Sensei and Sensibility
Thursday, July 17, 2003
...
wow...they`re fighting....this is really strange! the principal is getting angry at another teacher for being lazy and the teacher is trying to make excuses and the principal is telling him that there are no excuses he can make that will help.
I`ve never seen anything like this here before?? Shouldn`t this be going on in private? Geez. Strangely though, it is a very calm kind of argument. Only with words. The principal`s voice is a little more firm and the other teacher`s a little more pleading. The teacher who is defending the other one sounds a bit defensive - but there are no raised voices. This is the first argument I have ever seen here! The other teachers are listening intently, but pretending they are asleep ;)
I wonder if they know that I can understand....
I wonder if they would appreciate me typing this here in my journal...
ooooh! now another teacher is sticking up for the other teacher, even though this teacher often covers for the alleged lazy one (who has always been kind to me...)
...It`s a right soap opera in here! I never knew - they usually have these meetings in the library and I don`t have to go!!!
...wow - so THIS is what happens on the last day of school!!!
:(
RG
 Sabine . 9:44 PM . Comments
Bento and Bye Bye
I have to type this discreetly...shhhh...there is an important meeting happening in the staff room now. I have no idea what it is about, but I have been handed about 30 pieces of important - looking paper, as has everyone else.
In any case, I was told today that I am not allowed to leave in a year. They told me that I have become Japanese. Why? Simply because I brought a Japanese-style bento box to school today (last day of school= no school lunch). I dunno....
In any case, I AM leaving, for three weeks at least. Going back to Vancouver for a little R&R and to see my long-lost friends. As such, I might not be able to post for a while.
So, please take care - and I`ll tell you all about my adventures at the end of August!!!!!
(you can talk too...my comments sections are getting mighty sparse... :(
)
:)
Sabine
Sabine . 9:14 PM . Comments
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Last Day of Classes?!
So, I was told that today would be the last day of classes. Yippeee!!!
Except there were no classes....
Morning meeting, as usual.
Then to the library to distribute some papers to the kids.
Then to the gym for a "team spirit meeting" - the sports festival is coming up and the kids just found out what team they are on, and they all got together to cheer.
Then a meeting for the teams to decide leaders and decorations and all that kind of stuff
Then up to my "cleaning post". The kids here have "cleaning time" (souji) each day, and I have to supervise the "meeting room" (the former language laboratory which is now uses as a math room). Today we didn`t do souji, we did osouji. Which basically means that we do a "deep cleaning" of all the rooms - wash the windows, clean the floors, desks and blackboards, wash and wax the floors, etc.
Then we ate lunch, I supervised some kids who wrote a test, and now I am here, typing this.
And still no classes.
Tomorrow is the last day of school....I wonder what THAT will mean...!?!!!!!
In any case, only 4 more sleeps till I go back to Vancouver for a visit, so I don`t care!!!! Yipppeee!
Sabine . 10:26 PM . Comments
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Have you ever wanted to be...
...an ESL scriptwriter?????
Well, now you have a chance!!!!
Seriously, though - I have to come up with a 5-7 minute script, in simple English for a presentation that my Adult class will put on in February for the town. So, it has to be simple enough that my students will understand it, and it has to have many gestures and stuff that the audience will also understand it. Oh, and they told me to make it funny.
And I can`t think of a thing to write!
SO (drumroll please...) I am going to see if anyone here can help me out.
Welcome to the FIRST (and maybe last) Sensei and Sensiblity - Sensible but Incomprehensible Scriptwriting Contest !!!!!!!
There are 3 men and 5 women in my class who are willing to be vicitms...er, performers. The script must be 5-7 minutes long!
Due date is August 20.
THE WINNER will not only have his/her script performed in Ikuno town and noted in the town`s Newspaper, **BUT**
he/she will also win an assortment of squid and other flavoured Japanese snacks!!!!!!
Please send enrtries via sabine@sabine.ca
Thanks all!!!
Sabine . 9:50 PM . Comments
Hmmmm.
This is an excerpt from a conversation I had with one of my teachers. This teacher is apparently one of the brightest in the prefecture - one of only 2 people to pass the Teacher`s licensing exam in her year:
Sabine: Do you like horses?
sensei: Yes I do! My horoscope is a horse!
Sabine: Really? So is my mom`s! I am a Tiger.
sensei: Oh! You know about the horoscope? How did you learn about it?
Sabine: Well, I learned about it in Canada.
sensei: You mean that people outside of Japan know about our horoscopes???!
Sabine: Yes, well, actually it comes from China....
sensei: Really? But how did you learn about it in Canada? Canada isn`t China!
Sabine: Ummmm.... we have a lot of Chinese immigrants. In Vancouver, there are many people from Hong Kong and all over Asia. In fact, about 40% of Vancouverites are from Asia.
Sensei: REALLY???!!!! Wow! Where are the rest from - America???
Sabine: ...Pardon me?!
Sensei: If 40% of people in Vancouver are from Asia, where are the other 60% from - America???
Sabine:......um....ah..... iro iro (different places)
Sabine thinking to herself: This is the BEST that we`ve got here? The future of Education in Japan is doomed!!!!!
