The first real 40 minute class schedule
I only have two classes today. I was able to really sleep in till around 8am. Then I started catching up with my journal entries. Something is starting to break down on my computer and I can sense the wear and tear of the weather that’s having on my equipment. So I’m going to start to turn off my computer and to put it under something shady so the sun doesn’t screw it up. That’s a different change of pace since I normally leave the computer on.
I have to figure out the times that my classes start because today we will have 40 minute class schedule.
The first class is with the 9th graders. We just did a test. They did better than the other class that took the test, but that was expected. I wasn’t too surprised about that. But some students that I thought were going to do well didn’t do so well and the ones that I thought weren’t going to do well did ok. That really took me by surprise.
The last class is with the 7th graders. Since we missed a class week, we are now behind. So we started with the days of the week, months, and dates for this lesson. It was simple for the students, but they still aren’t very good with their vocabulary diary. I had to show a few students how to use it so they wouldn’t fall too far behind. Since they only had 2 words from the beginning of the year, and today they had to add about 20 more. I think it might have been a bit much for them. But then we played an activity to get them in order by birthdays and then broke them into groups of 4 with cards with the months on them. They had to find all of them in a year and arrange them in the right order and take it up to the teacher and repeat them out loud. I think that it was a good activity and it got them interested in it a little more.
After that I studied Japanese for a little bit. I actually learned a bit more today. Not that I would be able to use what I learned, but at least I’m making some noticeable improvement. I just finished Chapter 8 in the Genki book now. I’m pretty good with most of the vocabulary and the grammar points at this time. I think that there is still room for improvement of course and I hardly ever use it, which I think is making it harder and worse for me.
Then the English club took their club picture in the Language Laboratory. Then we had club soon thereafter. We were talking about the differences between Japanese and Western gestures. For example how we do “come here.” In Japan, they gesture with their palms faced down and fingers closing in. But it looks like go away to a westerner. When I first saw that, I thought the person was telling me to go away, which was bad since it was my boss. So it’s vitally important to learn gestures when you cross the border. I once read a book on body language at a book store in Yokohama. It was pretty interesting. In the L.L. today, there was a piano keyboard. It makes me miss my keyboard at home and how I suck at playing it. I couldn’t remember anything that I learned from way back then, like last year. How quick I’ve lost the ability to even play a little. It’s quite shameful, and the students there could really play very well. It was nice to hear since I like the piano.
When I was leaving and club had finished, the Home Economics teacher made the teachers Nikuman, so I felt lucky to have one, since at this time, I was starving. I didn’t eat a lunch today, I just had breakfast before going to school at Yoshinoya and that was at 10am. When I finished, I was talking to some more students in the 8th grade. They were asking me a lot of questions, which I found quite weird. But I thought it was good because they wanted to speak, even though they couldn’t really speak English. So I think I’m making good progress to get the students to try to speak up. I find it more common now that students randomly try to talk to me, and now it’s more than just “Hi, how are you” kind of things too. So I’m glad that it’s starting to make a good impact.
After school, when I was going home, I walked past the temple that I normally go past when I go home, but today, there appeared to be a festival. But little did I know when I noticed it this morning that it wasn’t a festival at all; it was a set for an upcoming drama. I only noticed it on the way home when I saw a bunch of students standing outside and not inside. Since I knew the students that were there, I went up to them and asked them what was going on. So they told me what was going on. It turns out that right around the time I was leaving was then they started filming it. I would have to say that is perfect timing. It’s for an upcoming drama on Fuji TV that’s replacing the popular Engine with Kimura Takuya and Koyuki that just ended about an hour ago. The new drama is called Slow Dance and it stars Ryoko Hirosue. It was pretty cool that I finally saw a set with someone famous that I’ve actually heard of. She’s pretty famous from what I know, at least in Japan. And come to think of it, she was on SMAP x SMAP tonight too, with the Backstreet Boys. The Backstreet Boys have gotten back together, which makes it seem like I’m the last to know, but I found out that on Friday when I was watching Music Station and they were on the show. That was really interesting to see too. Anyways, back to the drama, I took some pictures, but was told that I wasn’t supposed to and was caught by the people on the set. But they couldn’t really do anything about it, they just told me to stop. The pictures I took really weren’t that good, so it’s kind of a waste. But it was cool that it was filmed in the temple right next to my work place.
