Claire and I have started to study the jyoyo kanji list. This is the nearly 2000 kanji that are can be used in printed material with out the need for a hiragana meaning being provided. Most Japanese people cant read and write all of them but the are the basis. We are splitting them up into grade levels and making a flash card for each one. Its time consuming but at the Board of Education all we have is time. Its really been kind of depressing to see how many kanji a high school graduate needs to get by. I have been trying to read some comics as practice and translate the towns brochures and things like that. In general though I feel like my Japanese is not getting better at a very fast rate. I guess its hard to push past good enough to get by to really good.
Claire, Stephanie, and I are also working on what I call out wish list. These are big events that we would like to do but want the Board of Education to help us with. So far we have things like, culture booth at town festival, variety show, play presenting a foreign story in Japanese, summer movie nights, and a Western sports day. Also, we are working on a simple English magazine to start handing out once a month to the kids. We will each do a page for each grade. My first I'm going to give an English expression and joke and explanations about them. Then since none of my kids know who Elvis is I'm doing a section of lets meet Elvis. I'm hoping that at my schools I can play Elvis music at lunch to really get the idea across. This school year I'm going to try and be a great ALT. Now, it being a lot easier to have ideas then do them we will see how much I get done. My main goal though will be to try and start getting the kids to think about and learn about things outside Iwate. The rural parts of Japan and just be so culturally isolated even from the rest of Japan. For example at church Sunday I mentioned a kind of coffee shop that is famous in Japan called Maid Cafes. They are themed coffee shops where the waitress dress as maids. They are pretty well known out side of Japan and in my experience very well known here. Yet, one of the church people I'm friends with had never heard of it. Now, I like Iwate and the people here are really great, but some times you just get amazed by what they don't know and what they do know. Like they don't know Elvis but know the Tennessee Waltz.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
It's downright pervasive
Leaving Ichinohe for a few weeks gave me a little bit of perspective about how friggin cold it really is here.
When I say cold, don't let me confuse you into thinking that the term "cold" merely applies to lower temperature. Sure, Ichinohe's temperature is lower than Tennessee's, the conversion between Centigrade and Fahrenheit can get a little confusing, but it is lower.
Before I came here, I never really realized how little the temperature outside your house matters.
The reason I know now is that our home in Ichinohe is not centrally heated, and has no insulation whatsoever. If it's below freezing outside it's below freezing in my living room. Our main source of heat comes from a portable kerosene heater and if we leave it on for more than 3 hours we suffocate and die. fun! While the heater is on, we're toasty warm. When it's off we are... less than toasty warm.
The cold gets under your skin. You chase your tail in circles trying to stay warm.It drives you a little crazy. As a person who has been spoiled her entire life with central heating, I must admit that one feels a little... indignant at being cold all the time.
No joke. The biggest emotion I feel about the cold is irritation. When the room cools back down to freezing within ten minutes of the heater being turned off the first thought in my head is " Ugh is it cold AGAIN? This is just uncalled for."
Spring is finally starting to come to Ichinohe. While it is snowing at the moment, the temperature is slowly rising. Soon I wont have episodes like this on a nightly basis:
Fun fact: did you know that blogger is terrible for uploading large images? Sorry if you can't read the text. Maybe I'll just have to put these up elsewhere and publish links... :(
When I say cold, don't let me confuse you into thinking that the term "cold" merely applies to lower temperature. Sure, Ichinohe's temperature is lower than Tennessee's, the conversion between Centigrade and Fahrenheit can get a little confusing, but it is lower.
Before I came here, I never really realized how little the temperature outside your house matters.
The reason I know now is that our home in Ichinohe is not centrally heated, and has no insulation whatsoever. If it's below freezing outside it's below freezing in my living room. Our main source of heat comes from a portable kerosene heater and if we leave it on for more than 3 hours we suffocate and die. fun! While the heater is on, we're toasty warm. When it's off we are... less than toasty warm.
The cold gets under your skin. You chase your tail in circles trying to stay warm.It drives you a little crazy. As a person who has been spoiled her entire life with central heating, I must admit that one feels a little... indignant at being cold all the time.
No joke. The biggest emotion I feel about the cold is irritation. When the room cools back down to freezing within ten minutes of the heater being turned off the first thought in my head is " Ugh is it cold AGAIN? This is just uncalled for."
