This blog was going to be a massive rant about teenagers when I first ran the draft through my head this morning during my first lesson. But then the day actually got relatively good. So now I can't rant so much any more....
My first lesson started off a bit badly. The kids seemed to all be in a bit of a huff about something. So when I tried to make them do stuff they'd be dragging themselves...which pissed me off. Then halfway through the lesson they decided to become a little more cheery...It was the same with grade 4. They all started off in a bit of a mood. Especially the girls... they were doing their usual silent treatment routine. There were very violent scenes in my head at the time. But again about half way through they decided to just have fun. Grade 2 were awesome. They knew the damn song! We have to sing bloody "Old mac Donald had a farm" for the rest of this month. I swear I am gonna hate children's songs by the time I get back. I already hate "Mary had a little lamb"(last month)....damn her and her stupid lamb??? Why write such patronising stupid lyrics??? and why use such awful instruments????arrrrghhhhhhhhhhhh damn you Mary! and your stupid lamb! go fall in some ditch and leave me alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
breathe....
ehm...anyway. Yes grade 6 and 4 obviously hate singing the songs as much as I do, which makes it even more "fun" for me to stand up there by the board making a carrot out of myself singing. But enough about songs. Grade 2 were awesome! they did everything perfectly this lesson! I loved them. They saved my day!
So after lessons I was talking to my fave member of staff (He looks a little like this korean actor), while laminating mini cards of the alphabet for my 1st and 2nd graders. When suddenly we realised that one was stuck inside. I was like "SH SH SH F F F F F F !!!!" So there I was trying to figure out how to get this piece out. We tried first with a ruler...then he brought a knife. Then one of the other teachers came over and was told the situation. he then tried with his technique of putting in anothe piece of paper. That failed. Then another teacher came over. Soon there was a whole congregation trying to help. I was just profusely apologising japanese style. Basically over the course of 2 hours the entire male part of the teacher crowd dismantled the laminator step by step, we had various different types of screwdrivers out on the table...we had guys chit- chattering over the best course of action to unscrew everything. Then after 2 hours one of the Senseis finally got to the piece of paper and released it...he raised his arms Rocky style while everyone cheered and clapped. It was quite a funny bonding session really. The guys were actually happy to tamper away while my 5th grade teacher was trying to reassure me that no one was angry and that teachers constantly break stuff. I felt a bit like I was part of a family. It was really nice.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
setsubon no hi
It's the 3rd of february!
yes I can hear you all go "oh really?..I did NOT know that!". Let me explain. It's a special day today in Japan. It's the last day before spring..(which is tomorrow...yes..I know....it's a little earlier than back home). Anyway..TODAY..is all about throwing beans or "mame" at this demon like thing called an Oni. It's supposed to be to like drive the devil out and bring luck in. So all the kids made masks of this Oni today, and got sweets. We had dried beans as "dessert" (not particularly nice), and the best part? We went up to the roof of the school and grade 5 and 6 threw beans at each other and the Sensei who was the Oni. I was the official photographer. It was pretty funny to see really. My classes all went well today too. Everyone was a in a good mood it seems! My grade 6 class also had a photographer in it taking pictures the whole time. That's because Grade 6 will "graduate" soon and go to Junior high school Every school seems to send in professional photographers to take pictures of grade 6 in various situations and then make a year book for them. Back in the teacher's room I got asked if I liked natto. I pulled a face and was like...no.....it's horrible. The whole congregation laughed. Then they asked if I wanted to try this chip like thing which was natto flavouring...I took it hesitantly and received applause and "gambatte" cheering. I then had the entire teachers room watch me eat this and kyoto sensei (vice principal) took pictures....I actually quite liked it and everyone was really happy. Bizarre! But it certainly made the day an interesting day overall.
