Christmas was a few days ago now, so most places have already replaced Christmas decoration with New Year's decorations (which are totally different here - the Christmas stuff is all Western-imports like lights and trees and the New Years stuff is traditional Japanese). New Years is much more important here (Christmas is a relatively new import, after all), so I'm excited to see how that goes.
Fortunately, Christmas fell on a Monday this year, which is a day off for us. I think I would be sad to have to work on Christmas. We had a little North American Christmas celebration at my coworker Marina's house. It was me and Marina plus Chris, who works with us two days a week, and his coworker from his other school, Brian. Christmas was the first time I met Brian, but I liked him immediately because he is a fellow Seattle-ite. Anyway, our day consisted of homemade eggnog (DELICIOUS! I will be making this every year from now on), a small gift exchange, stuffed cabbages, immitation almond tarts, and lots of alcohol. It was a lot of fun even thoguh all we did was sit around eating and drinking from 3:30 until after 11, which is what Christmas is all about, I guess.
Today is my last day of work before 8 days off for New Years, so I'm looking forward to that. I think maybe tomorrow I'll take a trip to Hiroshima (about an hour and a half by bus) and Saturday I'm going to my tutor's house in Kasaoka (about 15 minutes away by train), but other than that I have no definite plans so far. Thanks for reading! I'll try to update more over the break.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
The Office Christmas Party
First a big thank you to my parents and my brother who both sent things that I received this week! Merry Christmas!
So yesterday was the big office Christmas Party, which included about 30 of the students and all the staff. It was very structured, complete with announcements about when we were allowed to start drinking (non-alcoholic beverages only because there were high school students present), when we could start eating, and when the party was over (!). It was about three hours long, which was just about the right amount of time, I would say, especially considering that a few students arrived as much as half an hour early, and basically everyone was there by ten after 1:00. We had a small gift exchange, so everyone brought a little present worth 500 yen and we played a game to see who would get to choose first: everyone had an animal taped to his or back, and we had to ask questions to find out what the animal was (can I jump? Can I swim? What color am I? etc) and then find someone with the same animal and once we were in a pair we could choose a present. It was kinda fun and I got a nice little bath set. After that I had to make a little speech because the party was also my welcome party (they like to combine parties like that). That's the second time I've had to make an impromptu speech like that, so I just said 'Thanks for coming and Merry Christmas' pretty much. Then we played bingo for some little prizes but sadly I did not win anything. But the highlight for me was a student who was doing magic tricks! I really love magic so I watched him for quite a while. He kept saying that he wanted to talk to me but couldn't (he just started studying English). Maybe I'll ask him to be my Japanese boyfriend! Although first I think I should check his file to see how old he is -he looks young but I can never guess people's ages here.
After the party I went out for drinks with the other foreign teachers, followed by karaoke, which was really fun. Then today I had a lesson with my tutor and then she took me out to lunch (a ramen place in a little alley right by my office - I'm glad I know about it now because it's super-convenient, so I'll definitely go back!) and now the weekend is pretty much over. The Christmas party did feel a bit like work to the other foreign teachers and me, because we were required to be there, we were still expected to talk to students the whole time (instead of the staff or each other), AND we had to pay! The students all paid, too, and supposedly the money was for the bingo prizes, but we have a suspicion that perhaps it was also to help us make expenses for the month...
Oh, and one final thing - I finally have a cell phone! It's pink and it has a Japanese-English dictionary, a very nice camera, and lots of fun little programs, like a fortune teller, a daily proverb, and it will even play rock, paper, scissors with me! And it says, 'hai, chiizu' (say cheese) for the shutter sound on the camera!
Thanks for reading!
