I went to one of my schools today and met with some of the teachers that I'll be working with. Although it got off to an awkward start (I very accidently wore my outside shoes inside) the day went really well and I'm looking forward to working there.
So, do you want to know how I committed one of the worst faux pas possible?
I started off wrong by entering through the carpark which leads to the back entrance. There were no cars in the car park and I was actually wondering if anyone was around when a group of boys showed up and lead me to the staff room. As I followed them I somehow had crossed from outside to half outside (inside shoes are required here too) without realising and then suddenly I was inside and in the staff room! Half outside is the area between buildings, where plastic turf has usually been laid down.
I think I got a few laughs from the boys before they disappeared. So there I was in the staff room, in my outside shoes trying to figure out where I had gone wrong. I know these rules, I was being careful, but somehow it just happened!
I said hello to a lovely teacher who teaches art, then asked her where I could put my shoes. She had some difficulty understanding until I pointed to my shoes (still on my feet) and said somewhat apologetically, "Outside shoes."
She nearly fell over! "Outside shoes?!!" She quickly disappeared and returned with a pair of generic plastic slippers.
She relaxed considerably after they were on and took me to the front door and gave me a shoe locker.
Apparently I didn't damage relations because after that she brought me a cup of coffee (good thing I like it strong, black with no sugar because that's what I got; they generally don't ask - just give!) and showed me around.
When I left I noticed that my name was on the shoe locker!
I guess that she'll be telling some stories at home tonight.
I've been so careful about not wearing shoes inside but it just happened so fast!!! Opps!
My Japanese English Teacher arrived once the shoes had been sorted out! He was really friendly and introuced me to the other teachers there. Neither the principal or vice principal were in, but I was able to meet a lot of the staff. I spent most of the time working on an introductory lesson where I introduce myself to the class. I then printed some pictures that I'm thinking of using. Seeing as a few of the teachers were interested in the pictures, I'm hoping that the students will be too! The teachers all knew Ian Thorpe and with a bit of prompting recognised Steve Irwin, although they didn't recognise Hugh Jackman (X-men), hopefully the younger ones will. The teachers knew Crocodile Dundee, but I thought this might be a bit old for the students.
Since I've been in Japan the most common question that I've been asked is if I like vegemite. At first I would give a general, "yeah, it's ok," but I've decided that it's just easier to say "yes!" or "It's really yummy on toast for breakfast!" People also ask me if I like Tim Tams and eat them all the time or by sucking coffee through them. Vegemite and Tim Tams both feature in my presentation.
My school is pretty small - 218 students in years 7, 8 and 9. I'll be there one week a month and assist in teaching in all classes while I'm there. There are 7 classes all up - 3 year 7 classes and 2 classes for both years 8 and 9.
One thing that keeps coming up is how limited I feel because of my limited Japanese language skills. I'm currently investigating a few classes so that I can really start improving my Japanese.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
NO - Traditional Music/Theatre
Today we were involved with some traditional Japanese music/theatre called "No" (Pronounced Noh). First we went to a small cottage and watched a group of children practise playing the drum and singing under the guidance of a musician. Then we had a go!After much concentration we finished up and went to another practice session for children - this time they were practising how to stand up and walk on tatami mats and how to use a fan. Although it was rather repetitive, it was interesting to see the importance placed on traditional forms.
After lunch there was more music, similar to that in the morning with the addition of different drums and a flute. Voice is often used more as sounds than as singing. The music doesn't have much melody, but is more about the sounds of life. Actually, it was rather loud with a lot of banging and whistling! After a short performance we watched the children have a go and then we had a go.
The little drum that you can see me whack really stings the fingers! Straight arms, floppy hands, whack the side of the top and your fingers twang on the top. Ouch!
As much as I enjoyed it, I think I'll stick with the saxophone!!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
A busy week
As you might have guessed from the title - it has been a very busy week, so this will just be a general run down of what's been going on. At least, that's how I'll start it and we'll see where we end up!
