Jeopardy!

So today I woke up and it was not dry! My throat felt normal when I woke up! But...that was only because it was raining outside! It had been raining for a majority of the night and all day long today! Such a contrast to yesterday...it was sunny and beautiful! I'm glad that the weather was nice yesterday because I spent the day with my girlfriend in Yokohama exploring and checking out part of the city. The only downside was that it was extreeeemely windy! And so they shut down the ferris wheel at the start of the afternoon...bummer! I wanted to ride on it but since the winds were so strong they had no other choice.

But anyway, today was the last day that I would have the 3rd graders for class...ever!! Today was their last day because even though they don't have graduation until March 11th, they have rehearsals and other stuff to do in place of classes. So I decided to have a fun final class and play Jeopardy in my classes. It was a fun time and the kids enjoyed it. I even had the "thinking theme song" playing in the background as I gave them the final Jeopardy question. I created fake "Kent Money" to give them when they answered questions correctly. It was just play money with my picture in the middle. Haha! I should take those with me while I'm shopping one day and try to use them! We'll see how far I get with that!

It's sad to think...I will never be teaching those kids again! They will go off to high school in less than a month and continue on with their lives! It's a weird concept being on the other side of the spectrum. All my life until now, I had been the one continuing on somewhere else, moving on, or being a part of the "growing up" stage. But now it's me watching other kids growing up and wishing them the best of luck as they continue on. So weird! But it's a good feeling. I know that during the time I've had with them since I got here, they have become more interested in English or at least in America. And that is a main duty of my responsibilities in being here on JET. It's to teach English...but that's not the main point. It's also to help facilitate education about foreign countries and English so that the students will gain or continue interest in learning English and about other countries. So I hope that I really did accomplish these missions and that those kids will study abroad or continue their English studies!

Well, I'm going to get some rest tonight! I'm practically falling asleep sitting here so I want to make sure I get enough sleep! Good night!

Almost the weekend!

Today was Thursday...another day at the middle school. But that means it's almost Friday which means that it's almost the weekend! Woo!!! This weekend, I'll be enjoying yet, another weekend up in Nagano...doing one of my favorite things....

SNOWBOARDING! We'll be going to the same ski area that I went to a few weeks ago with my girlfriend, but to a different mountain. The whole Hakuba Ski Area has about 6 or 7 different mountains. The one I went to was called Happo-One which is where a lot of the 1998 Winter Olympics were held. This time, I'll be going to a mountain right next to that which is called Goryu 47. Goryu and 47 are sister mountains, so there are lots of runs and they have great snow as well. I can't wait!

I'm really getting in my snowboarding time this year...trying to take advantage of it while the season is still here. I can't wait until I have my own gear for next year...although I still haven't figured out how I will get it from America to Japan...but I still have time to think about that and to make sure that it happens before next season! I'm sick of renting snowpants and a snowboard!

Anyway, today at the middle school...I had 3 classes today which all ended in the morning. Yippeeeeee! So that means I had no classes in the afternoon. I had the 2 first grade classes and one 2nd grade class. Not too bad of a day. It was a lot of reading practice and checking, so I had them doing a lot of listening and repeating after me from the textbook...not the most exciting class periods, but I guess they had to be done. And in the afternoon, I worked some more on translating the document that I will be continuously working on over the next couple months. My Vice Principal has helped me out tremendously so far with a lot of it since he is really good at English...so I'm VERY thankful for that!

Well, I'll be packing tonight and getting ready for the weekend. Until next time!

It's showtime!

So today...the hump day of the week. Today was not so bad. I was pretty pumped actually. All my morning classes were canceled...gone...switched! Which meant that I only had 2 classes in the afternoon! Nice! But that made the morning seem like forever and it went by pretty slowly...but I kept myself busy. I mean, I do have a lot of things to do, actually!

