Power to the People
So, first week of university over.
In review, I like most of my courses at least somewhat. Monday started with French Communication. The class actually started from zero, which is good for me since I've never had a lesson of French in my life. The teacher is a French guy and he teaches in English, so all the better. We spent a lot of time on pronounciation though. Bonjour seems to be a very hard word for the Japanese to get right. After class during the free period we made our first Japanese friends. A group of very brave ichinensei (first graders) who came up to us and asked for help with French pronounciation. Since, obviously, we're white and we have to be aces at that. Never mind that we're German.
Next up was English Theme Writing. Granted, the subject matter is boring, but the teacher... damn. Andrews-sensei is more of an actor than a teacher really. It's amazing to what lengths he went just a get a response out of the unresponsive Japanese students. Also, he seems to really care about his students and is good at spontaneous motivational speeches. And spontantous dance moves. After class he asked us to help liven up his class a little, I think it's going to be fun.
Tuesday we only attended English Communication. The teacher... well, he's an American, and he greets the class with "POWER TO THE PEOPLE". I swear, it seems like all foreigners get weird after staying in Japan for too long. He also seems to want to teach moral values stuff more than he wants to teach English. Our first topic for discussion next week will be Vegetarianism, and then later on he'll also have us watch some sort of movie about dolphins being slaughtered. I'm not too sure yet whether I'll keep this class, but at least, if I do I'll get to talk to all the other Japanese students. On my way into the classroom Alex and I were also approached by a half-Russian half-Japanese girl who wanted to become friends with us. I was honestly just happy when I checked her facebook and she was the same age as me. Ususally the people we run into here are...a little on the young side. But then, we do mainly go to ichinensei classes.
Beside that, we do randomly get talked to a lot. But mostly people just say "hi!" and walk on. They also stare. A lot.
Wednesday we started early in the morning with 異文化コミュニケーション (cross cultural communication). Again with Andrews and also a female Japanese teacher by the name of Sakai. The two of them would make a great comedy duo, really. After that, I had my first Japanese lesson. The teacher has lived in the US for a while, and she seems okay, but I don't think I like her lesson plan. Lots of essays and presentations. Just more of what I had at my home university and it does not excite me. In her lesson on Thursday when she realized we were all going to be in both of her classes (nihongo I and nihongo II) and that none of us would be trying to graduate from a Japanese university, she changed her plan a little, though. Now we'll also get vocabulary and kanji lists and she wants us to take the JLTP2 by December. (Well, us Germans, haha, most of the other's are going for the 1, or already have it)
Wedneyday we also helped out in German class, haha. The looks the students were giving us... priceless. Next week we're supposed to do this completely fake conversation with them about family and stuff. It goes against pretty much everything I've been taught about teaching. But then, this is Japan.
Friday an extremely boring lesson in "Japanese Affairs" which is taught by some Japanese health freak and likely to be dropped. On Saturday we had the same lesson, but with a different teacher...taht one is a business freak. Oh joy.
Friday and Satuday we went into the city after classe. Have pictures.
Main shopping street in Sendai called Clisroad.
Japanese guy playing the organ above Clisroad.
(Yes, Mickey and Minni are doing what you think they're doing)
(Games center)
(Purikura foto machines)
(Supermarket)
(Build your human!)
Major duckface.
We also had a run-in with some very insistent Japanese guys on our way back to the station after we exited the Animate. Wanting to drink tea with us. Yeah, sure. If they'd at least been handsome, haha... Oh well.
In review, I like most of my courses at least somewhat. Monday started with French Communication. The class actually started from zero, which is good for me since I've never had a lesson of French in my life. The teacher is a French guy and he teaches in English, so all the better. We spent a lot of time on pronounciation though. Bonjour seems to be a very hard word for the Japanese to get right. After class during the free period we made our first Japanese friends. A group of very brave ichinensei (first graders) who came up to us and asked for help with French pronounciation. Since, obviously, we're white and we have to be aces at that. Never mind that we're German.
Next up was English Theme Writing. Granted, the subject matter is boring, but the teacher... damn. Andrews-sensei is more of an actor than a teacher really. It's amazing to what lengths he went just a get a response out of the unresponsive Japanese students. Also, he seems to really care about his students and is good at spontaneous motivational speeches. And spontantous dance moves. After class he asked us to help liven up his class a little, I think it's going to be fun.
Tuesday we only attended English Communication. The teacher... well, he's an American, and he greets the class with "POWER TO THE PEOPLE". I swear, it seems like all foreigners get weird after staying in Japan for too long. He also seems to want to teach moral values stuff more than he wants to teach English. Our first topic for discussion next week will be Vegetarianism, and then later on he'll also have us watch some sort of movie about dolphins being slaughtered. I'm not too sure yet whether I'll keep this class, but at least, if I do I'll get to talk to all the other Japanese students. On my way into the classroom Alex and I were also approached by a half-Russian half-Japanese girl who wanted to become friends with us. I was honestly just happy when I checked her facebook and she was the same age as me. Ususally the people we run into here are...a little on the young side. But then, we do mainly go to ichinensei classes.
Beside that, we do randomly get talked to a lot. But mostly people just say "hi!" and walk on. They also stare. A lot.
Wednesday we started early in the morning with 異文化コミュニケーション (cross cultural communication). Again with Andrews and also a female Japanese teacher by the name of Sakai. The two of them would make a great comedy duo, really. After that, I had my first Japanese lesson. The teacher has lived in the US for a while, and she seems okay, but I don't think I like her lesson plan. Lots of essays and presentations. Just more of what I had at my home university and it does not excite me. In her lesson on Thursday when she realized we were all going to be in both of her classes (nihongo I and nihongo II) and that none of us would be trying to graduate from a Japanese university, she changed her plan a little, though. Now we'll also get vocabulary and kanji lists and she wants us to take the JLTP2 by December. (Well, us Germans, haha, most of the other's are going for the 1, or already have it)
Wedneyday we also helped out in German class, haha. The looks the students were giving us... priceless. Next week we're supposed to do this completely fake conversation with them about family and stuff. It goes against pretty much everything I've been taught about teaching. But then, this is Japan.
Friday an extremely boring lesson in "Japanese Affairs" which is taught by some Japanese health freak and likely to be dropped. On Saturday we had the same lesson, but with a different teacher...taht one is a business freak. Oh joy.
Friday and Satuday we went into the city after classe. Have pictures.
Main shopping street in Sendai called Clisroad.
Japanese guy playing the organ above Clisroad.
(Yes, Mickey and Minni are doing what you think they're doing)
(Games center)
(Purikura foto machines)
(Supermarket)
(Build your human!)
Major duckface.
We also had a run-in with some very insistent Japanese guys on our way back to the station after we exited the Animate. Wanting to drink tea with us. Yeah, sure. If they'd at least been handsome, haha... Oh well.