multimedia and a school visit
^.^ i am very much enjoying my tv. i just caught an episode of a drama called 「花ざかりの君たちへ」on tv. the part of it caught was really interesting. :x apparently it's based on a manga.... it sucks dropping into the middle of a full-blown series. >_> i wish i could watch it from the start. but oh well... i also saw an episode of a saturday tv drama called 「ライフ」 ("Life") which i soooooo have to follow. ^-^' these dramas are both dramas based around school life, but they're soooo good.....
.....wtf??? x'D @ another tv drama that just came on
crop circles....? fk, if i dont stop watching tv i'll never get through the DVDs and CDs i've rented! >_O;;; buuuut nighttime tv in japan is so interesting. :(
but umm... yeah. every tuesday is a discounted rental day at my local rental shop. you can rent DVDs for 100yen and CDs for 150yen! ...so i kinda splurged and rented a lot of CDs and a DVD. >_>; and i already have a few DVDs that are due back tomorrow that i gotta get through. ^^'''
:x currently i've been renting the DVDs of a short tv drama that was popular a year or so ago called 「イヌゴエ 」 ("Inugoe" - "Voice of Dog"). it's really cute. especially the way the dogs talk. xD i love the voice acting. :x i've also started trying to get through the series Shaman King.... kinda old, and not particularly my typical genre of anime, but i'm trying to stick to watching things that wont have a lot of jargon, complex plots or difficult language because i have a hard enough time following without that stuff as it is. that and i had watched the first few eps of SK years ago and it seemed interesting enough.
tonight i rented misc albums by: Buck-Tick, OLIVIA, T.M. Revolution, TWO-MIX and mihimaruGT. all but the last i'm already acquainted with but i want to get to know better. mihimaruGT has a kewl song in a tv commercial. xD i also got "LOVE for NANA", an OST for the anime NANA because it's illegal for any serious NANA fan to not have listened to it at least once. :P
......NANA season 1 is ooovvvveerrrr-- GAA?AHHG! :sobs: <33 NANA forever. ;-;
....but onto more serious matters.
this afternoon we (us new ALTs and 1 experienced ALT-- thank god for her :'3) went to a summer camp for elementary-aged children with disabilities. i have never really had any experience working with anyone, children or otherwise, like this and it was really... an eye-opening, interesting experience. we weren't there necessarily to teach english (that would be pretty much impossible in this situation), but rather to provide a "fun-filled hour of english funness! :D"
we introduced ourselves very briefly and simply and then went into activities such as a simple game/activity, then reading a simple book full of pictures, sing a simple song, read simple book, repeat and mix. when i say "simple game" i mean something like showing them a picture, asking them to name the thing in japanese and then telling them the name of the thing in english. "simple song" as in "head, shoulders, knees and toes". we read simple books like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".
i think it went relatively well. probably couldn't have gone better. of course, when working with kids such as this, they're running around, screaming, jumping all over the place and crap while you're trying to do things. :x but there were several "helpers" there to help keep the kids calm and in line. there was this one kid who was really-- REALLLLY fascinated by watches... and apparently he couldnt get enough of mine. he was all over my arm staring at it lol. but in a cute, but unintentionally forceful kinda way. :'x and there was this one kid who i think we all really liked. he was notably more alert than the other kids and he was pretty bright too! just had a very short attention span. we'd show pictures of things and he would say their name in english before we even said it! to show how kewl this is, note that even your average elementary student his age generally doesn't have the english vocab this kid seemed to have. we were all amazed, this kid had caught all of our attention. lol
when it came time to leave, this kid kept saying bye foreeevver. :x we had to wait a bit before leaving to get some paperwork done, and he kept hanging around us, playing with his ball and repeatedly saying 'byebye' and waving. :3 he even followed us all the way down stairs and to the door saying 'byebye', he was so cute. i think he got the most benefit out of our visit, as he seemed to be happy we had come. he even said 'byebye Kochi board of education" in japanese to us. xD and as we were walking away.... from the second story window where the class was the kids yelled "byebye" until we were clear out of earshot (lead by that one kid i'm sure). it was amazing. and funny. and sweet. :'x i'm sure we'll never get so much outwardly shown appreciation at our regular schools lol.
but anyway that was my second encounter with helping to lead a group of kids. but next week... x-x i'm going to have to lead real classes... by my self with just the aid of one JTE. ;-; i am VERY nervous. today Tanaka-san gave us our school schedules from next week to december. monday i have a half day at the office and then tues + weds i'm full day at Otsu JHS. then thurs and fri i have visits to two elementary schools. :| and we're scheduled to work on xmas day! but screw that, i'm going to ask for it off. :P
but umm, anyway... i need to get back to my DVDs and such. i WILL be ripping all the songs i can from the CDs i've rented before i return them, so if anything interests you... :p let me know and i'll give you more details.
