Holiday with the Conversation Class

We love, love, love our conversation class! It is so wonderful to interact with people who actually want to learn English, plus they can answer our questions about Japanese society n stuff, and they just rock in general.

We have a variety of levels, but since most of the students are really advanced, we cater to that. Since they have a variety of interests, we've covered: homosexuality in the US, beard styles, idioms, guns in the US, airports, and more! One of our students types up a review of the previous week's lesson to give to everyone.



As we are in the holiday season, they requested a Christmas party. How could we say no? And since they'd never had turkey, we ordered one online and roasted it for the party. And thanks to my Boston Market experience, I wowed them all with my ahem, amazing carving ability. Seriously, they were silent while I dismembered the bird. Everyone liked the turkey, which almost disappointed us because we wanted all the leftovers! ;) The students all brought some food, so we had a great mix.

After dinner we did a White Elephant exchange- the style where you can steal another person's present. Not surprisingly, everyone was too polite to swipe a present, so it was up to Aaron and me to start the scandal. Man, the look on Kazumi's face when I took her thermos! Then the hands started grabbing! So much fun... and Kazumi was eventually reunited with her thermos. Happy ending for all.

Control in Theory

So why is teacher's control given the "in theory" caveat? Because the teachers really don't have any control over students. Students have a legal right to be in class, which means the teacher can't kick a misbehaving student out of class. There doesn't seem to be suspsension. There doesn't seem to be detention. And the kicker-- even sport or club participation cannot be withheld. So any disciplinary action only works against the kids who're easily swayed by authority figures-- y'know, the kids who normally aren't causing any problems.

Grades in Japan are pretty interesting. See, in order to advance into high school, students must pass that high school's entrance exam. Same for university. Grades don't factor in. So many JHSs simply let the kids slide through classes, presuming that the kid will either prove themself by passing the exam, or learn a lesson by going to a lesser school.

How to Stay Warm in Japan

The Japanese don't use insulation in their buildings, which leaves the students to come up with ways to stay warm.

* Baba shaa-tsu -- Grandma shirts. Like long johns.

* Hot Cairos -- Little hot packs. Some are sticky, so you can heat your belly!

* Hiza Kake -- "Knee Pulls" Pretty much lap blankets

* Loose Socks -- Leg warmers. Quite fashionable here.

* Kettles -- Since the Japanese can't stand dry air, they put kettles of water on the kerosene stoves.



The girls aren't allowed to wear pants, and aren't supposed to wear tights. So instead they wrap their lap blankets around them and shuffle through the hallways. As most of the lap blankets are emblazoned with Disney characters, I find this method the least aesthetically pleasing.

Control

In the Winter Vacation, hoardes of High School students staff the post offices. New Year's is a major holiday here, and the custom is to send out New Year cards to friends, business contacts, family, and even the ramen truck man, to concrete friendly relations. And since the cards simply flood the post office, the post offices make use of the temporarily-free students.

Now, in order to work as a student, the school has to give permission. I presumed this had to do with maintaining good grades, but when I finally asked about it, I learned I was waaaay off.

The only factor the school considers is money. As in, how much does the family have. Does the family really need the income from the student?

Since grades aren't considered, I asked why it was up to the schools to make the decision. Said question did not compute with my teacher. In theory, teachers and school have a lot of control over students inside/outside the classroom. Teachers often patrol civic events, to prevent bullying or smoking. Teachers often visit students' homes to talk with parents.

But this can lead to some trouble, as many parents are leaving behavioral instruction to the schools. There have been a lot of student bullying cases recently, and many parents are coming out to say that the teacher should be regulating students behavior, while the teachers are saying that parents should be teaching their children moral guidelines.

Inoshishi

When my parents were here, in the autumn, I was noticing an awful lot of inoshishi [wild boar] things; figurines, pictures, cards, etc. I wondered if inoshishi were a fall staple, the way rabbits represent the harvest moon, and therefore are everywhere for a few months in early autumn. I was a bit surprised about the inoshishi, as I didn't notice any last year. But then again, we were so busy and culture-shocked last fall that we must have just missed it.

Well, the mystery has been solved. 2007 is year of the boar, so of course inoshishi things are everywhere. I felt a little silly for forgetting about that. And to tie into the whole boar thing, we finally saw one! Driving back from Takeno on Turkey Day, a big ol' dirty pig scampered across the road in front of us.

Tests All Around

On Dec 3rd, I again attempted the JLPT. Overall I felt much better this year-- I felt I was understanding the content, but I also know I made a myriad of small mistakes. Just have to wait until March to find out exactly how many of those mistakes I made. But my overall goal of not losing the keitai was realised!!




And once again it's testing at the school. We have testing about every six weeks, with the students getting half days. I'm not really sure what purpose these tests serve; I'm told by my teachers that they want an average score of 60%. I'd thought that the idea is to see how well the kids do, and go back and review/redo/relearn any trouble areas. But my teachers don't even like to review the test in class. So far, my impression is that the tests are really just postmarks-- that now we can move onto new things.

This testing cycle I really upped the tests for Oral Communication. Instead of the incredibly weak and wimpy interview session [weak because the teacher wouldn't allow a seperate meeting time-- we had to interview 37 kids in the middle of their 50 minute test], their speaking portion is a speech. Now, this shouldn't seem shocking or revolutionary, but I assure you it is. My JTE was pretty reluctant to go forward. But I prevailed! And several students have actually sought me out to help with the speeches! Again, that shouldn't seem shocking, but it is!

Squishy

We found this in one of those quarter-toy machines at a recycle shop. It's like a stress doll, but it's a boob. I guess if you're lonely...

Holidays in Japan

Yeah, they're long gone, but we did manage to throw together a Halloween party and a Thanksgiving gathering. Not surprisingly, the Halloween party got kinda out-of-control... lots of foreigners + lots of alcohol = interesting evening. Thanksgiving was much more sedate, likely due to overeating and the resultant contentedness.

Cooking holidays make for a unique challenge in Japan. Japanese food typically falls into one of three categories: raw, pickled, or deep-fried. Yes, there are a few other categories, but those are definately the top three. Notice that these methods do not require a lot of space, unlike, say, an oven. Baking has no traditional place in Japanese cuisine, so few people have ovens. Luckily, we foreigners can usually scrounge up an oven. So while it took a lot more work and creativity than a typical Turkey Day, we triumphed.