日本高校生の青春...いいな～
(i.e. The fresh spring that is a Japanese High School student's life)
The Inter-high sports tournament between Okinawan high schools takes place this weekend. (Well, except for the volleyball tournament, which proceeded last weekend on Miyako-jima.) Hence, the first period of the day was taken up by the presentation of the team members, who will be scattering all over the island over the next week. Most of it wasn't particularly noteworthy...except for the insanely crazy baseball club. The highlight - at least to an ALT with a marginal grasp of Japanese - was a somewhat strange interview...
これから、面談を（行い申します）。～さん、好きなポジションは何ですか？
（センターフィールダー。センターがいいです。）
（私と違うですね。自分は｛ごめん、忘れちゃった｝です。）お風呂に入れって何分ですか？
お風呂ですか？２０分ぐあいです．．．
自分は１５分です。好きな席はなんですか？
席？！教室の席ですか？
はい。
えと、（窓のとのりのセンター）．．．
あぁ．．．あちらですか？(The intervewer used his hands to demonstrate this one...) 自分のは3列の２です。チョークの好きな色はなんですか？
チョーク？！（＠＿＠）．．．白ですけど．．．
あぁ．．．そうですか？自分のは青です！それでは．．．
Rough English Translation
And so, we're now going to interview the star, ~san. ~-san, what is your favourite position?
(Centre-field. The centre is good.)
That's different from me, I prefer the {sorry! I didn't catch this}. How long do you stay in the bath?
The bath? About 20 minutes...
I stay about 15 minutes. How about your favourite seat? What is it?
Seat?! You mean in the classroom?
Certainly.
um...the middle seat next to the window.
Ah, you mean this one. (Demonstrates). Mine is the second seat in the third column. {This is pretty much in the centre of the room! implying that he's extremely studious?}
(Quite different, aren't we?) And what's your favourite chalk colour?
Chalk?! （＠＿＠） ...it's white...
Ah...is that so? Mine is blue...(we're very different....) and so...
I really don't remember all the additional quips the interviewer said when comparing their likes and dislikes (which is why I have so many brackets), but it was hilarious. I'm glad they came up with this one though, as the jokes they usually use are too casual for me to catch. Good luck to the teams this weekend!
p.s. The volleyball coach had a couple of interesting tales to relate from the trip to Miyako-jima, which caused him to reflect on how nostalgic the lives of high school students （青春） are. The consequences of the trip weren't particularly nice though...that teacher's been catching up on three-party Parent-Student-Teacher interviews （三社面談） ever since...
========================
Ah, unrelated, but the next episode preview for the Japanese drama I'm currently watching messed me up last night...I could hardly sleep just thinking about how much I'm NOT looking forward to the next few episodes...
The Inter-high sports tournament between Okinawan high schools takes place this weekend. (Well, except for the volleyball tournament, which proceeded last weekend on Miyako-jima.) Hence, the first period of the day was taken up by the presentation of the team members, who will be scattering all over the island over the next week. Most of it wasn't particularly noteworthy...except for the insanely crazy baseball club. The highlight - at least to an ALT with a marginal grasp of Japanese - was a somewhat strange interview...
これから、面談を（行い申します）。～さん、好きなポジションは何ですか？
（センターフィールダー。センターがいいです。）
（私と違うですね。自分は｛ごめん、忘れちゃった｝です。）お風呂に入れって何分ですか？
お風呂ですか？２０分ぐあいです．．．
自分は１５分です。好きな席はなんですか？
席？！教室の席ですか？
はい。
えと、（窓のとのりのセンター）．．．
あぁ．．．あちらですか？(The intervewer used his hands to demonstrate this one...) 自分のは3列の２です。チョークの好きな色はなんですか？
チョーク？！（＠＿＠）．．．白ですけど．．．
あぁ．．．そうですか？自分のは青です！それでは．．．
Rough English Translation
And so, we're now going to interview the star, ~san. ~-san, what is your favourite position?
(Centre-field. The centre is good.)
That's different from me, I prefer the {sorry! I didn't catch this}. How long do you stay in the bath?
The bath? About 20 minutes...
I stay about 15 minutes. How about your favourite seat? What is it?
Seat?! You mean in the classroom?
Certainly.
um...the middle seat next to the window.
Ah, you mean this one. (Demonstrates). Mine is the second seat in the third column. {This is pretty much in the centre of the room! implying that he's extremely studious?}
(Quite different, aren't we?) And what's your favourite chalk colour?
Chalk?! （＠＿＠） ...it's white...
Ah...is that so? Mine is blue...(we're very different....) and so...
I really don't remember all the additional quips the interviewer said when comparing their likes and dislikes (which is why I have so many brackets), but it was hilarious. I'm glad they came up with this one though, as the jokes they usually use are too casual for me to catch. Good luck to the teams this weekend!
p.s. The volleyball coach had a couple of interesting tales to relate from the trip to Miyako-jima, which caused him to reflect on how nostalgic the lives of high school students （青春） are. The consequences of the trip weren't particularly nice though...that teacher's been catching up on three-party Parent-Student-Teacher interviews （三社面談） ever since...
========================
Ah, unrelated, but the next episode preview for the Japanese drama I'm currently watching messed me up last night...I could hardly sleep just thinking about how much I'm NOT looking forward to the next few episodes...