I ♥ Japan

Japanese people (at least in social settings and on TV) are so jovial and happy. I love to laugh and am so happy to be amused by their silly antics on tv. It's like when I was in high school watching Mtv's The State and laughing hysterically at the skits. Even the commercials are hilarious. I wonder if, after I leave here, I will find myself watching the Japanese channel just to catch a laugh.

I forgot to say the other day that I also got an assigned parking place at Chinen sho this year... Which means there were assigned parking places last year too, but nobody told me. Which means I was stealing someone's spot for 9 months... And nobody told me. I'm telling you, foreigners will never completely assimilate. I will never know as much as someone who was born and raised here, no matter how long I stay. Which is fine. I just have to keep that in mind.

However, I was announced as a new teacher at Chinen chu, and given a welcome gift (potted flowers). So that made me quite happy. It's nice to feel appreciated in a place where so few things I do seem appreciated. Yesterday the principal and vice-principal told me they wanted me to stay at Chinen chu full time. Unfortuntely for them, it's my visiting school. I'm only there one day a week and I think the only reason I have to go there at all is because they just don't have enough ALTs in our district. The vice-principal there is really nice, so I enjoy my time there. I also like the idea of working with older kids, because I get to teach them to read in English. It seems weird, but they can't read English when they enter middle school. They have just learned the English alphabet and sounds at the end of 6th grade. I only hope my 6th graders from last year straighten up and settle down so we can actually accomplish some real learning. It's really a challenge trying to teach them phonics, in a language they don't know. Think about phonics worksheets.... Naming pictures, finding middle sounds with pictures, rhyming words... These all require a basic vocabulary in the language... It's a new challenge that I'm learning how to work around or at least work with!