There is a document that I had a previous post about which I am in the process of translating from Japanese to English. So I worked on that for a couple hours and actually made some progress! It feels good to get some of it done and to have actually understood a lot of what I had to translate...knowing that I'm very illiterate when it comes to reading kanji! I also spent some of the morning practicing the piano. I also mentioned in a previous post that I would be performing at one of my elementary schools. I will be playing at the 6th grade sendoff ceremony which is on March 4th.

Then tonight I also had my eikaiwa class. Last week, I made a mini presentation on my hometown and what WI is famous for, some landmarks, and of course...The Green Bay Packers! I talked about how they won the Super Bowl and why it was important for people from WI. And after I finished my presentation, I turned to the class and told them that it would be their turn tonight...and they all looked at me with fright! Japanese people HATE presenting in front of people, especially in a foreign language. I mean, I guess I can understand that they would be intimidated speaking a language that they may not feel comfortable with. But presenting and practicing is the only way that they can get better, so I assigned them to do a presentation on something that is important to them or that has meaning for them.

I was very happy and entertained by all the different presentations! Everyone had something different and I learned many new things. It was interesting to see what kinds of topics would come up. They ranged from skiing in Zermatt, Switzerland, creating Haikus, people's hometowns, and personal photos that people treasure. All around, they were really interesting and I got to learn something new about the members of the class. And they are all really good at speaking and should do it more often! They are just shy!! Haha, well, I was pleased and hope to do a similar thing later on. As well, it was easy planning for me! I just had to sit there and listen and enjoy watching other people speak, instead of me doing the talking! Well, until next time...

3 day weekend!

So today will mark the start of my 3 day weekend! Wooohooo!! I love holiday weekends! Although it makes it more difficult to return to work when it's over...but it will be fun! Tomorrow I will go snowboarding with a couple of friends. We are going to make the trek to Gunma Prefecture, closeby to Tokyo, and hit up a slope called Kawaba Ski Resort. I've never been there so it should be a fun time. Then on Saturday, my girlfriend and I are going to celebrate an early Valentine's Day, and then Sunday I will just relax!

But anyway, today was another day at the middle school (and my Friday for the week!). I only had 3 classes this morning and 0 in the afternoon, so it was a great day! Yesterday I had the same thing and was literally falling asleep at my desk in the afternoon...but today I worked on some translation with my Vice Principal so that kept me awake! This morning when I went into work, I thought it would be a normal day. I walk in to the teacher's room and greet everyone and we had our morning staff meeting. The first class starts at 8:30 and at around 8:28, the teacher who I teach first period with asked me for a favor that went something like this...

"Uh, excuse me, Mr. Kent...I have a favor to ask you. I can't make it to today's class (the one that starts in 2 minutes) so could you teach today by yourself? Did you have any activities that you wanted to do with the class? Or else I have some printoffs ready for them to use to study and work on in preparation for a test next week."

Yeah, so I opted to use those printoffs/worksheets. I was in no condition to think of a whole class period's worth of material in 2 minutes, so I did that. It wasn't so bad. I'm used to teaching by myself because that's what I basically do at the elementary schools. And I've been in enough of the middle school classes to have a good grasp of how they go. So I taught the class by myself this morning and it wasn't bad! I reviewed the grammar point we introduced yesterday, started reading from the textbook, and then worked on those worksheeets.

Another interesting thing happened, that was a surprise to me. Today was an eventful day, full of surprises! One of the elementary schools that I work at had heard that I played the piano at our school's culture festival and wanted to hear me play. So one of the teachers at that school had asked me to play during one of the breaks for the teachers there on March 1st, one of the last days I'll be teaching at the school for this school year. So I happily agreed and thought nothing of it. It's just going to be during the mid-morning recess for 5 minutes and won't be a big deal. This conversation was on Tuesday earlier this week. Then later that day, I heard that teacher talking to the Vice Principal about my "mini performance" and when it should be...etc....