Now....getting ready to see James Bond! sigh.......oh Daniel....you are so hot with your perfect english accent.....if only every englishman spoke like you.
yes I can hear you all go "oh really?..I did NOT know that!". Let me explain. It's a special day today in Japan. It's the last day before spring..(which is tomorrow...yes..I know....it's a little earlier than back home). Anyway..TODAY..is all about throwing beans or "mame" at this demon like thing called an Oni. It's supposed to be to like drive the devil out and bring luck in. So all the kids made masks of this Oni today, and got sweets. We had dried beans as "dessert" (not particularly nice), and the best part? We went up to the roof of the school and grade 5 and 6 threw beans at each other and the Sensei who was the Oni. I was the official photographer. It was pretty funny to see really. My classes all went well today too. Everyone was a in a good mood it seems! My grade 6 class also had a photographer in it taking pictures the whole time. That's because Grade 6 will "graduate" soon and go to Junior high school Every school seems to send in professional photographers to take pictures of grade 6 in various situations and then make a year book for them. Back in the teacher's room I got asked if I liked natto. I pulled a face and was like...no.....it's horrible. The whole congregation laughed. Then they asked if I wanted to try this chip like thing which was natto flavouring...I took it hesitantly and received applause and "gambatte" cheering. I then had the entire teachers room watch me eat this and kyoto sensei (vice principal) took pictures....I actually quite liked it and everyone was really happy. Bizarre! But it certainly made the day an interesting day overall.
Now....getting ready to see James Bond! sigh.......oh Daniel....you are so hot with your perfect english accent.....if only every englishman spoke like you.
Saturday, 31 January 2009
WKend part 2 - festivals and ice cream
coffee.......coffeeeeeee.......meh
So I wake up at half 8 in the morning naturally. ...so 5 hours sleep? maybe less?....argh.
I met up with Steve and we decided to go to a street festival In Yoshiwara, under the recommendation from my teacher at one of my schools. It was SO full! and seriously what is it with people from around here and their utter LACK of personal space ...and UTTER disregard for people walking in their direction? What is up with that? People here don't seem to click that moving slightly to the side would help to avoid a full on collision.....rar rage!
the food was good at the festival though! We had.....takoyaki (of course!!!), and kind of a backed potatoe with the salitest buttery butter ever! (I have to admit I liked it....ohhh dear). I had one of those multicoloured chocolate bananas too...I just couldn't resist the onslaught of colours.....such a child. We then went to Cat's cafe for more foodage. ice cream...ohhhh yes!....I am going to develop type 2 diabetes aren't I?...So my dinner is going to be healthy...fruity tonight.
So I wake up at half 8 in the morning naturally. ...so 5 hours sleep? maybe less?....argh.
I met up with Steve and we decided to go to a street festival In Yoshiwara, under the recommendation from my teacher at one of my schools. It was SO full! and seriously what is it with people from around here and their utter LACK of personal space ...and UTTER disregard for people walking in their direction? What is up with that? People here don't seem to click that moving slightly to the side would help to avoid a full on collision.....rar rage!
the food was good at the festival though! We had.....takoyaki (of course!!!), and kind of a backed potatoe with the salitest buttery butter ever! (I have to admit I liked it....ohhh dear). I had one of those multicoloured chocolate bananas too...I just couldn't resist the onslaught of colours.....such a child. We then went to Cat's cafe for more foodage. ice cream...ohhhh yes!....I am going to develop type 2 diabetes aren't I?...So my dinner is going to be healthy...fruity tonight.
WKend part 1 - baby showers and mexicans
Well well...I feel a little bit like a train of tiredness has hit me in the face. So need to remember to get an early night tonight.