General Summary:
The mystery cream did fix my mozzie bites without any scary side effects. The unbearable humidity has been slightly lessening so that it is just very hot. I'm starting to drink a lot more coffee as I'm not that fond of the Jasmine tea that I've found. (Daniel: you might want to pack a box or two when you come over). I've been washing my dishes after every meal, or any time that I have more than 3 dirty dishes! One of the outcomes of living on your own, there's no-one else to spend time with, so you might as well do the dishes! I'm still sampling the Chelsea lollies (we tried them at my party) that Jia-Lin recommended. So far I've tried 6 varieties! Hmm, just tried the banana and coconut milk flavour (aren't you impressed that I could read it?!) and it's pretty good - it tastes like a banana paddle pop.
I attended some Japanese language classes last week (Monday and Tuesday) which were organised by the Board of Education. They were quite worthwhile. I took it as an opportunity to ask lots of questions and practise my limited Japanese. A few of us will be meeting once a week to continue practising together.
On Tuesday afternoon we watched a performance of traditional Japanese music and then were included in a big group lesson. I have to admit that I don't remember what this instrument is called, but it was fun learning to play. Well, honestly it was difficult to play too - I didn't understand what the instructor was saying and had difficulty understanding how to read the music. But apart from that, it was easy!!
On Wednesday we were involved in a seminar for Japanese English teachers. We watched some presentations and examples of team teaching which we will be doing. The thing that stood out most was the rapport between the Japanese English teachers and the Assistant English teachers. They currently work together and they worked very well together. Hopefully I will be with a teacher who is just as happy to work with me.
The week finished with International Camp. This was for students who are either from another country or have lived in another country. There were about 50 or 60 children there of varying ages, about 3-15 years old, a number of parents and teachers also attended. Most students were from Japan but had lived in other countries.
[Ok, that was kinda weird - I bought what I thought might haven been milk to go into my tomato soup, I though it could have been cream which is what I was really hoping for but it was like sour milk! I'm hoping it's more like drinkable natural yogurt! It seems to be going ok in my soup, it was just a bit of a shock! There is a straw on the side of the container with instructions of how to put it in, so apparently people drink this! ]
Ok, back to the camp! Everything was pretty much in Japanese. My powers of observation were required to work overtime! For one of the first group activities we were sitting in a circle and a Japanese leader explained the game - in Japanese. Everyone started off clapping and someone in the circle changed that to another action. Another person had to guess who was making the changes. Easy right? You've all played it before? It's slightly more difficult to put it together when it's in another language, but that's not a problem if you can just play along and copy what everyone else is doing. That was fine until the other JET was asked to lead. He gave me the "what is happening here?" look but by that time I was able to describe the game.
The Japanese teacher then tried to talk to me in Japanese because obviously I understood the language. She soon caught on.... The whole camp was like that - I had to pick up what was happening just through my observations and a little bit of English and Japanese.
We were also asked to provide a cultural activity for the kids. This is not something that I've had much experience with, but apparently no-one else had because no-one else wanted to take any initiative with it. Thankfully one of the other JETs had an idea which I could run with and it all worked out quite well. We introduced a few of our countries to the kids (Australia, Scottland, Wales and Canada) and we stood in the corners of the room. When I said a country they had to move to that corner (hop like a kangaroo to Australia, skate like a hockey player to Canada, roar like a lion to Scotland and fly like a dragon to Wales (not England!). It worked really well and I think they even might have learnt something, if not, they had fun!
Did I mention that people from Wales really don't like England? For that matter, neither do the Scottish! I've heard so many times over these few weeks: I'm from Scotland, not England. I'm from Wales, not England! It's very interesting. But apparently they do like Australia! The Welsh JET was telling me that he always goes for Australia in the cricket! I guess being so far from England has given us a very different relationship.
This has become a lot longer than I was meaning it to be, but it has been a busy week!
General Summary:
The mystery cream did fix my mozzie bites without any scary side effects. The unbearable humidity has been slightly lessening so that it is just very hot. I'm starting to drink a lot more coffee as I'm not that fond of the Jasmine tea that I've found. (Daniel: you might want to pack a box or two when you come over). I've been washing my dishes after every meal, or any time that I have more than 3 dirty dishes! One of the outcomes of living on your own, there's no-one else to spend time with, so you might as well do the dishes! I'm still sampling the Chelsea lollies (we tried them at my party) that Jia-Lin recommended. So far I've tried 6 varieties! Hmm, just tried the banana and coconut milk flavour (aren't you impressed that I could read it?!) and it's pretty good - it tastes like a banana paddle pop.
