How have you been? Not having internet connection enabled me to do other things, and made me feel more motivated not to go straight home after work! So some days it was a great, liberating feeling, while other days it really felt like a hindrance. I think that since the Internet is a part of human life now, we should adapt to using it, but we shouldn’t overuse it or become dependent on it.
I’ve started to feel a little like I’ve put myself on overload, but I’m not ACTING like I’m on overload. For example, I have a lot of projects going on at once and I’m just not working on any of them very diligently. I was talking to my Japanese tutor with whom I meet every week or so. She has a similar personality type as I do. She likes to do a little bit of EVERYTHING, but ends up only being able to do everything halfway. Her New Year’s Resolution is that she’s allowing herself to do everything as she pleases, but she’s not allowed to quit anything before the year is up. I guess she has a habit of quitting things and starting new things quickly, like me. Another thing I do is come up with new ideas all the time. Some I follow through with, and others I don’t. I’d like to put more effort into studying Japanese, but there are other things I need to accomplish, and the studying keeps getting pushed back. So recently I had a new idea!! ^_^. I don’t want to have to switch the DVD region code on my computer because then I can’t play American DVDs and you are only allowed to switch if five times total. So I think I’ll buy a 500 DVD player from the used electronic store down the street, and rent DVDs for free at the local library. Since I like watching movies more than I like mindlessly drilling words, perhaps this will be like tricking myself into studying. I can even watch with Japanese subtitles! I’ll be practicing listening and reading. Do you remember the Muzzy language movies? Maybe it’ll be like that. Maybe I’ll also discover some really good movies in the process. Eventually I could use this as my after-work activity. Since I’m usually too lazy after work to do anything really productive, I could use this method to relax and study. I’ll give it a go anyhow. Then I can focus on the other things over the weekend, like all full-time working people.
My supervisor at the BOE asked me to participate in an International conversation with the local Rotary club. They wanted ALTs working in Isawa to have dinner with them and talk about differences between our country and Japan. What were we surprised to see when we got here? What was hard to get used to? This will take place this week on Thursday. (This has already happened… I wrote the ALT Report about this event.) I am going with my supervisor and one other Isawa ALT. We are supposed to do this conversation in Japanese, so I’m really excited about the opportunity. This is the kind of event/experience I want to get out of working for JET. The teaching is just a cover job… and it pays the bills. I have to prepare some discussion topics, as well as look up words before I go and don’t know how to say anything. Luckily, the other ALT going is half Japanese, but is from NJ so she’s bilingual. I don’t want to rely on her too much, but it’s good to know that she could help me express myself if there is a major misunderstanding.
Also, I just finished an article due last week for the local JET newsletter. It goes out to all JETs in Yamanashi, and is available for Yamanashi ALTs and Eikaiwa workers to view. Here is the link to the publication. If you are not a member you may not be able to view it but let me know and I’ll try to post it here some other way. http://www.yetijapan.com/
(Eikaiwa is “eigo”, or English, “kaiwa,” or conversation. People go to Eikaiwa schools after work, after school, and on the weekends to learn English. Eikaiwa English teachers usually end up having the opposite schedules as ALTs. ALTs typically work within the school district, therefore within the school hours.) I volunteered to write the article for a few reasons. I want to get experience with this kind of thing, and I think it’s more related to my original goals for my experience on the JET Program. I will write about ways in which JETs can get more involved with their experience, and I will try to take my own advice as well. This is due after the weekend, so I will probably be putting a little more time into it. (Again, this is outdated. The article is finished and posted.)
Aside from Japanese goals, JET goals, and keeping up with housework, keeping up with friends and family is also a very important part of life and requires constant effort. It takes time to hang out with friends, send letters and e-mails, and write blog entries. Despite all the time I spend with this, it still doesn’t seem like enough. Some people still end up dropping off the radar. To anyone reading who has not been paid enough attention I sincerely apologize. Please don’t take it personally, and I will continue to do my best to keep up.
