Life is just getting busier and busier. It won’t slow down until the end of this month after my family returns home to America. For now, time is flying by.
Thursday I had just one class in the afternoon – the last “restaurant” lesson. The students really were into this one, and when students were acting out the parts of waiter and customers up on stage, other kids would hoot and comment. The funny part was every once in a while, they would make comments in English. Another cool thing was the students would try to improvise occasionally, ordering things that weren’t on the menu and making the waiter do a double-take. I found myself laughing along with the students, and really enjoying the class.
I set my standards pretty high for keeping the classes entertained while they are learning. I’m always interspersing questions and feedback from the students in between my “lecture” times. My lectures by necessity usually only last a minute or two because they are in English – and that is a lot to digest for the students. By keeping the questions and activities coming it keeps the students interested, or at least, awake.
I get lots of positive feedback from the students. They say that my class is their favorite, or that my class is always very interesting. You can see it in their faces when they show up for the class – they look a little livelier, and they know they are in for a show.
All of this compares favorably to the atmosphere of most high school classes. Students stare at their text or notebooks and listen to the teacher talk for 50 minutes straight. There are exceptions, of course, but that seems to be the standard all over Japan.
Since I had only one class I expected to get a lot of studying in, but instead I mostly tied up loose ends since next week my vacation starts. There were a surprising amount of things to take care of. I wrote a script for our listening test, and wrote some sample lessons in case they need them while I’m gone.
I continued to receive money from some of the teachers. Today the office manager gave me some money, and the English teachers all chipped in to give me money. It’s a nice gesture and a Japanese custom, but it sure feels weird to me.
I sit with the first year teachers, and they have decided to pool their money and get me a gift. They were talking about what to get in Japanese with me right there, and I’m not sure if they think I can’t understand, or if they don’t care if I know. It was weird to hear all the discussion about what I might or might not have at home already.
I left school and did a short lesson with Tsuji-san, and then I stopped in for a 1000 yen haircut in Befu on the way home. The barber was surprised to see me again. He was wondering if I planned to live in Japan forever. I said that was the plan, and I think he was trying to imagine this old American guy walking around town forty years from now.
The week of nabe continued at home. Kuniko cooked up some kimchee nabe that was delicious, and we ate a lot. Maybe too much, but we don’t want to let the vegetables go to waste. Lately it seems like we are having trouble with the balance of eating too much or wasting too much. It seems to be a fine line.