So yes! Babies! Aren't they wonderful? No I am not pregnant before anyone is asking nervously. But Rina my MC is! 8 Months to be precise...so not long before the exit of the parasite. Jodie and Franny decided to celebrate this occasion "western style" and throw Rina a baby shower. It has all been quite secretive over the past few weeks, as preparations were going on without Rina knowing. Yesterday then was the big day. I had been allocated the job of decorator and flower maker. I made origami lillies in pink and white (the whole darn theme was pink and white....nice....) which took me all of friday night. Luckily I had Minae to keep me entertained and help me make them. I then arrived early on Saturday at speakEZ just in time to blow up all the pink and white balloons. My head felt like it was floating after about the 10th balloon. Amy helped out massively though so we set about preparing the food and everything. The shower was a success. Rina came upstairs only to be greeted by lots of people shouting "suprise!!!" and cracking poppers. I had a slight worry that she might prematurely give birth due to the shock...but luckily this did not happen. :p
It was so sweet she started crying tears of joy because she was so honoured.
We played baby shower games too! The most disgusting one must have been the diaper smelling game. The girls had melted different types of chocolate in individual diapers, and we had to smell them and guess what it was. Only that obviously the mess inside the diaper looked......disturbing. I shall again confirm that the thought of having children is filling me with dread.......Other games were stuff like, everyone having a safety pin which they had to wear and if someone said the word "baby" througout the party you could steal their pin. Most pins wins. I only got 2 but I withstood severe attacks from various guys trying to make me say the word. I think the key is to not get drunk. HA!
Afterwards some of the guys decided to go play pool. We were a nice lil group, and played a few competetive games. I actually got alright and won one fo the games! yaaay. Afterwards we went to mishima to a mexican restaurant, which was actually run by an american. It was pretty good! All in all I ended up going to sleep around 4 am....and woke up naturally at half 8am.....what the Fudge?
So yes! Babies! Aren't they wonderful? No I am not pregnant before anyone is asking nervously. But Rina my MC is! 8 Months to be precise...so not long before the exit of the parasite. Jodie and Franny decided to celebrate this occasion "western style" and throw Rina a baby shower. It has all been quite secretive over the past few weeks, as preparations were going on without Rina knowing. Yesterday then was the big day. I had been allocated the job of decorator and flower maker. I made origami lillies in pink and white (the whole darn theme was pink and white....nice....) which took me all of friday night. Luckily I had Minae to keep me entertained and help me make them. I then arrived early on Saturday at speakEZ just in time to blow up all the pink and white balloons. My head felt like it was floating after about the 10th balloon. Amy helped out massively though so we set about preparing the food and everything. The shower was a success. Rina came upstairs only to be greeted by lots of people shouting "suprise!!!" and cracking poppers. I had a slight worry that she might prematurely give birth due to the shock...but luckily this did not happen. :p
It was so sweet she started crying tears of joy because she was so honoured.
We played baby shower games too! The most disgusting one must have been the diaper smelling game. The girls had melted different types of chocolate in individual diapers, and we had to smell them and guess what it was. Only that obviously the mess inside the diaper looked......disturbing. I shall again confirm that the thought of having children is filling me with dread.......Other games were stuff like, everyone having a safety pin which they had to wear and if someone said the word "baby" througout the party you could steal their pin. Most pins wins. I only got 2 but I withstood severe attacks from various guys trying to make me say the word. I think the key is to not get drunk. HA!
Afterwards some of the guys decided to go play pool. We were a nice lil group, and played a few competetive games. I actually got alright and won one fo the games! yaaay. Afterwards we went to mishima to a mexican restaurant, which was actually run by an american. It was pretty good! All in all I ended up going to sleep around 4 am....and woke up naturally at half 8am.....what the Fudge?
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
mitte Mai-sensei!
sniff sniff.....darn this cold...again....seriously this is getting ridiculous.
aaanyways! It`s such a beautiful day today. It`s really sunny and warm when you`re standing in the sun.....I went out and played with the kids today..we did some basketball hoop shooting...Oh yeah! I can throw! Though I am gonna have to admit that the hoop was probably at half the height it should be.....