Sabine . 7:41 PM . Comments
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Have I Gone Completely Mad??!
... I spent my weekend taking a running leap off a mountain....
...OK, I admit - I had a parachute attached to my back.
It all started last week, when I found myself faced with three consecutive days at Elementary School. Sigh. I only get to see the wee darlings once a week, so when I am there, I muster up every bit of energy I have and spend the classes acting like a clown who teaches English. It is wonderful, but exhausting. By the end of last week, though, I thought I would die. It was like excercising non-stop for three days. The students were very excited too - one took a flying leap at me as I was walking back to the teachers room - she landed in the middle of my unsuspecting back, which decided to twang like a plucked violin string in protest.
I crawled home on all fours, uncertain that I would make it through the next day`s paragliding session in one piece.
I woke up early on Saturday morning, and as I rolled out of bed every joint in my body cracked and creaked in complaint. The weather was a fine downpour, so I called the organiser of the event, half hoping that it would be cancelled. No such luck. I dragged my aching obaachan`s bones up to the paragliding site. Everyone was excited. I was dreaming of the onsen after. We watched a safety video in Japanese. We went outside and practiced the hand motions and learned about our parachute - in Japanese. Everyone was supposed to try on the harness and the parachute and practice the take-off (most important part) before going up, but there was only time enough for half the group to practice. I was in the group that didn`t get the chance. We donned our helmets, harnesses and grabbed our parachute bags. They were wet and heavy because of the rain. We rode up to the top on a chairlift that was basically a suspended bench with no restraining bars whatsoever. We walked to the top of the mountain. Due to the rain, my glasses were all fogged up. Both my hands would be busy maneuvering the chute, so I`d have to settle with flying blind.
I mentioned this to the instructor at the top. He strapped a walkie talkie receiver to my helmet. I told him to speak slowly in Japanese to guide me. He strapped me in to my chute, checking that the cords weren`t tangled with each other. He shouted "Dashite!" - "Go!" and I started running for my life, looking like a purple, soaking wet version of the famous Glico man. I realized that the rear line was wrapped around my arm and pulling it back into a strange angle - if I was to experience lift off in this position, my arm would surely have snapped off. Still running, I managed somehow to disentangle my arm and grab hold of the guide wire, ignoring the throbbing pain. Good thing too, because just as I grabbed hold of the guide wire, I lifted off and was up, flying high over the mountain. The start was a bit wobbly, as I tried to stabilize the chute. Somehow, miraculously, I understood the instructor`s shouts into the reciever and managed to turn and curve and drift on down to the base. My landing was less than graceful. One is supposed to drop the chute and continue running, away from where it was to land. However, the grass was quite slippery from the monsoon rains and I ended up on all fours, eating grass, as the chute slowly settled around me. I had done it!!!!!! And it was surprisingly easy!!!!
I checked my elbow and discovered that my arm was turning purple and there was a nice rope burn from when I tried to free the rear line. Nice!!!! A souvenir from the experience!!!
There was time enough to go up again, so we all hurried - the weather was deteriorating pretty quickly. I got to the top again, and was strapped into my chute. This time I was careful to check that not only were the cords not tangled around each other, but that they weren`t tangled around me either! The instructor said, "Hmmm. Kaze ga nai....Dashite, Dashite!" - " Hmmm, there`s no wind. GO! GO!" Off my little legs went, running down the side of the mountain. My arms were stretched waaaay, waaaay up high, trying to grab some wind. I was running through the scrub, taking water into my boots, I was trying to run faster, harder, and was uprooting vegetation. I slipped in the mud, and fell down onto my butt and went sliding a few feet, until a shrub stopped me. I looked up at my parachute - it had never gotten more than a few feet off the ground. My boots were full of water and vegetation. I was covered in mud, and I was halfway down the mountain. I had NO idea what to do next, so I just lay there, being rained upon. One of the instructors at the top came running down to me. I politely apologized for inconveniencing him. He told me to grab my chute and trek back up to the top. The chute was full of water by this point and must have weighed about half as much as me. As I was pulling it up, the instructor was behind me, pushing me up. At the top, I lay there, still attached to the chute, panting for a while. The instructor kindly let someone else go before me so that I could catch my breath.
When one falls off a horse, though, it is important to immediately get back on one. And so, after about 30 seconds of rest, it was my turn to go again. I checked the wind sock, and it was fluttering lightly. There was a slight breeze, and clouds had floated down into the valley below, making the landing area very difficult to see. Somehow, even with my boots full of water and weighing about 10 pounds each, when the shout of "Dashite!" came, I ran even harder than before. I had received a tip from one of the instructors that if there is little breeze, it helps to lean forward and run. I was running as fast as my stubby legs would let me, I was leaning, I was stretching, and then I caught some big air and lifted off higher than ever before. Because I was so high, I ended up having lots of time in the air to check my position, execute a few turns, and get my feet and body ready for landing. I drifted and drifted, my insides screaming, "You`re flying!!! You`re really flying!!!" I realised how effortless it felt to glide like this on the wind. It was almost too easy! Soon enough though, it was over, and the ground was approaching. I readied myself - determined to execute a perfect landing this time. It was no use - once again, I slipped and went sliding, splayed on the grass.
