Making a Difference Every Day

The students become much more outgoing and willing to converse in English after classes end for the day. The same junior high school kid that would run away if I offered a straight-forward "how are you?" is suddenly willing to tell me all about his favorite soccer players. The important thing is that they hate being in class but don't necessarily dislike English. So when I can pin them down while partaking in activities they actually enjoy, I can have some semi-decent conversations.

I'm particularly well-acquainted with the 3rd graders on the tennis team as they practice right next to where I park my car. I typically spend a good 5 or 10 minutes talking with them before driving home. The girls are a lot more engaging than the boys who don't often volunteer much beyond pleasantries. As such, I have managed to develop good student-teacher relationships with a good number of the 3rd grade girls as well as a few of the 2nd and 3rd grade boys.

One 3rd grade girl who's a friend of many of the tennis player often engages in a sort of pantomime display with me in the hallways between classes. It starts with exchanges of greetings and then quickly switches to us yelling back and forth in a mixture of English and Japanese without either of us ever using a full sentence in either language. This is not something I intended but it just seemed to have happened over time.

Anyway, yesterday I went to this girl's class several minutes early since I had nothing to do in the office beforehand. We went through the normal routine as I approached the class but this time I used a fairly obvious topic to try and force her into an actual English conversation ... "what are you going to do over summer vacation?" Once she got the meaning we actually had a nice conversation and I talked about my own plans. During a short pause, she yelled over to one of her classmates in the back (in Japanese of course) "hey, guess what? I'm talking with a foreigner!!!!"

Her friend rushed over in a heartbeat and hung onto every word we spoke until the bell rang.

I hope they can now go through life without being mortally terrified of large pasty skinned blonde men that speak English.

On a personal note

Certain aspects of my employment in Japan allow me to drift into a state of complacency that unfortunately let me skirt the question of determining a viable future plan. The job in itself is rewarding to some level and poses intriguing challenges from time to time but greatly lacks obvious avenues for personal development and applications of valuable skills relevant to my own self.

Ostensibly halfway through my stay in this corner of the planet, it is important to evaluate how this experience is beneficial and how I can optimize it in the next year to be as advantageous as possible to my future. I feel that I have a strong commitment to entering graduate level education in the immediate period following Japan but in truth a lot of that is due to a perceived necessity for a master's degree to establish a stronger footing in an increasingly competitive job market back home. Speaking with no reservations, career aspirations are not particularly motivating at this moment in my life. I don't look at peoples' lives as models but take a live by the day (in my way) attitude. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach to life in itself as it is an honest reflection of my being. The problem arises from conflicting ambitions that would make prolonging such an outlook unfeasible. Take the issue of marriage, for example. Coming from a background where I've been surrounded by long stable relationships and where circumstances have engendered deep family bonds, I have always perceived marriage as very desirable. This does not derive at all from any religious affiliation. I am of agnostic and atheist influences and have myself taken beliefs in agreement with agnosticism. I don't claim marriage to be "right" but rather I see it as something very important if not essential to my own self. This parallels my views on vegetarianism. I'm strict about my eating habits but the person next to me has the right to eat whatever he or she wants to. The way I view it, vegetarianism makes me a better person but it gives me no claims to say that I am better than my neighbor. My friends and acquaintances can engage in "free love" all they want but it doesn't have the appeal for me that a stable long-term marriage would have. Live and let live.

Serving the community for a bottle of tea

I volunteered to help my friend today with a class he runs ... it was never explained to be what exactly the class was for and even afterward I can't describe it with any confidence. I thought it was a group of people training to be tour guides in Hakodate. That would be consistent with the theme of the class to interview people from different national backgrounds on their thoughts about Hakodate and Hokkaido in general. However, many of the interviewers were Chinese and the age range was so massive that I can't believe that some of the older people were in training for a job. My best guess is that this was a class to prepare for taking a tour guide test, which is more of a hobby for bored housewives/old people than of any practical use.

