Sara - Kitamatsuzono Graduation

Well we finally had our graduation on the 13th and everything went well. We had a lot of speeches, and some singing. Graduation took up half the day and I was lucky to get out at 3:30 instead of 4:25. I made a movie of the event so that you can sort of see what goes on. I skipped the speeches. The music in the movie is called "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" which translates to 'Please give me wings'. The words, roughly translated, are:

If I could have one wish granted now, I would wish for a pair of wings.
Upon my back, like a bird, I wish you would give me a pair of white wings.

I want to spread my wings and fly through this wide blue sky.
Through the free heavens where there is no sorrow, I want to soar and fly far!

When I was a child, I used to have this dream, and even now I still dream the same dream.





The girl who waves towards the end of the movie is Misa. She comes by every day to talk to me in English. Her English ability is very impressive. She went to Indiana on a two week abroad program so we often talk about her friends in America and American culture.

Patrick- Pictures from the International Symposium

Here are some pictures from the International Symposium described in a previous post.

In this first picture, my principal is introducing the school:



Here, I am explaining a video that describes the day to day activities of the students:


And here I am actually teaching class:


And in this picture I am accepting a gift on behalf of the school from the representative from Vietnam:

Patrick- Field Trips at the Junior High

This week we had several field trips at the school. First, on Monday, the whole school went to a nearby park to draw and paint pictures of the landscape. They were given the entire day (8am-2pm) to do this. All students take art class for all three years of junior high school, and they had a brief trip to the park the week before to help them select what particular scene they wanted to sketch and paint and what perspective they wanted to do so from.

Then, today, first year students (and I) went to the river near the park to do basic botany. After identifying and cataloging as many plants as they could, they went to the park to study some more. Meanwhile, I and another teacher hid plastic animals by the river, which they were supposed to find. The catch was they had to stand on the sidewalk and look for what was fake; they couldn't get close to sift through things. They also only got ten minutes for this particular "game." Out of the 11 items, the best students could do was 7.

Meanwhile, the second year students visited various companies to see people working and learn about jobs. Both first and second year students only had morning trips; third year students, on the other hand, are off to another prefecture to plant trees as a service project and then study the relationship between the forest and the ocean.

Patrick- International Lesson Study

Last week, a delegation of 26 teachers and principals from 25 countries visited the junior high school where I am teaching. They spent an afternoon at our school, during which we had a presentation, followed by an opportunity for them to visit the students' classes.

The countries represented included about 5 teachers from Africa and the Middle East, 10 from Europe, and 10 from Asia. The program is paid for by the Japan Foundation, which is a generously funded government institute that, for example, can host $100/head dinner parties for these 26 and another 75 guests, plus cover the flights, trains, and a weeklong stay in Japan for all participants. Of course, if your country doesn't go to war and maintain a standing army then perhaps you have money for other things.

It was interesting for me to get to meet and talk to many of the visitors. Also, when asked "Where are you from?", it was nice that people actually knew where Indiana was. Aside: It gets a little tiring when Japanese teachers ask, "Where are you from?"->"The US"->"Where in the US?" but when they ask that second question they maybe only know one or two cities in the US, such as LA and NY, and can't put them on the right coasts. Unfortunately, US and Japanese students are about the same when it comes to total ignorance of maps.

For me, perhaps the most interesting part is hearing what people expected to see when they visit a Japanese school for the first time. Since I've been working here, and I studied the Japanese educational system, I have forgotten some of the things that people expect, for example an absence of chalkboards (and in turn LCD screens/smartboards/something fancy in their place). In fact, nearly every school in Japan still uses chalkboards, and not just for classwork but to collect the attendance for the day and other mundane things.

In fact, Japan uses very little "high tech" equipment in the schools, and that includes not just computers but TVs.

Aside from that, probably the other biggest surprises for people were the inability to fail and suspend/expel students. "Without those punishments, how would we maintain order in our classes?" one teacher asked.

