Exam practice

Today has been a bit of a long day. I marked some papers from a lesson on travelling. The task was to fill in the blanks of a model dialogue I had written where two people are debating where to go this summer (surreptitiously attempting to get the kids to express their own opinion), so each says a reason why their destination should be chosen and a reason why their partners shouldn't.

"I would like to go to Brazil because I want to buy coffee beans."

"I would like to go to France because I like eating pasta."

"New Zealand is too far, let's go to the USA."

"England is too cold, let's go to New Zealand. We can watch rugby matches."

"How about Mongolia? The culture is amazing and we can see the stars."

There were, of course, some wonderful answers, but the stranger ones have naturally made it to this blog.

After school I held my weekly English club with the students I adore. Next week is the exam so they wanted to study, choosing the past tense with such structures as 'I have already finished.'

A technique that seems to have worked for me in the past is to use crazy examples that will stick their heads so they can recall them in the exam for comparison. Another one is to get them to write their own sentences so they can memorise the rules for forming them.

We came to the grammar aspect 'have you ever ...?' so I tested them with my own questions to get them practising. 'Have you ever seen a Harry Potter film?' I asked. 'Yes, I have seen five Harry Potter films' they chirruped. 'Have you ever been abroad? Have you ever eaten horse steak?' and so on and so forth. Then I asked them to each think of a question to ask me.

Two minutes later:

Students 'Have you ever eaten natto?'

Me - 'Yes, I have eaten natto! But only once!'

'Have you ever been to Kyoto?'

- 'Yes, I have been to Kyoto many times.'

'Have you ever dated an American?'

- Huh?! 'No, I have never dated an American...'

'Have you ever said 'I love you' to a boyfriend?'

- 'Ok! So, we've covered this grammar point, moving on..'

'Sensei!!'

I think they're going to do just fine.

Changing and unchanging things

Everytime I speak to someone from back home, I'm reminded that it's mere weeks and not months that I have left in Japan. Time, once again, is slipping away from me, just as it has done with every experience abroad I've ever had and all the time I spent at University.

The idea of not living in Japan anymore is scary. It's a scarier prospect than arriving here in the first place, and I believe the nice folk on the JET programme when they say reverse culture shock can be even more intense that the initial culture shock. It's all being brought home to me because my lessons are being wrapped up now and I only have two days left at my adored visit school.

How is it possible that I arrived in Japan nearly a year ago? So much has happened and so much has changed. I started thinking today about what I knew back then and what I've learnt, and I was reminded of a song from an anime I once watched with my brothers. It was called The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and it told the story of a high school girl who was capable of time leaps. Even though I really enjoyed it, I didn't think about it much afterwards. So tonight I watched a clip of one of its song, translated as 'Unchanging things.' You can watch it here:

The film hasn't changed since the last time that I watched it, but I have. For a start I was stunned to realise I understood about half of the Japanese that was being sung.

Every aspect of the mundane elements of that film - the scenery, the food, the classrooms, the melodramatic schoolkids, the trains - has become a part of my life now. Watching this clip again tonight, a year on, I realised that from now on everytime I saw it I would feel a pang of homesickness for a place that was only my home for a little while. If you're about to start the JET programme and you're reading this, savour every single moment because it'll be gone before you know it.

Splash of good fortune

I'm a little bit tipsy, which is unusual for a school night, but I felt I should probably write this post so people could at least laugh at the misfortune (or fortune, depending on your perspective) that led me to cry 'tonight I deserve the chu-hi that's chilling in the fridge!'

After finishing up at my visit school today, I decided to stop off at the shopping mall that's kind of en route to my apartment. I was relaxing and looking at various gifts I wanted to buy and decided to measure my make-up against a small-looking make-up bag (covered in Totoro!!) that I wanted to buy for myself. As I reached into my bag I found an email and two missed calls from my supervisor on my phone. The email read:

"There is an overflow of water in your house. The landlord and a mechanic came there. They need the permission from you. Now I got a call from the principal telling me that a mechanic is fixing the problem, he is now in the verander."

Oh.. poo.