There were four guests to the class. One representative of Korea, two people from China, and myself from England & America. We did short self-introductions to the class in Japanese and then for 10 minutes the students prepared some questions to ask each of us. We were each assigned a group (the Chinese couple were together) and did a 20 minute conversation session before rotating. My friend is Japanese but was born and partially raised in the United States. he was my interpreter for the questions I couldn't understand (most of them). The Korean man and Chinese couple had lived in Japan long enough to get by on their own.

I was anticipating questions such as "what kind of places do you think a tourist from [insert Western country] would find interesting/cool in Hakodate?" and "What do people abroad think of when they think about Hakodate/Hokkaido?" Granted, I did get one or two questions like this from each group but for the most part it was entirely focused on me. This led to strange follow-up questions like "Since all British people are vegetarians, what kind of food do they eat when they come to Hakodate?" ... I'm a vegetarian, I'm British, therefore . . .

In my first group, the last 5 minutes were spent with one Chinese woman asking details about my personal life and trying to set up a date. Perhaps more to come on that later.

In the end it was a fun if a little unusual experience and hopefully none of my statements about my town in Hokkaido will come back to haunt me.

A nice little piece about very little

First private Japanese lesson was last Friday. Was greatly looking forward to it to supplement my group* class and already got along with the tutor. Had a good time, drank coffee, soaked in the atmosphere of the cafe done in the style of an English tea house ... but not important.

It was revenge of the 2nd year junior high school girls ... different girls but the encounter was eerily similar to the one that occurred outside Starbucks.

Took the train to Hakodate for the lesson because A) my car is not in fantastic shape at the present and B) I wanted to keep my options open in case I wanted to go out later on.

As the train slowed towards the station immediately after mine I caught a glimpse of one of my students decked out in a yellow t-shirt. She was neither exceptionally great at English nor particularly outgoing but had just enough presence in school to be recognizable. Fingers were crossed that she wouldn't make eye contact.

Being the periphery of the periphery in Japan, the train was a one car affair. The girl and her friend (another student from the same school who I could only vaguely recall encountering before) entered at the back of the train. I was sat alone in a booth facing the front of the train. It was beyond the after school rush so there were quite a number of spare seats to be found.

The girl's friend passed by without a glance and took a seat on one of the benches at the front. I was troubled by the non-appearance of the girl ... being the only naturally blonde-headed male in a city of 50,000 I was not the least bit conspic- "It's David!" A piercing shout at highly un-Japanese noise level. I turned and offered a polite hello and acknowledged the friend who had turned to look my way. Whatever, I thought, but then I was troubled ... the girl hadn't moved a step. She motioned to her friend and suggested they sit across from me in the booth. The friend, obviously the more reasonable of the two, smiled and shook her head in a way to suggest that it probably would be better not to. A Godsend ... but the girl repeated her suggestion and to my dismay the friend acquiesced.

I decided to hopefully make this a beneficial experience (for them) and initially started conversing in English, then English with Japanese translations, and finally just used Japanese.

I suppose I was a little frustrated that a genuine opportunity to put their years of English language education to practical usage bore little fruit. Although about half to two-thirds of a given class can perform adequately during conversational activities, 5 is the upper limit for the number students that are willing and able to have an unscripted conversation outside of class.

At the very least, these two students enjoyed the experience and remarked to each other how interesting it was to meet me outside of school. The girl in the yellow shirt took a candid shot of me with her cellphone and I have to begin to worry what's going to happen with all these pictures. The worst of it is, if these students consider me to be 'cool' I can't imagine how they'll react around a person worthy of the descriptor. Minds may be quite literally blown to smithereens.

The record attendance for this term so far is 3 students!

Stop, you're making me blush

A common compliment given to foreigners in Japan (no, I'm not going to talk about one's ability to wield chopsticks) is that they speak Japanese well or very well. The usual line goes like this 「何々さんの日本語は上手です。」　"(Person's name)'s Japanese is skillful."

Anyone who has fumbled their way through a basic conversation short after arriving has undoubtedly been a bit bemused to hear this comment. It doesn't take long until you realize that this is just a space-filling compliment that isn't actually taken to heart ... in fact you may become frustrated hearing this line when you are actually able to speak the language at an advanced level. (I'm at とても上手な, which is a baby step forward). The day that someone calls my Japanese うまい is the day I realize I've been here too long.

