Last night my teachers had a farewell enkai for me, and it was really good. They took me to an all you can eat barbeque place, so for the first time ever I didn’t need to have “betsu menu” (separate food). They gave me a new jimbei, and some other Japanese souvenirs. On the way home one of the teachers I was with, who was pretty drunk, said “I want to buy you ice cream!”, so we went to the convenience store and got some ice cream.

Today was Closing Ceremonies for this term, which means the last day before summer vacation. Since I will not be back next term I gave a short speech that was translated by Kakio sensei. After that two girls came on stage and read a speech to me, and then gave me flowers. Then all the students made a path for me to walk through, and I left the gym. It was a pretty dramatic way for me to end my time here. I’m glad that I still have a few extra curricular classes for the exchange group, because if I had to just finish up completely today it might be too much. It will be really strange when I’m not coming to this school anymore. Although the year has seemed to fly by, it still feels like I have been here for a really long time.

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.

Today was my last day at Okuganaya Elementary, so the school had a goodbye party for me. We played some games, they gave me some presents they made, and then we said a lot of speeches. It was a really good way to end my time there I think, but it was still very hard to leave at the end of the day. Even though I was only this school for one day a week, I still got to know the kids pretty well, especially because there were less than 40 in the entire school. I was really impressed at how well all the kids work and play together. I guess because the school is so small they have no other choice, but I never saw anyone getting picked on, or even left out of any games. The teachers here were also great, which I think played a huge part in the way the students have turned out. They have certainly set the bar pretty high for the schools I will be in when I get back to Canada.

Okuganaya Elementary

The students drew me some pictures to remember them by, but there are too many to show on this page. I have made a separate page with all the pictures, plus my attempt at translations (they are all in Japanese).

See The Pictures

Today I taught my last classes at Okuganaya Elementary, because next week will be a goodbye party for me. At the end of my classes the teachers told the students “now shake hands, and look at his eyes!”. This led to some students staring unblinkingly at me, and others basically crouching on the ground with their hand up for me to shake.

A few minutes ago the tea lady came up to me, gave me a can of Aquarius, and had one of the other teachers tell me she wouldn’t be here next Friday so this is the last time we would meet. Then I shook her hand a few times, and took a few pictures with her.

I think in exactly one week I will be pretty sad.

The other day in class I noticed that the next story the san nen seis would be reading was about Sadako and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This unit was also the first that I did with my students when I got to Japan, so it really made me realize how soon I will be leaving.

Next Friday will be my last day at Okuganaya Elementary, and the following Friday will be the last day of classes for Asago Junior High students before summer break. Since this week is basically all tests, and the week before a break has always meant no classes for me, that means I only really have one more week of classes with my students. I will still be seeing students from Asago JHS when they come to school for club activities, and Nohmi sensei told me today that I would teach a special class with exchange students, but it is still weird to know that my last classes are coming so soon.

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”

Today I had two ni nen sei classes, and for whatever reason they are invariably my most difficult students to teach. Last week they were on a workplace visit program, so they had no classes, and this week they seemed way worse than usual (probably a combination of being away from class, and my getting to used to the other classes). Anyway, today’s classes didn’t go well, and I had to yell more than usual (which is not at all).

By the second class I was already pretty frustrated with them, and then the Japanese teacher told me I had to be more strict because “some students are too rude”. This bugged me quite a bit, not just because they said discipline isn’t supposed to be our job (I never assumed that would actually work), but because I actually can’t say anything to them that they will understand, besides the basics like “stop talking” and “be quiet”. I can of course say these things louder, and make the same kids repeat the answers when they were talking, but without someone to explain why I’m doing this in Japanese I feel like it’s kinda pointless.

Anyway, in the second class there was one student right in front of me that kept turning around and talking to the guy behind him while I was talking. At first I was just calm about asking him to turn around and be quiet, then I was saying it more loudly, then I was basically just yelling at him, and every time he would just say “sorry sorry, be quiet” and then go back to talking in about a minute. Since you can’t make a kid leave the classroom here, I then made him move his desk to the front of the room, facing the class, and moved his friends away from him. Since this didn’t really make him listen (he wasn’t talking, but was trying really hard to get the attention of the kids who were at this point avoiding him), he also had to repeat just about every answer given by the class. Near the end of the class I moved him back because they had a worksheet to do with their friends, and he started talking again while I was explaining it to them. That made me keep him after class so I could get the Japanese teacher to translate what I was saying. This was a lot more effective. Since I wasn’t just yelling (I was asking things like “Is this how you act for your other teachers, or do you just not want to show me any respect?”), and there was no classroom audience he got quiet pretty quickly.

On the way back to the class the teacher thanked me, but said there are many more students like him. I am a bit curious to see what that class is like when I am not there.

In the last few days there have been a few instances that really showed off the differences between Japanese students and what I expect Canadian students to be like:

Bingo: We were playing with words like cloud, cloudy, wind, windy, etc. No one cheated, not even when they only needed sunny, for example, and I called sun.

Morning Announcements: Teachers (all of them) have a meeting with announcements in the morning, and the students just take care of themselves. In the nearly 10 months I’ve been here there has never been a problem.

Attendance: They don’t take attendance, they just assume everyone will be there.

Rewards: I was giving out stamps (like using a rubber stamp and ink) for participation, and after one girl answered a question she said no thank you to the stamp, because she had accidentally gotten one too many the class before.

A couple nights ago we went for a Tajima Gyu (Kobe beef) dinner, which was really good. Yesterday mom and Mel came to my special needs class with me, and then after school I drove them up to Takeda Castle (my mom kept talking about how Mel had to see it, but neither of us wanted to walk). Anyway, here are some pictures:

See the Whole Album

On Wednesday night Andrea arrived in Japan, and then yesterday her and Marla came to school with me. We had two ichi nen sei classes with Kakio sensei, so it was a pretty good day. All the kids were really excited to have so many foreigners, and it was good because the lesson was “Hello, my name is…” They also got to meet some of the more interesting/cute students, like brown hair (her hair is brown, not black), handsome macho Ken (he introduced himself as that), and baby monkey (she looks like a baby monkey). Marla and Andrea seemed to enjoy themselves, and the kids had a lot of fun, partly because we played more games than usual, which meant more stitch stickers. Sorry there are no pictures though, no one thought to take any.