Japanese Me

Okay, so it turns out I’m a really good blogger when I’m home all day.  Working, especially just starting with a new job… it’s a whole ‘nother animal.  I’ve already planned my lessons for tomorrow so I’ll give you a taste of what I’ve been doing.

Before I get going I want to say that I won’t be naming specific schools or teachers.  I won’t even be calling them “school A” and “school B”.  I have five schools–there’s no way I could keep that straight.  Here are some things I will say after visiting four of five schools:

• One school is very small, with only one class (~30 kids) for each grade 1 through 6
• One school is very large, with nearly 1000 students in grades 1 through 6
• At one school I teach a special needs class
• One school is at the end of an amazing shopping street where I plan to pick up a lot of goodies on my way home from work
• At some schools I eat lunch with the kids

In general I’m teaching fifth and sixth graders.  Abilities, even in a single classroom, vary widely.  Some teachers know English pretty well themselves and have given their students a head start.  Some students go to an English juku,  or “cram school” (at their level it’s less about cramming and more about exposure, though).  Other students have never studied English before and don’t have much interest in it.

Being able to speak Japanese has been a big help with the other teachers.  It seems some of my schools have had foreign teachers with no Japanese, so me walking in and doing a self-introduction in their language has been a shock.  The teachers at one of these schools were super cute and said, “Oh, we can relax this year!  We don’t have to worry if we’re being understood or not!  This is going to be great!”

My first lessons have been self-introductions.  I draw a squiggle outline of the US and point to where I’m from.  I have pictures of my house in January which gets a lot of ooos and aahhhs because of the piles of snow.  The kids are shocked to hear how tall I am–172 cm or nearly 5′8″.  This is giant by Japanese standards.  I’m taller than all the female teachers and 90% of the male teachers.  On days where I do a lot of talking with the kids my back starts to hurt from bending over.  I’ve tried bending my knees to get lower while staying fairly upright but I can only do it for so long.

It’s been fun to go over culture differences between Japan and America.  In Japan you indicate yourself by pointing to your nose, not your chest.  The “okay” sign is turned a little and means “money” instead.  “Come here”, a palm up gesture in the States, is flopped and done palm down.  It almost looks like you’re waving a cute goodbye.  When I first learned Japanese I was told the American gesture is only used for pets so I make sure to teach it right away.  I want the kids to know they’re better than a dog–it’s just a culture thing.

Telling kids that shoes are okay inside American homes gets the biggest reaction.  Shoes are always, always taken off in the entryway here and are seen, along with feet, to be dirty.  The thought of wearing shoes while watching tv or having dinner blows their little minds.

In the classroom I use all English, except for those few moments I mumble with the homeroom teacher about what to do next.  I tell the kids that I can listen to and understand Japanese but I can’t speak it.  They totally believe it.  They end up using English has much as they can and then ask the burning questions (“Do you wear shoes while you sleep??”) in Japanese.

One point of contention is school lunch.  It’s designed for little growing bodies–roughly 900 calories with full fat milk and cheese, red meat, and so on.  In other words… loaded with nasty cholesterol.  I can’t eat it.

So I should brown bag it, right?  Well, in Japanese schools everyone, down to the teachers and office staff, eats the school lunch.  There’s a “clean your plate” rule–nothing can be left behind.  Nightmare.

One school gets around the problem by having me teach all morning and sending me home right before lunch.  Another school has been awesome explaining my situation to the kids.  During the first lesson the teacher said (in Japanese), “Next week Karla-sensei is going to be eating lunch with us and she’s going to be bringing her own lunch box.  Why is that, Karla-sensei?”

So I looked at these kids, sixth graders who just learned how to say “my name is ___” and “nice to meet you” and said in English, “Well… I have high cholesterol.”

Confused stares.

“So… no meat.  No milk.  No cheese.  No shrimp.”  The teacher did some translating and the kids got all concerned.

“If she eats those things would she die??“

Oh no, the homeroom teacher said.  It’s not an allergy.

“Is it like… a law or something?” another kid asked.

Well, yes, the teacher replied.  The kids didn’t know what to think.  I think they took pity on me–no cheese?  No milk?  No meat??  How sad!

I’m really grateful the teacher took time to explain, though.  I don’t want to seem prissy for getting special treatment; it is indeed for a very good reason.

Oh geesh that turned into a long post.  Hopefully next time I’ll have more pictures for you guys.  I still have shots of a couple of day trips that I need to show you.  In lieu of a picture I’ll tell you this:  tomorrow’s high is 75.  Woo!