Anyway, to the point now! I was teaching my adult English class and did a short intro activity where all the students went around having short conversations with each other. I ran into one of the new students and we talked about our interests and such. She asked me what kinds of things I'd be doing over the next weekend and I said I'd probably spend some time studying Japanese and finishing my homework for my class. In spite of the fact that we had only spoken English to each other in the short time we'd been acquainted the 日本語は上手です line came out as if she couldn't control her own voice. She paused awkwardly midway through when she realized what she was saying but finished the short sentence anyway. To save the situation I gave the まだ下手です line and all was well again.

It would be a crime not to include this song:

Tokyo Police Club - Your English is Good

Oman

On my way to my suburban school this week I had to stop for a red light at the intersection with the main road. There's a large elementary school nearby so there are usually adults posted on the street corners to help the kids cross the road safely.

Now Japanese fashion tends to appreciate the English language and logos of Western companies for their aesthetic qualities more than their actual meanings. The poor grammar and spelling that abounds in Japanese advertising is well documented and commonly known as 'Engrish.'

So, back to the story, one of the women helping the kids was sporting an item that I thought rather inappropriate given her duty. Her black nylon jacket featured a large silver Playboy bunny on the back. The image of this woman embracing a small group of children and escorting them across the intersection was amusing to say the least.

I am reminded of another observation. My junior high school students are very much into having flashy pencil cases and like to display their tastes in music, sports brands, etc. Some students (or perhaps their parents) are attracted simply by the design or the colors so I've seen some pretty strange pencil cases out there. The most surprising are the pencil cases that feature reggae themes and have 'Rasta' or 'Cannabis' and several marijuana leaves emblazoned on them. Japan is a zero tolerance society when it comes to drugs, people (at least around here) are embarrassed about talking about them, and in fact I rarely if ever here anyone joke about them. The last two are probably because the 18-25 years old demographic is nonexistent in my neck of the woods.

I refuse to believe that the parents are unaware of their child's pencil case or what theme of it is. It seems perhaps to be a safe way to look cool and feel rebellious at a young age in spite of the fact that marijuana is almost totally inaccessible and the practice of smoking it is so heavily frowned upon here that probably only 1% of these students will ever try it.

Song of the moment:

God is an Astronaut - Shadows

"The kanji you wrote there isn't exactly the like the correct kanji."

A co-worker correcting a sample poster I'd made for an after school club. One of the better euphemisms for "you made a mistake there" that I've heard in a while.

What do you want to be?

I was assigned the enviable task of spell-checking the desired jobs of my eleven year old students at one school. In some cases I checked to see if there was a better English word than had been provided by a direct translation.

The students had been asked, in preparation of a "what do you want to be?" lesson, to give their dream job titles to the full-time English teacher. After reviewing the list, one job, listed by several students, stood out because it spoke volumes about both the apathy of Japanese youth and the general reality that there are few "ways out" except for those who are exceptionally smart, athletic, or physically attractive. At 11 years old, these students dreamed of being a 'convenience store clerk.'

This is the same part of Japan where relatively young people (late 20s/early 30s) consider working part-time in the retail and food industries as a 'good living' and one that they could see themselves continuing with for a few years. Absolutely no mention of climbing the ladder or going full-time so as to gain a greater measure of financial independence.

A friend once said to me that the bright and talented are given this as encouragement: "if you work hard enough then maybe you can get out of here." Preconceived notions about this country went out the window a fair time ago.

It's unsettling being a guest on a sinking ship. At least my port of call is well short of the final destination.

Song of the moment:

Suede - Obsessions

'Can't Get Enough' came up on shuffle, went through a Suede rediscovery, and now 'Obsessions' is only regular repeat.

Two 20-something year old women walk in my direction, whisper about the tall foreign guy around the bend, and simultaneously avert their gaze in opposite directions when I look straight at them.

