Its been a while..
I've have started teaching and am now living in my own house. It is pretty damn sweet, but living alone does leave me a bit lonely. I haven't really had the time to try and make friends yet, which will be a tough task considering that almost everyone around me is either old or young.
I continue to be humbled by the kindness Sachiko's extended family show me. Even to the level of guilt. For example it is their custom to provide food to guests with no need for payment. Today I had some awesome pizza given to me and Sachiko's younger brother paid. They all like me a lot and are so kind, I sometimes feel unworthy of the gifts and trust they give me. Well, perhaps unworthy is not the right word, I guess I mean unearnt. I sometimes feel like a just take from them without giving, but I couldn't do anything differently because they wouldn't accept my money even though I want to pay. I guess this is a bit of a cultural clash in a way.
They also wanted to let me stay in there spare house for free. We settled on something of a token price of 300 a month which is pretty awesome.
Today we went to a temple so Sachiko's sister in law, whom is pregnant, could have the baby blessed/prayed for/cleansed of evil or some such. It was pretty amazing, I felt very much like an outsider in this situation to something sacred to these people. I wish I could have taken photos but it was not allowed.
She paid some money and then with lot of other people two monks perform a rite. One was drumming and ringing this awesome huge bell that had the most spacey ethereal sound (would be awesome in a dance track). The other was burning loft of stuff on a table facing away from everyone and doing various chants and motions. This went for about 20 minutes with certain periods involving everyone praying together. Afterwards he went around and touched everyone with his very short metal staff including me whilst chanting something.
I really like Buddhism. The concepts of humility and self-acceptance greatly appeal to me. The ceremony echoed this and was touching. It contrasts starkly with Christianity's seeming focus of denouncing everyone but Christians.
My teaching is going pretty well. I had a few difficult lessons initially but have pretty much found my feet. More on this later.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Written on the 4th of April
Tomorrow I start teaching. I am quite nervous.
There is a large amount of pressure on me to do well. This is not anyone else putting it on me, but being applied by myself. I am working for a good friend whom I care about a lot. She is risking a lot with this venture and as the sole teacher a lot of it rests on my shoulders. Well not really I suppose, the biggest factor will probably be the marketing efforts and it is possible that this area cannot support a school. Still, my efforts could be the difference between success and failure of the school. She will be in the room, both reviewing my lesson and providing some assistance where I have indicated I will need it and if necessary, speaking Japanese to the students if I require it.
She has been totally wonderful with all this and I am sure whether it my lesson works out or not, she will be supportive. Yet I have a strong desire to prove myself to her and reward her faith in me.
I am teaching 2-3 year olds tomorrow. They will be shy so I have my work cut out for me to get them involved. It should be interesting. It is sort of funny, I am already looking at it like programming, which it is in a way. You have to control input to be very precise to such young students. Actions and words must be clear and where possible codified and iconic. I must build a template of commands that are distinct and clear.
There is a danger in looking at it like this. It is a mistake as a teacher to focus too much on one's own performance. What the students learn is the only metric. This can lead to missing out on students reactions and state, but instead just focusing on perfect delivery.
Anyways, I think I will be ok. The more nervous I am leading up to a lesson, the less nervous I feel when teaching (well that is the tendency at least). Still, I am not really that nervous, but my habit is to get increasingly nervous until I start. Once I do I do not fear. The only issue is that I am so excited, that adrenaline (or something) pumps to my brain and I become, well, high.
I really do love teaching. If I will love teaching 2-3 year olds remains to be seen, but I think it will be fun.
By the way I will be teaching all ages at the school, not just 2-3 year olds thankfully. There is a lack of adult students at the moment, which is an issue, but so be it. It is very likely that I will move after a year travel throughout Japan, teaching at other places. I will take this chance if I can to teach adults. I like the ability to have real/natural relationships with my students.
There is a large amount of pressure on me to do well. This is not anyone else putting it on me, but being applied by myself. I am working for a good friend whom I care about a lot. She is risking a lot with this venture and as the sole teacher a lot of it rests on my shoulders. Well not really I suppose, the biggest factor will probably be the marketing efforts and it is possible that this area cannot support a school. Still, my efforts could be the difference between success and failure of the school. She will be in the room, both reviewing my lesson and providing some assistance where I have indicated I will need it and if necessary, speaking Japanese to the students if I require it.
She has been totally wonderful with all this and I am sure whether it my lesson works out or not, she will be supportive. Yet I have a strong desire to prove myself to her and reward her faith in me.
I am teaching 2-3 year olds tomorrow. They will be shy so I have my work cut out for me to get them involved. It should be interesting. It is sort of funny, I am already looking at it like programming, which it is in a way. You have to control input to be very precise to such young students. Actions and words must be clear and where possible codified and iconic. I must build a template of commands that are distinct and clear.
