece is, and I know that Chopper is everybody’s favorite character. I also sing AKB48 at karaoke. These new kids have the advantage of not only possessing more English ability than last year’s models, but also having an ALT who is not fresh off the plane from America and has way more shared cultural knowledge with them. Now, I (most of the time, at least) know, when they repeat an English question back to me in Japanese, whether it is what I am asking or not. It’s a lot easier for me to help them say what they want to say in English because I know what English words in a Japanese accent sound like, I know what kind of things they generally want to know, and I understand a lot more of the chatter in Japanese that fills in the spaces while they struggle for English translations. We are both doing better, I think.

I’ve already had a couple instances of students being really excited that they could make themselves understood to me in English, and that is what makes me happy too. They already understand quite a lot, and I’m excited about having a full year of classes with them to get even more confident.

How I Learned to Love a Cherry Blossom

Hanami. An entire word created to express the very specific act of viewing cherry blossoms. Because, for Japan, cherry blossom viewing is the highest and most pure form of flower viewing, partly, I'm assuming, because the window of opportunity every year is so narrow. In Akita, I would say the peak cherry blossom viewing time lasted only about four days. Nothing had happened with the trees on Saturday. By Thursday, when the rain set in, the blossoms were all mostly gone. But for those few days, Akita really was glorious.

My hanami-ing was limited to an afternoon in Senshuu Park, the prime location in the City, and a day in Kakunodate, one of the main tourist destinations in the prefecture. Due more to coincidence than anything else, I saw Senshuu in all its glory on Monday, but by the time I got to Kakunodate on Friday, it was drizzly, and most of the trees were bare and had dropped their blossoms on the paths and puddles beneath their branches.

Apparently, it is good luck if you get hit by a falling blossom. In Senshuu, a blossom did fall on me, but I mistook it for a bug and tried to shoo it away. However, it still touched me, so I'm going to continue to think it was lucky.

Japanese have this idea that people need to look at trees during all seasons. Although I can understand hanami, because it doesn't last very long and we don't really have an equivalent in the States, hanami's autumn sister, fall color viewing, just never made sense to me. I'm from Portland. Fall colors are my life. I mean, they are pretty and all, but fall colors last a lot longer than cherry blossoms, and there isn't really the accompanying festival propaganda that goes along with hanami-ing. Cherry blossoms at least make an appearance on my Japanese visa, so you know they are a big deal. I've never seen "fall colors" on anything.

Anyway, hanami was pretty, though I was unprepared for how fleeting it would be and how at the whim of nature the event would put me. I will have a better mindset next year. Here's some pictures.

                                                   Senshuu Park on Monday

Kakunodate on Friday

Annyong ha se yo.

First off, it's hanami season now here in Akita, so the cherry blossoms are blossoming, and everything is warm and sunny and beautiful. As I was walking home last night, I realized that a mere month ago, the same streets had been coated in ice, and now I wear only a light jacket. It's worth putting up with the winter for how lovely everything is right now.

Second, I got a chance to spend last weekend in Seoul, Korea. Korea is only a two hour flight out of Akita airport, so I went there with my supervisor from my base school.

Now, prior to visiting, I couldn't have cared less about Korea. I have never seen a Korean drama. I cannot recognize Lee Min Ho at a glance. I had to look up what the alphabet was called. So, I wasn't expecting much out of the trip or that I would care much either way. However, upon driving into downtown from the airport, I instantly liked the look and vibe of Seoul. The light was different somehow from Japan. More like Seattle if anything. And as far as the level of development of Korea, it lies somewhere in between Thailand and Japan, and you can see the differences and intersections of where the infrastructure is transforming from one to the other.

There were lots of things I liked about Seoul. Here is a brief list:

a) Korean fashion. Minus whoever okay-ed the neon running shoe, hose, and mini skirt combination that seemed so pervasive, the Koreans I saw, especially in some of the trendier neighborhoods we trolled around, looked like they had walked straight out of some epic magazine editorial.

b) Korean driving. Korea drives on the right side of the road, like the States. That fact was oddly comforting.

c) Korean men. In the day and half I was in Seoul, I saw some of the most beautiful men I have ever seen in my life, lounging around on train platforms and haunting cool restaurants. They were so attractive it hurt my eyes a little.

d) Korean won. It's like paying for everything with Monopoly money! Which is an okay impression to have, because stuff is really cheap. The euro also has this feel, but unlike Korea, things are actually really expensive in Europe, and you shouldn't pay for things like life is a board game.

e) Koreans. My JTE has a friend who is an English teacher in a high school in Seoul, so we met up with her, and she showed us around, how to use the metro, took us to dinner, had the ability to speak and read Korean, etc. I told her that I was interested in Korean authors, so she gave me her English translation of this really popular Korean novel. What a champ!

We also met up with one of my JTE's former students, who graduated from my base school (before my time there) and has been studying at a university in Seoul for the past year. The four of us went to dinner, and thus I experienced one of the most linguistically bizarre experiences I have ever, well, experienced.

