Friday, October 18, 2013
Samurai Festival Pictures
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.524040017632004.1073741829.100000780301857&type=1&l=e231adf5a5
Short Stories
Ok, Short Stories:
1. I was teaching colors at the elementary school, 2nd grade. One boy, who was really excited about English class (especially this time b/c he knew most of his colors), eagerly waited for me to ask him “what color is this?” When it was his turn I held up a yellow card and he happily shouted out “STAR!!!...chigao (means ‘not right’ in Japanese)…Ah! Kiellow!! Chigao….*looks to me for help*”. I say, ‘yellow’. Then he almost face palms himself and says, “Ah! YELLOW!!! Yellow, desu!!” Needles to say, this got the entire class laughing :D.
2. A while ago, I did a Blue’s Clue’s-esque lesson. But with a Moose (named Hughes) who had a Canadian maple leaf mark on his foot. I introduced the moose, Hughes. I said that Hughes loves to play hide and seek (kakurenbo). To demonstrate I put Hughes behind my back and said dramatically ''oh no, where is Hughes?'' and started looking around the classroom, the students kept saying ''there, there behind you *in japanese*'' but I played dumb and kept saying ''what, where *turns around*? I can't see him.'' One student then got up and pointed behind me and tried to grab him from behind me. So, I dramatically went ''Oh!! There his is!!'' and the students were very pleased that they finally helped me realize that Hughes was in my hand behind my back lol.
After that I told them to close their eyes and hid Hughes under the teacher's desk. I told them to open their eyes, and said that Hughes was hiding, but to not look for him. So after getting all of them to stay sitting I said we have to find the Clues and like a puzzle, like detective Conan, we put the clues together to find Hughes.....they didn't fully understand all of this of course since I don’t speak enough Japanese, but they understood enough to know that we weren’t going to search for Hughes yet. To continue on w/ the lesson I read ''Where's Spot?'' and on the second to last hiding spot in the book (under the rug) I put a clue on the word under. When we got to that spot they all shouted ''clue'' and I said ''where?'' and they said ''here *mostly in Japanese*'' and then went ''oh! it's a clue, right here on the word UNDER.....do you know what 'under' means, it means 'Shita下'....All together now: 'UNDER'. Then I finished the book.
Then I played a game where the students hide characters in/under their desks/chairs. I had some characters already printed out and there were American ones and Japanese ones (Spiderman, Doraemon, Pikachu, Mickey Mouse, Ultraman, etc). To play this you select less than half the students to be Team 2 and the rest are Team 1. Team 2 closes their eyes and you hand the characters to people on team one....there won't be enough characters for everyone on team 1 and that's the point. Once the characters are hidden team 2 opens their eyes and start searching for the characters by asking ''Is ___ here?'' and team 1 says ''yes/no'' if ''yes'' then they hand the team 2 person the character who then gives it to me. Once all the characters are found, choose new team 2 and 1 players and repeat. During the 3rd or 4th round I gave the teacher a clue to put on his sleeve...the students were distracted by trying to find characters so it took a while for them to notice. Then I placed a clue on one of their desks....it took another round or so of playing the character game before they spotted the clues.
They saw the clues and shouted 'clue' (well a few said Canada da! lol^^) and brought them too me and I asked ''where was the clue'' and they said ''on the desk/on the teacher *in japanese''. And I said ''very good'' and had them all sit down. Then I asked what Sensei was in English and what つくえ/机 was in English (desk). Then I had them practice saying the three clues ''under, sensei’s/teacher's, desk'' then asked, “So, where is Hughes? Use the clues to help find him'' At first some of them darted toward the sensei lol and he was quick to put up his guard and say ''No, no, no, no, not me, desk, desk''. But most of them put it together and darted for the teacher's desk and found Hughes. Then I had them sit down and asked ''Where was Hughes? Under, teacher's, desk! Very good''. Then there was still time left so I had them close their eyes and hid Hughes in one of their cubbies on top of someone's back pack. Then I put a clue on my bag, the student whose cubby he was in, and on the word 'on' that I wrote on the board. Then I had the students open their eyes and told them to find the Clues, the Canada leaf signs. They found them and sat down and I said ok so the clues are ''on, student's name, bag'' had them repeat it and then asked ''Where's Hughes'' and they all darted to the kid's cubby and found him ^^. And that was the lesson..........In 4th grade I did the same lesson, but they found Hughes in the cubby before they found any of the clues -.-, but that’s ok, they still had a lot of fun ^^.
