Soo, what's new in the realm of Japanese education. If I were to answer that literally, I would say nothing has been new for the last 50 years or so (they even practice the exact same stretching routine every morning). Anyways, last week was another useless week as the students were preparing for midterm exams. I'm not sure what exactly they were supposed to have learned after only two months of school and only 27 classes - IF you don't factor in ALL the changes in their schedule. But, for the previous week and the first two days of this week, the students have been preparing for their midterms.
Midterms in Japan are prepared by the teacher. The teacher basically writes a bunch of random questions, gives the students a copy of the study guide, a totally useless copy of the textbook with answers and calls it preparation. Students are basically clueless as to what to expect on the test. I was clueless and I SAW the test beforehand. During this time, I really didn't have much use. Actually, I could have had a lot of use helping students study, but that doesn't seem to be the Japanese way...teacher lectures, students listen, maybe write something down, and that's that. If the kids don't get it, oh well!. Anyways, the only thing I did for two days was record my voice reading totally random paragraphs. Such as the one below.
Last week, I went on a date with Takeshi. He is very handsome and is a very good table tennis player (every American girl's dream). We went to eat Italian food at Sayazeria (kind of a rip off of a cheap "Italian" restaurant). We had pizza. I liked it a lot, it was VERY good . Then we went to see a movie. It was very busy, so we did not see a movie. Hmm...I don't write them... I just read them...So we went to the park. It was a very beautiful park. We took a boat to the lake (she actually let me fix this one). Then we walked and talked a lot on a bench (walked and talked ON the bench? Okay, so she let me fix this one too after I explained what exactly she was describing). It was very fun.
That was maybe more creative than the other sentences:
Miss Ono: "Hello Hideki" (Hideki...that was me)
Hideki: "Hello Miss Ono"
Miss Ono: "This is my friend Yuki" (the female heroine that stars in ALL the textbooks)
Miss Ono: "Thank you"
Hideki: "You're welcome"
Then I got to read and spell a list of vegetables :) It was an EXCITING DAY!
BUT! The best part was actually after the students took the tests and I got to grade the written portion which was....ABOUT ME! Yes, the 2nd year students had to try and write 5 sentences about ME! And damn if some of it wasn't some of the funniest things I've ever read. To be honest, I really don't know where these kids came up with some of these words since most of the 2nd years spend classtime saying, "Speak Japanese...this is Japan" "I'm going to kill you!" "Die!" "I don't want to speak English!" I honestly was expecting to see things like, "she is the devil", "I will kill her in her sleep", "I hate her", and most certainly, "DIE!" But what they came up with, totally threw me...
From least disturbing to most.
*This is our Jones teacher. (Actually, I saw this on almost everyone's. I don't remember being given as a gift or possession.)
*He (yes HE) do swim. He do swim is very good. He swim very fast (dooo I now? I don't remember swimming any time recently).
*She has very long leg. I want her leg. (:-| better watch that one...it was a boy. And yes he wants just 1 leg...)
*She is draw. I see her draw. It was like !!! (I guess I fill in the blank on that one).
*Pet is she is have usagi.
*She has long hair. I like look hair. (another one to keep an eye on)
On a brighter note, some kids wrote some VERY nice things. This is surprising since most of my time in grade 2 is spent taking things away from students, clothes-lining them as they run through the hallway, digging for notes in their desk, pulling their desks out from under them while they sleep, hiding their stuff in the hallway while they sleep, and giving them the EVIL eye as they make rude comments.
*She likes students. She is a very good teacher. (this was from a female. A very good student, who always laughs when I pull desks out from kids)
*She is a GTO teacher. (This took me a while to figure out, from what the English teacher told me GTO is a comic book character. A male comic book character, but I guess a nickname for a cool teacher.)
*She does yoga very good. She does things I can't. She is very powerful! I respect her. (Damn straight you better! Makes me wonder if this kid plans on joining the Yakuza when he gets older....)
*She is butiful teacher. She is nice. (This from a boy who the week before I had to get on because he was making crude sexual hand gestures...wait...maybe this one should concern me as well).
* She is nice teacher. I like her very much. (This was written by a boy who got a 30 out of 100 on the test and who I constantly have to pull his desk out from under him to get him to wake up. Where he learned enough English to write that baffles me...).
Either way, this definitely made my week. It makes me dread going to the 2nd year's classrooms just a little less.
On a stranger note, last week I fixed a fan in one of the 2nd year's classrooms. One student got so excited that he jumped out of his seat in the middle of class and shouted, "JONES! Ai shiteru." Or, "Jones I love you!" My response, "GAH! Seriously?" Later in the class, the same student was singing his own perverted rendition of the school song over the teacher (who was pretending to ignore him. At least, I hope she was pretending). When I walked over to ask him to stop, he stood up and started to pet my arm while saying, "shiroi hea." Which means "white hair." Um....okay...starting to get worried...But then again, this was after he came up and started playing with my pony tail at the start of class. These kids are damn strange! But gosh, do I love them! Where else in the world could I clothesline a kid in the hallway, jump on top of two boys wrestling on the ground, or physically pick a kid up and move him out of my way without fear of getting SUED?!?!?! One more reason why I love this country!!