So I rang him straight back, running towards the shopping mall exit even as the phone was ringing. When he picked up he didn't have much more information than was in the email as he was still at school waiting to hear from me. He offered to pick me up from my home station and I pegged it across the bridge and towards the ticket barriers. I slipped onto the train just as the doors were closing and was confronted by a man who stared just a little too hard and had a mild case of halitosis. Running through my mind was every possibility that could have led to my apartment flooding. I'm so careful. I had checked the taps were closed before I left that morning,. A pipe must have burst! My supervisor had said my apartment was 'full of water' - what was damaged? How would I afford the repairs? What a nightmare :(

At my station I slipped off the train as quickly as I had slid on and headed for the exit. 30 seconds later my supervisor picked me up in his car and we hurtled towards what has been my home for the past ten months. We briefly talked about the possibilities, what could have happened, and I felt my heart pounding. Why! I wanted to cry.

5 minutes later we were at my apartment. My supervisor went to park the car as I hopped out and hurtled towards my door, keys already in hand to let any necessary mechanic / plumber / superhero in.

But no one was waiting outside. I knocked and unlocked, and peered in. I expected water to gush out over my wellies.. but nothing. I stepped in and switch the light on. Stuck my head into the bathroom. Tiptoed into the bedroom. Nothing.

Well, it must be the balcony that flooded, I thought.

Nope, the balcony was bone dry. I let my supervisor in, and it quickly dawned on us that the landlord had made a mistake. He called the school and let them know, but his irritation with the landlord was clear. In the meantime I had a couple of kittens and decided to just be grateful my possessions hadn't floated out of my apartment in my absence. Without a doubt I will be doubly paranoid for my remaining six and a half weeks in the shoebox apartment, but I am glad that the place hadn't flooded.

It dawned on me afterwards.. the landlord contacted my school but he had obviously got me confused with someone else. Maybe there is another ALT in my town who is in for a nasty shock tonight? What a long day this has been indeed. I'm glad I had the foresight to buy an alcoholic drink this weekend.

Osaka Aquarium

This weekend I went with some friends to the aquarium in Osaka, which was expensive but definitely a good afternoon out. (Tip: go when you know there won't be so many small children. I was kicked by one and sneezed on by another.)

Here's a link to the website in case you're interested in going. The adult tickets are 2000 yen, with an extra 600 yen getting you a ride on the ferris wheel. I opted not to do this as I am chicken, hear me buckaw.

When you're inside the enormous building, you take an escalator right to the top of the 7 levels and see the otters and the fish and crustaceans that you find near the surface. Then come the sea lions. As you descend you come across ever more kooky and colourful forms of life, from the flourescent, tiny little fish to the big, fat, gormless ones that look as if they have undergone a full frontal lobotomy. Whale sharks and dolphins also make an appearance and sting rays abound.

After we'd spent about two and a half hours looking at everything, we headed to the nearest food court where I had my first Japanese subway sandwich. The guy toasted my bread before he put the cheese on (WHAT) but there was a new flavour we don't have back home - avocado and veggie. You win some, you lose some.

Despite copmpletely tiring myself out this weekend (Friday saw a JET farewell party at an all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink place out in the sticks), I was unable to sleep last night and have been awake this morning since 5.20am. This is probably going to be a looong week folks, so please disregard any uncharacteristic spelling mistakes. I hope all is well back in the land of fish and chips.

Mmm... chips.

Be more careful in future, kid

Yesterday I gave a lesson on the future tense, explaining the difference between ‘I’m going to ~’ and ‘I will ~’

To set the scene, I first decided to revise the past tense, so asked the students very simply what they had done the previous weekend. In this class there are a few more students willing to volunteer than in others, but they were still a little slow to get started. I reminded them that they could get reward stamps for volunteering, at which point the hands started to go up.

Most of them talked about how they practised their instruments or played sports, but one boy raised his hand and with a cheeky smile said ‘I did nothing.’

‘Oh really?’ I asked, moving towards him. If students don’t give full enough answers I have a habit of questioning them further until I’m satisfied they’ve tried their best. I could see from my angle that he had his leg up on a chair too, so I decided to make him really work for his stamp. ‘Why didn’t you..’

I stopped in front of him. The foot that was on the chair next to him was encased in the most enormous plaster cast I have ever seen, with his toes poking sadly out the end. He grinned and pointed at his leg.