One does wonder sometimes.

Sara-Taikusai (Sports Day)

This past Monday was Shitakoji's Sports Day. On that day we went to the large track and field stadium in the Sports Park. It was from 9am to 5pm and between 7am and 9am, students and teachers were getting everything set up. Parents came and watched. It was a big event. Basically it was a very big mini Olympic for those who had mini Olympics in the JHS. I did when I was a middle school student. But for the junior high students in Japan, Sports Day means a lot to them. The different classes in each grade competed against each other. So Class 1 of grade 1 vs. Class, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
To try and recreate the atmosphere of the event I made a short movie with music so please be aware of where you have your volume set.

Patrick- New Faces, Website, Studies

So it's been awhile since the last update. In the interim, I have been working on a "learn the Japanese language" website, and in two months I received over 10,000 visitors, so unfortunately the blog has taken the backseat for a little while.

However, the plan is to now return to weekly updates going forward.

The Japanese school year starts in April. Recently I've been very surprised at how incredibly well behaved our new students are. At first, I thought their good behavior must wear off very quickly, since they get behavioral cues from the older students and many of them behave very badly, but for whatever reason, after about two months at school our kids are still trying to do what they're supposed to, actually upset when they forget their homework or fail a test, etc.

It's a nice change of pace, since the second year students have nearly the opposite attitude. Unfortunately, the teacher who returned from sabattical, who is now responsible for the second years, isn't very assertive, and it's much more difficult now to keep them under control. We have about six students in one class who haven't brought their textbooks to English since April. Of course, they will probably fail the class. But, since the system is automatic promotion, it's very hard to motivate them that hey, actually you shouldn't fail the class if you get the chance.

In other news, I've also been studying Japanese a lot, more than before. I finally finished reading my first book in Japanese. Which is not to say it took me eight months; it only took me eight days, but up to this point I have been so busy learning vocbulary, grammar, etc. I hadn't bothered to actually read any books. Well, since none of that is so interesting in and of itself, I finally couldn't take it and decided to read something.

But of course, the reason I was studying the vocabulary and grammar was because I didn't want to read just any book, and go back to being ten years old. So I read a book on Hegel and Marx that was intended for new college students, which turned out to be a little disaster, but I got through it, and I looked up every single word I didn't know as punishment, which I have discovered is the real key to reading success and not turning into a moron later, when I half remember words but have no idea what they mean because I never bothered to learn them.

Tomorrow I will go rice planting. I don't really know anything about growing rice, so I hope it's a good experience.

Patrick- Here's a hilarious thought

Kids in the US coming to school over their summer vacation to sweep the halls.

Patrick- Recent events

For my third year (ninth grade) students, we had a farewell party last week, which lasted two hours. They called it a party but it included one hour of singing, choir style (each grade to each other), half an hour of cheering (thank god the cheerleading system is completely different), and video and pictures of the kids from their first year to their third.

Also much to my surprise, the teachers "sang" a song which included changing into ridiculous costumes, busting out an electric guitar, and rapping.

Also, we had a special end-of-the-year ceremony for our three deaf students. We have one in each grade-- first, second, and third. Two things surprised me: first, there was no sign language. The teachers and principal spoke to the students almost as if they were no different from any of the other students. As part of the ceremony, the students each had to deliver a speech about the year. When one of the girls didn't see/hear the principal call her name, he gave her a two minute lecture on not paying attention right in the middle of the ceremony. It seemed a bit absurd to me, but the principal runs the whole school like that.

Lastly, we've been doing the year-end cleaning, which runs about forty minutes each day. It mainly includes scrubbing the floors with sponges and little rags-- instead of mops, we use the large number of students (and teachers) to get the job done.

Patrick- Patrash

So my students were joking around after cleaning time, and one boy comes up to me and says, "My nickname is 'Slow Pikachu,' because I'm like Pikachu but not as fast." What's your nickname?

I replied I didn't have one and he said he'd make me one. He thinks for a second and says, "Ah! Patrash!"

