fun in 1st year land
D: i`ve been posting less (meaningful) things here since i started my Japanese lj.... my bad. >.> time for a real(ish) entry.
today the sky was finally blue and the sun was finally out. FINALLY. but man, did that make it even more hot, mixed with the humidity from the previous rain-- bah. two out of the four seasons in Japan suck. half the year`s weather sucks! that sucks. D;
anyway, today i went to Otsu E.S. and taught four classes of 1st years. four classes. of 1st years. 1st years generally are the most dangerous (and sometimes the funniest) students in E.S., but THANKFULLY the students today weren`t bad. they didn`t bounce off of the walls, yay! luckily i had an easy topic to teach (colors) and they loved the games i played with them. they were pretty sweet, for the most part. one kid in one class was rather disruptive in that he kept saying random English words/phrases throughout class, asking me unrelated questions while i was talking, etc. after class he came up to me and was like "ね、ね、消しゴムしちゅう??" ("hey, hey, do you know erasers??") i'm like "yeah?" and he's like "ね、ね、アメリカでも消しゴムがあるか？？" ("hey, hey, are there erasers in America too??") D; and i`m just like "wtf, of course" lmao. then he started asking me other stuff that i kind of ignored because other kids were asking me questions too. :`x
little kids ask the funniest things! like on a different occasion i was asked if there are drinks in America. D; and another American ALT topped that by telling me that a kid (1st grader) asked her if there are living things in America..... D;
ARE THERE LIVING THINGS IN AMERICA???
and this same ALT (she's so awesome, she has some of the best stories D;) on another occasion was asked where Japan was. understandable that the kids wouldn't know where Japan is in the world, but the classroom had neither a map nor a globe, so she was like "we're in Japan right now" and the kids were like "OMGWTF REALLY WOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!" xDDD
rotflmao
....anyway, in one of the classes there was a boy who is half American. the teacher made sure to point this out to me. i thought that that was cool and all, but what i didn`t think was cool was that it seemed not only his peers, but also the teacher had expectations that his English would be good just because he`s half American. that bothered me a little and he didn`t seem to thrilled about it either. granted his pronunciation was much more natural than other students' and he did understand more of what i was saying than the others, but it was also obvious that his speaking abilities in English were very limited. he probably was raised speaking Japanese and just hears English at home, so speaking it is hard for him. but his peers and teacher expected more of him. that made me a bit sad... poor kid. he may have to deal with such expectations a lot if he stays in Japan, but i think the teacher mentioned that he was going to America in September... that will certainly be interesting for him. GOODLUCK, KID! >_<
*yawn* ...need to go to bed.... tomorrow is my only day at J.H.S. because of testing. after tomorrow, the rest of the week will be spent at misc E.S.. i hope this week goes well...
today the sky was finally blue and the sun was finally out. FINALLY. but man, did that make it even more hot, mixed with the humidity from the previous rain-- bah. two out of the four seasons in Japan suck. half the year`s weather sucks! that sucks. D;
anyway, today i went to Otsu E.S. and taught four classes of 1st years. four classes. of 1st years. 1st years generally are the most dangerous (and sometimes the funniest) students in E.S., but THANKFULLY the students today weren`t bad. they didn`t bounce off of the walls, yay! luckily i had an easy topic to teach (colors) and they loved the games i played with them. they were pretty sweet, for the most part. one kid in one class was rather disruptive in that he kept saying random English words/phrases throughout class, asking me unrelated questions while i was talking, etc. after class he came up to me and was like "ね、ね、消しゴムしちゅう??" ("hey, hey, do you know erasers??") i'm like "yeah?" and he's like "ね、ね、アメリカでも消しゴムがあるか？？" ("hey, hey, are there erasers in America too??") D; and i`m just like "wtf, of course" lmao. then he started asking me other stuff that i kind of ignored because other kids were asking me questions too. :`x
little kids ask the funniest things! like on a different occasion i was asked if there are drinks in America. D; and another American ALT topped that by telling me that a kid (1st grader) asked her if there are living things in America..... D;
ARE THERE LIVING THINGS IN AMERICA???
and this same ALT (she's so awesome, she has some of the best stories D;) on another occasion was asked where Japan was. understandable that the kids wouldn't know where Japan is in the world, but the classroom had neither a map nor a globe, so she was like "we're in Japan right now" and the kids were like "OMGWTF REALLY WOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!" xDDD
rotflmao
....anyway, in one of the classes there was a boy who is half American. the teacher made sure to point this out to me. i thought that that was cool and all, but what i didn`t think was cool was that it seemed not only his peers, but also the teacher had expectations that his English would be good just because he`s half American. that bothered me a little and he didn`t seem to thrilled about it either. granted his pronunciation was much more natural than other students' and he did understand more of what i was saying than the others, but it was also obvious that his speaking abilities in English were very limited. he probably was raised speaking Japanese and just hears English at home, so speaking it is hard for him. but his peers and teacher expected more of him. that made me a bit sad... poor kid. he may have to deal with such expectations a lot if he stays in Japan, but i think the teacher mentioned that he was going to America in September... that will certainly be interesting for him. GOODLUCK, KID! >_<
*yawn* ...need to go to bed.... tomorrow is my only day at J.H.S. because of testing. after tomorrow, the rest of the week will be spent at misc E.S.. i hope this week goes well...