Most of the time I feel like my junior high students are just mid-sized Asian automatons. Some of this is probably due to my lack of appreciation of a culture that encourages members to fit in more than mine does. Most of it is probably due to my inability to understand Japanese. But ever so rarely, my students surprise and delight me.

More and more, I adore Moe. She’s the prettiest and feistiest girl at this school. I noticed her immediately even though she has that same short hair style that almost all the Japanese girls and boys are sporting. Unlike all the other students, she is DETERMINED to communicate with me, even if her English isn’t that great. (It isn’t even the best in the class). All the other girls are so shy. If they have hair longer than that androgynous pre-mullet they lower their heads down try to hide their faces under it the moment I approach their desk. But not Moe. The spunky volleyball star has got something to say.

Today the students had an unstructured English class while they prepared questions to ask me during their speaking test. A lot of them were goofing off. I was trying to take advantage of the distracted energy and engage the students in conversations they actually care about. I figure that if they realize that there are thing they truly want to communicate in English, they’ll be more motivated to learn it. Moe was writing something in pink chalk on a board at the side of the class.

MSTBN –with a ^ over the T

Her friend said something to her and she added an inverted ^ below the N for good measure.

Me: What is this?
Moe: Band. School fair. October.
Me: Ah! It’s the name of a band. Are you in a band?
Moe: Yes!
Me: What do you play?
Moe: I pay drums. Air drums. (pretends to play the drums)
Me: Air drums?!
Moe: Yes! (points to friend with one hand and makes clicking motion with the other) Air castanets. (points to back of class) He plays air triangle. She plays air guitar.
Friend: (raises hand) Air piano!

I’d almost forgotten that sometimes teenagers can be cute, creative, and absolutely hilarious.

Now here’s something you don’t see every day.

Japanese people are much more comfortable with their food than Americans. They like things raw. Raw fish. Raw beef. Raw horse meat. They like things whole. If it has eyes? All the better to stare at you while you bite down on its head with. If it’s alive? Even better. Writhing squid? Yum! Little fish swimming around in your soup? Delicious! (more…)

The junior high students had exams for three days, which meant that I spent half a week in the teacher’s room with nothing to do. Eventually, I gave up all pretense of working or studying and just settled down with a trashy novel. I got to page 346.

The students finished their exams with their last period of Friday set aside for marching practice. They put all the students and teachers in the gym. They made the students line up in a predetermined order according to height (girls on one side, boys on the other) and made the teachers inspect them. This is one of those moments when I felt so much sympathy for the students. I’m young and still confuse myself for a student. I’m used to being the one inspected and corrected, not the one doing the inspecting and correcting. Luckily, I wasn’t asked to help with any of that, and even if they had wanted me to, I would have feigned complete incomprehension. (Actually, it probably wouldn’t have been feigned.) There’s just something that feels wrong about looking and behaving exactly like everyone else. From uniforms to lockstep movements. This is always creepy. Well maybe not if you’re in a marching band, and even that’s probably questionable. (more…)

It’s over two months into the Japanese school year. The ichinensei are still having trouble differentiating “Are you?” vs. “Is it?” and “I am.” vs “It is.”

When I ask, “Is this a pen?” They are more likely than not to respond, “Yes, I am.” (more…)

The ninensei had to write little diaries in a worksheet that I gave them. This is what one of the girls came up with.

Thursdey , June 31, 2007

I’m go to McDonald.
I meke humderger.
I had good time.
I’m go to My house.
I watched TV for two houre
I didn’t study.

And who could tell? This is the sort of girl who draws a flower next to her name. I think the day she is referring to was the Japanese equivalent to Career Day. The ninensei went out and helped at local businesses they were interested in working at.

Today I noticed that about one quarter of the junior high school is it’s own separate building. A building I had never been in. In fact, a building that is never used by anyone. I have been working here for almost two months and I only notice this now? To my credit, from an American standpoint, this is an impossibility. I keep finding various rooms within the functional part of the school that are never used and I am just boggled. With the American problem of overcrowding in schools, every last usable inch is not only utilized but vehemently fought for and protected. There would never be open, empty rooms that could be used for classrooms. There certainly wouldn’t be an entire three story building ignored. It doesn’t look like it’s in disrepair. It just looms there, unwanted and creepy.

Even with the absence of a large cafeteria (Public schools in Japan don’t have cafeterias. The students eat at their desks.), this junior high is much larger than my middle school was. My middle school was overcapacity and still managed to contain over 1,000 students. This double-winged Japanese junior high school only has to handle 300 students. Even without the extra building, about half the school is dead silent and empty at any one time.

I hear the number of students has dwindled over the decades as the birthrate in Japan has been declining. If this school was ever full, I can only imagine how much of an effect this is having on Japan. But it’s possible that whoever designed the school just went on severe overkill.

As an American, I’m so jealous.

At the junior high school the ninensei (2nd years) were learning the expression “You look __________” to make compliments. After teaching them the basic format, the English teacher put a few sample adjectives on the board, “cute, young, beautiful, pretty, wonderful.” She had the students practice by going down the row and asking them to compliment me. I would then smile a charming American smile and say “Thank you.” Most of them just used the words on the board. I got a lot of “you look pretty,” “you look beautiful.” A few adventurous ones turned to a list of adjectives in the back of their textbook, mining it for pleasant seeming words that could plug into the target sentence.

(more…)

There are all these swallows that nest under the ledges of the schools. There are some nesting in the second floor walkway of my junior high school where I pass from the teachers’ room to classes. They cheer me a bit, huddled down in their mud-bowl nests. I can barely see their dark blue heads and red throats poking over the top, and their double pointed tails; they can never fit those in.
But everyday, I’ve been noticing mud crumbles on the walkway. The nests had been broken one by one, until all of my sweet little swallows were gone. After the first or second one, I figured that it was just the wind or that they had been constructed poorly. Oh silly swallows, this is natural selection at work! But when all the nests were all broken I knew for sure it was no accident.

(more…)

I got through my first day of firstgraders… and without getting kanchoed.

This is no mean feat. Three of my friends working in Elementary schools had already gotten kanchoed within their first month and half of working. For those of you who don’t know what a kancho is, it’s a very special treat for teachers. Children clasp their hands together with index fingers outstretched, as if making a gun, and then they ram that between your ass cheeks. No fucking kidding. They don’t get punished for it either.

(more…)

There’s a nice sunny Home Ec. room on the third floor of my junior high school. I’ve been wanting to stop in. Today, I went for a wander in my free time and heard noise and smelled food right up the stairs. Excellent, I’ll just go check it out.

Home Ec. is taught by the youngest female teacher at this school. At 27, she’s the closest to my age. I’m the youngest person in the entire staff by over 4 years. And she’s the youngest of the regular teachers by far. Home Ec. must be an elective. There were only two boys in the class. I wonder what their motives are. To be around so many girls? To learn how to be a chef? Because they actually like cooking and want to learn how to help around the house? Because all the other classes were filled? It’s still extremely strange for a Japanese man to do housework. I read an educational book in the school library (it was both in English and Japanese) about a fictional Japanese girl staying with a family in the US. She was positively floored that the father of the family was making breakfast. In my middle school, a brief term of Home Ec. was required of both boys and girls. (more…)