Accentuation

This morning was another sleep in for Kuniko and I. Between the two of us we managed to sleep in too late to make lunches to take to work. Oops. We did get out of the house on time, but a jam in the ticket machine at the train station caused me to be ten minutes late to work. The good news is that I always come in more than an hour early, so no big deal.

Today was a bookends type schedule – a class in first period and a class during the last period. Everything in between was free. The first period class was student interviews, and I held them completely in English. The students did much better than last time, so I was encouraged with their progress.

I had to pick something up at the local shopping center, so I walked out there and while I was there got a bowl of noodles for lunch. When I got back, a teacher gave me a donut filled with anko (red bean paste) and so that was a fairly substantial dessert. Then the history teacher dropped off a hot dog that he had bought for me – I was pretty full by the end of the day.

My last class was a first year class, and my co-teacher was a substitute – Nozaki sensei for Mori sensei. The class had a great reaction when she arrived, and they stayed loud and active during the lesson. Nozaki sensei was surprised – she said that the particular class is always quiet when she teaches it.

Speaking of Nozaki sensei, she and I spent some time talking between classes. She is trying to get out of the study group with Hayashi sensei and Miyake sensei. Her English is really good, and she says she is tired of doing the study group and having Hayashi sensei correct her accent. I told her that if she doesn’t like going, don’t go. Besides, if you are going to have someone correct your accent, make it a native speaker. Hayashi sensei’s accent is stronger than hers – she should be teaching him.

After school we had a teacher’s meeting, and once again there was a minor insurrection among the teachers. They seem to be flexing their muscle against the principal. This time it was about having teacher’s pictures in the PTA handbook. Interesting – this may be building up to something, but it is likely that I won’t be around when it blows up. Something fun for my successor.

Tonight for dinner Kuniko cooked up curry and rice. We have curry a lot as kind of a self-defense for all the fresh vegetables that come our way from Kuniko’s folks. It uses up a bunch with each batch, and lasts for a long time. We’ve still a bunch a veggies to eat, though, so we’ll have to figure out another veggie-heavy dish. Maybe yakisoba…


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