“Lasto Day”

Everyday Nakamura sensei passes out a schedule for the following two days, and if I am at my desk he says something like “Doryuu sensei, tomorrow’s…” Today he handed the schedules out, and then pointed to one and the following conversation took place:

Nakamura: “This day…your lasto day. So…[points to a bunch of Kanji] sayonnara ceremony”
Me: “Ok, thanks”
Nakamura: “You will…”
Me: “Make a speech?”
Nakamura: “Ah! Hai! Hai!”
Me: “Ok, how long should it be?”
Nakamura: “Etooo… [points to Nohmi sensei's desk, and then back at me]“
Me: “I should talk to Nohmi?”
Nakamura: “Hai”

I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I really appreciate the effort Nakamura sensei puts into speaking English. Considering he is a math teacher, and not particularly young, I’m impressed with how much he can say and even more so by how much he can understand.

Anyway, I guess I have to make a speech. I just hope it can be English only this time.

Ashbury Interviews

After school today interviews were held to see which kids get to go to Canada on the Ashbury Exchange Program. 23 students applied for 12 spots, so the interviews lasted a pretty long time, and were very stressful for all the students. Basically it was all the English teachers and I interviewing the students in groups of 4 or 5, only using English. Some of the students did very well (actually much better than they are ever able to speak in class), while others completely froze (Hugh Wickham style, which those who were in MMEDIA something will know is not a good way to freeze). They had to start off with a one minute speech about themselves in English (no cue cards or anything). One girl said her whole speech (nearly flawlessly) without ever looking away from me, or blinking, which was nice but also a bit awkward because it is a challenge for me to smile for an entire minute. Anyway, they said some funny things, so here are some examples:

“My big sister is very smart. My little sister is… not smart, but my big sister and me are trying to help her.”

Nohmi sensei: “Pretend I am your host mother, what would you say to me when you first meet me?”
Student: “Hello”

“It is 13 years old. It likes English very much, and it wants to visit Canada.”

Me: “What kind of present do you want to get on your birthday?” then “A book? A game? Anything is ok”
Student: “I want a pencil”

Kakio sensei: “You can see your best friend is crying, what would you do for her?”
Student: “Stand… by” (she is ni nen sei, so this was actually a really good answer)
Kakio sensei: “What would you say to her?”
Student: “Nothing, just stand by”

Me: “What two languages do we speak in Canada?”
Student: “English and Spanish?”
Me: “No”
Student: “English and Japanese?”
Me: “Um, no”
Student: “English and Mexican?”
Me: “Mexican is not a language. Here’s a hint: ‘bonjour’”
Student: “English and Chinese?”
Me: “Well, not the right answer”
Student: “English and France? I mean Furansugo, I mean French?”
Me: “Very good”

French?

The other day I went to Himeji, and as I was walking down the street a guy (he was Japanese, or at least Asian, by the way) rode up to me on his bike and the following conversation took place:

Him: Hello
Me: …Hi?
Him: Est-ce que vous parlez francais?
Me: Um, no(n)
Him: Quelle langue?
Me: Je parle anglais seulement
Him: Ok, goodbye
Me: Bye…

I hope that guy didn’t seriously need to find someone who could speak French, because chances are I was about his best bet.

My Conversation with Masao

The other day I invited everyone in my apartment building to a bbq Meghan and I will have this weekend. When I got home from work yesterday Masao, an older guy that lives in the building, came out to talk to me, with the invitation in his hand. Since he was holding the invitation, I had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to talk about, but this is how the conversation went:

Me:　Hi Masao, how are you?
Masao: Konnichiwa, *lots of Japanese*
Me: Wakaranai (“I don’t understand”)
Masao: *laughs, and then more Japanese*
Me: OK, I know you go to English lessons, I have seen you there.
Masao: *more Japanese*
Me: OK, I’m calling Meghan and you can talk to her *I call Meghan and hand the phone to Masao*
Masao: Hello Meghan, this is Masao. How are you?

Being Bored

For the past few days its been spring break at school, and there is really nothing to do. This isn’t really that unusual for me, since some days I have no classes anyway. Today, however, seemed to be the first day at work that Nohmi sensei didn’t have marking or something else to do, so she was clearly as bored as me. This led to her making more small talk with me than usual, some of which was pretty funny:

N: “I did not send a letter to my friend in Canada for New Years, so can you help me send a letter for the new school year?”
D: “It isn’t a new school year in Canada though”
N: “Ah, well… can you just write a letter about something?”
D: “About what?”
N: “I don’t know, I’m not good at writing in English”
D: “Ok…” (I wrote a letter pretending to be Nohmi, to someone I know nothing about, telling them about how I am happy to be staying at Asago JHS and looking forward to visiting Canada again)

N: (After searching through her desk drawers and finding a candy)”Would you like a candy?”
D: “No thanks”
N: “Why not?”
D: “Um, every time someone gives me a candy in Japan it’s gross”
N: “This candy is not gross, it’s delicious. It’s shishi remon (c.c. lemon, which is a drink like minute maid lemonade), have you tried shishi remon?”
D: “Yeah, but I think it’s too sweet”
N: “I think the cold wine (icewine) from Canada is too sweet, and too expensive”