So yesterday was the big office Christmas Party, which included about 30 of the students and all the staff. It was very structured, complete with announcements about when we were allowed to start drinking (non-alcoholic beverages only because there were high school students present), when we could start eating, and when the party was over (!). It was about three hours long, which was just about the right amount of time, I would say, especially considering that a few students arrived as much as half an hour early, and basically everyone was there by ten after 1:00. We had a small gift exchange, so everyone brought a little present worth 500 yen and we played a game to see who would get to choose first: everyone had an animal taped to his or back, and we had to ask questions to find out what the animal was (can I jump? Can I swim? What color am I? etc) and then find someone with the same animal and once we were in a pair we could choose a present. It was kinda fun and I got a nice little bath set. After that I had to make a little speech because the party was also my welcome party (they like to combine parties like that). That's the second time I've had to make an impromptu speech like that, so I just said 'Thanks for coming and Merry Christmas' pretty much. Then we played bingo for some little prizes but sadly I did not win anything. But the highlight for me was a student who was doing magic tricks! I really love magic so I watched him for quite a while. He kept saying that he wanted to talk to me but couldn't (he just started studying English). Maybe I'll ask him to be my Japanese boyfriend! Although first I think I should check his file to see how old he is -he looks young but I can never guess people's ages here.
After the party I went out for drinks with the other foreign teachers, followed by karaoke, which was really fun. Then today I had a lesson with my tutor and then she took me out to lunch (a ramen place in a little alley right by my office - I'm glad I know about it now because it's super-convenient, so I'll definitely go back!) and now the weekend is pretty much over. The Christmas party did feel a bit like work to the other foreign teachers and me, because we were required to be there, we were still expected to talk to students the whole time (instead of the staff or each other), AND we had to pay! The students all paid, too, and supposedly the money was for the bingo prizes, but we have a suspicion that perhaps it was also to help us make expenses for the month...
Oh, and one final thing - I finally have a cell phone! It's pink and it has a Japanese-English dictionary, a very nice camera, and lots of fun little programs, like a fortune teller, a daily proverb, and it will even play rock, paper, scissors with me! And it says, 'hai, chiizu' (say cheese) for the shutter sound on the camera!
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
My Tutors
First of all, I wanted to thank Kory for the Christmas card, because it's the first piece of mail I've received here, so thank you, Kory!
Also, thank you all for reading even though I can't post very often and I can't put any more pictures up until I get internet access on my own computer. I've heard that you can pick up a signal at Mr. Donuts, so some weekend I may try carting my laptop over there and then I could upload some pictures!
Anyway, I wanted to tell you about my two Japanese tutors. Fukuyama has a program called FAGE, which I think is the Fukuyama Association for Global Exchange (or something) and one of the things they do is hook up foreigners with volunteer Japanese tutors. So I signed up with them right away when I got here, but I also got the name of the tutor that the man I replaced was seeing, Kaori. Kaori is a young woman (maybe in her 30s?) who speaks a lot of English and sells kimonos at one of the fancy department stores in town. Unfortunately, because her English is so much better than my Japanese, we spend a lot of time talking in English and I'm not sure how much I've actually learned from my first two lessons with her. However, it's nice to have someone to ask questions of and get some practice in every week.
My other tutor, the one I got through FAGE, is an older woman. I've only seen her once so far, when we met at the FAGE office to exchange info and set up a time for tutoring. She seems very sweet and I don't think she speaks much English, so hopefully we'll be forced to communicate in Japanese! We will be meeting at her house, which I think is great because I like seeing people's houses and it's not something you get to do very often here.
And even if I don't get to practice as much Japanese as I'd like during tutoring, I have to practice every day, so I'm sure I'll learn a lot, anyway!
I guess I'd better head to work. I don't have class until 2 today (I start at 1 or 2 Tuesday-Friday and finish my last class at 9; on Saturdays everything is an hour earlier), but I need to finish preparing the article my discussion classes will be reading next week. Thanks for reading!
Cate
Also, thank you all for reading even though I can't post very often and I can't put any more pictures up until I get internet access on my own computer. I've heard that you can pick up a signal at Mr. Donuts, so some weekend I may try carting my laptop over there and then I could upload some pictures!
Anyway, I wanted to tell you about my two Japanese tutors. Fukuyama has a program called FAGE, which I think is the Fukuyama Association for Global Exchange (or something) and one of the things they do is hook up foreigners with volunteer Japanese tutors. So I signed up with them right away when I got here, but I also got the name of the tutor that the man I replaced was seeing, Kaori. Kaori is a young woman (maybe in her 30s?) who speaks a lot of English and sells kimonos at one of the fancy department stores in town. Unfortunately, because her English is so much better than my Japanese, we spend a lot of time talking in English and I'm not sure how much I've actually learned from my first two lessons with her. However, it's nice to have someone to ask questions of and get some practice in every week.