I attended some Japanese language classes last week (Monday and Tuesday) which were organised by the Board of Education. They were quite worthwhile. I took it as an opportunity to ask lots of questions and practise my limited Japanese. A few of us will be meeting once a week to continue practising together.
On Tuesday afternoon we watched a performance of traditional Japanese music and then were included in a big group lesson. I have to admit that I don't remember what this instrument is called, but it was fun learning to play. Well, honestly it was difficult to play too - I didn't understand what the instructor was saying and had difficulty understanding how to read the music. But apart from that, it was easy!!
On Wednesday we were involved in a seminar for Japanese English teachers. We watched some presentations and examples of team teaching which we will be doing. The thing that stood out most was the rapport between the Japanese English teachers and the Assistant English teachers. They currently work together and they worked very well together. Hopefully I will be with a teacher who is just as happy to work with me.
The week finished with International Camp. This was for students who are either from another country or have lived in another country. There were about 50 or 60 children there of varying ages, about 3-15 years old, a number of parents and teachers also attended. Most students were from Japan but had lived in other countries.
[Ok, that was kinda weird - I bought what I thought might haven been milk to go into my tomato soup, I though it could have been cream which is what I was really hoping for but it was like sour milk! I'm hoping it's more like drinkable natural yogurt! It seems to be going ok in my soup, it was just a bit of a shock! There is a straw on the side of the container with instructions of how to put it in, so apparently people drink this! ]
Ok, back to the camp! Everything was pretty much in Japanese. My powers of observation were required to work overtime! For one of the first group activities we were sitting in a circle and a Japanese leader explained the game - in Japanese. Everyone started off clapping and someone in the circle changed that to another action. Another person had to guess who was making the changes. Easy right? You've all played it before? It's slightly more difficult to put it together when it's in another language, but that's not a problem if you can just play along and copy what everyone else is doing. That was fine until the other JET was asked to lead. He gave me the "what is happening here?" look but by that time I was able to describe the game.
The Japanese teacher then tried to talk to me in Japanese because obviously I understood the language. She soon caught on.... The whole camp was like that - I had to pick up what was happening just through my observations and a little bit of English and Japanese.
We were also asked to provide a cultural activity for the kids. This is not something that I've had much experience with, but apparently no-one else had because no-one else wanted to take any initiative with it. Thankfully one of the other JETs had an idea which I could run with and it all worked out quite well. We introduced a few of our countries to the kids (Australia, Scottland, Wales and Canada) and we stood in the corners of the room. When I said a country they had to move to that corner (hop like a kangaroo to Australia, skate like a hockey player to Canada, roar like a lion to Scotland and fly like a dragon to Wales (not England!). It worked really well and I think they even might have learnt something, if not, they had fun!
Did I mention that people from Wales really don't like England? For that matter, neither do the Scottish! I've heard so many times over these few weeks: I'm from Scotland, not England. I'm from Wales, not England! It's very interesting. But apparently they do like Australia! The Welsh JET was telling me that he always goes for Australia in the cricket! I guess being so far from England has given us a very different relationship.
This has become a lot longer than I was meaning it to be, but it has been a busy week!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Implicit trust...
It's the technical things that are difficult - like asking for a cream to make itchy mozzie bites not itch. Actually it ended up not being too difficult, I did what any of the English students at Mission Australia would do and just showed the shop assistant the bites (good thing they were just on my legs!) and gave a "please help me" look. So she gave me a cream, which I hope is what I was after. The only words I can read on the cream are: cream and tube - I could guess that! What's more, there are no pictures on it! How am I supposed to know what it is?!