There is a danger in looking at it like this. It is a mistake as a teacher to focus too much on one's own performance. What the students learn is the only metric. This can lead to missing out on students reactions and state, but instead just focusing on perfect delivery.
Anyways, I think I will be ok. The more nervous I am leading up to a lesson, the less nervous I feel when teaching (well that is the tendency at least). Still, I am not really that nervous, but my habit is to get increasingly nervous until I start. Once I do I do not fear. The only issue is that I am so excited, that adrenaline (or something) pumps to my brain and I become, well, high.
I really do love teaching. If I will love teaching 2-3 year olds remains to be seen, but I think it will be fun.
By the way I will be teaching all ages at the school, not just 2-3 year olds thankfully. There is a lack of adult students at the moment, which is an issue, but so be it. It is very likely that I will move after a year travel throughout Japan, teaching at other places. I will take this chance if I can to teach adults. I like the ability to have real/natural relationships with my students.
Monday, April 2, 2007
More shenanigans
Re photos. They are all ready to upload, but whenever I try and upload to my webspace, it drops out quickly. I think the wireless is periodically reconnecting or something, so I will try and lan connection when i can.
I am now in Shizuoka.
I have had a touching few days. Sachiko (my employer and former Japanese teacher) and her family are the sweetest people. I feel like a big baby around them, as they constantly tend to my needs and keep me well fed. They also paid for my food when I went out with them. I protested, but when I persisted I was told that it is a Japanese custom to look after the guests.
It is in some ways hard being around them. They are interesting people and I want to know more about them, but my Japanese is not really up to the task. I also worry about boring them with banal conversation as can't often ask or say something poignant. It is also difficult with Sachiko there in a way, as her English is damn good. I basically speak to her as I would a native and she understands fine. It is hard to constantly switch between speaking to her and her family.
Yet these are small complaints amid some wonderful people. The oldest person in her house is he grandmother who is 84. She is fucking trooper. She gardens and clearly pushes her old body to the limit. She was fetching me food and such at dinner. I felt embarrassed to be basically be served by someone that I should be serving, if you know what I mean. She is the most difficult to talk to, as her hearing isn't so good and is the worst due to her age at grading her language. Plus she can't see very well so doesn't know when i don't understand. Nonetheless I enjoy it, we have moments of understanding and humour that are awesome.
Today Sachiko taught some Japanese to some Brazilians. Arai-cho and it neighbouring large city Hamamatsu have a lot of Brazilians. This is because there are close ties between Brazil and Japan, as Japan occupied it until 80 years ago. There are still a lot of Japanese living in Brazil. This means that it is easy for Brazilians to get a working visa in Japan and come and work. Given Brazil is a really poor country and Japan is very rich, Brazilians that struggle to support their families, or Brazilians that struggle in Brazil at all, come to Japan to work. Those with families, which I believe is the vast majority, send as much of their wage home to support them as they can.
What this means is, there are a whole lot of Brazilians who do a crap load of work and who have bugger all money. Sachiko asked one of the students if he played soccer, and he said that he would but he didn't have the time due to work. They all looked quite tired. Pretty sad really. They live in cheap accommodation (Sachiko guessed it at 200 per month) which is sponsored by the town to try and help them.
It was interesting to see them. They have an amazing sense of community. There was noone trying to dominate anyone else in the class, or any sort of vying for position. They just helped everyone else where they could and there was a touching sense of acceptance of each other. You can see the effort they are putting in.
These lessons exist because a man wants to teach them Japanese to help them. The problem was he doesn't know how to teach, so asked Sachiko to teach one lesson and he would continue on from that. I don't think it will work out so well. When he was speaking to the students, he was using damn complex Japanese and speaking fast. The ability to grade language (to simplify) is a core requirement of a teacher. You can't say to someone who is learning Japanese for the first time much of anything, let alone something like "When you are studying and you need some help please write down your questions and bring them to the next lesson" :)
After that we went to see the cherry blossoms. The cherry blossom tree, or sakura (street fighter fans might recognise the name), is the national tree of Japan. Around late March early May is blooms and the Japanese have 'hanami'. This translates to cherry blossom viewing. People gather beneath and around the sakura and have picnics and generally get very drunk. It is pretty awesome, the trees are very beautiful and we saw them at about 80% prettiness. There are some areas that are have masses of these trees and create an amazing site. The way the bright light pink contrasts with the tree and surroundings is really beautiful.
Sachiko's younger brother and his wife and daughter also came. She is, I have deemed, the cutest baby in existence. Sachiko's younger brother is funny and a little bit fat, which Sachiko is not shy of pointing out. I love the strong family aspect in Japanese culture. Everyone knows each other really well, it almost feels like an endless party with different groups of people (members of the family) coming together and having a great time.
