My students in my first Friday class are a pretty uptight bunch. I’ve always had trouble getting Sakura to participate – she’s a little crazy to begin with and not paying attention for the last two years is catching up with her now. There are some great students in the class, though. I’ve got them behaving much better now, but watching them tiptoe around each other’s feelings is really interesting.
We usually play a game of bingo at the end of the class, and I rotate around the table letting each person pick a bingo card. If the card matches with most of the students, everyone says “Thank you” (in English). If it doesn’t match they complain bitterly to the student and call them a fool (in Japanese). This is a ritual that has been going on in this class since before I came along, and it’s a little disturbing to watch. One of my best students won’t pull a card because she doesn’t want people yelling at her. It really isn’t all the students that do the bitching, just a core of three girls that are the power holders in the class.
These core three – Moe, Yuka and Sakura watch carefully to make sure that everything is being distributed equally, and that everyone gets a turn. That’s fine with me, but sometimes if I decide to cut an exercise short for whatever reason, they get all up in arms. I find myself trying to find ways to illustrate how life can be unfair, just to give them a little preview. Soon enough they’ll find out for themselves, I guess.
Kuniko and I had a nice Friday night eating takoyaki and some sushi that we picked up at Vivre on the way home. We watched an amusing karaoke show and drank beers and cocktails and tried to relax. Kuniko had a rough week at work, but she’ll have a lot of time off this weekend because the tennis club isn’t meeting. Apparently some of the club members were caught shopping in a convenience store, and that’s a big no-no, even after school. From what I understand the students have to go straight home, and then once they get back they are officially not the school’s responsibility.
Tonight is movie night – Kuniko got me Casino Royale on DVD for my birthday, and so we’re going to settle in and watch it with some curry and rice for dinner. Tomorrow we’ll go catch a concert in Kobe (one of Kuniko’s student concerts) and then have dinner afterwards. Looking forward to trying out one of our old favorites under new ownership, Graciani.