There was:
- My JTE. Fluent in Japanese and English.
- Her student. Fluent in Japanese and Korean, with a little (though functionally useless) English.
- Her Korean friend. Fluent in Korean and English.
- Me. Fluent in...English, with functionally pretty useless Japanese.

During dinner, we were speaking three languages, without one common one between all of us, so there was loads of translating in between anything that anybody said in order to get a point across. But it worked. Sometimes the lines between 'language' and 'communication' get blurred for me, even living in a country where I can't speak the native tongue, but that dinner was all about communication and had little to do with language. It was fascinating and eye-opening, and more than a little made me feel how little we value being bilingual in America. That's a problem, people. Learn something.

So, all in all, I really enjoyed Korea, even though I expected not to, and I have every intention of going back, staying longer, and seeing, now, my friend there. Maybe I will learn how to say Thank You in Korean for next time.

Words That May or May Not Exist

A couple weeks ago I was leaving school. My supervisor’s homeroom was responsible for cleaning the downstairs hallway and the principal’s room that day (the kids clean the entire school every day after classes finish), through which I must go in order to exit school. A few of them saw me, yelled my name, and then stood around me in a circle all talking at once. Every time a kid came out of the principal’s room, it was, JESSIE!, and the circle got bigger. There were about fifteen chattering ichinensei girls by the end.


Then, one of them says, Jessie, new Japanese word!

New Japanese word?

She continued. Do you know ‘tehepero’?

Tehepero?

Ahhhhhhahhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes, she said. Do you know?

I had never heard this word before. What does it mean. I asked.

They all looked at each other. Hmmm. It means…

She put her hand against the side of her head, tilted her head, and made a high-pitched, anime character-like squeak. Eh-heh.

I blink my eyes.

They repeated the gesture. It means, Eh-heh.

Eh-heh? I asked, and tilted my head in like fashion.

Ahhhhhahhhhh, kawaii!

I roll my eyes. Okay, girls, what does – tilt head, Eh-heh – mean?

They all look confusedly at each other again. Hmmm. It means…Very Shy!

Very Shy?

Yes, yes, they say.

I blink my eyes again.

Eh-heh – repeated gesture – means very shy?

Ahhhhhhahhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes. Very Shy! New Japanese word!

Uh, okay, girls. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Exit Scene.
----------------------------------
Next Day, after class, different classroom with different group of girls.


Two other ichinenseis, whom I swear had not been there the day before, come running up to me after class.

Jessie, Jessie! Do you know tehepero?

Yes, I do! It means – tilts head, Eh-heh – very shy.

Ahhhhhahhhhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes!

They run away giggling.

My JTE looks at me and says she has never heard that word before.

That’s because I'm pretty sure they made it up.

-----------------------------------
UPDATE: I have since done some re-con about this word. It, apparently, is a real word, but I was told by a seventeen year old boy that it is a word only fifteen year old girls use. Eh-heh.

Kids Say the Darnest Things

The following are all quotes from student essays from my various schools – all sannensei and ninenseis (juniors and seniors). A lot of these came from essays they wrote about various social issues in regards to Japan, and I have arranged them based on topic and have included helpful topical headings. Please note, original spellings and grammars have been maintained for the integrity of the authors’ intentions.

These kids are brilliant.

• On the aging population:

 “Old people should be kept by their children. If some of them have no child, I think they invite their own misfortune.”

• On the nature of love:

 “I’m for the plan for two reasons. One is that we can probably do everything for our own favorite person. The other is that we are alive because of love.”

 “But I think ‘love’ is important. However it’s easily beaten by vice.”


 “I think, at least, love is stronger than money. But, love is weaker than friendship. If I must choosed love or friendship, I would choose friendship. Friendship can break love. However love can’t break friendship.”

 “I think love is useless our lives and money is stronger than love. First, although we have a lovely feeling or love someone, love doesn’t any affects our lives. We can do without love. The other, I think money is much stronger than love. We can do without love, but we can’t do without money.

• On foreign policy:

 “You should refrain from recommending many Japanese cultures to her simultaneously and pretend to respect American culture.”

• On Marx:

 “It is impossible to make everyone in the world have the same amount of money. There are poor people and rich people.”

• On saving the environment:

 “The word ‘mottainai’ is used so many in Japanese life. The word means, ‘Let’s save more energy.’ If a man keeps water running, let’s say him, ‘Mottainai!’ and he would stop the water soon. U.S.A. is very large country, so you [Jessie, the American ALT] are the first person that use the word ‘Mottainai!’”

 “Mottatnai is used when


Oh, sorry, I don’t know.”

• On perseverance:

 “On New Year’s, I’ll visit Grandfather, but next year is very important for students because we have an exam. That exam is in order to enter the gate of university. So, next year may kill us.”

