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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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Friday, January 17, 2003 |
 What I did today
Today, I...
- Went to Akizuki Elementary School;
- Went to Etajima Elementary School;
- Went to Izumi to get the card, etc., for the kite-making event tomorrow;
- Went to Deodeo to buy a tripod, and had a little run-in with the assistant;
- Got the list of dates for my school visits from Miyanohara Elementary School, and found that they were completely different to what we'd discussed;
- Got a phone call from Takedomi-kun to ask me if I was free for a drink;
- Went to Mejiro with Takedomi-kun;
- Went back to Takedomi-kun's geshuku, where he got a little rowdy, having drunk too much;
- Went home, not quite knowing if we were still friends or not.
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This morning, I paid a visit to Akizuki Elementary School. The school is doing a play in English for the sixth-years' farewell party, so both lessons were practices. The first lesson was with the first- to fourth-years, who hadn't seen the play before, so we went over pronunciation. The thirds and fourths were generally no problem- they're the best two years in the school whatever we do- while a large proportion of the firsts and seconds, as ever, seemed incapable of listening to (hearing?) simple English sounds, no matter how slowly pronounced. In particular, there's one second-year girl who tries hard, but invariably pronounces the syllables of any two-syllable word the wrong way round...
The fifths and sixths had seen the play before, but of course that didn't mean anything, since none of them had bothered to practice since the previous lesson. I've said before, though, that with these children nothing I can do will excite or interest them, so I don't care what happens any more. It's probably not a particularly admirable attitude to take, but to be honest I passed the stage of trying to get the children's attention a long time ago. If a lesson works in every other school, but not with these two years, then that would tend to indicate that it's not that I'm doing something wrong. Anyway, to be fair, I have to say that I was surprised at how well-behaved the children were in this lesson, compared to the normal rowdiness and lack of order. I really wonder if someone had laid the law down to them before my lesson; after all, the Headmistress and the fifth- and sixth-year teachers could hardly have failed to realise what I felt about the children's behaviour in previous lessons. This isn't to say that they were enthusiastic- far from it- but at least the fact that they were settled down enough to listen to what I was saying meant that we had a fairly productive lesson; we went through the play once, I corrected pronunciations, and the children actually took my advice in the second run-through.
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 It's always interesting to see which of my newsletter articles get the most response. My articles are a mixture of serious, fairly abstract discussion, and less serious, more concrete observations and comments; it seems that the latter style is more popular. I think that more than anything, it's probably a question of articles with which the townspeople can relate; for example, my article about Etajima and the influence of the Naval Base on the townspeople resulted in large numbers of comments.
This month's article has also been commented on by many people, though. The subject?- the lack of 'fresh' (i.e. not wrapped in plastic) cheese in Japan! I've really lost count of the number of people who've come up and said that they're looking for fresh cheese for me!
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I would never leave this island if all days were like this. With not a breath of wind, it was easily warm enough to sit outside; I think one could almost say 'bask'. Under an almost painfully blue sky, the air really was so clear it glistened. One could hardly wish for a more deliciously pleasant day.
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I had a school visit in the afternoon too today. My second school visit of the day was to Etajima Elementary School, for lessons with the first- and second-years. With the first-years, we played the Japanese game janken (Rock, Scissors, Paper) in English, which the children really enjoyed, although I don't think I've ever seen a group of children get so enthusiastic about a game of Rock, Scissors, Paper before! Apparently the first-year Japanese language textbook has a passage about janken and the versions of this game in other countries, so my lesson tied in well. This is an excellent example of the Japanese teacher actually putting some thought into how to integrate my International Understanding lessons with the rest of the year group's syllabus.
The second year teacher, meanwhile, had asked me to talk about how children in the UK spent the summer, winter and spring breaks. Well, preparing for a lesson like this was difficult, so I decided to play it by ear. Concentrating on the winter holiday, I asked the children to tell me what they did, and then got them to guess what children in the UK did, before giving an explanation. I then let them ask questions, and we covered the summer break, and various other topics. By chance I'd noticed my pack of British coins in my desk drawer just before I left the office, so I took them along and showed them to the children. All in all, I think it was a fairly useful lesson for the children; it's good for them to have the chance to ask questions about things close to their daily lives.
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 Web articles worthy of mention...
An article from the BBC about the most expensive cities in the world. According to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Tokyo and Osaka are ranked as the most expensive cities in the world. So no real surprise there, then...
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Deodeo- the major electronics store in the Hiroshima area- didn't do itself any favours today. I went to the Deodeo in Konan to look for a tripod for my video camera, and the salesman showed me the three they had. Or, more correctly, he tried to show me just the most expensive one, at nearly 5000 yen rather more than I was willing to pay. The cheapest was 1700 yen, and the middle-priced one was 2300 yen, so I asked to see that one, and the salesman finally gave up on trying to get me to buy the most expensive one. The 2300-yen tripod was compact, and looked ideal for what I wanted, so I decided to go with it, but when I got to pay, the cash register showed 3800 yen! Telling the salesman that he'd made some mistake, I went to check the prices of the tripods again, and sure enough, the price of the tripod I'd chosen was 2300 yen. The salesman came up too, glanced at the price card, and said dismissively, 'Oh, that's for another product.' So why was it front of this product, then? I wasn't in the mood for being messed around like this, especially after the pressure to buy the most expensive tripod, so I told the salesman straight out that I thought the whole thing was 'zurui'- dishonest- and told him to give the cheapest of the three tripods. I hope he's on commission...
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Ito
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Takedomi
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Another entry from the sake book. Alcohol and Health: V
Victim: Drunken driving leaves a lot of victims in its wake.
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