The real challenge was asking the shop assistant if they had any insect repellent.... I didn't get very far with that. In the end I smiled and said "arigato gosimasu" (thankyou), paid and left. Definately wasn't worth the effort to explain. I have been looking for insect repellent for the last few days without any success. The closest I found looked ok, but the container said "insecticide" I decided that it wasn't really worth the risk. I'll keep looking.
So, regardless of what the cream is called, what the instructions and warnings are, I put it on, blissfully ignorant and hope for the best.
The mozzies here are really nasty! They are not just maddeningly itchy, they also really hurt when you scratch them and have been keeping me awake at night. Lesson to be learnt: Don't go walking in the bush just after it rains.
Oh and for anyone who's not an Aussie - mozzies are mosquitoes.
The real challenge was asking the shop assistant if they had any insect repellent.... I didn't get very far with that. In the end I smiled and said "arigato gosimasu" (thankyou), paid and left. Definately wasn't worth the effort to explain. I have been looking for insect repellent for the last few days without any success. The closest I found looked ok, but the container said "insecticide" I decided that it wasn't really worth the risk. I'll keep looking.
So, regardless of what the cream is called, what the instructions and warnings are, I put it on, blissfully ignorant and hope for the best.
The mozzies here are really nasty! They are not just maddeningly itchy, they also really hurt when you scratch them and have been keeping me awake at night. Lesson to be learnt: Don't go walking in the bush just after it rains.
Oh and for anyone who's not an Aussie - mozzies are mosquitoes.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Becoming home
Had a really good day. I just took it easy this morning and this afternoon went for a walk. I explored parts of Edamitsu that I hadn't seen yet. It's always interesting investigating new places, but even more so as I'm beginning to think of this as home.
I eventually made my way to a big shopping centre. 6pm on a Saturday night and it was still open. In fact, when I left at 8:30 it was still open!! I would have to say that my shopping, while possibly not necessary was very worthwhile. I bought a number of things to make my apartment more comfortable and feel more like home - a mug (yay!), indulgence coffee, grated cheese, camembert cheese, scented oil (jasmine and eucalyptus), a thermometer and a lounge-like banana chair (carrying it home and on the train was not the easiest!). I also found some of the purfume I like - might buy that when I get paid. It's nice to have my apartment smell a bit more like me.
Unfortunately dinner didn't go quite as well as the rest of the day. The meat I bought a few days ago had gone off. Note to self: use meat as soon as you buy it! So, I had an omelette.... again! I'm almost sick of eggs! I think I've had eggs for at least one meal everyday for the past week or two!
Tonight was the first time I've watched fireworks while sitting at the station and on a train. They were being let off at Space World. That would make three times in the last 2 weeks that I've seen fireworks! I told you Japanese people love them! Apparently they also let them off at sport games when home/favourite teams win!
While my bedroom is a nice temperature, my thermometer is telling me that the temperature in the rest of the apartment is 30.6 degrees, and 59% humidity! And yes, it is midnight, and yes, it does feel that hot!!
Anyway, goodnight!
I eventually made my way to a big shopping centre. 6pm on a Saturday night and it was still open. In fact, when I left at 8:30 it was still open!! I would have to say that my shopping, while possibly not necessary was very worthwhile. I bought a number of things to make my apartment more comfortable and feel more like home - a mug (yay!), indulgence coffee, grated cheese, camembert cheese, scented oil (jasmine and eucalyptus), a thermometer and a lounge-like banana chair (carrying it home and on the train was not the easiest!). I also found some of the purfume I like - might buy that when I get paid. It's nice to have my apartment smell a bit more like me.
Unfortunately dinner didn't go quite as well as the rest of the day. The meat I bought a few days ago had gone off. Note to self: use meat as soon as you buy it! So, I had an omelette.... again! I'm almost sick of eggs! I think I've had eggs for at least one meal everyday for the past week or two!
Tonight was the first time I've watched fireworks while sitting at the station and on a train. They were being let off at Space World. That would make three times in the last 2 weeks that I've seen fireworks! I told you Japanese people love them! Apparently they also let them off at sport games when home/favourite teams win!
While my bedroom is a nice temperature, my thermometer is telling me that the temperature in the rest of the apartment is 30.6 degrees, and 59% humidity! And yes, it is midnight, and yes, it does feel that hot!!
