Nothing much to report from the school front today. The high point was chatting with one of the students from Mr. Hayashi’s STEP preparation class today. This student has broken through the shy barrier, and will stop to talk to me for long conversations in English, even while other students point and giggle at him. He tries hard with his English, asks me questions if he doesn’t understand, and is a pleasure to talk to. When I talk to him and encourage him I can actually see his confidence and interest grow. It’s a great feeling to work with someone who really, really, really wants to learn English.
The low point of the day was the rest of that same class. The girls in this class really enjoy the attention that they get from Mr. Hayashi, and he and they chatted and flirted and talked in Japanese for more than 30 minutes. The boys in this class stare at their worksheets and space out, perhaps wondering if it was really a good idea to take this class, or maybe they just think about what’s for lunch. After ten minutes of flirting, I went to the back of the room, sat down and relaxed. A part of me was hoping the principal would walk by right then and see how well I was being utilized.
The boys got a kick out of having me sit in the back with them, and they stole glances at me – probably wondering what was going on.
With a few minutes left before the class ended, Mr. Hayashi said that we should review the handout for today, so I went up to the front and did some pronunciation. Then the bell rang, and I was out of there.
After school Mr. Yamamoto and I drove over to the welcome/farewell party for the English department in Kakogawa, at a place called Grande Alberto. It was a real Italian restaurant, with real Italian food on the menu. Unfortuntely we had a set menu arranged in advance, so I couldn’t really pick what to have. The food that came was good – my favorite was the spaghetti with homemade salami and peas – wow! Other dishes were made for Japanese tastes, very little garlic and cheese. Other patrons of the restaurant were ordering something with garlic, though – the smell came through every once in a while.
To do the traditional toast Ms. Mori asked what we should drink, and I voted for wine. She thought that was a great idea, so I picked out a Chianti Classico, and we toasted with that. It was really good – and they gave us big monster glasses to drink from.
It was an eight course meal, so we didn’t get out of there until 9:30 or so. Mr. Kimura was nice enough to drive me home, so it was door to door service. I had a really good time.