With both body and ego bruised from my fall, I made my way back to the group, my feet splooshing along the ground the entire way. They looked at me silently at first, waiting to see my reaction to the fall. I looked up and all I could do was smile.
I am, after all, a klutz - so falling is not that special for me. As such, it was easily forgotten. All I could remember, as I was standing there soaking wet and covered in mud and leaves, was that for one brief moment, I had become like an eagle, soaring on the wind. I had flown!!!!!
Sabine . 7:07 PM . Comments
Monday, July 07, 2003
Random Musings
This is an excerpt of an e-mail that I sent a friend. i thought it might be interesting...
"Will I miss it here next year when I leave? You bet I will. I was at the depaato (department store) on the weekend and one of my kindergarten students saw me and said, "Look, mom, it`s Sabine Sensei!" Then she kept walking around saying, "Sabine sensei da! Sabine sensei da!" Her mother just looked at me apologetically and tried to drag her daughter away. In truth, I didn`t mind that her daughter was so excited to see me. It showed me that I am having an effect here, and a positive one at that (at least for that little girl). I care so much for my students - when I leave, I will feel like a mother who has to say good-bye to her 400 or so children... Needless to say, I cried the entire 40 minute drive home.... This will be a year of "lasts" for me. The hardest part is with the younger students - they don`t understand how big the world is - Canada could be just a shinkansen ride away for all they know. They only know that I am going to be leaving them forever. I am already sad, to be honest. This is my life now. This is my reality. This is what I know.
Am I roaming the world like Tin Tin? Ha ha! Well, I`m not solving mysteries, but I am impressing people with my ability to read body language and know what is going on. Here, they tend to think that they can keep their inside feelings from showing on the outside. It is not so - they eyes, especially, say it all. So they are a bit scared of me at times - I have "called" too many things that they thought were secret (A sensei likes B sensei; C sensei had an affair a while back with D sensei.) They don`t understand how I can know these things (body language) so they are always telling me that I must either be very smart or clairvoyant. The truth is, that when language is taken away from a person as a means of communication, one becomes adept at reading other signals - especially body language. Anyway, it is really funny to watch their reactions! So, I am not travelling the world solving mysteries, rather, I am travelling the world seeing the secrets.... ;)
You`re learning Kanji too?! Ganbarro! I know about 200 of the darn things - only about 2300 more to go until I am literate - weehoo! I am studying for the Nihongo Kente 3 kyu level - so I need to know about 400 by the end of November. Truthfully, I have put no effort into studying them - I`ve just picked them up along the way - I hate memorizing stuff. I better start soon! Seriously though, if ever you want to live here for a bit, then definitely learn Katakana. This is most useful for shopping, as many products are named after their English equivalents. Before I learned Katakana, I didn`t know that the blue package was Guraasu kureena. Though sometimes it can be like a strange game (Madgab?!). This weekend, for example, a couple of us went to a singing concert. On the programme, there was a section listed as gureekurabu. Maeva and I got very excited, thinking that it was a piece called "Greek Love", but really, it was a "Glee Club". The funny thing is that both phrases would be written the same in katakana....so beware....! "
Sorry if you think my posts lately have been...um...sporadic at best! Been working 14 hour days lately. Actually, I am a bit concerned because this kind of schedule has become quite normal for me. GASP! must...not...adopt...this...kind....of....work....ethic....!
Hopefully, my three week respite in Vancouver (less than 2 weeks to go!) will help me get my head on straight...!
Take care!
:)
Sabine . 7:10 PM . Comments
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Canada Day: East Asian Style
I too was able to celebrate this oh-so-important day for Canucks around the globe - however, the celebrations were conducted mostly in Japanese, we were in the middle of the monsoon so the fireworks wouldn`t go off, and instead of playing games and making smores around a campfire, we had to do the three-legged races and egg races in a classroom and made the smores over the flames of a gas stove. And there was no Molson beer - only Asahi Super Dry..... :(
Oh, and although I was celebrating on the evening of July 1st here, it would have been about 6am Toronto time and 3am Vancouver time. Never celebrated Canada Day THAT early before...!
Still, I managed to grab my two Canuck friends, Maeva and Suzette, and a bunch of kids and their parents to celebrate. We tatooed each other with the Canadian flag, and sang "Land of the Silver Birch" - a Canadian song which apparently only I know....
We even did the Canadian Anthem for them - in both English and French. Oddly, French- Canadian Maeva only just learned the words to our anthem in English, and Suzette, who went to school in Ontario, didn`t know the words in French (even though she did her law degree in French).
I thought that Canada was supposed to be bilingual with things like these....Apparently it`s only just Sharon Public School that thinks it`s important to know the anthem in both languages...!
The cutest thing was that the kids and parents responded by teaching us the Japanese anthem. Very haunting and beautiful!
And with the monsoon rains, we actually even contemplated building a canoe so that we could get home!
Now, there ain`t nothin` more Canadian than that (`xcept maybe hockey...)
eh!
Happy Canuck Day, wherever you may be!!!
Sabine . 11:07 PM . Comments
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