I have also moved into my place. This is Sachiko's families old and unused house. It is pretty fucking sweet. It feels so good to have my own place after living in a capsule hotel for so long. This is my first night alone, which is something I have been hungering for. I have been in social situations for so long I just want some to do my own thing. I have been offered to stay for free, but I said I wasn't happy about it and we said we would talk about it latter. So we will probably settle with something less than what it is worth.
I have now applied for homestay with an agency and will also look elsewhere. It will probably be about 2 months until I get something. My task at the moment is to prepare for my first class on Thursday.
This is enough for now I think.
I am now in Shizuoka.
I have had a touching few days. Sachiko (my employer and former Japanese teacher) and her family are the sweetest people. I feel like a big baby around them, as they constantly tend to my needs and keep me well fed. They also paid for my food when I went out with them. I protested, but when I persisted I was told that it is a Japanese custom to look after the guests.
It is in some ways hard being around them. They are interesting people and I want to know more about them, but my Japanese is not really up to the task. I also worry about boring them with banal conversation as can't often ask or say something poignant. It is also difficult with Sachiko there in a way, as her English is damn good. I basically speak to her as I would a native and she understands fine. It is hard to constantly switch between speaking to her and her family.
Yet these are small complaints amid some wonderful people. The oldest person in her house is he grandmother who is 84. She is fucking trooper. She gardens and clearly pushes her old body to the limit. She was fetching me food and such at dinner. I felt embarrassed to be basically be served by someone that I should be serving, if you know what I mean. She is the most difficult to talk to, as her hearing isn't so good and is the worst due to her age at grading her language. Plus she can't see very well so doesn't know when i don't understand. Nonetheless I enjoy it, we have moments of understanding and humour that are awesome.
Today Sachiko taught some Japanese to some Brazilians. Arai-cho and it neighbouring large city Hamamatsu have a lot of Brazilians. This is because there are close ties between Brazil and Japan, as Japan occupied it until 80 years ago. There are still a lot of Japanese living in Brazil. This means that it is easy for Brazilians to get a working visa in Japan and come and work. Given Brazil is a really poor country and Japan is very rich, Brazilians that struggle to support their families, or Brazilians that struggle in Brazil at all, come to Japan to work. Those with families, which I believe is the vast majority, send as much of their wage home to support them as they can.
What this means is, there are a whole lot of Brazilians who do a crap load of work and who have bugger all money. Sachiko asked one of the students if he played soccer, and he said that he would but he didn't have the time due to work. They all looked quite tired. Pretty sad really. They live in cheap accommodation (Sachiko guessed it at 200 per month) which is sponsored by the town to try and help them.
It was interesting to see them. They have an amazing sense of community. There was noone trying to dominate anyone else in the class, or any sort of vying for position. They just helped everyone else where they could and there was a touching sense of acceptance of each other. You can see the effort they are putting in.
These lessons exist because a man wants to teach them Japanese to help them. The problem was he doesn't know how to teach, so asked Sachiko to teach one lesson and he would continue on from that. I don't think it will work out so well. When he was speaking to the students, he was using damn complex Japanese and speaking fast. The ability to grade language (to simplify) is a core requirement of a teacher. You can't say to someone who is learning Japanese for the first time much of anything, let alone something like "When you are studying and you need some help please write down your questions and bring them to the next lesson" :)
After that we went to see the cherry blossoms. The cherry blossom tree, or sakura (street fighter fans might recognise the name), is the national tree of Japan. Around late March early May is blooms and the Japanese have 'hanami'. This translates to cherry blossom viewing. People gather beneath and around the sakura and have picnics and generally get very drunk. It is pretty awesome, the trees are very beautiful and we saw them at about 80% prettiness. There are some areas that are have masses of these trees and create an amazing site. The way the bright light pink contrasts with the tree and surroundings is really beautiful.
Sachiko's younger brother and his wife and daughter also came. She is, I have deemed, the cutest baby in existence. Sachiko's younger brother is funny and a little bit fat, which Sachiko is not shy of pointing out. I love the strong family aspect in Japanese culture. Everyone knows each other really well, it almost feels like an endless party with different groups of people (members of the family) coming together and having a great time.
I have also moved into my place. This is Sachiko's families old and unused house. It is pretty fucking sweet. It feels so good to have my own place after living in a capsule hotel for so long. This is my first night alone, which is something I have been hungering for. I have been in social situations for so long I just want some to do my own thing. I have been offered to stay for free, but I said I wasn't happy about it and we said we would talk about it latter. So we will probably settle with something less than what it is worth.
I have now applied for homestay with an agency and will also look elsewhere. It will probably be about 2 months until I get something. My task at the moment is to prepare for my first class on Thursday.
This is enough for now I think.
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