I had a pretty good day, with lots of new developments on several fronts. I have no classes during the first two periods, so I locked myself in my classroom and studied Japanese.
It was helpful to sit down with a book and study without distraction. Outside the weather was rainy, and I sat at a desk facing the window watching the students and teachers move between classes. One thing I thought about was that here I was in a classroom all to myself, getting paid to study a foreign language. I can practice the language anytime I want, and everyone I meet is very supportive of my studies. What an amazing opportunity, and a great situation to be learning a language.
During a break Mr. Komuri came up to me and told me that he has great news. He got tickets to a Hanshin Tigers game! He said that he’ll take me along, so I’ll finally get to catch a baseball game in Japan. The tickets are very hard to come by, but he managed to get two singles. We’ll be separated – sitting very far away from each other, but we’re both lucky to even be at the game. The game is next Wednesday night – hopefully it won’t rain out!
My third period class went really well – I skipped a few activities because tomorrow is the beginning of mid-terms, and I wanted the students to be able to relax a little. We did drawings, and I stretched that to almost half an hour of free drawing. It was fun, and the students seemed to appreciate it. I took the chance to chat with them in English while they drew, and that seemed to make them more comfortable.
A while back a student had asked for a Radiohead CD to listen to, so last night I burned one with some of my favorite songs, and brought it in. She came down to the teacher’s room and was so happy to borrow it. She was actually jumping up and down when I gave it to her. I hope she likes the other songs… Radiohead can get pretty weird.
Mr. Hayashi came by and seemed pretty excited – he has lots of free time because he finished writing his exams, so he wants to teach me more Japanese. This is something new – usually we have been doing lessons only during the two sessions we had scheduled. The other day he brought in a tape that he recorded from NHK – a course on how to speak Japanese. I did some transcription from the tape – listening and writing as much as I could understand. Today we did some more reading and he’s helped me get a little more comfortable. I usually read to myself, so now that I’m reading out loud I make all kinds of mistakes that my brain didn’t notice before.
One of my first year classes had an ESS student in it. She is fearless – she walked right up to me and asked me about some English terms for one of her friends. She’s hoping to go to Australia this year with the group led by Mr. Hayashi, so I hope that works out.
The new student teachers came in for a meeting today. There were about eight of them, all women around twenty-two years old. The history teacher timed it perfectly so he was chatting with me in English as they all walked by my desk. He pretended to be non-chalant, but his side of the conversation drifted considerably when they walked by. Mr. Hayashi is in charge of the English student teacher, and he brought her over to meet me after their meeting. She was pretty nervous, and I didn’t dumb down my English. She did a great job – she knows her stuff. Mr. Hayashi wanted me to meet her because he said if she’s a “charming woman” he’s going to buy her dinner after their two weeks of classes end. He’s looking to me to help him decide if she’s “charming” or not. Sheesh.
After school I went shopping for some dinner items at the local grocery store. Suddenly a small boy came running up to me and said “Hello, how are you?” in English. I was startled, but answered back in English. I was thinking, who the heck is this kid? Then around a corner came his mom and sisters, and it was the Maeda family. The same Maeda family that “kidnapped” me the night of the English teacher’s party. The boy that was so shy on Friday night was the same one that chased me down today and talked with me in English. We talked a little baseball and then we said our goodbyes. What a nice family!
Back home I cooked up some ramen with pork, but somehow I screwed up the broth. I’m still not sure how the heck they do it here. I need to use a lot more salt, and maybe some stronger stock. Hmm… more research needed.
