Quiet Times are Over

At least, in the sense that ya'll will have to hear from me more often! Mwaa ha haa haaa haaa!

SPORTS DAY

      In the past month, so many fun things happened. Namely, teaching :)

      I started teaching on September 1.  Actually the students were preparing themselves for Sports Day, which took place on Saturday, Sept. 11, so I didn't teach until September 13! Over the summer, the leadership class prepares the entire schedule of sports day, which is an event in which every public school in Japan participates. Most families come out to see their students perform for Sports Day, unusual for the fathers, who are usually working on Saturday. The day goes from 9AM until 3PM and is a series of co-ed cheers, relays, races, 'chicken' fights, groups formations, traditional Japanese dancing, and audience participation in various fun activities like 'Tug of War' and 3-legged races.

The School Grounds. A view from the Teacher's Office Veranda... I love this school.

The tents are put up in the morning by the school PTA. Each family has their own tent.

Students' quarters

The teams were Red and Yellow

     
       My favorite audience participatory event was the Grandma and Grandpa basket ball. All of the grams and gramps come out onto the field (even if they're in wheel chairs). The grams have their own wicker basket, and the gramps have their own. The goal is to pick up as many balls on the ground and make it into the basket for a point. Whoever has the most points wins. The purpose of the sports day is to encourage group trust, competition and comraederie. The schools are usually split into 2 or more teams. The homeroom teachers are assigned to help whatever group their homeroom students are in, however, the teachers don't really do much besides act as guides for the student leaders if its necessary.

ENKAI
       I love Sports Day. I think it's really fun to watch the families participate (the Japanese are SO genki= energetic). And in the evening, the parents and the teachers meet to have a drinking party called an Enkai.
I went to my first Enkai after Sports Day. It was really fun; I thought it might be a little awkward because I'm the foreigner, and I still really don't get a lot of things that happen around me even though my Japanese is improving. At the Enkai, the a buffet of tasty finger food is served (Sashimi, tempura, fruit, cheese poppers, dried squid, various mixed salads with seaweed, etc.). All of the food is Japanese style and prepared (not microwaved... this is classy people).
       Then throughout the evening we drink. And every time you drink, your glass is filled up to the brim by the other Enkai members. It's really funny and fun. At one point me and the basketball coach thought that filling up people's glasses together was a good idea. It was really silly. And people weren't hesitant to talk to me after all. One crazy thing about the Japanese drinking is their skin color turning red. Like BRICK RED! Seriously. I've never seen such a phenomenon. Now, I know this has to do with an inability to process alcohol, but they kept on drinking anyway. I, by far, was the heavy weight in the room. I think it's a mix of the German and Spanish blood.


TEACHING
     I still love teaching, even if I'm not the head teacher.
     I teach at two junior high schools and one elementary school. The kids are really sweet and mature. When they see me, they most often greet me with Hello, and then they giggle away. It's really cute. Junior High is grades 7, 8, and 9. The 9th graders are really cool, and I feel like they act like High School seniors, just smaller. The boys are really into their hair and sports. The girls are really into their hair and music. One frustrating thing that happens during class in the 9th grade is that students sleep. I'm not really sure why yet, whether it's family life or because they're trying to avoid English (or other tough subjects), but it's kinda strange. Discipline is different from that in the U.S. It is up to the schools to raise the students, so the teachers must have to find ways to reach their students. I think it's a lot of pressure on the teachers, but I also think it's a solution to the parents not being able to be their for their kids because of work. When the students sleep during my class, I just let them... this isn't America and I really don't know what else to do. One of my friend's here suggested farting near the student...

      The type of preparation I do for my job is designing all of the fun activities that supplement the teacher's grammar points, I talk to the students about my daily routines or my weekends, and I read passages so they can hear English pronunciation. I have created stamp passports which encourage students to use their English outside of the classroom. Students get to use these and fill em up for prizes. I'm still trying to figure out what sort of prizes I should award them.... any ideas? Other than that I am still helping out with my basketball team. Practice has been cut down to 2 hours (thank goodness). Tomorrow is our first game... which takes place during school. Well, all of the school sports clubs have games tomorrow during school. I can't wait. I get to go and cheer for my boys, and it also means I get to sleep in!

   One frustrating thing is that I am still really confused half the time as to what is going on. I realized recently that the teachers won't just offer to explain things to me... I must ask someone for an explanation. I think it might be considered rude to assume someone doesn't know something. This is a fundamental difference, and although it makes sense that we don't just assume people don't know something, Americans usually use really expressive body language when they don't want to say something.  The Japanese do not.