Now if he had arrived at that name because I was always after him about picking up the trash (which I am, since he's the only boy able to make the room dirtier during cleaning time), I would have been impressed, but he didn't know the word "trash."

Later nickname suggestions included "Patri", "Patr" "Pa" and "Patrick." When I explained to him Patrick was my name, and therefore could not be a nickname, there was a brief pause, an epiphany, and then a sudden running away.

Patrick- Worship by means of self deprecation

Last week my school had a coming-of-age ceremony for the eighth graders, in which they each chose a phrase to represent themselves, presented calligraphy of said word, and made a thirty second speech. That was quite interesting.

But after that was a speech by a retired principal of the school. Now, as the oldest school in the prefecture, and counting a prime minister among its students, my junior high is a little heavy with history. Also, of course it is a stereotype that Japanese are abusive to themselves when expressing humility. But in my time here, I hadn't really encountered the kind of scenes that give rise to such stereotypes-- until this event.

So the principal started his speech by saying, "My speech will probably be boring, but..." This is a fairly common way of opening and unremarkable. However, he proceeded to say: "you can put the kinds of speeches on a grid, with one axis being interesting/uninteresting and the other good content/bad content. Of course, good content and interesting is the best kind of speech. Some examples of such speeches are x, y, and x. Second best is good content but not interesting. Examples include a, b, and c. I used to know a person who did such speeches." Etc, etc. Six minutes pass this way. "In conclusion, my speech will be neither interesting nor include good content, but it cannot be helped. You see, the teacher who invited me to speak knew this fully, and yet he still invited me..." Etc., etc. Three more minutes pass.

Now, the speech went on 80 minutes after that, but at least he started speaking about something other than the fact he wasn't good at speeches.

It amused me quite a bit, though, that as he enumerated the different types of speeches, of course I thought, "Well, his will definitely be in the last category," but when he concluded so himself, at length, I took some bizarre delight in the absurdity of the situation.

Patrick- Why did the US invade Iraq?

Written on the chalkboard when I entered the classroom today:

• wanted to get oil


• needed to demonstrate US military superiority


• decided to strike back against a government the US didn't like

I'm not sure about my translation of the last one, but I'm fairly confident about the first two.

Patrick - Cheap Shot and Patrick Shock

So periodically students ask me for words that aren't in the textbook. About a month ago, a boy pantomimed the motion of being punched in the nuts and asked, "What's this?"

I said, "Oh, that's a cheap shot." But then the boy started going around asking, "Cheap shot ok? Cheap shot ok?"

I decided I would try to explain to the boy that "cheap shot" meant that it wasn't a good thing to do, so I pantomimed punching someone in the back and said, "This is also a cheap shot." But that didn't work, so I said, "Cheap shot... like cheap hamburger" hoping to draw attention to the meaning of "cheap." Instead, the boys (there were several of them by now) heard "cheap shot", thought of punching each other in the crotch, and then thought "cheap hamburger"... Well, as you can imagine, it was a disaster.

***

Also, somewhat unrelated, my students are fond of making words of their own. Today, though, we had a real winner-- "Patrick shock", which refers to the process (and feeling?) of almost crashing into me as you too fast around a corner. Which is, in fact, an ever present danger for several students who seem to be in the habit of running without looking.

Patrick- "Hello, please try hard to get to school by 9 o'clock"

One thing that is a big difference from the schools I attended is that teachers call truant students in the morning-- and later, if they still haven't shown up.

School starts roughly at 8, but the first class isn't until 8:50. So, before that, there are some meetings for students and teachers etc. During these meetings, if the student hasn't arrived, their homeroom teacher calls home and the conversation will go something like this:

T: "Hello, is this student x?"
S: "Yes."
T: "Why aren't you here at school?"
S: Excuse.
T: "Forget that and come to school in the next thirty minutes."
S: Mumbles something.
T: "I'm serious. You better be here by x o'clock."
S: "Ok."