If you add up all of my time from Junior Year and this year, I’ve lived in Japan for a total of 17 months. One year and five months. With all this time, there are still times when living in Japan is difficult. My listening skills have increased, but my speaking and reading skills are nothing to brag about. I’ve been studying Japanese for six years, but I put “study” in quotes, because I’m more of a passive studier, meaning I don’t learn anything very quickly. Perhaps I should have stuck with Spanish? I wonder why it’s taking me so long to get accustomed to the culture? It is due to a lack of trying, or is it simply because American and Japanese cultures are so fundamentally different? Things that are difficult for me include remembering names, being sorry about everything, not being too American/too loud, omiyage or gift giving culture, seafood, lack of display of affection to anyone, hierarchy in everything, cold house, and spending lots of money.
The Elementary schoolers I pass on the way to school stopped saying good morning to me.
-I bought some books for the English club from my childhood on Amazon. Sadly they’re a little too difficult, and the students aren’t as interested in reading them as I thought they would be. Perhaps the problem is that they want it to seem like they’re reading “big kid” novels, but there aren’t any written in English that they can understand. They got frustrated and gave up quickly. Getting them was fun for me at least. I reread them and it reminded me of good times. It’s true that you don’t know how great things are until they’ve passed. For example, being a kid… being a college student, being… you get the picture. Right now I better appreciate having nothing tying me to anywhere in particular, and go where the wind takes me!
With permission from Julia Israel, I will copy something here that she wrote for the Yamanashi Panache about cold weather in the prefecture. It is supposed to be humorous, but there is definitely a bit of truth to it!
The Cold Bit: 20 telltale signs of winter by Julie Israel
-You can see your breath in the house when you wake up.
-You can see your breath in the house when you get home from work.
-You can see your breath in the house at all times.
-Walking into the kitchen, bathroom, or any room which is sectioned off by sliding doors, causes your nose to run.
-The honey freezes.
-You leave the milk out for more than an hour by accident, but just as you’re wondering whether it needs to be thrown out you touch the carton and realize it is at least as cold, if not colder than, when you took it out of the refrigerator.
-You develop an unhealthy bond with your heater(s), never straying from each other’s side.
-You spend about as much time wearing your down coat, scarf, hat and gloves inside as you do outside. Perhaps more. Layers are not fashion, but a way of life. Survival, to be exact.
-You wash dishes expressly to be able to feel your hands again.
-Your breath fogs up the mirror.
-You wouldn’t cross the tundra without boots; you sure as hell wouldn’t cross the hardwood floor without your indoor slippers.
-Like a dog on a leash in the yard, your mobility at home is only as far as the chord of your electric blanket allows.
-In order to stay warm, sleeping under the covers becomes all-inclusive and takes on a meaning closer to how a teenager with an aversion to sunlight, being woken before two in the afternoon, and a math exam on Monday might sleep.
-Peeling back the covers in the morning is not unlike tearing off a ginormous, full-body band-aid.
-You wake up with songs such as Let It Snow, Winter Wonderland, or White Christmas in your head.
-Turning off the hot water and stepping out of the shower = certain death.
-Hot tea / coffee / cocoa are the elixir of life.
-The only semi-efficient manner of drying your clothes involves using the air conditioner.
-This actually makes the apartment warmer.
-The thought of ice cream is nostalgic.
And that’s winter in a nut-shell. ^_^ I don’t keep honey in my house, but the olive oil did freeze. At first I thought it had gone bad but I double checked and sure enough it had just congealed.
Some time a few weeks ago I walked into a McDonalds for lunch. There is only one in my town so it is pretty likely that you’ll see some students if you go in there. When I went in I saw a table full of boys all covering their heads with their jackets or hoods. I thought that they just didn’t want to be seen by me and were joking around. After ordering my food I realized that the whole table of boys left. Was it really that bad to see me there? The next day I told one of the teachers about what happened in a joking way. She told me that the students aren’t allowed to be there without adult supervision, and that’s probably why they left. “I avoid going anywhere in Isawa mostly because I don’t want to catch children like that because then I have to yell at them,” she said. I agree with her. Not having a car makes it difficult for me to go anywhere else so I guess I’ll have to limit myself to places I know they won’t go, or go at times they won’t be there.
