Then, I had a class with Kasuga sensei, and students were practicing have to / don't have to / must / must not grammar, and I would answer them using the grammar as well as elaborating a bit past their understanding and have Kasuga explain it to help facilitate some cultural exchange. well, things got interesting when a student said "In Japan, a man and a man must not get married, how about in America." I thought this was pretty interesting and was a great question. I also know that, from what I have heard, the conservative nature of this rural area of Japan was part of Jon's impetus for leaving for Tokyo. I'm not saying this particular student had any idea about Jon's lifestyle choices, but I'm pretty sure Kasuga sensei did, and I also know Jon and Kasuga weren't on the best of terms (and from what I've seen so far, I think it just makes Kasuga look extremely shallow, considering in almost every other respect I've gotten along with him swimmingly.
So, Kasuga started by saying something along the lines of "Can two men marry?" The first thing I said was "For the most part no, two men, or two women, cannot be married, although I think in San Francisco and Vermont it is ok."
Kasuga followed up with something along the lines of: "Dwight-sensei, I am concerned (I think he was looking more for the word apprehensive) about how many gay people there are in America, and then I have the recollection that he somehow asked if American's thought it was a problem, or if we think there are a lot of gays in America".
I at first pointed out how a major European (i think?) study suggested that 1 in 10 people in the world are gay, and it's by no way something resigned to America (Although I'm sure Iran's president would disagree, since they have NO homosexuals there. pfft.) I then mentioned how in San Fran and Vermont it's civil unions, which are different from marriages because it doesn't tie in religion (and don't even get me started on the whole state sactioning of religion that marraige is) and also how people in America still debate on the nature v. nurture aspects of homosexuality. Anyway, I didn't wanna force the issue too much with Kasuga, because I also realize he's a very conservative rural man in Japan, and by no means is everyone like that.
In fact, one of the largest selling genres of manga (comics) aimed at 13-16 year old girls are ones with young, pretty, boys flirting with / flaunting homosexuality. So pop-culture : 1 traditional values: 0.
In the afternoon I went to see the students sing at the cultural center and continue practicing for the school festival / something else I'm not sure about. That was a good waste of time. :-) I got a huge kick out of talking with Kubota sensei about how I just couldn't believe how, on the walk to the cultural center from school (all 3 blocks) that the students stayed in line, in order, didn't bunch up, and stayed quiet. Unbelievable. I also talked with Kubota about how she ended up teaching english (she went to america to study psych, but didn't have the english skills, so she enrolled to learn english, and ran out of money, came back to Japan, got her teaching certificate, and done. Lol.)
After school I made my way to the store with a group of students, which was an enjoyable, and fun to talk with them and in general have a good time. there are some really great kids at this school. :-)
Today went just as well / even better. I made sure to get a full night's rest and even treated myself to a nice hearty breakfast (eggs, bacon, milkcoffee and toast w/ jam!).
I got to see my buddy on the way to work, such a great kid! So that meant by the time I got to work I had a huge grin on my face. :-)
I had four classes today. First class was with Kawai sensei's 3-f group, who are 3rd years with a rather low english proficiency. We did work, and played Uno, which was pretty fun! I tried practicing my spanish with them, and in general it was a good time!
2nd and 3rd periods were with 1st year students, and these classes were actually a great time because of the fact that the students were energetic and Kasuga and I had a great time staying engaged. First, I played simon says with the classes,a nd I have to say, Japanese kids do not mess around when it comes to simon says. they are serious, honed, listening machines. To the point that with one of the classes I was playing as if I was with American kids and going so fast that I wasn't even paying attention to if I was saying 'simon-says' or not and was counting on others to see if the final few kids messed up or not. 学生は早いですね。 (they were fast!)
Kasuga and I also did the dialogue with the students, which was a blast, because of how I did the reading :-P
the dialogue went somethign like:
Mike: lets have lunch!
Emi: all right!
m: oh no! my cola! I don't have any tissues. Do you have any?
e: no, but I have a handkerchief. Here. Use this.
Well, the students got a big kick out of 1) me reading Emi's part in a high-pitched voice like a girl, and 2) me sounding really upset at "oh no! my cola!" Kasuga would read it and sound angry, and I was going for this really disappointed sound, and so then we worked with the students on kinda doing a groaning sound as they said "oh no my cola!" as well as stressing any as if the fact they didn't have any tissues just made the situation worse.
This made the readings really fun when the students did it in frnt of the class in pairs. Some students would sound really bland and cold, which made people laugh because it was so detached after we had been so animated.
My personal favorite was Caitlyn, a first-year girl from Brazil* who did this dramatic arm motions before she started as if she was getting herself into character. coupled with the 'illness' mask she was wearing (asains wear masks when they are coming down with a cold or think they are sick to prevent it from being spread, no it doesn't cover their noses, so no, it doesn't make any sense, I know) and talked with a high-pitched voice that made her sound more japanese than the japanese kids. she was really into it and 元気（genki), so that helped!
the last thing I did with these classes was structured dialogue back and forth, where students would say,
"Dwight-sensei, do you want to _______?"