3. One of the boys at the Junior High….is well a boy at the junior high hahaha, he is one of the rowdy ones and usually speaks bad, but proud, English with me. And in class he really is pretty good at English, and outside of class too when he puts forth the focus and effort; but being a class clown he finds it more fun to loudly speak in bad English because he knows it makes people laugh. Usually, when I pass him in the hallway, it’s just him rambling stuff off “I’m sleepy, and you Oh so great me too!”, and lately it has been gibberish where he makes up words and throws in random English and Japanese words and ends sentences with ‘Oh’ or ‘oh yes, me too’. A while ago he said to me one day, while just passing each other in the hallway “Oh, Mary, I’m happy! Oh no! I’m SEX! Yes, I’m SEX!’’. I shook my head (trying really hard not to laugh) and said “Bad English!” He—being honestly eager to learn—said, “What, why?” So I said, “Cloud…..cloudy….Rain….rainy….sun….sunny.” He quickly caught on and then belted out “I’m SEX….Y. I`m sexy! Oh yeah!!” He tried to keep talking but by that point he was laughing to hard. Granted I shouldn’t probably encourage such things, but I’d rather him learn proper English and have fun with it than be bored and stop trying. Oh, and the other day, while speaking gibberish with me (yes I spoke gibberish back) he randomly said “In the park. Me, and big Tokyo Sky Tree! Oh Yeah” And he motioned to his crotch then burst out laughing and ran off *face palm* —___ —….definitely a rowdy junior high boy. But at least he keeps things interesting ^-^.
1. I was teaching colors at the elementary school, 2nd grade. One boy, who was really excited about English class (especially this time b/c he knew most of his colors), eagerly waited for me to ask him “what color is this?” When it was his turn I held up a yellow card and he happily shouted out “STAR!!!...chigao (means ‘not right’ in Japanese)…Ah! Kiellow!! Chigao….*looks to me for help*”. I say, ‘yellow’. Then he almost face palms himself and says, “Ah! YELLOW!!! Yellow, desu!!” Needles to say, this got the entire class laughing :D.
2. A while ago, I did a Blue’s Clue’s-esque lesson. But with a Moose (named Hughes) who had a Canadian maple leaf mark on his foot. I introduced the moose, Hughes. I said that Hughes loves to play hide and seek (kakurenbo). To demonstrate I put Hughes behind my back and said dramatically ''oh no, where is Hughes?'' and started looking around the classroom, the students kept saying ''there, there behind you *in japanese*'' but I played dumb and kept saying ''what, where *turns around*? I can't see him.'' One student then got up and pointed behind me and tried to grab him from behind me. So, I dramatically went ''Oh!! There his is!!'' and the students were very pleased that they finally helped me realize that Hughes was in my hand behind my back lol.
After that I told them to close their eyes and hid Hughes under the teacher's desk. I told them to open their eyes, and said that Hughes was hiding, but to not look for him. So after getting all of them to stay sitting I said we have to find the Clues and like a puzzle, like detective Conan, we put the clues together to find Hughes.....they didn't fully understand all of this of course since I don’t speak enough Japanese, but they understood enough to know that we weren’t going to search for Hughes yet. To continue on w/ the lesson I read ''Where's Spot?'' and on the second to last hiding spot in the book (under the rug) I put a clue on the word under. When we got to that spot they all shouted ''clue'' and I said ''where?'' and they said ''here *mostly in Japanese*'' and then went ''oh! it's a clue, right here on the word UNDER.....do you know what 'under' means, it means 'Shita下'....All together now: 'UNDER'. Then I finished the book.