So today at school, I guess the elementary school had talked to my Principal at the middle school to inform me that they wanted me to play the piano for the entire elementary school on March 1st, as well as have an encore performance on March 4th in the morning....why an encore performance?

The students' parents are coming on March 4th to listen to me perform again! What?!!?! Hahaa...I couldn't help but laugh. What was going to be a small show of the song has turned into a large performance that I will be in charge of and performing for...well, good thing I've been playing that song and keeping it fresh. But I guess I will have to practice it more again just to make sure, since there will be a large audience awaiting my performance....haha. Anyway, I'll enjoy this 3 day weekend and then begin practicing again next week!

Happy Birthday, Mom and SUPER BOWL CHAMPS!

So today there were two things. First, February 7th...it's my mother's birthday! Happy birthday, Mom!

As well, it was the Super Bowl today. In America, the Super Bowl is on the 6th of February, but because of the time difference, it was this morning for me...while I was at work...which meant that I couldn't watch the game...:(

But I am glad that I could keep track of it online during my breaks and continue to see that we were doing well! GO PACK GO! They decide to win the championship while I'm out of the country...but I guess it's better than not winning the championship at all, so I'm VERY happy!

Future Translator...

So today was another day at the middle school. Middle of the week...nothing too special going on this week, I guess! I had 5 classes today. Today is my busiest day besides the elementary school days because it's pretty much a full day of class, and then I have an Eikaiwa class in the evening which I taught as well. For the 3rd graders, we did a warm up with trying to distinguish the "R" and "L" sound. As most know, distinguishing those 2 for most Asians is a nearly impossible task...they just don't have the distinctive sound in the Asian language and they can't get the difference, no matter how many times you repeat the words. Below is the grid which I used for the class, which is an idea that I picked up from the conference a couple weeks back.

R Sound L Sound
1 Rent 2 Lent
3 Red 4 Led
5 Right 6 Light
7 Ramp 8 Lamp
9 Rice 0 Lice

You do this exercise by creating pairs. One person thinks of their own or a made-up telephone number. They then tell their partner their own phone, but by only using the words associated with the numbers. For instance, if I said this series of words: Lice, Rice, Lice, Lent, Rent, Ramp, Light, Right, Led, Lent, Lice...

My phone number would be 090-2186-5420. It's a pretty fun activity. The best part is when you're reviewing the words with the students and teaching them new vocabulary if they don't already know the meaning. When you get to "rice" and "lice" ask them how you would say "I eat rice" and then tell them to insert "lice" instead of rice. Then have them look it up in their dictionaries and look at their faces as they change their expression from happy to absolute disgust!

After the activity, the students continued working on worksheets to practice for their high school entrance exams which will be finishing up pretty soon for them. As well, I was assigned a temporary project at my school. We'll see how far I can actually get or if it's even feasible for me! We have a sister school exchange program with Waupun, WI and there was a publication printed by our school talking about the most recent exchange. It's all in Japanese...and our Principal had the idea that it would be great if we had an English version as well...so that we could show it to the Waupun students and visitors when they come this May. So he asked me to be the lucky guy to translate this document and make it nice and pretty in English. Easy? I think not! You're talking to a guy that's pretty much considered illiterate in Japan. I can read all the basic characters but once I get to kanji, I'm VERY limited in what I can read. I can read some stuff adn get the gist of it, but not nearly literate enough to translate well written Japanese into English! There's too much that I don't know right now that would hold me back from being able to do such a job! But the Principal wants to challenge me and says it will be good practice for me since he knows that I want to get better at reading and writing. While this is very true and a good thought, I think getting up to a level where I can translate like that would take a person with more experience and years and years of experience in both languages! Such as a professional translator! I mean, it's not just a document, it's a whole booklet! Well, I luckily have support from the other teachers who think that it's craaaazy and will be difficult....who are all willing to help translate and make sure that I understand what the Japanese means so that I can translate that into some sort of English that makes sense.

Well, wish me luck and I hope that I DO learn some Japanese out of this!