"All right!"
"Do you have any ____?"
"Oh no, I don't!"
"Here, use my ___"
This was fine and dandy, until I realized that a ton of people would ask me to do a sport with them, and ask if I had the coresponding ball. I of course would say, "No, I don't have a basketball / baseball / volleyball" to help them use it correctly, but more than once it went like so:
"Dwight-sensei, do you want to play volley?"
"All right!"
"Do you have any volleyball balls?"
"Ah, no, I don't have any balls."
"Here, use my balls."
To which I had to stifle generous amounts of laughter that was welling up inside of me. I'm such a juevenile. Of course the students had no idea. :-P
My last class was another with kawai sensei, that wasn't particularly interesting, but it was kinda fun, so that's all right.
In the afternoon, I mentioned to Kasuga sensei how I still didn't have any cable TV, even though my internet (also cable) was working, adn I had no luck trying to get it to work. Kasuga let me know that some people from the cable company may be coming by later and to contemplate having to be around for them. I said I get home at varying times, and if he know what time they'd be there. Kasuga said he'd give the company a call, and so we called, and while he was on the phone, I was explaining to the secretary (a nice woman in her late 30's I'd guess, she has such a genuine smile.) that my tv was kinda old, and Kasuga was trying to ask me something about my TV, and while he was running to get his electric dictionary, me and the secretary figured out they were trying to ask if I had an LCD screen, but of course in Japanese the abbrev. is something different, but me and the secretary felt really good when kasuga came back, looked it up, and we had been correct.
Kasuga then told me that it would cost ￥3000 (~$30) for them to come fix it for me. I told him I'd try a little bit harder to figure it out. Kasuga offered to come to my place this eveneing to help me figure it out, but he said he wasn't too confident about his ability to figure it out.
I said, "I can't read Japanese, but I know electronics. You can read Japanese, but don't know electronics. Between the two of us, I think we could figure it out!" he replied with, "Cooperation!"
the secretary and the woman who goes between the school and the town-hall also got a laugh when I showed them and kasuga how I hadn't been paying attention early on when I was signing in each day (I have to use my inkan and stamp in each morning in a log-book) and how I realized that at the beginning of a new month it goes back to the beginning, and I had just kept on stamping in order, and had logged about 7 or 8 stamps into the section for either sick / vacation days or something. Whoops! 外人スマシュGaijin-smash!
I had been hoping to leave school promptly at 4:30, but when I went down at 4 to discreetly pack my stuff up and then head back up to the english teachers lounge to continue doing my japanese homework in private so I could sneak out at 4:30 (no, it's not early), but a teacher's meeting had started at 4. I didn't wanna feel awkward by going in 10 minutes after it started (and everyone is there, including teachers I never see any other time, as well as the principle.) and start packing my stuff up. but I didn't wanna sit around there either. So i went back to the english teacher's office adn did work up there until about 4:45, then went down so I could start packing up. Instead I sat there and waited for it to end at 5-ish, and then went home. I walked home with caitlyn, the brazilian girl, and the 3rd year boy from brazil too. Both of whom have very good english and aren't so scared to talk to me, even though they aren't in the highest lvl english classes.
*Ok, so now for the divergence about why there are south american's in Japan. turn of the century, Japan looked to avoid some of it's over-population by sending lots of it's citizens abroad. Most to south america (and a good portion to the USA). This was also done so that the Japanese could gain a foothold of sorts in other nations. Well, many opted to come back to Japan after WWII due to a lack of promised support from the japanese govt while living abroad. So that's why this small school of 300-ish has two brazilians, a peruvian, and two other students with south-american heritage. Pretty cool! It was great to hear them talking in portuguese today and hearing EMOTION in the way they spoke!
As I was right near my place, we stopped and started talking about spiders (there were some really big ones over the flowing water along the side of the street) and kasuga and kawai sensei pulled up. I went inside and apologized for the state of my apt (but they both said it was pretty clean, so I didn't feel too bad.)
After about 20 minutes of dinking around, we got the cable to work! I was pretty eccstatic to see children's anime on TV :-P I also found out that on NPT, one of the big channels, from 7-10 pm every day (news and some other programs), I can hit a button on my remote and it will switch to english dubbing (not closed captioning) of whatever I'm watching! I thought that was really cool!
I watched an episode (or two) of firefly tonight while having my apple & honey hot curry for dinner (which was supremely delicious!)
I also wore a new gray w/ black stripes shirt today that I had yet to wear with my gray / red tie that I normally wear with my red shirt, and I got several compliments on it!
Lunchtime with students: yes, they eat in the classrooms, students get the food, bring it up, and dish it up. Responsibility!
On stage at the cultural center, the 3rd years practice singing Finlandia. I have this song memorized now. Lol.
the names of all the teachers on little wooden plates. If the name is black, the teacher is there, orange, they're out. Can you find mine?
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bottom right?
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