Then I played a game where the students hide characters in/under their desks/chairs. I had some characters already printed out and there were American ones and Japanese ones (Spiderman, Doraemon, Pikachu, Mickey Mouse, Ultraman, etc). To play this you select less than half the students to be Team 2 and the rest are Team 1. Team 2 closes their eyes and you hand the characters to people on team one....there won't be enough characters for everyone on team 1 and that's the point. Once the characters are hidden team 2 opens their eyes and start searching for the characters by asking ''Is ___ here?'' and team 1 says ''yes/no'' if ''yes'' then they hand the team 2 person the character who then gives it to me. Once all the characters are found, choose new team 2 and 1 players and repeat. During the 3rd or 4th round I gave the teacher a clue to put on his sleeve...the students were distracted by trying to find characters so it took a while for them to notice. Then I placed a clue on one of their desks....it took another round or so of playing the character game before they spotted the clues.
They saw the clues and shouted 'clue' (well a few said Canada da! lol^^) and brought them too me and I asked ''where was the clue'' and they said ''on the desk/on the teacher *in japanese''. And I said ''very good'' and had them all sit down. Then I asked what Sensei was in English and what つくえ/机 was in English (desk). Then I had them practice saying the three clues ''under, sensei’s/teacher's, desk'' then asked, “So, where is Hughes? Use the clues to help find him'' At first some of them darted toward the sensei lol and he was quick to put up his guard and say ''No, no, no, no, not me, desk, desk''. But most of them put it together and darted for the teacher's desk and found Hughes. Then I had them sit down and asked ''Where was Hughes? Under, teacher's, desk! Very good''. Then there was still time left so I had them close their eyes and hid Hughes in one of their cubbies on top of someone's back pack. Then I put a clue on my bag, the student whose cubby he was in, and on the word 'on' that I wrote on the board. Then I had the students open their eyes and told them to find the Clues, the Canada leaf signs. They found them and sat down and I said ok so the clues are ''on, student's name, bag'' had them repeat it and then asked ''Where's Hughes'' and they all darted to the kid's cubby and found him ^^. And that was the lesson..........In 4th grade I did the same lesson, but they found Hughes in the cubby before they found any of the clues -.-, but that’s ok, they still had a lot of fun ^^.
3. One of the boys at the Junior High….is well a boy at the junior high hahaha, he is one of the rowdy ones and usually speaks bad, but proud, English with me. And in class he really is pretty good at English, and outside of class too when he puts forth the focus and effort; but being a class clown he finds it more fun to loudly speak in bad English because he knows it makes people laugh. Usually, when I pass him in the hallway, it’s just him rambling stuff off “I’m sleepy, and you Oh so great me too!”, and lately it has been gibberish where he makes up words and throws in random English and Japanese words and ends sentences with ‘Oh’ or ‘oh yes, me too’. A while ago he said to me one day, while just passing each other in the hallway “Oh, Mary, I’m happy! Oh no! I’m SEX! Yes, I’m SEX!’’. I shook my head (trying really hard not to laugh) and said “Bad English!” He—being honestly eager to learn—said, “What, why?” So I said, “Cloud…..cloudy….Rain….rainy….sun….sunny.” He quickly caught on and then belted out “I’m SEX….Y. I`m sexy! Oh yeah!!” He tried to keep talking but by that point he was laughing to hard. Granted I shouldn’t probably encourage such things, but I’d rather him learn proper English and have fun with it than be bored and stop trying. Oh, and the other day, while speaking gibberish with me (yes I spoke gibberish back) he randomly said “In the park. Me, and big Tokyo Sky Tree! Oh Yeah” And he motioned to his crotch then burst out laughing and ran off *face palm* —___ —….definitely a rowdy junior high boy. But at least he keeps things interesting ^-^.