I find it amusing, but maybe I shouldn't. Actually what's surprising is that despite the relative lack of penalty for truancy (you can't get expelled, for example), most students still come to school on time every day.

Patrick- In Case of Emergency...

Today, we had an earthquake drill. This is like a fire drill in the US; all the students calmly line up and exit the school and are timed to see how long it takes them.

But a few weeks ago we had something different-- a fire drill. This "fire" drill assumed that the students would not be able to evacuate the building via the stairs because of immense flames. Instead, students would slide down giant chutes from the fifth floor to the safe ground below.

Of course, the students enjoyed it tremendously. But I am not sure as to its practicality. First, the school is largely concrete, and would likely not quickly burst into flames. Second, although many schools have a balcony running the length of the school, where students could escape safely, mine does not. Instead, students would have to travel the entire length of the hall to the opposite side of the building-- past both sets of stairs-- in order to reach the chutes. Third, it took us forty-five minutes to evacuate 100 students. At that rate, if the flames were that strong...

But anyway, we had fun, and isn't that what matters during safety drills?

Patrick- Teacher Evaluation Days

On Thursday we had subject evaluation in English, which meant that I taught two classes with my three English teachers, and we were observed by the school principal, the English department head from the board of education, and two teachers from the school. After the classes, we met for two hours to discuss what they thought we could do better.

Although in general it has been my experience that teachers refrain from criticizing each other, the point of these meetings is apparently to take a hard look at what can be improved, and that they did. I won't go into specific details, but it was a long, productive discussion.

Of course, the main teachers glamoured up the classes a little, as we did more creative things than we would usually do, but this actually backfired, as it became apparent that the students could not (in the second years' case) compose a newspaper article from scratch in 50 minutes.

Anyway, I was surprised at the accountability and seriousness of the meeting. I thought that the accountability was generally handled through test scores, which in each subject area are administered and passed along to the board of education every few months.

Patrick- Cultural Festival

This past weekend we had the cultural festival, where the students spend two days having an open house with many performances. They decorate the classrooms, rearranging everything:




In the classrooms, they displayed projects they had created in most of their classes.

For example, all of the students in the school painted different pictures of the Prefectural Park which is about a five minutes' walk from the school:







And here's one of the school itself:


Some of the students also made anti-drunk driving and anti-bullying posters:


Third year students had to paint self-portraits. Some of them gave themselves blue eyes:






Third year students also made enormous banners for their classes:




Second year students had to sew cargo pants together. When I took home ec, we only had to make a bag:



Students also showed off their calligraphy skills:



Second grade students wrote their dream in English. Third years wrote a poem. These are some of my favorites:











I'll add more about the performances and such when I am able to get some of the video and audio recordings up here.

Patrick- "Road Race"

So today I had written on my schedule for the afternoon "road race." Not being thoughtful, I decided to bring my video camera and tripod to school to tape this vehicle-based competition.

But of course, it's a junior high school, and there are no vehicles. Instead, "road race" means "run down the street and back" for 3 km if you're a girl and 4 km if you're a boy. So instead of taping I ended up running with the students.

It was actually a race, too. All students (of the same sex) started at the same time and then were all timed and ranked upon their return, from 1 to very last in the school. So on the recommendation of one of my English teachers, I ran with the girls, because he was concerned some of the boys who weren't such good runners would kill themselves trying to keep up with me, and also he didn't think I could make it with the boys anyway.

Well, having run around the track with fourth graders the week before, I forgot how much faster kids get when they're in junior high (also junior high goes up to the ninth grade, which adds to the pain if you're trying to keep up with them). So I ran down the not-quite-so-flooded river with the girls and finished after about a quarter of them. But, as it turns out many of the first year/seventh grade girls had the same "problem" as the boys and worked a bit harder than maybe they should have to beat me.

When I returned to the school, all was good, but there was no water anywhere for any of the students. I said, "Hey, where's the water?" and they said, "Oh, we don't have any. Maybe we should have some." But at least we had a good breeze.

