Today was much like any other, except that I had a lot more time to study. My classes flew by without a hitch, and I concentrated on studying in the afternoon. Mr. Hayashi had me bring in my books into one of our team teaching classes. He had the students studying for their exam next week, so we used the time to brush up on my Japanese.
I brought in one of my textbooks that I had bought, and asked Mr. Hayashi a few questions. They were multiple choice, and strangely, he said that on some of the problems, all of the choices were correct. He demonstrated by calling up a couple of students, who all picked two or three of the four possible answers. It was a real eye opener for me. I had been studying this book looking for some kind of rule or method to know when to use certain words, and in the end it there was no right answer – they were all right.
I got roped into attending the teacher seminar. The topic was how to get student’s Japanese language ability to improve. The seminar was a classic scene – one poor consultant up front trying to lead a discussion, and forty teachers falling asleep and not really paying any attention. Ironically, the speaker’s topic centered around the idea that unless you engage the student’s attention, you won’t be able to teach them better Japanese. Most of our teachers were engaged in snoring.
The speaker at one point had some English as part of his presentation, and I perked up for that. As far as I could tell, he was encouraging teachers to pay more attention to the students, and I swear he told us to touch the students. Mr. Hayashi was joking around afterwards about sexual harassment and I think the speaker might have lost his credibility at that point.
I went home around six o’clock, and stopped in at Ito Yokado for some supplies for dinner. I made up a rice bowl of Korean BBQ beef with some Korean veggies that they sell there, and a side of kimchee. I was sweating at the end of the meal which must be a sign of quality.
I chatted with Kuniko via my cellphone. She’s so much faster than I am so I imagine that it’s a bit frustrating for her to wait for my slow responses, but it’s cheap and easy, and great practice for my Japanese.
Now I’m getting ready to go out with Jane for a beer at the yakitori. She’s getting back from a late night class, and then we’ll head out. It’ll be nice to catch up with her.