‘What did you do??’ I asked, the shock evident on my face.

‘Broken’ he replied.

‘How?’ I persisted, more from curiosity than from any desire to stretch his English. He clenched two fists together and made a snapping-twig gesture, accompanied by a crunching noise.

‘Aaargh!’ I yelled, the class erupting in laughter. ‘Yes but.. how? Football?’

‘Rugby,’ came the answer. I stamped his card and went back to the front of the classroom.

So on I went with the lesson, explaining the grammar and tailoring the questions accordingly. ‘What are you going to do this weekend?’ I asked the class.

Up went the hand of the broken-foot student. ‘I’m not going to do anything,’ he began, pointing melodramatically to his foot. ‘I can’t!’ Another stamp.

‘Any volunteers to read the dialogue?’ I continued. The broken-foot student volunteered himself and his friend.

‘Okay, stand up then.. no no, not you! You can sit down!’ The students normally stand up to read out loud and he wouldn’t be told to sit down if his friend was standing, preferring to balance precariously on one foot. Another stamp.

Every second time I asked for volunteers, he was there, reminding me that he was injured but still soldiering on. Twenty stamps or so later, I came to the final grammar point; using the present tense – ‘I am ~ing’ – to talk about the future.

‘What are you doing after school today?’ came my final question.

‘I’m going to the hospital’ shouted broken-foot student, pointing one last time to his cast.

Okay kid, I get it!!

Japanese efficiency

Sunday morning. Early. The world is awake because, it seems, Sunday is just another day to work in Japan. Last night my neighbours kept me up past 1am (which is a big deal now I'm not a student anymore) so I was looking forward to at least being able to lie in until 9am or later.

At around 6.45am an unexplained loud noise woke me up. Groggily, I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep. Drifting in and out of consciousness, I was aware of moving around outside my balcony.

At around 7.30am the machinery started. Loud hedge trimmers and something that sounded like a pneumatic drill began operating on the area outside my apartment. A group of men were intermittently chattering loudly in Kansai dialect close to my balcony. They sounded so chirpy and awake that I wanted to go out and thump them.

The noise continued and continued, until I was fully conscious and unable to go back to sleep. At 8.45am I gave up and decided to go and make a cup of coffee and start my day. I came and sat at my computer at about 9am and looked out the window to see the guys all loading their machinery back onto their truck, the day's work apparently completed.

HGFUISDHGFKNDKGBAEDIHGFSD

Volunteering - June

Today I went to the children's home again, which was a lot of fun and just what I needed. There were only two of us going today but it caused a fair amount of excitement anyway. With no game tournaments going on and the weather too rubbish for running around in the yard, we wandered the corridors to see what the kids were up to. The girls appeared to be eating a late lunch so we made our way to the boys' floor.

That's where I was first attacked by a 7 year old with an imaginary light sabre.

As I fell to the ground in slow motion, matrix style, another small child rushed at me with a large yellow bean bag and began swiping for my head. I stood up straight, realising only my height would save me and noticed I'd arrived at the main play room for the boys. The more boisterous boys got distracted by something further down the corridor, so I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the others who were staring up at me inquisitively.

"It's a new person," one of them said in Japanese. Another one popped up from behind me and began tugging at my name card. I hadn't seen him before and figured he must have arrived fairly recently. He sounded out my name and asked where I had come from. "I'm from England," I replied.

"Not Japan?" His eyes widened.

"No, I came from England," I answered. I asked his name and he said it slowly before pointing to his name on the list in the corridor. Then he charged off to overpower another boy's dinosaur with what I think was a plastic gun (it more closely resembled a drill.)

I stuck my head into the playroom and asked if I could come in. The kids graciously granted me permission so I scurried in and sat down on the floor next to a very quiet little boy who was carefully arranging shogi (Japanese chess) pieces on a board. He didn't seem to mind me being there, but he wasn't interested in small talk.