Anyway, I was still feeling ok, and I have to admit it was a little awkward running with the girls but not the boys. So, when the boys were about to start I ran with them too (at the time, I thought they were going the same 3km, not 4km, so that last kilometer was a bad surprise and I had to walk part of that off). But, I finished with the last quarter of them, and I got in a good exercise on this very hot day.

So, instead of getting to sit around and tape something interesting I ran 7km in pants with a button-up shirt. I realize now I should've asked the day before, and then I could have had the wonderful relief of being able to use the appropriate clothes, but I'm glad I got to do it. Because we have a rule that I only use English with my students, it's hard to have a relationship with the ones that really hate English, which is maybe about 1/3 of each class. So every day like today I think is a great chance to meet them on more level ground.

Sara- Victoria, Canada Orientation and Shitakouji English classes

Morioka has a program where they send a few High School students to their sister city, Victoria, Canada. In the beginning of August I volunteered to help with the orientation meeting. That meeting was today. It was only about 3 hours and I and another ALT, Alicia (This is her 6th year as an ALT and 3rd year working under Earlham's program) taught them how to place an order at a restaurant, tipping, how to shop for souvenirs, and how to introduce yourself to the host family. The students seemed to understand a great deal and it was fun working with them. Showing the students how to use English in a practical setting however made me a little sad about my classes at Shitakouji.

This past week the 7th grade students were to memorize this skit:

Mike: Two hamburgers and two colas please. (In Japan, they say Cola instead of Coke or soda, or pop)

Waitress: Large or small?

Mike: Large please.

Waitress: For here or to go?

Mike: To go.

Waitress: Here you are. That's five hundred and fourty yen, please...Thank you.

The skit is fine, but when I mean memorize, I do mean memorize. Each student was to remember the entire script. The sad part was, only a few of them understood what was going on. To me, it seems that students are only learning the sounds at my school and only a few will realize that some of the phrases can and are used in real life dialog.

Sara- Morioka Sports Day

On September 4th, Morioka had a Track and Field competition for all the junior high schools. It took place in a very large stadium and 23 out of 26 schools participated. My school, Shitakouji came in 1st place for the boys and 2nd for the girls.

The track and field is what one might expect, except for the cheering. Each school groups together and not only do they have set cheers that all the students have to say, but they also change their uniforms to form various writing. These cheers are usually led by three boys who are the leaders of the cheer squad. Look for them near the end of the video.

Patrick writes: You may not believe it at first, but cheerleaders are not only male, they actually all wear clothes here. They don't do any slutty dances, either. Instead, they actually lead cheers. I was taken aback at first, too.

Sara's school

I am the ALT for Shitakouji. I work with five teachers and sit by three of them in the teachers' office. My fist day of classes was on the 28th of August and since there are around 600 students, the grades are broken into 6 classes each. The grades are 7th, 8th, and 9th and are labeled 1, 2, and 3. In one week I will teach 17 classes. I had 4 classes my first day. The first was with class 2 of 8th grade (labeled 2-2). They were really quiet and shy to speak. However now, all the students in all the grades seem to have gotten used to me and often say hello or try to have a conversation with me.

Right now, when I don't have class, I am in the teachers' office and at my desk. I have to correct around 100, 4-sentence essays. The topic is 'My Dream' and the most common dreams are:

Boys: baseball, soccer, or tennis player.

Girls: nursery school teacher, or nurse.

One thing that I notice is that the Japanese textbook treats infinitives as prepositions. This is a little painful to correct since out of the 100 essays, only 10 have correct grammar.

Then after classes and correcting papers, I help a student practice for the Morioka speech contest. Most schools are participating in it and while Patrick has a lot of students to help, I’m lucky and only have one.

The contest is focused on being able to speak English. I don’t really know what the judges will be looking for in particular, but I have been trying to help out my student’s pronunciation.