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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Monday, November 18, 2002 |
 I've just gone up to 800 reads of the Breakfast Show! Next stop four figures...
(And yes, I know it's pathetic, but I'm quite proud really!)
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Watched A Beautiful Mind this evening. I saw this film at the cinema a while back, but I'm glad I bought it on DVD. It's a very atmospheric film, reminiscent in some ways of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
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This evening is bitterly cold. Walking home from work, I made the decision that just a kotatsu would no longer be enough to keep me warm, so I went and bought my first canister of toyu- kerosene- of the season. I bought a new kerosene heater at the beginning of this year, and it's very efficient (well, at least as far as kerosene heaters go); in about half an hour, the room was as warm as toast. I shouldn't have held off for so long before going to buy toyu!
I have to say I never particularly enjoy filling the heater with kerosene- I have to go outside into the cold, and I always seem to get more kerosene on my hands than in the container. However, as I switched the heater off before I went to bed, there was the not unpleasant smell of kerosene, a very evocative smell that means 'winter', and of which I am strangely fond.
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I think I've identified the latest fashion trend among the Junior High School boys... safety pins. On the way home from work, I saw about fifteen boys- too many for it to be a coincidence- with safety pins attached to their clothes in various patterns, and various positions. Safety pins on the lapel and breast pocket seemed to be especially popular, and one boy even had his school blazer fastened with safety pins instead of buttons!
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There were about fifty children outside the Junior High School as I passed, and most of them called out to me, so I went to talk to them. Most of them seemed to be making no attempt to go home, despite having no need to remain at school, and despite complaining about the cold...
Three first year boys were especially amusing. Two of them were teasing each each other, one saying the other was a monkey, and the 'monkey' saying that the first boy needed his head examined. The first boy pointed to the 'monkey', and said (in English- remarkably good English for a first year!), 'You are... I am from Asa Dobutsu-en (Asa Zoo)', which the children listening thought was very funny... until the third boy pointed out to the first boy that saying, 'I am,' actually meant he himself was the monkey! The other children listening erupted in laughter at this, of course. The third boy's timing was just so perfect... oddly enough, the first boy shut up after that.
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After lunch, went to Tsukumo Elementary School. With the first- to third-years, we built upon the 'Do you have a ___?' pattern, adding 'Do you like', and practicing it with a game. Some of the children understood the whole thing, some (even though this was the third lesson) still didn't even understand the 'have' phrase. This is precisely why I don't believe that doing English with elementary school students, especially with the lower years, is worthwhile- I wonder if anyone could argue that spending three lessons on one sentence wasn't a waste of time? In addition- as I've written so many times- this problem is only exacerbated by the teachers' unwillingness to get the children to practice between my lessons. I don't mind doing English as long as it's not purely for the sake of English- English for a game, for example, is a good way of getting the children used to hearing and pronouncing English, I think- but I do object to the almost complete lack of support from the schools which means that in many cases, this English becomes pointless, forgotten almost as soon as it's learned.
With the fourth-years and above, meanwhile, we played kabaddi. I changed the rules slightly to allow the children to go behind the start line of their half, making it easier to dodge (but conversely, harder for the raider to touch many people), and this made for a huge improvement on the previous week's game. This, coupled with the lack of protests from the one girl who can't bear to lose (I think she'd been warned!), meant that the game- and the lesson- was much, much more enjoyable than the previous week's.
Incidentally, this week I didn't get called a Canadian by the Headmistress...
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A P.D. James moment just now. I popped over to the photographer's to discuss Friday's speech with him, but as I left the office, straight in front of me there was a tree that until recently had been ablaze with leaves of deepest crimson, but which was now about two-thirds bare. Denuded branches, straight out of one of James' novels!
After all, it's virtually a given that in every P.D. James novel, there will be the word 'denuded', referring to trees or branches, or twigs. Either that, or 'prandial' (pre- or post-), referring not to trees, nor to branches, nor even, for that matter, to twigs. Indeed, sometimes she even manages both words...
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Got to work this morning to find that Shinbe-san, a very friendly lady in the office who also happens to be my direct boss, had bought me a book called 'Eigo to watashi' (or, in English, something like 'Me and English'). Well, she brings something for me (normally cakes, which of course are always welcome) at least once a week, so I thought it was about time I reciprocated. I therefore decided to send her a real Bakewell Pudding, using the very useful service provided by the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop (in Bakewell, oddly enough). It seems crazy that one can send a Bakewell Pudding half way around the world without it going stale, but I've used this service before, and it actually works very well. And, of course, the people here are always delighted to get something that's obviously come all the way from England.
I look forward to Shinbe-san's reaction...
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I could really have done with not having to get up this morning. My futon was superbly cozy, and I was having such a delicious sleep- until my keitai rung to wake me up. It's at times like these that the temptation to roll over and go back to sleep (and phone the office later to make an excuse) is almost irresistable. I've never succumbed yet, but one of these days, I just might...
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 8:55:28 pm.
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