Spring is finally starting to come to Ichinohe. While it is snowing at the moment, the temperature is slowly rising. Soon I wont have episodes like this on a nightly basis:
Fun fact: did you know that blogger is terrible for uploading large images? Sorry if you can't read the text. Maybe I'll just have to put these up elsewhere and publish links... :(
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Graduation
I have now been to all my schools graduations, from kindergarten to middle school. Its been fun overall but very different from graduation at home. First, its very very somber much more like a funeral then a celebration. The kids having their names read is the smallest part of it. The rest of the hour or more is speeches. Even at the kindergarten there were at least 3 speeches. The kindergarten had their principle, the head of the school board, and the elementary school principle give speeches. The Middle Schools had the principle, PTA president, village government member, school board official, and some person whose roll I didn't catch at all speak. Let me tell you it was boring. After all the speeches there was singing of sad songs. The graduates would sing to the rest of the school. Then the rest of the school would sing to the graduates. Then the graduates and other students would sing together. Then we all sing the school song. Well, everyone else sings the school song and I mouth along with it.
After the Middles school graduations were the after parties. My schools had very different after parties. Chokai had a more casual thing with food and alcohol. The teachers all said something they remembered about the kids. I told them all how scared I was the first day, but how much fun I had with them. then we got pictures with the kids. One of the fathers got extremely drunk and so the closing was him telling embarrassing stories about the kids. People were fairly friendly to me, but they weren't really eager to talk to me. Kozuya's after party had no booze and was a lot more organized. The kids lead everyone in games. The big games were pretty fun. They did one were people blindfolded themselves and held their nooses and then ate something. They would then guess what they ate. Then we played a game where they had 4 rice balls 1 filled with wasabi and the other with pickles. The crowed watched the people and then voted on who ate the wasabi. The last was bingo for prizes, I won an umbrella. After Kozuya's after party there was what they call a nijikai which means second party. The second party was the drinking party. The teachers and parents got together for a kid free drinking party. It was a ton of fun. At the start of the party before the toast the fathers set on one side of the room and the mothers the other. None of the fathers wanted to sit next to me. So as soon as we toasted they all moved down the table away from me. Which kind of bummed me out. Then most of the mothers came and talked to me the rest of the night. It was great Japanese practice and nice to meet my students families. One of the mothers brought home made rice wine that was just delicious.
Oh one of my favorite teachers is being transferred this year. So when I start back in April I will be working with a new guy.
After the Middles school graduations were the after parties. My schools had very different after parties. Chokai had a more casual thing with food and alcohol. The teachers all said something they remembered about the kids. I told them all how scared I was the first day, but how much fun I had with them. then we got pictures with the kids. One of the fathers got extremely drunk and so the closing was him telling embarrassing stories about the kids. People were fairly friendly to me, but they weren't really eager to talk to me. Kozuya's after party had no booze and was a lot more organized. The kids lead everyone in games. The big games were pretty fun. They did one were people blindfolded themselves and held their nooses and then ate something. They would then guess what they ate. Then we played a game where they had 4 rice balls 1 filled with wasabi and the other with pickles. The crowed watched the people and then voted on who ate the wasabi. The last was bingo for prizes, I won an umbrella. After Kozuya's after party there was what they call a nijikai which means second party. The second party was the drinking party. The teachers and parents got together for a kid free drinking party. It was a ton of fun. At the start of the party before the toast the fathers set on one side of the room and the mothers the other. None of the fathers wanted to sit next to me. So as soon as we toasted they all moved down the table away from me. Which kind of bummed me out. Then most of the mothers came and talked to me the rest of the night. It was great Japanese practice and nice to meet my students families. One of the mothers brought home made rice wine that was just delicious.
Oh one of my favorite teachers is being transferred this year. So when I start back in April I will be working with a new guy.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The spot that Dante missed
As some of you may already know, my grandmother passed away. (Thank you for all your kind words.) In order to attend her funeral, I went back to America for a few weeks.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to visit all of my wonderful friends. If I didn't see you it was because I was needed at home and/or you live too far away from Chattanooga. Caleb and I are planning a trip back to America together for late summer or perhaps the Holidays. We'll try to arrange a big group reunion for that time.
My eternal thanks to Jon and Emily, who picked me up and dropped me off at the Nashville Airport. Both times with very little notice. ( My Bad.)
While I was home, I was very surprised to hear that I have readers. People actually enjoy reading this thing. Who knew? Well, I do ...now. I'll try to put more up here.( If I should start to slack again, a good nagging via email should get me writing again.)