.....wtf??? x'D @ another tv drama that just came on
crop circles....? fk, if i dont stop watching tv i'll never get through the DVDs and CDs i've rented! >_O;;; buuuut nighttime tv in japan is so interesting. :(
but umm... yeah. every tuesday is a discounted rental day at my local rental shop. you can rent DVDs for 100yen and CDs for 150yen! ...so i kinda splurged and rented a lot of CDs and a DVD. >_>; and i already have a few DVDs that are due back tomorrow that i gotta get through. ^^'''
:x currently i've been renting the DVDs of a short tv drama that was popular a year or so ago called 「イヌゴエ 」 ("Inugoe" - "Voice of Dog"). it's really cute. especially the way the dogs talk. xD i love the voice acting. :x i've also started trying to get through the series Shaman King.... kinda old, and not particularly my typical genre of anime, but i'm trying to stick to watching things that wont have a lot of jargon, complex plots or difficult language because i have a hard enough time following without that stuff as it is. that and i had watched the first few eps of SK years ago and it seemed interesting enough.
tonight i rented misc albums by: Buck-Tick, OLIVIA, T.M. Revolution, TWO-MIX and mihimaruGT. all but the last i'm already acquainted with but i want to get to know better. mihimaruGT has a kewl song in a tv commercial. xD i also got "LOVE for NANA", an OST for the anime NANA because it's illegal for any serious NANA fan to not have listened to it at least once. :P
......NANA season 1 is ooovvvveerrrr-- GAA?AHHG! :sobs: <33 NANA forever. ;-;
....but onto more serious matters.
this afternoon we (us new ALTs and 1 experienced ALT-- thank god for her :'3) went to a summer camp for elementary-aged children with disabilities. i have never really had any experience working with anyone, children or otherwise, like this and it was really... an eye-opening, interesting experience. we weren't there necessarily to teach english (that would be pretty much impossible in this situation), but rather to provide a "fun-filled hour of english funness! :D"
we introduced ourselves very briefly and simply and then went into activities such as a simple game/activity, then reading a simple book full of pictures, sing a simple song, read simple book, repeat and mix. when i say "simple game" i mean something like showing them a picture, asking them to name the thing in japanese and then telling them the name of the thing in english. "simple song" as in "head, shoulders, knees and toes". we read simple books like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".
i think it went relatively well. probably couldn't have gone better. of course, when working with kids such as this, they're running around, screaming, jumping all over the place and crap while you're trying to do things. :x but there were several "helpers" there to help keep the kids calm and in line. there was this one kid who was really-- REALLLLY fascinated by watches... and apparently he couldnt get enough of mine. he was all over my arm staring at it lol. but in a cute, but unintentionally forceful kinda way. :'x and there was this one kid who i think we all really liked. he was notably more alert than the other kids and he was pretty bright too! just had a very short attention span. we'd show pictures of things and he would say their name in english before we even said it! to show how kewl this is, note that even your average elementary student his age generally doesn't have the english vocab this kid seemed to have. we were all amazed, this kid had caught all of our attention. lol
when it came time to leave, this kid kept saying bye foreeevver. :x we had to wait a bit before leaving to get some paperwork done, and he kept hanging around us, playing with his ball and repeatedly saying 'byebye' and waving. :3 he even followed us all the way down stairs and to the door saying 'byebye', he was so cute. i think he got the most benefit out of our visit, as he seemed to be happy we had come. he even said 'byebye Kochi board of education" in japanese to us. xD and as we were walking away.... from the second story window where the class was the kids yelled "byebye" until we were clear out of earshot (lead by that one kid i'm sure). it was amazing. and funny. and sweet. :'x i'm sure we'll never get so much outwardly shown appreciation at our regular schools lol.
but anyway that was my second encounter with helping to lead a group of kids. but next week... x-x i'm going to have to lead real classes... by my self with just the aid of one JTE. ;-; i am VERY nervous. today Tanaka-san gave us our school schedules from next week to december. monday i have a half day at the office and then tues + weds i'm full day at Otsu JHS. then thurs and fri i have visits to two elementary schools. :| and we're scheduled to work on xmas day! but screw that, i'm going to ask for it off. :P
but umm, anyway... i need to get back to my DVDs and such. i WILL be ripping all the songs i can from the CDs i've rented before i return them, so if anything interests you... :p let me know and i'll give you more details.