My lessons went alright today, I was told in the morning that I was going to be observed by a BoE member. I was like..."ahhhhhhhhhhhh". And then had about an hour to build up Panic mode. I treated my first class as a sort of practice run for the class that was to be observed. Unfortunatley my kids must have taken some E before they came in. They were seriously all over the flipping place. Shouting random stuff, screeching, not sitting still. (I am NEVER having kids). So I was a little disheartened. Then the observation lesson began. My grade 2`s were actually suprisingly quiet to start with. I was thinking....ok I think I prefer loud and hyper (yes yes I know I don`t know what I want). But they warmed up when we played Simon says. The lesson went alright I guess. The Headteacher and the BoE guy were watching. The only thing that made the lesson that extra bit more difficult was one of my dear little girls that has a habit of hissy fitting. And yes..of course she had to today as well. We were playing a simple game of asking "what shape is this", "It`s a........circle/star bla bla". I put the shapes down in front of the kids so they had a reference. Of course this girl (let`s call her minidemon), did not like the shape she was given, and started whimpering. I quickly gave her the star because I know that was her favourite last time. She stopped momentarily. Until she realised that everyone had to shuffle one up to get to the next shape. Now we were all in trouble. The whining, and yelping was unleashed while she started convulsing on the floor like some solar powered wobbly toy. I restrained from tell her to effing get over it and smiled sweetly, while the teacher was coaxing her to just play along.
Anyway...throughout that lesson there were numerous minidemon hissy fits which at one point even got the headteacher to bedn down to her and give her a stern earful.
I seriously wonder how her parents cope...or if they cope...because really..if that was my daughter..................rar.
Yesterday I went to the wednesday night club, which is this get together of ALT`s in the area. We went for okonomiyaki which turned out to be...yeah hmmmm. There were almost 18 of us or something like that. 18 loud Gaijins, and one old lady serving us.....The bill was the most fun part....I am b\never going there again. We then went off to this underground bar, I got chatting to a guy who had lived in Vietnam for a year. He actually spoke vietnamese with a northern accent! It was pretty awesome anyway to hear it!
raaaaaaaaaaa..back to laminating my flashcards! (I LOVE laminating...it`s become this new wind down passion of mine...how sad am I?)
aaanyways! It`s such a beautiful day today. It`s really sunny and warm when you`re standing in the sun.....I went out and played with the kids today..we did some basketball hoop shooting...Oh yeah! I can throw! Though I am gonna have to admit that the hoop was probably at half the height it should be.....
My lessons went alright today, I was told in the morning that I was going to be observed by a BoE member. I was like..."ahhhhhhhhhhhh". And then had about an hour to build up Panic mode. I treated my first class as a sort of practice run for the class that was to be observed. Unfortunatley my kids must have taken some E before they came in. They were seriously all over the flipping place. Shouting random stuff, screeching, not sitting still. (I am NEVER having kids). So I was a little disheartened. Then the observation lesson began. My grade 2`s were actually suprisingly quiet to start with. I was thinking....ok I think I prefer loud and hyper (yes yes I know I don`t know what I want). But they warmed up when we played Simon says. The lesson went alright I guess. The Headteacher and the BoE guy were watching. The only thing that made the lesson that extra bit more difficult was one of my dear little girls that has a habit of hissy fitting. And yes..of course she had to today as well. We were playing a simple game of asking "what shape is this", "It`s a........circle/star bla bla". I put the shapes down in front of the kids so they had a reference. Of course this girl (let`s call her minidemon), did not like the shape she was given, and started whimpering. I quickly gave her the star because I know that was her favourite last time. She stopped momentarily. Until she realised that everyone had to shuffle one up to get to the next shape. Now we were all in trouble. The whining, and yelping was unleashed while she started convulsing on the floor like some solar powered wobbly toy. I restrained from tell her to effing get over it and smiled sweetly, while the teacher was coaxing her to just play along.
Anyway...throughout that lesson there were numerous minidemon hissy fits which at one point even got the headteacher to bedn down to her and give her a stern earful.
I seriously wonder how her parents cope...or if they cope...because really..if that was my daughter..................rar.