One of these places is the Indian Restaurant down the street from my house. The people that work there are very friendly, and I’ve gone every Friday for the past month. They don’t know me by name yet, but they do recognize me when I go in. I joke around with them a little now. The store is pretty empty on Friday nights so maybe I’ll just go in for a coffee or something after work this week. It’s funny though because we are both foreigners but they don’t speak English, and I don’t speak their language, so we communicate in Japanese.
A few weeks ago the elementary schoolers came to Isawa JH for a demo day. I did two demo classes, and they were paraded through the cooking room as we had English club. It felt a little like we were animals in a zoo. We were playing “spoons,” which is a family tradition, so I hope the kids thought it looked interesting and will join English club next semester.
Is it only Japanese girls who hide in their hair or is it all JH girls? In Japan people reapply makeup and re-groom themselves constantly
I’m sure that I’ll have reverse culture shock going back to the US. Compared to here, people tend to have a lack of concern for their appearance in the states. For example I wouldn’t consider leaving my house with paint on a shirt or holes in my socks in Japan. If anyone sees me without makeup I’m embarrassed.
There is a new student who’s gone between living in Japan and China several times. I don’t know where he’s actually from originally but his Japanese and Chinese are both pretty good. During the speaking drills in our class I thought that it was really interesting that he had a Chinese-English accent while everyone else in the room had a Japanese-English accent, and then I thought that it was interesting that there was a difference and that I could hear it. The sounds in the Japanese and Chinese language are quite different actually. The Japanese borrowed the Chinese writing system, but it didn’t really fit Japanese pronunciation or grammar. No wonder Japanese is so hard to learn!
Recently there have been a high number of Flu cases in the school so instead of meeting all together in the gym, they had a live broadcast on the schools TV system. The technology here at Isawa JH isn’t very high-tech, so I was surprised that they had the capabilities to do that. I didn’t even realize that every classroom had a TV. They’re pretty old, so I think I just assumed that they didn’t work.
I miss Denison; staying at the library late with friends, living close to everyone, not having to wake up at the same time every day, having a warm house, my car, my ACC office, wireless access everywhere, goofing around, EVERYTHING.
-At the school I don’t always feel like a real teacher. Then again, I’m not really. If I don’t have all of the same responsibilities, then I guess I shouldn’t have all of the same privileges either. No special school keys, no locker in the dressing room, no name plate on my shoe locker, no designated seat at the meetings, no packet full of information I don’t really need, and a smaller desk than most of the staff, but I get paid more than the half-time teacher who is at work for more hours than I am.
-I know about hierarchical society in Japan, but I didn’t realize there was such a hierarchy within the school. It is clear that there is some, but the school nurse told me that it is pretty strict here. I guess I didn’t see it because there are a lot of people around all of the time, so keeping track of who talks to who in what way would be pretty difficult.
-In one of my classes, a girl was asking to read out loud. She was not the only one asked, and is usually not a very shy person as far as I can tell. When she was called on she wouldn’t say anything. Eventually she stood up to answer the question, but continued to not say anything and eventually she started crying. The teacher wasn’t being particularly strict, so I wonder what happened.
-Two girls in particular come to school not in uniform. I think they often only come for lunch. I also think that the teachers are too nice to them in response to their behavior. Then again, I was never the bad kid in school, so I don’t really know how discipline here is different. It doesn’t seem like they suspend kids… but like I said, I don’t really know or perhaps don’t understand.
If I posted more often, I don't think I'd have this problem with post topics being so completely random and not related to one another.
Goodbye for now!
-Lana
I don't care in the least if your posts are
ReplyDeleterandom and unrelated, keep posting!