It’s been a while since I did an
update of general goings-on and daily life here in Miyazaki – mainly because I
was enjoying going through the dozens of Christmas trip pictures so much. I’ll
post a picture round-up soon too, but for now here are some recent anecdotes and
observations.
January was a little hard – saying
goodbye to the family, living in the dark and cold, a relatively quiet social
calendar, and dealing with a few things catching up with me, tested my strength
– finally Culture Shock Stage 2 had arrived! However, despite cold and wet
February weather, I only now have about 5 months left: no more time for
homesickness. In any case, I came to appreciate the kindness of my friends here
even more – especially Hana, who drove me to the hospital, took me food
shopping, carried my bags and fed me my medicine when I got sick!
The view from my staff room during a run of few freak days of sunbathing and warm breezes.
School has been quiet lately due to
tests, but I feel I’m starting to get the hang of commanding a class’s
attention and structuring lessons to encourage their participation. Even though
I don’t want to teach at this stage – maybe in 10 or 15 years – it’s been
extremely valuable growing accustomed to presenting and leading daily,
something I only did once of twice in four years at St Andrews.
A sign hung up around school during exam time. Apparently it says "No frustration allowed!" #keepcalmanddon'tloseyourshit
I’m also absolutely loving my taiko
class lately – something clicked about the way to hold the drumsticks (if
that’s what they’re even called) and my leg muscles don’t object to the lunges
so much anymore. Last week we (the foreigners) practiced a little dance for the
routine’s start, with fans and bells, as our sensei entreated us to “Show the
gods you’re having fun! Say ‘Look at me having fun, gods!’” I’ll definitely be
seeking out a group in London come October.
I'd like to note that this picture has stretched horizontally and that neither Simon nor Jessica are quite that rotund.
Part of our routine.
In other news, it’s been difficult to maintain teacherly
composure recently, as my students continue to surprise, delight and amuse me.
Sometimes it’s with their originality and the random things they pick up about
English. A chatty third year boy came up to me in the staffroom this week. “Sophie, read this please,” he said,
holding out a piece of paper with the word “better” on it. I obediently
pronounced the word, then said it in American, New Zealand, Australian, Irish
and London accents for laughs. “Not ‘bedda’?” he said. “Like ‘bedda bedda bedda
bedda bedda beddaaaaaaa?’” Good to know my students are learning pronunciaton
from The Beatles.
Sometimes, however, they’re not
so innocent. . Last month we wrote New Year’s Resolutions in class.
“Sophie-sensei, this year I will
be a man!”
“That’s great, Soujiro-kun!”
“I will move on to the next
stage!”
“Oh, good English phrase!”
“I will now have different
private parts.”
Right.
Here’s the latest gems from their
homework:
- There lay spread only mountains and rice fields but I felt the dreary
scenery representative of sadness to end 2013 soon.
- I will completeness combustion!
I received an instruction about an eyebrow. I will change my heart, I will
study hard and I want to be a good student.” Eventually I divined that students aren’t allowed to pluck –
or shave, which is common – their eyebrows and she had received a telling off.
- My favoruite singer in “sexy zone” be very
cool every day and he gives me happiness! I love “sexy zone” and I need “sexy
zone!”
- We had sex education and I
thought something about myself after that. That evening, I talked about when I
was born with my family. My mother waked up at 2am, because she dreamed about a
god turtle was climbing to beach from the sea.
- If I could go Tokyo, I woyld
go to sweet paradise. If I could go
to sweet paradise I would at make cakes. If I could eat many cakes, I would
feel full stomac and heart. If I could feel full stomac and heart, I would happy.
- I became a fan of Mr Nishiioka baseball
player. He is very cool and sadistic.
- We went to the Miyakonojo City Assembly. But
I was surprised when a parson used their mobile phone in front of assembly. I
thought that I wanted them to get a grip more.
- Happy New Year. I have decided two goals,
first, I will be 185 cm tall. I am 160 cm tall now. I will go to bed early
every day this year. I believe that I will be a tall boy.
- Even though my hero is a hooligan, he is so shy and afraid of ghosts!
- "What a pity.” I found that my comic book is written in English. It is
my favourit I lokked on the Internet. I want to buy them but I don’t have no
money. What a pity.
- Ah… I am regrettable…. I am very very regretable!!!
- What a beautiful woman Ema Watson is! How pretty the mouse who can
speak! How long neck is he who has yellow body! What bad situations they are! I
couldn’t say them! [I think you can guess what grammar construction they’d just
learned].
- Today, I will scatter devils in my heart, I have devils such as the
devil of doing something lazily, the devil of an indecisive character and devil
that can’t get up early in my heart.
- I ate a long sushi roll at night. I ate it silently. And I made a wish
in my hart. After I became an ogre.
These last two were somewhat
disturbing revelations to read on a Friday morning. However, I soon found the
root of the matter: setsubon. Setsubon is the day before the first day of
Japanese spring, and it happened a few weeks ago. It’s kind of like another New
Year’s Eve, and thus is replete with purification rituals. One such ritual
involves throwing beans or peanuts (‘mamemaki’) at eachother to drive out
devils and evil spirits, while shouting “Demons out, luck in!” Then people eat
one soybean or peanut for each year of their life. Also, in some areas people
eat a whole roll of sushi (ie. uncut into little bit size chunks) in silence
while facing the year’s lucky compass direction. Even so, I never realised I had such penitent/ self-critical students!
Saito-sensei and I still have our
conversation times too. Discussing international eating habits, he made the
following outburst:
“In America they go to cinema, eat
potato chip, eat potato chip, potato chip, goblet of cola, then go out, go to
dinner, WOW!!!”
He has also picked up the pharse “Know what I mean?” and enjoys adding it to
the end of most sentences, pronounced like “Knowhaddamean?”, with sassy hand
gestures. Yesterday our conversation time went like this:
“Sophie, I am very hungry.”
“Oh dear.”
“Can you give me some food?”
“Er… do you want my banana?”
“Oh no! I don’t like bananas!”
*Runs away*
I never know if he is practicing
is vocabulary on me or is asking me genuine questions.
However, there have also been some
moments that made me grateful for the “exchange” part of my job, and have
really touched me. Saito-sensei is a history teacher and was asking me about
the second world war, Britain’s relationship with Germany, and specifically my
grandparent’s thoughts. I happened to have the very thing on my laptop – a
typed version of some memories my Gran had written down for my school project
when I was eleven years old. My wonderful Gran passed away in September, and
reading through her memories, talking about them, Prestonpans and about her,
was very poignant for me. Saito-sensei said after we were done, “This letter is
my treasure”. That Gran’s thoughts and memories are being considered, enjoyed
and remembered in the most unexpected of places, a school on the other side of
the world, taught me something about the small ways we all live on.