4. Ok, so I played ''What time is it Mr. Wolf'' with the
kindergartner. Normally when we play I ask them ''夜ご飯、英語で何ですか。(What
is ‘dinner time’ in English?)'' to get them to reply ''It's dinner
time!!''.....but one time I said ''夜ご飯何ですか。(What’s (for) dinnertime?)'' I left out the 'in English' part. So…. rather
than all of the ‘wolves’ saying ''it's dinner time!'' they all started shouting
out what they were really going to have for dinner tonight XD.
5. That’s all I can think of right now. So I’ll leave you w/ what
the label on my container of dried fruits and nuts says “A heavy and thick taste
graceful seasonings is one of the things we have most treasured.” ....It only
has salt on it, no seasoning...>.>
Long overdue
It has been way too long since my last post, and a lot has happened since then. So let’s get to the updates and catching up.
To start where we left of (in June?!?!): Well, actually rewind just a tad. In May my parents came over for a visit. It was really nice to see them (sadly the dogs couldn’t come too) and we had a lot of fun. They got to eat all sorts of strange dishes, such as slimy seaweed and stuffed squid that was more rare rather than well done. We hiked a mountain, saw evidence of bears and monkeys but didn’t see any. The hike was tiring but mom did a great job, you can tell that her lungs are getting much better…..I was harassed by bugs the entire time -.- friggin’ bugs I don’t know why they love me so much >w<!! They came down at the end of May, just in time for my birthday and returned in the middle of June. We also got to see a great Kite Battle festival. The festival has been an annual event ever since the Edo Period and basically two cities decided to hold friendly kite battles rather than brutal death and stabbing battles. I would like to use this chance to say, how great would it be if all of our battles/wars were fought with kites and not guns/swords/what have you. Anyhoo, they meet at the river that separates the two cities and fly giant kites over the river. And I mean GIANT. The smallest ones take about 10 men to lift and the biggest ones easily take 30-40 or more. The festival lasts a week or two and they have kite battles every day. They hoist these behemoth kites into the air by tossing it up then running as fast as they can, pulling on the giant rope that is attached to the kite. They battle by getting the kites to entangle around one another. It has to be a big kite and a big kite or a small kite and a small kite. Once they crash into each other, then fall into the river, they have a giant tug-of-war match, the teams line up at the center of each side of the river bank. Then, when the signal is given they pull until the rope breaks. The side w/ more rope wins the battle. During the event they have numerous kites in the air at the same time, so the battles happen often and some last longer than others. One battle they had to stop and take 3 breaks during the tug-of-war. Oh, and it is a big community event where a lot of the community helps build, repair, and battle kites (also run food stands, etc etc), so sometimes, for the more heated tug-of-war matches, the team members pulling may grab a bystander (or several) and drag them over to tug too :D! It is a really fun festival, and I’ll be going to it again next year ^^!! Also, keep an eye out for a link that will let you see pictures (p.s. I didn’t sort through the pictures so there are a lot of them and not all are good pictures :p).