A student who normally finds an excuse to run away whenever I try to speak English to her comes up to me after lunch and grabs my upper arm. Surprised, I ask why she did it. The response: "it's my preference."

Left late after work one day. Walk by the outdoor tennis courts near my parking space. A group of third year girls come up to the chain-link fence and we make a brief conversation in English. Before I turn to leave one of them asks me if I have any food and then they all cry out in unison "we're hungry!" School is a prison.

Craving caffeine before doing some shopping around town, I find myself at Starbucks. Drizzling a bit but the crowd outside is decent. Before I can cross the street two of my students sight me and call for my attention. I indulge them in some Japanese conversation for a change and they ask if they can take my picture with their cellphones before I go. Seeing no harm in it, I agree. They stand in the middle of the road to take the snaps, a taxi driver tries to pull out and honks repeatedly at them. They don't move an inch. My exit is swift.

"Which do you like better, cherry blossoms or me?" The only full English sentence by a student all day at the picnic.

The all-time classic: Finished with her worksheet ahead of the rest of the class, a student with advanced English abilities goes to her backpack to retrieve a large Japanese-English dictionary and phrasebook. She consults it for a while and says to the male student next to her "stop touching me you creep!" She neglects to translate the sentence into Japanese. A while later I walk by to check the progress of the other students. The girl turns to me and says, with an innocent smile, "do you make love to your girlfriends?" (note the plural noun)

One of my students writes me that she wants to "make a boyfriend." I am requested to assist in this endeavor.

"Show you" sounds like soy sauce and "people" sounds like a police/ambulance siren. Use of these must be avoided at all costs.

Agreed to assist with basketball club practice one evening. Start time wasn't until 90 minutes after work so I briefly went home for a rest. Came back in my own car (as opposed to the one provided by my employer) and the tennis club girls were shocked to see me step out of sleek grey Mitsubishi station wagon with plenty of years and kilometers to its name. Once the stunning effect of my return had subsided their were cries of "my car? My car?" At least they're trying harder than they ever would in class.

Joined a small class for lunch with several teachers and assistants present also. As always, the conversation naturally turned towards my vegetarianism and I received the usual slew of questions ("Can you eat natto?" "Is rice okay?" "How about grapes?"). One of the assistants spotted my drink, iced tea, and asked why I wasn't drinking Coca-cola. "I don't particularly like cola" was my reply. He had to gather himself for a second . . . "that's not my impression of Americans." "Well, it's because I'm British-American." "Ah" everything had fallen into place. That is now my go to explanation to immediately get out of any conversation involving American stereotypes.

The cover of a notebook that several of my students possess reads: "When I think about the life in my own way I need gentle conversations." Chew on that for a while and I'll see you anon.

A Brief Introduction

The title is self-explanatory but entirely misleading in regards to the direction (or lack thereof) that this blog will take.

Although I currently live in Hokkaido as an assistant language teacher, which is the occupation of what seems like 99% of native English speakers here, I don't intend to write a travel blog. I will concede that Japan's Alaska (ft. Sapporo) is interesting in its own way and perhaps especially so from my perspective as I've never been anywhere else in the country. The popular images of Harajuku and Shibuya are indeed a sharp contrast from the snow draped hills of southwest Hokkaido.

No, I am essentially just going to write about whatever comes to mind (though undoubtedly my pieces will be influenced by my current environment). As this all just an exercise in developing my writing style, any number of readers between 0 and 7 billion would be sufficient.

Without further ado ... my self-introduction:

I'm 23 years old (very young in this part of the world let me tell you!). I was born in England but spent most of my time from junior high school to the present in the leafy suburbs of Los Angeles. I consider myself British-American but to the rest of the world's population I'm just "Not-From-Around-Here." I love playing sports but my body is about as resilient as a snowman would be in the Sahara Desert. Thus, I have pursued more stationary hobbies that carry far lower risks of leading to multiple hospital visits. Writing shall be my latest endeavor and I sincerely hope that I can eventually look back on this entry and deride it as the pitiful work of an aimless college graduate.