Yesterday I went to the wednesday night club, which is this get together of ALT`s in the area. We went for okonomiyaki which turned out to be...yeah hmmmm. There were almost 18 of us or something like that. 18 loud Gaijins, and one old lady serving us.....The bill was the most fun part....I am b\never going there again. We then went off to this underground bar, I got chatting to a guy who had lived in Vietnam for a year. He actually spoke vietnamese with a northern accent! It was pretty awesome anyway to hear it!
raaaaaaaaaaa..back to laminating my flashcards! (I LOVE laminating...it`s become this new wind down passion of mine...how sad am I?)
Monday, 26 January 2009
Roooooni shiteru?
Rar.
It's still bloody freezing. I could see my breath again this morning. Cycling to school also caused the circulation in my hands to stop and turn my hands purple. Wonderful.
My classes were quite fun today, although me having a cold and the kids all being on an acid trip or something has made my voice die. I really love the fact that my other schools have such small classes, I have to shout so much less. I actually started trying to get some kind of discipline tricks in to the lesson today. I was so fed with kids constantly chattering while I was trying to explain something, or taking ages to stand in line. So I started applauding the kids that actually did listen, and did the whole ominous counting down from 5. I am not entirely certain as to what the kids expect to happen after we hit 0, but it seems to do the trick. My handicapped class was an utter nightmare once again. We have a new kid in school. A chunky little boy with aggression problems it seems. He came with his Mummy today and I first took note of him in Assembly, where he proceeded to just punch his mother when he felt like it. I was like "oh wonderful...I wonder if he is gonna go in to my handicapped class". Of course he was...yay... My class actually started off ok for once. we played a game and sang a song. The little angry boy sat in the back watching it all with amused disgust, while his poor mother was fiddling nervously. When I then started drilling the target words, he decided it would be fun to start smashing a chair in to the door over and over and over and over.......you get the picture.
The kids were obviosuly distracted...lol no one was listening.
One of the teachers then proceeded to quietly tell him to stop, which obviously calls for some punching of the teacher. He properly whacked her in the chest! I saw all of this out of the corner of my eye...trying to desperatley keep the attention of the kids while at the same time fantasising of walking over to the kid, putting it in a head lock and gently telling it, that it was disturbing my class and if he would be so kind as to try and listen if he wanted use of his arms ever again.
I should probably not be a teacher for long. :p
Instead I stayed calm and smiley and genki...of course...teaching the words and playing the first game. The class dragged a lot...but we got there in the end.
Lunchtime was great though. There is a child that is a big footie fan and when he heard I was from Manchester (yes, I know that that is technically a lie...), so he was like....waaaa do you know Beckham??? and Rooonie???? well he pronounced them all in a strange way so it took me several attempts before I could tell who he meant. He asked if I liked Ronaldo...I was like...IEEEEEEEE Ronaldo Kiraiiiiii! (translation:I don't like him). Everyone laughed.
Kids are odd creatures. I got pretty violated by some of them last week! There is this girl in one of my grade 1 classes that seems to have an obsession with touching my breasts! I have to crouch down to her when she asks me stuff, and then Boing!!! her hands are all over me! I am like.."whoaaaaaaa personal space has just been breached!!!!". or she jumps at me and grabs..yeash......what is up with that??? Another boy thought it be funny to smack my bum!!!!! I was like..."nani?????". Kids don't do that in England do they???? Maybe I am missing some freudian stage of body obsession....meh.
It's still bloody freezing. I could see my breath again this morning. Cycling to school also caused the circulation in my hands to stop and turn my hands purple. Wonderful.
