Oboe dasanai...
So here I am, feeling rather useless after the Miyagi earthquake. I lived in Sendai, Miyagi for a year, and completely loved it.
But the sad part is, all those student to whom I taught English, I can't remember their names - not their full names anyway. So I feel even more useless. Nor can I remember the Japanese staff's full names. So even though I want to check on them, I can't.
Yoshinori, the steel worker, who was too painfully shy to talk to the girl he liked, and wouldn't take the placement tests to level up because she was still in the same level. The steel factory got hit with the Tsunami waters up to chest height on the 3rd floor of one of the buildings according to one first-hand account.
Akemi, the teacher, whom we called Kooky Akemi due to her enthusiasm and energy. She loved Will Ferrell, Queen, and Never Ending Story, and would make annual trips to LA and NY. She worked down in Natori, but I don't remember which school.
Isao, "cap guy", one of the crotchety old men. You didn't want to bring up the subject of WW2 with him, because he was still very T'd off about the whole thing. Blaming the destruction of Aobo-jo on American bombers (when it reality the castle had mostly be dismantled before the war).
Jun, the other crotchety old man. Generally a nice guy, if not a bit of a know-it-all.
Lurch (I can't even remember his real name, just that we called him Lurch due to his resemblance to the Addam's Family character), another old man, but not crotchety. Lurch was always smiling, and perhaps a little bit of a dirty old man when around young women.
Yukari-chan, one of my Kinder students who was absolutely adorable. The one day I didn't wear my hair in a bun, she spent the entire lesson playing with my hair, saying in her childish dialect "Sensei has long hair, Yukari doesn't."
Katsue, one of the eldest students, her husband and both of her sons were doctors, her daughter a real estate agent. At the time I knew her, even her mother was alive. Katsue had a knack for confusing everyone around her, whether conversing in English or Japanese.
Kaz, our token male Japanese staff. I burned him a pirated porn dvd (about pirates) once. He taught me how to origami fold a chopstick wrapper into a chopstick stand.
Not to mention all the others that while I can remember details about them, I just can't remember their names.
But the sad part is, all those student to whom I taught English, I can't remember their names - not their full names anyway. So I feel even more useless. Nor can I remember the Japanese staff's full names. So even though I want to check on them, I can't.
Yoshinori, the steel worker, who was too painfully shy to talk to the girl he liked, and wouldn't take the placement tests to level up because she was still in the same level. The steel factory got hit with the Tsunami waters up to chest height on the 3rd floor of one of the buildings according to one first-hand account.
Akemi, the teacher, whom we called Kooky Akemi due to her enthusiasm and energy. She loved Will Ferrell, Queen, and Never Ending Story, and would make annual trips to LA and NY. She worked down in Natori, but I don't remember which school.
Isao, "cap guy", one of the crotchety old men. You didn't want to bring up the subject of WW2 with him, because he was still very T'd off about the whole thing. Blaming the destruction of Aobo-jo on American bombers (when it reality the castle had mostly be dismantled before the war).
Jun, the other crotchety old man. Generally a nice guy, if not a bit of a know-it-all.
Lurch (I can't even remember his real name, just that we called him Lurch due to his resemblance to the Addam's Family character), another old man, but not crotchety. Lurch was always smiling, and perhaps a little bit of a dirty old man when around young women.
Yukari-chan, one of my Kinder students who was absolutely adorable. The one day I didn't wear my hair in a bun, she spent the entire lesson playing with my hair, saying in her childish dialect "Sensei has long hair, Yukari doesn't."
Katsue, one of the eldest students, her husband and both of her sons were doctors, her daughter a real estate agent. At the time I knew her, even her mother was alive. Katsue had a knack for confusing everyone around her, whether conversing in English or Japanese.
Kaz, our token male Japanese staff. I burned him a pirated porn dvd (about pirates) once. He taught me how to origami fold a chopstick wrapper into a chopstick stand.
Not to mention all the others that while I can remember details about them, I just can't remember their names.