Graduation Day

I think winter might actually be starting to melt away here. The snow banks are smaller, the wind less biting, and the temperatures rising a little at a time. Also, the sun doesn’t set at 4:30pm anymore. Now it’s more like 5:30!

Yesterday was the graduation ceremony for the sannenseis. Although I don’t know many of the sannenseis at my base school (I know, like, four), I went to that ceremony, because it was my base school’s, and I had been warned that it would be a rather dull affair. Graduations in America are loud, and there is a lot of clapping and yelling. In Japan, the students wear their regular school uniforms, they march into the gym to clapping, and then no one claps or makes any noise for the next hour. Each homeroom teacher reads out every student’s name, the student yells “hai” back, stands up, and then sits down when their class list has been read. A few speeches happen. The gym is very cold. The students all file past the teachers on their way out of the gym, and though most kids looked like they were trying to hide grins, several girls were very obviously in tears and trying to hide those behind their long hair. At least, they don’t have to wear ridiculous square hats which serve no purpose other than to hold a tassel.

It all made me think about when I was in high school and graduating. American graduations are far more “Yatta!” kind of affairs, in which everyone is happy to have finished. There is a lot of clapping and yelling and speeches where people make stupid jokes that everyone laughs at. Japanese graduations are somber, times to reflect on the great weight of the future and show appreciation for the people who have made it happen. They are very different kinds of things.

I was told graduation parties do not exist here, and I find that to be a gross misfortune. Do students not know that parties are when you get lots of money?! Apparently not. If they did, obviously they would have graduation parties. Additionally, the ceremony was on Thursday morning, and on Friday there was regular classes for the ichi- and ninenseis. I had assumed that the sannenseis wouldn’t be at school, because, obviously, they had graduated. But no. A lot of them were at school today, in their uniforms, running in and out of the teacher’s room with essays and homework all day. And I’m sitting here wondering, What the hell are you people doing here?!? Go home. Go to college. You’re done. Graduation ceremonies mean you are done, and you don’t have to come to school anymore.

Again, apparently not. I have no idea what they are studying for, because as far as my understanding of the system goes, all of them should have gotten into university already, and if they haven’t, than they are fat out of luck until next year. I could be wrong. I tend to wrong about these things pretty often.

But either way, congratulations to my kiddies who are moving on life! At other schools, I know I am losing some of my favorite classes and favorite students, and I’m already thinking about how difficult it will be next year when I lose my ninenseis, whom I am much closer with at all four schools. However, these thoughts are sad. Let us dwell on the badass futures these kids have. Oi.

This Blog is Not About School.

2011 ended. I get it. But with the rush of recommendation lists which appeared towards the end there (even Urban Outfitters had something to say), and my mad purchasing of said recommended albums and wishlist-ing of Kindle editions, I am still in the process of sorting through all the good stuff that happened last year. Mostly music, some books. Here's some of the 2011 stuff I liked.


A Lover's Dictionary - David Levithan

This is a bit in the vein of Buechner's Wishful Thinking. Every "chapter" starts out with a word, presented in alphabetical order, and a definition. In the explanations of each word, the plot of the novel comes through - that of two anonymous lovers (their respective genders are also left unspecified...TWIST), and how they come together and break apart. The story is all bundled together by something of a meta-commentary on how words come together and break apart as we do. It's simple, but effective. Art imitating life, indeed.

Zazen - Vanessa Veselka

This is all the post-apocayltpic poetic prose one needs for the year. The novel leaves the specific circumstances of the world a bit vague - all you really know is that things are bad and that they are only getting worse - but amid pseudo-terrorism, vegan restaurants, and minor characters with names like "Mirror," a heartbreaking narrator desperate for truth and significance out there in the harsh, harsh world comes through. Zazen is stream of consciousness meets hipster freedom fighter meets post-modernism's baby sister. If that sentence isn't enough to convince you, nothing will.


Civilian - Wye Oke

There really wasn't anything I didn't like about this album. The title track hit it big there for awhile, and was on numerous compilations and such, but the whole album is definitely worth getting. NPR liked it. You should too.

Zonoscope - Cut Copy

My perusal of the "Best Albums of 2011" lists revealed one main thing to me - that people were really into their ambient rock this year. And Adele. Everybody loves Adele. I mean, I enjoy a good ethereal downbeat (and Adele...although I do think she should appear in photos standing a lot more often) as much as the next person, perhaps even more so, but I can only take so much before I want to scream at the song, Please, sir, I would love some consistency, and maybe even a chorus! Enter Cut Copy. This album was the best I could find that balanced those two things - the ambient rock everyone is so fond of these days, and the comforting structure of a "regular" album. There are choruses, as well as ethereal peals of sound. The best of both worlds.

Of course, there are plenty of other things to say about 2011. It was a good year for me. I graduated college and then moved to Japan. I would say that's substantial. So please enjoy some of my choice art. Let me know what you liked. There is plenty of goodness to be had out there, from this year as well as last.