Oddness
I had a couple one-on-one lessons with a fairly regular student of mine who had just moved up to the highest level of Free Time Lessons, and somehow the lesson drifted to Christianity (I believe from the starting point of the Da Vinci Code). The student had an interesting view point, saying that he basically believed in God, and that he didn't believe in evolution either, but that he wasn't a Christian because he thought it would be too difficult. Made me wonder how many other Japanese people are like that, non-practing believers or something of the sort. I doubt evangelical Christianity could make much of an impact here like it has in Korea, but the vague-believer-goes-twice-a-year-and-tries-not-to-take-the-Lord's-Name-in-Vain-Too-Too-Often style would probably work well, especially if there were any more consumerist holidays to be wrung out of it.
It's been confirmed that we're going to have start wearing suit jackets come the new year, although as one of the trainers pointed out, "Remember nametags?" (a defunct policy that was barely enforced, followed even less, and slowly wisped away to oblivion thereafter. In the group that I was in when we heard it confirmed, mostly guys, people were vocal about being glad that women would be required to follow the dress code change as well as men, making the change easier to swallow. (I still think my purple pimp-suit idea would be great to do, but sadly would be too expensive to buy for a joke, and given pimps probably have at least a d10 hit die and the Improved Bitch Slap feat, removing one from the source would prove difficult at best.
Speaking of roleplaying, the day before yesterday I went drinking with some of the folks I had gone to training with that day, most of them newer teachers than me, and got to know them a little better. There were interesting folks there, with one of them turning out to be a fellow role-player, although how I found out was a little odd, with him suddenly starting on about Shadowrun cybernetics and how awesome it would be to have mirrored eyes. Another girl (I shouldn't say girl, since she's four years old than me, but she has a very youthful demeanour) turned out to be really interested in ancient history, ending sentences with "as described by Herodotus 2500 years ago". I seemed to make a good impression with the folks, with one of the guys describing something I said as "the coolest thing he'd heard all year". It had been about how people who came to Japan might have been Japanese in a previous life, a theory I heard from a Japanese ECC teacher, which isn't something I really believe, but I suppose it could be true, cunnit?
In a few weeks I hopefully will start private Japanese lessons, and I bought a new textbook for studying kanji that seems much more logically laid out than the other ones I have, at least for the purpose of learning compounds, as they only use ones which you've already learned, as opposed to another textbook which I have, where the second character in the book, "Right" (as in the side) is giving stuff like "rightist faction" (admittedly useful to know and avoid here). But still "Motto tsuyoku benkyou shinakya!" (I have to study harder! [I hope I got that right])
It's been confirmed that we're going to have start wearing suit jackets come the new year, although as one of the trainers pointed out, "Remember nametags?" (a defunct policy that was barely enforced, followed even less, and slowly wisped away to oblivion thereafter. In the group that I was in when we heard it confirmed, mostly guys, people were vocal about being glad that women would be required to follow the dress code change as well as men, making the change easier to swallow. (I still think my purple pimp-suit idea would be great to do, but sadly would be too expensive to buy for a joke, and given pimps probably have at least a d10 hit die and the Improved Bitch Slap feat, removing one from the source would prove difficult at best.
Speaking of roleplaying, the day before yesterday I went drinking with some of the folks I had gone to training with that day, most of them newer teachers than me, and got to know them a little better. There were interesting folks there, with one of them turning out to be a fellow role-player, although how I found out was a little odd, with him suddenly starting on about Shadowrun cybernetics and how awesome it would be to have mirrored eyes. Another girl (I shouldn't say girl, since she's four years old than me, but she has a very youthful demeanour) turned out to be really interested in ancient history, ending sentences with "as described by Herodotus 2500 years ago". I seemed to make a good impression with the folks, with one of the guys describing something I said as "the coolest thing he'd heard all year". It had been about how people who came to Japan might have been Japanese in a previous life, a theory I heard from a Japanese ECC teacher, which isn't something I really believe, but I suppose it could be true, cunnit?
In a few weeks I hopefully will start private Japanese lessons, and I bought a new textbook for studying kanji that seems much more logically laid out than the other ones I have, at least for the purpose of learning compounds, as they only use ones which you've already learned, as opposed to another textbook which I have, where the second character in the book, "Right" (as in the side) is giving stuff like "rightist faction" (admittedly useful to know and avoid here). But still "Motto tsuyoku benkyou shinakya!" (I have to study harder! [I hope I got that right])