Anyway, on to something more entertaining.
I bet you're curious about that title.
Let me just start by saying that if you have not already read the Divine Comedy I highly recommend it. You can look like a real smarty-pants if you point out that some little detail from some little book is "obviously a literary reference to Dante's divine Comedy". Also, the many levels of hell make for interesting reading.
I digress, back to the title.
When Dante explained all the little nooks and crannies that sinners fit into, he missed one. He missed the place in hell specifically dedicated to people who bring infants on transcontinental flights.
Before anyone gets mad at me, let me explain.
I'm not talking about people who have no choice but bring their infant. ( I personally like to pretend that each squalling baby is flying to a life-saving surgery performed by brilliant, but personally troubled surgeon. It keeps my patience in check.) I'm talking about people who bring little- bitty babies on vacation.
Here's the thing. Babies hate flying. They hate takeoff, which can actually be quite painful for them because they can't always equalize the pressure in their ears. They hate the noise. They hate all the strangers. They hate landing. They hate the whole thing.
I know, I know nobody really enjoys long flights. But imagine how uncomfortable you get on an airplane. Then imagine that your only way of expressing your discomfort is incessant screaming.
I don't know if it's scientifically proven, but it's my personal theory that most human beings are hard-wired to pay attention to a baby's screams. Whether we want to or not. So if you happen to be stuck in a plane's cabin, several thousand feet above sea level and 10 hours away from your destination, with a screaming baby ( or in my case, THREE screaming babies) you find yourself incapable of finding any distraction from it.
Three screaming babies for thirteen hours.
I'm not saying that the parents would have to go to the really deep levels of hell. Hey, maybe they could hang out with the virtuous pagans right beside the gate. All I'm saying is that if Dante Alighieri had been next to me on that Texas-Tokyo flight there would be a circle for people who bring infants onto transcontinental flights.
Unless... you know... there are three brilliant, but personally troubled Tokyo surgeons receiving patients right now.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to visit all of my wonderful friends. If I didn't see you it was because I was needed at home and/or you live too far away from Chattanooga. Caleb and I are planning a trip back to America together for late summer or perhaps the Holidays. We'll try to arrange a big group reunion for that time.
My eternal thanks to Jon and Emily, who picked me up and dropped me off at the Nashville Airport. Both times with very little notice. ( My Bad.)
While I was home, I was very surprised to hear that I have readers. People actually enjoy reading this thing. Who knew? Well, I do ...now. I'll try to put more up here.( If I should start to slack again, a good nagging via email should get me writing again.)
Anyway, on to something more entertaining.
I bet you're curious about that title.
Let me just start by saying that if you have not already read the Divine Comedy I highly recommend it. You can look like a real smarty-pants if you point out that some little detail from some little book is "obviously a literary reference to Dante's divine Comedy". Also, the many levels of hell make for interesting reading.
I digress, back to the title.
When Dante explained all the little nooks and crannies that sinners fit into, he missed one. He missed the place in hell specifically dedicated to people who bring infants on transcontinental flights.
Before anyone gets mad at me, let me explain.
I'm not talking about people who have no choice but bring their infant. ( I personally like to pretend that each squalling baby is flying to a life-saving surgery performed by brilliant, but personally troubled surgeon. It keeps my patience in check.) I'm talking about people who bring little- bitty babies on vacation.
Here's the thing. Babies hate flying. They hate takeoff, which can actually be quite painful for them because they can't always equalize the pressure in their ears. They hate the noise. They hate all the strangers. They hate landing. They hate the whole thing.
I know, I know nobody really enjoys long flights. But imagine how uncomfortable you get on an airplane. Then imagine that your only way of expressing your discomfort is incessant screaming.
I don't know if it's scientifically proven, but it's my personal theory that most human beings are hard-wired to pay attention to a baby's screams. Whether we want to or not. So if you happen to be stuck in a plane's cabin, several thousand feet above sea level and 10 hours away from your destination, with a screaming baby ( or in my case, THREE screaming babies) you find yourself incapable of finding any distraction from it.
Three screaming babies for thirteen hours.
I'm not saying that the parents would have to go to the really deep levels of hell. Hey, maybe they could hang out with the virtuous pagans right beside the gate. All I'm saying is that if Dante Alighieri had been next to me on that Texas-Tokyo flight there would be a circle for people who bring infants onto transcontinental flights.
Unless... you know... there are three brilliant, but personally troubled Tokyo surgeons receiving patients right now.
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