Anyway, goodnight!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Safe and boring tourist caves?
Have you ever been to Janolen caves in NSW, Aus? I went a long time ago, but what I remember was that they were very big (no chance of claustrophobia), light, reasonably dry, very pretty colours (no touching the formations!) and almost wheelchair accessible.
That's how my caving experience began today. A smooth, lighted path into a cave with lots of other people. At first it was quite boring and I was wondering if it was actually worth 800 yen ($8). There were people (a surprising number of small children) going both directions and we occasionally had to step aside and wait for a minute. But as it got slightly narrower it became more interesting - a bit more of a squeeze to get through, negotiating other people coming the opposite direction and ankle deep water to walk through. As were kept walking it became more tricky and definitely more wet until we were wading through knee deep and rather cold water, dodging rock formations and trying not to hit our heads! Then we got to where the lights were off! A number of people turned back at this stage, this could've been due to the complete darkness or because you had to crawl through water and low ceilings to continue. So, we felt our way through the cave and waded our way through water now coming up past our knees (which didn't really matter at this point).
Useful information when you start a walk is knowing where the walk finishes. As the spaces got narrower and more filled with water we began wondering if the cave went in a loop or formed a dead end. When most of our group decided that they didn't feel like swimming and turned back, we discovered that it was in actual fact a dead end! It was a rather wet walk back.
So our rather boring cave walk became very fun and interesting! But next time I might consider taking a torch!
By the way, no photos for this as my camera battery was flat from all those fireworks photos! But maybe this was a good thing considering how wet I got...
That's how my caving experience began today. A smooth, lighted path into a cave with lots of other people. At first it was quite boring and I was wondering if it was actually worth 800 yen ($8). There were people (a surprising number of small children) going both directions and we occasionally had to step aside and wait for a minute. But as it got slightly narrower it became more interesting - a bit more of a squeeze to get through, negotiating other people coming the opposite direction and ankle deep water to walk through. As were kept walking it became more tricky and definitely more wet until we were wading through knee deep and rather cold water, dodging rock formations and trying not to hit our heads! Then we got to where the lights were off! A number of people turned back at this stage, this could've been due to the complete darkness or because you had to crawl through water and low ceilings to continue. So, we felt our way through the cave and waded our way through water now coming up past our knees (which didn't really matter at this point).
Useful information when you start a walk is knowing where the walk finishes. As the spaces got narrower and more filled with water we began wondering if the cave went in a loop or formed a dead end. When most of our group decided that they didn't feel like swimming and turned back, we discovered that it was in actual fact a dead end! It was a rather wet walk back.
So our rather boring cave walk became very fun and interesting! But next time I might consider taking a torch!
By the way, no photos for this as my camera battery was flat from all those fireworks photos! But maybe this was a good thing considering how wet I got...
Fireworks! - Wednesday night
It's definitely been a busy few days. Between work, walking and doing some touristy activities on the side I've only just had enough sleep to keep going.
How many photos of fireworks do you need to take to get a good one? Lets say 50? I've probably got half a dozen good photos of the fireworks I saw last night! How long do you need to watch fireworks to get half a dozen good shots? I think it ended up being about an hour of continuous fireworks. Lots of fireworks! In the last 2 weeks that I've been here I've seen more fireworks than I've seen in my entire life! I think Japanese people like their fireworks!
I caught the train (I've never been on a train so crowded!) to a suburb (town? city?) on the water, a river I think. On the other side of the river is another suburb, both of which let off fireworks, competing with each other. So it was quite an impressive display. What I found more interesting was that so many people would dress up, squish onto trains and go watch an hour of fireworks all on a Wednesday night. It seems that they turn everything into a festival which involves lots of dressing up in kimonos, food and drink stalls and fireworks. As a result the atmosphere was amazing. People sat down where ever there was space and ooohed and ahhhed with the fireworks. Then the fireworks ended, we all lined up to file into the station and onto the train.
I'm anticipating that while I'm in Japan I may very well become quite good at taking photos of fireworks!!
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