Midterms in Japan are prepared by the teacher. The teacher basically writes a bunch of random questions, gives the students a copy of the study guide, a totally useless copy of the textbook with answers and calls it preparation. Students are basically clueless as to what to expect on the test. I was clueless and I SAW the test beforehand. During this time, I really didn't have much use. Actually, I could have had a lot of use helping students study, but that doesn't seem to be the Japanese way...teacher lectures, students listen, maybe write something down, and that's that. If the kids don't get it, oh well!. Anyways, the only thing I did for two days was record my voice reading totally random paragraphs. Such as the one below.
Last week, I went on a date with Takeshi. He is very handsome and is a very good table tennis player (every American girl's dream). We went to eat Italian food at Sayazeria (kind of a rip off of a cheap "Italian" restaurant). We had pizza. I liked it a lot, it was VERY good . Then we went to see a movie. It was very busy, so we did not see a movie. Hmm...I don't write them... I just read them...So we went to the park. It was a very beautiful park. We took a boat to the lake (she actually let me fix this one). Then we walked and talked a lot on a bench (walked and talked ON the bench? Okay, so she let me fix this one too after I explained what exactly she was describing). It was very fun.
That was maybe more creative than the other sentences:
Miss Ono: "Hello Hideki" (Hideki...that was me)
Hideki: "Hello Miss Ono"
Miss Ono: "This is my friend Yuki" (the female heroine that stars in ALL the textbooks)
Miss Ono: "Thank you"
Hideki: "You're welcome"
Then I got to read and spell a list of vegetables :) It was an EXCITING DAY!
BUT! The best part was actually after the students took the tests and I got to grade the written portion which was....ABOUT ME! Yes, the 2nd year students had to try and write 5 sentences about ME! And damn if some of it wasn't some of the funniest things I've ever read. To be honest, I really don't know where these kids came up with some of these words since most of the 2nd years spend classtime saying, "Speak Japanese...this is Japan" "I'm going to kill you!" "Die!" "I don't want to speak English!" I honestly was expecting to see things like, "she is the devil", "I will kill her in her sleep", "I hate her", and most certainly, "DIE!" But what they came up with, totally threw me...
From least disturbing to most.
*This is our Jones teacher. (Actually, I saw this on almost everyone's. I don't remember being given as a gift or possession.)
*He (yes HE) do swim. He do swim is very good. He swim very fast (dooo I now? I don't remember swimming any time recently).
*She has very long leg. I want her leg. (:-| better watch that one...it was a boy. And yes he wants just 1 leg...)
*She is draw. I see her draw. It was like !!! (I guess I fill in the blank on that one).
*Pet is she is have usagi.
*She has long hair. I like look hair. (another one to keep an eye on)
On a brighter note, some kids wrote some VERY nice things. This is surprising since most of my time in grade 2 is spent taking things away from students, clothes-lining them as they run through the hallway, digging for notes in their desk, pulling their desks out from under them while they sleep, hiding their stuff in the hallway while they sleep, and giving them the EVIL eye as they make rude comments.
*She likes students. She is a very good teacher. (this was from a female. A very good student, who always laughs when I pull desks out from kids)
*She is a GTO teacher. (This took me a while to figure out, from what the English teacher told me GTO is a comic book character. A male comic book character, but I guess a nickname for a cool teacher.)
*She does yoga very good. She does things I can't. She is very powerful! I respect her. (Damn straight you better! Makes me wonder if this kid plans on joining the Yakuza when he gets older....)
*She is butiful teacher. She is nice. (This from a boy who the week before I had to get on because he was making crude sexual hand gestures...wait...maybe this one should concern me as well).
* She is nice teacher. I like her very much. (This was written by a boy who got a 30 out of 100 on the test and who I constantly have to pull his desk out from under him to get him to wake up. Where he learned enough English to write that baffles me...).
Either way, this definitely made my week. It makes me dread going to the 2nd year's classrooms just a little less.
On a stranger note, last week I fixed a fan in one of the 2nd year's classrooms. One student got so excited that he jumped out of his seat in the middle of class and shouted, "JONES! Ai shiteru." Or, "Jones I love you!" My response, "GAH! Seriously?" Later in the class, the same student was singing his own perverted rendition of the school song over the teacher (who was pretending to ignore him. At least, I hope she was pretending). When I walked over to ask him to stop, he stood up and started to pet my arm while saying, "shiroi hea." Which means "white hair." Um....okay...starting to get worried...But then again, this was after he came up and started playing with my pony tail at the start of class. These kids are damn strange! But gosh, do I love them! Where else in the world could I clothesline a kid in the hallway, jump on top of two boys wrestling on the ground, or physically pick a kid up and move him out of my way without fear of getting SUED?!?!?! One more reason why I love this country!!
こんにちはキャンディは、
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お父さんネルソン
I didn't see that this was posted on here. Sorry for the late response, I have to admit that my reading of japanese is slow and limited, but thank you...though who is Kyandi?
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