Graduation Part 1

I hate it when I hate something so deeply that I know it must stand for deeper, psychological problem.

What is it that I hate? I hate graduation. I hate it. I find it uncomfortable, and boring, in addition to the collassal waste of time it is to listen to people spout useless advice that even they did not take.

Japanese graduation is a solemn affair (there are no cheers of congratulations, or wild applause of parents), that takes place in the cold gym in the beginning of Spring. It is symbolic, and all speeches are about the Spring of youth, leaving that horrible snow cloud of mortality hoover implicitly over them.

Today, Tetsuya became more of a man. For twenty minutes, he stood before the students who both loved and adored them, spewed cliched things about Spring that he truly meant, and made an effort to hold back tears long enough for him to finish his speech. I smiled at him everytime he looked in my direction, which now that I reflect upon it, probably flustered him more than it helped.


Generally, when people cry at ceremonies, I think they are doing it because they think it's what they ought to do. However, when it came to my students, I honestly believed it. This is not an American school, where one has classes with in excess of 400 students before High school is over, they are a tightly knit group that have been together since they were 14 or younger.

My graudation message, therefore, meant nothing to them. I spoke about the future at great lengths because I thought that was expected of me, but this is what I really wish I had said.

You have probably woken this morning with a feeling that both saddens and enlivens you. The knowledge that today, your life has finally changed must be in your hearts today. Your lives have changed, but not fundamentally. Look around you. Today, you are still with your fellow classmates. Yesterday, you may have been with a few of them, but not all. The day before, you may have slept in, watched television, and saw no one.

But please, do not misunderstand me. Today is different. It is different than yesterday, but no more so than yesterday was different than the day before that. Life changes, in little, subtle ways. We only think this is a big thing because we discovered that this small thing has changed for all of us at the same time.

This is not the first day of your new life. That was the day you were born. However, everyday is the first day in the long progress that will be your life, and everyday something will change, whether you notice it or not, and you must move
on and accept or deny what comes. Today is just like any other day. Make that decision as you always have.

I know that many of you are sad. You are saying goodbye to dear friends and a
way of life that you had become comfortable with, but know this, if today did
not happen, you would not be continuing the rest of your life. You would be surrendering yourself to death long before it is time.

Rejoice in this change, even if you wish that somethings could stay the same, and leave this hall happily.

I say this because I watched my favorite student walk out of the gym in such quiet desolation that it near broke my heart. I have faith in Shota though. If anyone understands the value of change, it is him.

On the Matter of Curse Words

It's not secret that I teach Shota bad words on my free time as a sort of carrot to encourage him to learn English. In return, he teaches be bad Japanese words. But, we have a unspoken promise that we won't repeat any of the words to other teachers, and indeed we have not (for the most part).

But, I have been very careful about teaching bad words to any of my other students who lack Shota's discretion, and love a secret relationship.

That is, until today. Droves of children saying shit, and all because of a quick misunderstanding!

Today, I had a Pronunciation War, where in which I face students off in an epic battle of saying words correctly. This is mostly because katakana English is barely English, and I want them to understand that saying in English words in katakana (Japanese alphabet, and subsequently pronunciation) is impossible to understand. Shirt becomes Shattsu, and scarf become mufura (muffler, which is the wrong word for the thing anyways).

So, I write "shirt" on the board.

Ryuutarou says "shattsu", and cute little Misaki, flushed with embarassment, says "shit."

I'm so surprised that they know Misaki said something bad, and they are desperate to know. I don't tell them, until Kyousuke, little Kyousuke (who is in fact pretty tall), translates "k'so." K'so is, of course, the Japanese word for shit. Great.

Ryuutarou said it in a class repeatedly, and I can't find it in me to stop him because he's using it in all the right places. Plus, that boy is on a wire when it comes to English in the first place, and I don't really want to push him off.

So, contrary to what everyone thinks, I did not make my students into potty mouths. My students did it to themselves.

The Kids (cont)

These last two weeks have been irritatedingly disjointed, with my third-years taking tests, my second-years in Australia, and only me and one other English teacher trying to teach all of the English classes when there are usually five of us! Thus, I don't have any fresh impressions to give my about my students. However, I do know my 3-2 Oral class very well, so I shouldn't have a problem describing them.

3-2オ

Tetsuya is my best student, and has achieved the level that all of the other students should after six years of English education. Actually, to be fair, he has surpassed it, so it's unfair of me to compare my other students to him. He is excellent at understanding, and he has a natural talent for grammar. It's amazing watching him talk, because you can see him really thinking about what he wants to say, yet he never pauses for a second to try and figure out how to say it. He thinks in the moment, and knows that if used the wrong form to express himself, he can change the form on the fly. He does it so effortlessly!

Tetsuya is also, aside from Meccho, the most popular kid in school. After all, he was the Baseball Club captain, and a student council member (the highest positions in the social heirarchy). I find this strange since he's not particularly handsome. His leathered face is old looking, and he has peculiar, smiling wrinkles, like he had spent his entire youth in the sun. He is probably the least vain of my all my boys, but I still catch him walking into the background to check the volume of his spiky hair. He will go to Kansai DaiGai in Osaka, and insists that he wants to learn eleven languages, Spanish being his top priority.

