Today I had my last 2 classes with the 3rd year junior high school students (9th graders). This is their last week of school before they graduate next week. We played a funny game of Fruit Basket, and the people who lost 3 times had to do O shiri Moji, which translates as "Butt Letters." In this game, the losing student has to stand in front of the class and gesture the spelling of a word using the motion of their rear ends only. This is a popular game in Japanese schools, and I took full advantage of it; I made them spell their names, using Roman characters. It was hilarious.
At the end of both classes, the students all said "Arigato" to me for teaching them English for the past school year. That was nice. I offered some congratulatory words of encouragement in English. I had two classes with two different Japanese teachers, both young women. I suppose I could have expressed my sentiments in Japanese, but intentionally said my farewells to the students entirely in English to test the Japanese teachers, to see if they would translate for me or not--one did and one didn't:
In the second class, Takeuchi-sensei translated my little goodbye words, which I thought was considerate, considering the students probably didn't understand most of my words. But in the first class, the teacher, Okado-sensei, didn't. She stoodby and said nothing whie I spouted off to the class. I looked over at her in anticipation, and she just looked back with a half smile. Strange. See, Okado is the same age as me, though, I'm about a half-year or so older than her. This makes her the youngest teacher in our school, so I think she feels a lot of pressure to prove herself. She's usually very nice, but sometimes she cops little attitudes for various reasons. Since she didn't bother to translate my goodbyes, I suspect she was in a funky mood today. Whatever.
After lunch, I had to go over to my elementary school to teach a special class for the school's Parents Day. All the kids' parents came to school today to observe their kids' classes. About 95% of the parents were housewife moms, and I had to teach Class 2-1, which happens to be my favorite class of second graders. We did the Body lesson, which taught how to say the basic parts of the body in English. We played Simon Says, which was really fun. At first, they were making hella mistakes, but they caught on quickly after a couple rounds. They loved that game. During the class, like half the kids' moms and a couple of dads stood in the back of the classroom watching. When we played Simon Says, Gotoh-sensei, 2-1's homeroom teacher, told the parents to join in. At the end, we made a big circle to play the bodypart verion of Fruit Basket. The class was a success; the kids and their folks all looked happy, and seemed to have enjoyed the class.
After we ended class, Gotoh-sensei thanked me and the also the parents for participating. She told some of the moms how much their kids love me and that I was kakkoii, or "cool," and tried to encourage them to come introduce themselves and communicate with me; she also told them that it was okay for them to speak to me in Japanese--she said all of this while I stoodby quietly. With all that promotion on my behalf, none of the moms even made eye contact with me, and quietly made their way out of the exit door, only humbly bowing and thanking Gotoh-sensei as they ushered themselves out. Gotoh-sensei turned to me and said "Oh, they're shy." Hm. Really.
Now I understand the whole Japanese shyness thing, but "C'mon," I thought, "You just watched me teach the hell out of your kids and conduct an enjoyable class, and you can't even offer a brotha a bow of the head or a 'Konnichiwa'? What am I? Chopped sushi?" I wasn't annoyed, I just thought they were behaving a tad too shy, considering they'd just watch me amiably interact with their kids for 50 minutes. I guess I was "too intimidating" for the parents to say hello to. Please. Since I'd only had that one class to teach for Parents Day, I returned to the staffroom to get some green tea and sit at my desk to ponder the experience. Soon after, Gotoh-sensei came in the staffroom and thanked me again for a "really good class." She went on to explain that the moms and even a couple of the dads were very shy and a little intimidated to try to speak to me. She said that the parents told her afterwards that the class was great and they really enjoyed it, even as much as their own kids. When I heard that, I felt better about the situation. I thanked her for showing appreciation and explaining to me what the deal was. She's a cool lady--I like her.
Gotoh-sensei is an older lady, presumably in her very late 50s or early 60's. Relative to the average petite-figured Japanese woman, she's what we would describe as "big-boned," back home. She wears glasses and has very long hair which she dyes and usually wears parted in two big pigtails. She has adult children and grandchildren. Apparently, she's traveled quite a bit throughout her life, as she always tells me stories about her experiences in various foreign countries and her encounters with foreigners. In that regard, she's more exposed and, thus, maybe more hip than your typical Japanese person. I really like Gotoh-sensei because unlike some other teachers, she isn't afraid to engage and communicate with me, and honestly; she doesn't dumb down her Japanese or try to stumble her way through some quarter-assed quasi-English as some other teachers haplessly do. She recognizes that I'm making efforts to practice and improve my Japanese and that I can understand a lot more than some people give me credit for. She speaks to me straight, and even if I don't fully understand every word, I'm still able to comprehend the gist of what she has to say, and even learn something new as a result of it. We even talk about movies sometimes; we've had conversations about our opinions of the Matrix series and Lord of the Rings. Once, she lent me her Minority Report DVD, because i hadn't seen it. I mean, how many grandmas do you know who watch sci-fi flicks? Like I said--cool lady.
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