My classes were quite fun today, although me having a cold and the kids all being on an acid trip or something has made my voice die. I really love the fact that my other schools have such small classes, I have to shout so much less. I actually started trying to get some kind of discipline tricks in to the lesson today. I was so fed with kids constantly chattering while I was trying to explain something, or taking ages to stand in line. So I started applauding the kids that actually did listen, and did the whole ominous counting down from 5. I am not entirely certain as to what the kids expect to happen after we hit 0, but it seems to do the trick. My handicapped class was an utter nightmare once again. We have a new kid in school. A chunky little boy with aggression problems it seems. He came with his Mummy today and I first took note of him in Assembly, where he proceeded to just punch his mother when he felt like it. I was like "oh wonderful...I wonder if he is gonna go in to my handicapped class". Of course he was...yay... My class actually started off ok for once. we played a game and sang a song. The little angry boy sat in the back watching it all with amused disgust, while his poor mother was fiddling nervously. When I then started drilling the target words, he decided it would be fun to start smashing a chair in to the door over and over and over and over.......you get the picture.
The kids were obviosuly distracted...lol no one was listening.
One of the teachers then proceeded to quietly tell him to stop, which obviously calls for some punching of the teacher. He properly whacked her in the chest! I saw all of this out of the corner of my eye...trying to desperatley keep the attention of the kids while at the same time fantasising of walking over to the kid, putting it in a head lock and gently telling it, that it was disturbing my class and if he would be so kind as to try and listen if he wanted use of his arms ever again.
I should probably not be a teacher for long. :p
Instead I stayed calm and smiley and genki...of course...teaching the words and playing the first game. The class dragged a lot...but we got there in the end.
Lunchtime was great though. There is a child that is a big footie fan and when he heard I was from Manchester (yes, I know that that is technically a lie...), so he was like....waaaa do you know Beckham??? and Rooonie???? well he pronounced them all in a strange way so it took me several attempts before I could tell who he meant. He asked if I liked Ronaldo...I was like...IEEEEEEEE Ronaldo Kiraiiiiii! (translation:I don't like him). Everyone laughed.
Kids are odd creatures. I got pretty violated by some of them last week! There is this girl in one of my grade 1 classes that seems to have an obsession with touching my breasts! I have to crouch down to her when she asks me stuff, and then Boing!!! her hands are all over me! I am like.."whoaaaaaaa personal space has just been breached!!!!". or she jumps at me and grabs..yeash......what is up with that??? Another boy thought it be funny to smack my bum!!!!! I was like..."nani?????". Kids don't do that in England do they???? Maybe I am missing some freudian stage of body obsession....meh.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
awesome Osaka part 3 - coming of age day
Another early start to the day! But it's worth it. We met up with Sally's mum to go to the aquarium. apparently it's one of the biggest in Japan and also is the only one with a massive stingray (some species which is very hard to keep). Sally's mum was so lovely and paid for everything! I was so chuffed! It was really sweet because she tried to explain various things to me in English, and I tried to follow in my broken Japanese. We had a laugh though. The aquarium was so good! I thoroughly recommend going! It was massive. The tank was very very deep. There were sea otters, dolphins, penguins (!!!!), various colourful fish, cute crocodiles, iguanas and and and. After the aquarium we went on to the big Ferris wheel, where we could see most of Osaka. It was quite windy, so our cabin was shaking a bit, but the view was pretty! Then we went for some takoyaki and okunomiyaki in this small restaurant place, followed by a ninja house! The ninja house was just this fun little place, where you had to go through mazes and you'd trigger off things falling via light sensors, (which I quickly noticed and kicked to see what would happen before I moved on.....scaredy cat that I am).
The Osaka castle was last on the list. it was a beautiful place. The castle was more pretty than anything. It wasn't really the greatest defence place in the world. But I learnt a little about about the history of Japan and shogun..that castle was built by a hideoyoshi..T...something something. He wanted to be a shogun and was very respected bya lot of people. I don't like him too much anymore after I learnt that he killed his wife and adopted son after finding out his other wife had born him a biological son. Meanibum.
We also saw quite a few girls in kimonos waltzing around because it was the coming of age day, so all the 20 year old girls get to dress up. It was really nice seeing them around the place. Little splotches of vibrant colours dotted aorund.
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