Ok, fast forward a bit and July was just school and work and not too much going on. Then in August I went home for summer vacation. I had to use up most of my vacation days, because in Japan the teachers only get a vacation if they use their vacation time. This aspect of their work code really gets to me sometimes. It’s really ridiculous compared to how teachers are given automatic vacation time (school breaks, snow days, etc), but in Japan you are expected to come in even if the students get school canceled. So, for example: there is a really bad typhoon (hurricane) raging outside, and the students get school cancelled because it is too dangerous to go outside and travel to school. Well, the teachers still have to go to school unless they call in and use up their vacation time. And I’m not sure how many days the teachers get but I only have 20 vacation days for the whole year. So, if I were to take vacations for all of the school vacations I would be at negative vacation days. This also means that since I used so many up on August and when my parents visited, I now have to go to work on Christmas because Christmas Day isn’t a national holiday in Japan. -.- It’s really frustrating to still have to go to work during school breaks, especially since I don’t have anything to do but sit at my desk from 8-4….def not great for the waistline to sit all day. Anyway, I went home in August and had a lot of fun seeing people and catching up, but sadly I didn’t get to see everyone on my list and I’m really sorry I couldn’t squeeze everyone in and see people more. Also, I ate soooooo much pizza when I was home lol, the pizza in America tastes better in my opinion and has more variety in flavor and crust styles…..and there is little risk of finding tuna, mayo and corn pizza o_0…..and in case you didn’t know in Japan they have a habit of putting corn and or mayo in/on everything….pizzas, omelets, sandwiches, salads, etc etc. They also like putting really small fish in things….like really tiny anchovy fish that are maybe an inch long, if that. They dry them and serve them as dog and cat treats, put them in soups, stir fry, deep fry, they sneak them into a lot of dishes. And there’s nothing like quickly scarfing down soup only to realize once you drank most of the broth, that you were swallowing tiny whole fish with the veggies in the soup. It’s times like those that make me very glad to have a strong stomach and a tolerance of such surprises. I just see the fish, then shrug and finish the soup. The things you learn about yourself when you travel lol! It really is weird how things like soup full of tiny fish sounds like something you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, but when you are in a country where it’s the norm it doesn’t really bother you when you eat it.
Ok, what else….It’s fall now, and the leaves are changing :D, it’s very very beautiful!!! But anywhere secluded with a lot of trees is bound to be beautiful when the leaves start to change. There are some festivals and stuff coming up too, but also school events so sadly I can’t do both :/. I was really excited about a local festival that is going on this weekend and was invited to it by a lot of locals (some who never talk to me, but took the time to tell me about the festival) and sadly it is the same day as the Culture Festival (similar to Showcase Southwest where students display artwork and choirs sing and such) and I have to work TT~TT. What’s a little frustrating is that I don’t have anything to do at the school event, except roam the halls trying to keep busy, and could easily got to the rice festival and come back in time for the choir concert, but sadly I can’t leave. -.- Oh well, tis a part of the working world eh. (And I’m actually typing all of this up at work, today is the day to prep for the Culture thing tomorrow, and I had to come into work despite having nothing to do, and so I took the chance to finally write a blog entry. Yay for not wasting time.)
Hmmm…..Oh, I recently bought a keyboard and have been practicing the piano when I have time ^-^. It’s a really really nice one, the keys are even weighted so it feels like you’re playing a real piano and has all of the keys!!! >w< It’s such a beautiful day out today!! It’s really rough to be sitting inside on such a nice day, esp when I could go out and take pics of all of the tress!! Anyway….there’s not too much else to update you on, just the same old same old of work. Um, there was a kindergartner running around the other day with his shirt tucked into his underwear lol. Oh, and onetime at the kindergarten, after they got out of the pool and were changing out of their swim suits. One of them changed really quickly, then threw his towel over his head and pretended to be a ghost. So I said “Oh, so scary!!’’, this made him and the others laugh….and the next thing I knew about half of them stopped changing (so they were partly or buck naked) threw towels over their heads and started to act like ghosts and try to scare me….and then the homeroom teacher came in with a really confused look on her face. Needless to say that was an interesting day XD!!
Ok, going to take a short break to stretch my legs, and I’ll try to think up of more fun short stories and then post them. Here are a few links to some pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.601785343190804.1073741838.100000780301857&type=1&l=c634c53ad9
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.541426672560005.1073741831.100000780301857&type=1&l=78f18644c1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.553020114733994.1073741832.100000780301857&type=1&l=4717a1bebe
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.553020114733994.1073741832.100000780301857&type=1&l=4717a1bebe
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