My other tutor, the one I got through FAGE, is an older woman. I've only seen her once so far, when we met at the FAGE office to exchange info and set up a time for tutoring. She seems very sweet and I don't think she speaks much English, so hopefully we'll be forced to communicate in Japanese! We will be meeting at her house, which I think is great because I like seeing people's houses and it's not something you get to do very often here.
And even if I don't get to practice as much Japanese as I'd like during tutoring, I have to practice every day, so I'm sure I'll learn a lot, anyway!
I guess I'd better head to work. I don't have class until 2 today (I start at 1 or 2 Tuesday-Friday and finish my last class at 9; on Saturdays everything is an hour earlier), but I need to finish preparing the article my discussion classes will be reading next week. Thanks for reading!
Cate
Sunday, December 03, 2006
My Students
I wish I could update more often, but my internet access is pretty limited right now, so I can't. In two weeks I will get my Alien Registration Card, and then I can get a cell phone and hopefully start the process of installing wireless, but until then it's internet cafes for me!
Anyway, I wanted to tell you a little more about my wonderful students. Most of my students are women (at least two-thirds, I would say)and they're mostly older than I am, though I have quite a few high school students as well. The system is set up so that Japanese teachers teach the beginning levels (the first two or two and a half years) and the native-speaker teachers get all the advanced classes. My students vary from people who have been studying for just two and a half years to people who are nearly fluent, so it's never boring! The lower-level students are fun because the classes are more active and they are great at asking questions I can't answer (why do we always put "the" in front of the name of a theater, but not in front of a restaurant's name? And when would you use the word "candies" instead of "candy?" Every sentence I could think of worked best with "candy" and not "candies.").
The more advanced students are fun, though, because they are better at expressing themselves in English so I can get a Japanese perspective on a wide variety of issues. I especially like my article classes because I get to choose the article and the questions so I can hear what they think about whatever I happen to find interesting that week.
Yesterday I finished my first full week here, and I can't believe it's already been more than three weeks! I'm sure my time here will just fly by.
I was going to try not to publish anything on here that would connect me with my company in case I ever write something they don't like, but I can't resist putting up my school's website, because I really like it: http://www.aeonet.co.jp/school/school.php?sno=3412
If you click on the second option under "school menu" on the right you can see me and the other staff, and if you go back to the front page and click on the third option in that same menu you can see student testimonials. The staff are constantly taking pictures of us doing strange things like holding paper flags and pretending to teach. It makes me feel like a celebrity now, but I have a feeling I will get a little tired of it by the end.
Ok, that's all from me. Thanks for reading! Cate
Anyway, I wanted to tell you a little more about my wonderful students. Most of my students are women (at least two-thirds, I would say)and they're mostly older than I am, though I have quite a few high school students as well. The system is set up so that Japanese teachers teach the beginning levels (the first two or two and a half years) and the native-speaker teachers get all the advanced classes. My students vary from people who have been studying for just two and a half years to people who are nearly fluent, so it's never boring! The lower-level students are fun because the classes are more active and they are great at asking questions I can't answer (why do we always put "the" in front of the name of a theater, but not in front of a restaurant's name? And when would you use the word "candies" instead of "candy?" Every sentence I could think of worked best with "candy" and not "candies.").
The more advanced students are fun, though, because they are better at expressing themselves in English so I can get a Japanese perspective on a wide variety of issues. I especially like my article classes because I get to choose the article and the questions so I can hear what they think about whatever I happen to find interesting that week.
Yesterday I finished my first full week here, and I can't believe it's already been more than three weeks! I'm sure my time here will just fly by.
I was going to try not to publish anything on here that would connect me with my company in case I ever write something they don't like, but I can't resist putting up my school's website, because I really like it: http://www.aeonet.co.jp/school/school.php?sno=3412
If you click on the second option under "school menu" on the right you can see me and the other staff, and if you go back to the front page and click on the third option in that same menu you can see student testimonials. The staff are constantly taking pictures of us doing strange things like holding paper flags and pretending to teach. It makes me feel like a celebrity now, but I have a feeling I will get a little tired of it by the end.
Ok, that's all from me. Thanks for reading! Cate
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