Today at school we recorded the listening test for the first year students. I had written it last week, and it got approved by the other teachers today. We went into the soundproofed broadcast club room and recorded it on a cheap tape deck, and hopefully it will sound good when they review it this week. If it’s all good, we’ll be ready to give it to the students next week.
I enjoy doing the recordings. It’s fun to concentrate, project your voice, enunciate every little detail, and then hear the final recording. Tsutsumi sensei, the teacher I was recording with, broke into laughter every once in a while – that’s the real threat when you are recording something like this. Once she starts laughing then I do, and then we can’t stop.
It was freaking hot today – the humidity was over 90%, and about 30 degrees. They have this kind of interesting rule that no matter what temperature it gets outside, they won’t turn on the air conditioning in the staff room until July 1st. Some teachers formed a mini-committee to try to get the policy changed today, but upper management held fast and told them to tough it out. I personally don’t mind the heat; it’ll make the air conditioning feel that much better when we turn it on.
During the sixth period we started up our interview tests. This is the first time that our students have had the interview test, and some were so nervous that I thought they weren’t going to make it through the interview. I had given them hints earlier about speaking in a clear, loud voice, and making eye contact. Some people took those hints too seriously. One girl watched me carefully the whole time, breaking eye contact only to blink. She is a really shy student normally, so she must have made the sacrifice for a good grade.
For dinner tonight I decided to make up some zarusoba, the dish that I usually get at the cafeteria. It turned out pretty much the same as the cafeteria one. It’s a really healthy dish, just buckwheat noodles dipped in a cold salty broth with onions and wasabi. I served it on a straw basket, and for dessert had a couple of pieces of koyadofu – a slightly sweet tofu that tastes of slightly sweet cardboard, but it oddly delicious. I don’t know why I like it so much.
The heat hasn’t really dissipated tonight, so I’m staying mellow tonight – just doing some reading and listening to loud music. Tomorrow is a slightly busier day at work, and we’re supposed to have some thunderstorms!
