Thursday, February 13, 2003

What I did today Today, I... Found a new toy downstairs in the office- a printer that can print up to A1 size (boy, can I think of ways to make use of this piece of equipment!); Went to the kindergarten for a whole two hours; Got some A2-size Ogiri posters printed; Finally worked out (after having phoned the JMSDF, and virtually all the schools) that the mysterious request for an article had come from Etajima Elementary School; Did some more work for the Ogiri event; Found that the ring finger of my left hand (one of the fingers I hit at taiko yesterday) had started to crack in a most unpleasant manner whenever I bent my finger; Taught the sixth lesson in my Elementary English course at Koyo Community Centre; Felt very gratified at the end of the Koyo lesson when Ishino-kun, one of my elementary school students who comes to the English class, came up to tell me he'd been accepted into a good junior high school somewhere north of Hiroshima (he said he'd have to board, which is surely rather rare in Japan); Went to Romantei for bibimba; Found out that my new design for the Breakfast Show still didn't work properly on every browser (damn!- I'm really beginning to regret moving- or, at least, trying to move- everything to CSS!).

This morning I went to the kindergarten for my final visit of the (academic) year. My visits to the kindergarten are only supposed to be for thirty minutes or so, but today turned into a marathon two-hour play session! I'd promised the last time I visited that we'd make paper aeroplanes, and it was I good job I kept my promise, because the children all remembered. Anyway, we made the 'Russian' aeroplane, and it went far more smoothly than I'd expected given the age of the children. I'd even go so far as to say that they were on a par with the elementary school students with whom I made the aeroplane! There was one girl, though, who at each step just screeched, 'Muzukashii!' ('It's too difficult!'), and without even trying to fold the paper, thrust it in front of my face. I soon got around that problem, though, by ignoring her- I don't mind helping one bit, but I do want the children to at least try themselves first, and I also don't take kindly to rudeness. Anyway, given that it was such a glorious morning (I even dare to hope that we might have seen the back of winter now), we went outside, and the children had a whale of a time throwing their paper aeroplanes- all except a certain girl, who wanted me to throw hers for her... The kindergarten children are really great- they're cute, they're fun, and they get completely enthusiastic about even the simplest things. The Headmistress was telling me before my 'lesson' how the older children play 'Simon Says' even on their own, and how they're even planning to have a 'Simon Says' competition with their parents on the Parents' Day next week! I wish all my children were as enthusiastic (and as cute!) as this. I also got out one of the kites that I'd made at Tsukumo last month, that was in my envelope of paper, and the children had an excellent time running around the playground with it, so much so that the teacher asked for the instructions on how to make it! Mind you, it really does fly well. The older children by this time had formed little groups and were competing with each other to see who could throw their paper aeroplane the furthest, but some of the younger children were playing on the climbing frames and swings, so I went over to the swings and gave some of them a push. The smiles on their faces just from having been pushed on a swing is so gratifying! I could have played with the children all morning, but the older children had something planned, so after nearly two hours, we drew the 'lesson' to a close. The next time I see the older children they'll be first-years at elementary school; I hope they don't change too much too quickly.

J-List Prefectures in Chugoku Tottori Shimane Okayama Hiroshima Yamaguchi

This evening was the sixth lesson in the Elementary English course in Koyo. Following on from last week, we looked at giving directions; as happens every year, everyone got completely confused about whether to turn left or right depending on which way they were facing, and whether a road with a bend in it was a turn or not. Then we had the problem of where exactly to start counting from when faced with a direction like 'take the second left'; for most of the class, simply counting from where they were standing didn't cross their minds. And the confusion over the difference between 'past' and 'until' deserves an honourable mention. I explained sentences like 'go straight on until X' with Japanese equivalents, I drew things on the board, I even explained the usage by walking round, but I'm sure not more than half of the class actually understood what was being talked about. I really wonder whether in things like this- thinking spacially- there might be an element of cultural influence. Certainly the way the members of my class look at and interpret maps (and directions on those maps) seems to be somehow different to my own way of thinking.