Eventually the others burst back into the room in a storm of fake gun sounds, light sabre swishes, and what can only have been battle cries. I was dragged into the battle between the gun and the dinosaur - the rules changed every minute so I'm pretty sure I lost every round. Then I was whisked away to watch TV, play several rounds of tag, hide and seek, and be killed in battle a few more times. When we left I was pretty exhausted, but happy. Hanging out with the boys was a different experience to last time and reminded me of playing in the garden with my little brothers when we were younger. These boys even had a bag of 'slime' on the playroom table that they claimed to have collected from the garden. It all feels so familiar..

Goodnight, grandma

One of my biggest fears about coming out to Japan was that something would happen to my grandparents whilst I was away. My grandma has had a fair few health problems over the past few years, and even though she pulled through every time, I still worried that something might happen whilst I was so far away.

My grandma died yesterday. She'd not been too well after a recent fall and had deteriorated over the past week or so. The family was with her when she passed away at home and I'm told it was very peaceful. I'm glad that she went in the best way possible.

But I'm also selfishly sad that I couldn't have been there too, to say goodbye or to say thank you. I feel wretched that I can't even go to her funeral when she was there my whole life. This post is my way of saying what I can't say to her, it's the only thing I can do.

When I was little, I used to go to my grandparents' house to stay. I'd normally go with one of my cousins, and at first we'd only stay for one night. As we got older and grew used to being away from home, we'd stay for a few days at a time and sometimes I would even go by myself. We'd all go on day trips to the local park, grandad would help me with my maths homework, grandma would play games with us and talk to us about whatever was going on in the news.

One of the things that stands out at me about memories of my grandma is that she was passionately anti-Thatcher. For as long as I can remember she would talk to me (at me?) about politics, even when I was too young to really understand what she meant. She also talked about social issues in general, teaching, learning difficulties, employment.. no doubt fuelled by what she was learning in her second degree in social sciences. I joked that these were 'lectures', but she inspired me to take sociology at college. Naturally, all the things she'd taught me gave me a head start in my classes, and it's probably not a surprise that I would never ever consider voting Tory.

Learning was a big deal for her. In fact, it always has been for both my grandparents. They bought my brothers and I our first encyclopaedias. For years we would go to see a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company every summer (beforehand she would always insist we dig out the big encyclopaedia of literature and read a synopsis of the play we were about to see.) She taught me a lot, about specific subjects and about the importance of studying. Every morning, before she started to be unwell, she would wake up between 6-7am and do the crossword whilst waiting for my grandad to wake up. I would sneak into her room, sit on the floor and stroke the cat, pretending to muse over the clues she was giving me (I make no pretence, I'm still not capable of doing those crosswords even now.) Sometimes she would give my cousin and I a really long word and ask us how many smaller words we could make with it. We would scamper off to do this whilst she and grandad got up and ready for the day and then together we'd try to make the list longer.

She was a convinced Christian too, and some of the explanations she gave me strengthened the faith I have today.

My grandparents' house has always felt like my second home to me. My cousins and I learned to play so many games there. Scrabble was always the hardest one, and grandma was quite strict about the 'no proper nouns' rule. But my cousins and I learned early on that we could easily trounce her in a game like 'pairs' or any card game involving memory. Those were such fun times, and I used to really look forward to school holidays when I could go and stay with my grandparents.

She'd always been hard of hearing, so one day my grandad bought her a hearing aid. It felt like a new era! All of a sudden she could hear us so much better. When she had it in, of course. She had a habit of not putting it in when we went to see her, which we only realised when she started to tell us off half-way through a conversation for speaking too quietly (often ensued by cries of 'put your hearing aid in, grandma!') She'd put it in and switch it on, then look expectantly at grandad. Grandad would then quietly say 'Mary had a little lamb..' and she would finish with 'and then she had some more.' This was their test to check the hearing aid was working properly, and it cracked me up every single time.

I'm going to miss my grandma so much. She was a huge part of my childhood and used to give such great advice, especially when I was having a tough time at school.

One day she said to me 'don't worry about boys and about what the other girls at school are doing. Study hard. Do well at school, pass your exams and when you get to University you'll be the belle of the ball.' I never forgot those words.

Thank you grandma, for everything. Thank you for helping me do well at school. Thank you for helping me be a better Christian. Thank you for your wise words. Thank you for patiently sitting and playing with me and my brothers and cousins for hours and hours. Thank you for being the best grandma ever.

I'll always remember you xxx