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.

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”

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.

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?

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”

Dera Drow sensei.
Thank you for teaching, English. I had a good winter vacation. I want to Koube with my mother. I went to the mosaiku. I goed the sepping. I eating a Pasut and aisu.
Sincerely,
Shiori

Dera Drew sensei.
Thank you for teaching English. I went to the amusement park in Okayama with my family. I ate a spaghetti and drank a juice. I rided rollercoaster. I baught souvenir to my friends. I enjoyed it.
Sincerely,
Misaki

Dera Drew sensei.
Thank you fou teaching, English. I went to my friend’s house. I played games. I had a good time. I went to home at five o’clock. My bike is new.
Sincerely,
Shunichi

“I eat…cat”

“In Japan, we lick the box” (To be fair, he was describing how to use a traditional square sake cup, which is covered in salt)

“Mormons! They’re like the borg!” (OK, Meghan said that, not a Japanese person)

Nohmi sensei: “I was wondering how you pay for your, sort of, water, gas, electricity…”

Me: “I don’t know, I pay for something at the konbini, but I can’t read it”

Nohmi: “Oh…”

Me: “Is there a problem or something?”

Nohmi: “No, everything is fine”

(I had actually not been paying my water bill. One letter apparently said my water would be shut off on Jan. 31st. I guess they didn’t mean it)

So today when I got to school Nohmi sensei hands me a note written in Japanese and says that Kakio sensei (who I have ni nen sei class with on Thursdays) won’t be at school today. So I was unhappy because I really like those classes and assumed that she would eventually tell me they were cancelled. As it turns out the note was instructions about what I was supposed to do for the class, alone. Well, technically I wasn’t alone the whole time, because the homeroom teachers from each of those classes showed up at the beginning and end to unlock and relock the classroom door, and copy the note onto the board so the students could read it. The classes went fine though, mostly because we just worked on pen pal letters which gave them something to do but also let them get up and talk to each other. Anyway, I read a lot of first drafts, and here are some of the funnier revisions I made (there’s is in black, mine is in red):

I want the letter to you receiving.
- I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

I am a cheer character. What are you character?
- I am a cheerful person. What are you like?

Please don’t spend your body all at one time.
- I hope you stay healthy.

How many minutes are you making? I make thirty minutes.
- Please show this to Kakio sensei (I only said this to him, but he wrote it down at the end of his letter anyway)

During the mid-year conference one of my group members mentioned playing 20 questions as a warm up with his class. Today I used this game with my ni nen seis, but it took up almost the entire class. I was pretty impressed at how quickly they were able to pick up on the game and use the different kind of questions creatively. Anyway, here are some of the questions I got:

“Is it cute?”

“Is it made of tree?”

“Is it eaten on weekends?”

“Is it in your family?”

“Is it a beaver?”

“Is it smaller than Earth?”

“Is it smaller than Doitsu (Germany)?”

“Is it a robot?”

“Is it taller than a Drew sensei?”

Since this week was the first week of classes after New Years all my classes had a section about how New Years in Canada is different than New Years in Canada. For the most part it consisted of the JTE asking students what they did, and then the JTE and students asking me about what I did this year and other years. Here are some excerpts (I’m using quotes, but this isn’t really what they said, more like what they would have said if they were fluent in English):

JTE: “Did you eat mochi on New Years?”

Me: “No”

JTE: “Did you fly a kite?”

Me: “No”

JTE: “Did you play…(makes a gesture that looks to me like badminton)?”

Me: “No”

At one point I described Western New Years, and they immediately focused on the ball drop. I think maybe I didn’t explain it well enough:

Student: “Has there ever been an accident with the ball?” (this required a lot of gesturing)Me: “Probably, but I can’t remember one”

Student: “How big is the explosion?”

Me: “What explosion?”

Student: “When the New Year ball explodes, how big is it? How many people get hurt?”