Next Tetsuya is the other boy in my class, and one of my absolute favorite people, Shota. His English is what it should be for a lazy, but attentive boy. He never studies, but has a knack for all things school-related. He wants to be a musician, a guitarist in particular, which is a dream that his little brother, Naoyuki, also shares. I shall miss those two the most, I think, when I leave. Shota comes after school to talk about music with me, although I'm depressed that he doesn't like Muse that much. True, I didn't give him their best CD, but I thought it would impress him a little. Next, I'm going to see how he feels about The Strokes or Franz Ferdinand (the bands who are a lot closer to my heart than Muse is).

Shota is the master of communication translation. He may not be able to use words to express himself like Tetsuya, and he may not understand everything you say, but he senses the emotions of the speaker, puts it together with the words he knows, and their gestures, and then understands what they said. However, if you were to ask him to translate, he would be unable to explain but would insist that he understood exactly what you said. I have to be careful with him, though, because he laughes when he senses I told him a joke, even though he doesn't always get it.

I found out that he talks to all the teachers after school, and that he is Bill's favorite student too. When I asked why this was, Bill simply said "because he doesn't mind saying things are bullshit. That's why none of the other kids like him." I was so surprised to find out that Shota was so unpopular! In America, his personality, and his style, would instantly shoot him into school celebrity status.

The girls are the most fun loving in 3-2 home. Meccho is the most popular girl in school, and is dating a boy from 2-1, but I am to keep that a secret. I love her, because she grins mischieviously and says "secret, secret" while pressing her fingers to her lips. She's always late, but I think it's because she likes it when I scold her for it, and it gives her a great reason to give me guff when I'm late. Meccho's English isn't the greatest, but she is the master of gestures. It's entertaining, really, what she comes up with to get her point across, when all she had to do was pay a little more attention to vocabulary.

Meccho wants to be a wedding planner when she grows up, because it makes people happy. I wanted to say "Oh really, people are happy to be married?" jokingly, but I did not want to confuse the poor girl. She wants to marry her current boyfriend and have two girls and one boy, but insists that she never wants go back to the country. I agree, she was meant for the city, Meccho is.

Next to Meccho is Misa, the dumbest, sweetest, and dirtiest girl in school. The things she comes up with in regards to sex is always funny, but a little embarassing, seeing as I am supposed to be her teacher. Misa speaks about two words in English, and one of those words is always "yes" which she always uses when I talk to her. I think it's how she stops me from talking to her further. Her family owns the Shell station next to the school, and I'm always their patron.

Ahead of Meccho is Yuki, who is hard-headed, incredibly smart, and supremely lazy. So lazy that she failed my Reading test, a test that even Misa passed! Yargh. Yuki wants to be a baker, and is apparently very good at it. Last year, she won the prefectural baking contest, which makes her the pride of the school (along with Hayaka, who won a National Speech Contest). Bill says this is because Togi never wins anything. Yuki is somewhat jaded, and Etienne tells me this is because she went to Australian and found out what real boys were like, and she has become dillusioned about Japan. He did not expound further, and I felt it inappropriate to ask.

On the right side of the class room, in the front row, is pretty little Yuka, who is insecure about herself that it actually hinders what should come naturally to her. Her father is an English teacher, so she has a lot of expectations to meet, and she's doing ok by them, I think. Unfortunately, with people like Tetsuya and Megumi (who are inordinately good), it makes her so nervous that she'll make a mistake that she inevitably does. She failed two of her entrance exams, which confuses her because she knows that she's smarter than the other students. I wonder if it's because that she thinks just enough outside of the box that she overthinks what's inside of it.

Next to Yuka is Naomi, my little hair stylist. She will go to Kanazawa next year to learn how to arrange hair. I asked her if she would learn how to cut hair, and she shook her head with a horrified expression. "No!" She wants to live in the city, and wants to get married at 30 when she'll have children. One boy, and one girl. She's a smart girl, but English is not her priority, which is a shame, because she could become fluent with just a few more years. I hope she does not forget everything she so painstakingly learned as she starts her new life.

Behind Naomi sits Megumi, who is such a strong willed girl with such a pitiable life that I love her unconditionally, even though our interests don't align in any meaningful way. She was in a car accident as a child, and therefore has to go to the hospital a lot for surgeries. Also, she is the youngest of a Buddhist temple family, and must inherit it now because all of her elder siblings choose not to take on the family tradition. Now, she must go to Kyoto and study Buddhism. She can study English too, but it's impossible for her to double major. In the future, she hopes to work with an NGO or IGO, and help the other people in the world. I love her for this too.

What is the most endearing about Megumi is her hand gestures. When I have class debates, she is always the most vocal, and she moves her hands back and forth like a rapper calling another rapper out. And every now and then, I catch her head jutting forward to emphasize her point. I find myself wanting to have more debates just to watch her get gangsta on me again.

And last, but not least, is Hayaka. Her favorite class is Japanese, and took my class only because she's lazy and has a knack for languages. She's a little upset with me because I gave her a bad grade on her last speech, which is her forte. But, in my defense, it was too short, and she read it from a paper. Also, the speech was a little hard to follow.

Hayaka is a tall, leggy girl, who feels lucky that she's so tall, yet is always hunching like her height is excessive. She's only 5'6.

I have so much more to say about this class because I have them three times a week. However, for your sake, and my wrists (which risks carpul tunnal at this moment), I will sign off.

Alison is listening to: Talk Show Host by Radiohead.
Alison is eating: weightloss soup again.
Class was: Fantastic! I love 1-2A.
Alison is doing: her plans for her Nagano trip tomorrow. Monkeys in the onsen, here I come!