It's A Surprise!

But in the end, it wasn't. A surprise, I mean.


What I mean is-- I was observed by my company on Friday.


But before I get into that, I wanna give a shout out to Josh, the JET who I interned under last summer. Watching his high school lessons, I used one of his on my 3rd years (9th grade).
The activity I was to make for them was to cover a couple of grammars for review- "I have/have never, I just___, I have been___" and such.


Josh's original lesson was a comparison of Japanese vs. American high school. He made sentences, cut up the words individually, and would put each cut up sentence in an envelope. The kids would get into small groups, and figure out how to put the sentence in the right order together, then write it down on another piece of paper. Each envelope was marked with a letter 'A', 'B', etc, and they would write the sentence next to the letter on the worksheet. Once they had gotten all of the sentences, they had to arrange the sentences in the right order as well. This could be done by looking at the beginnings- like "First, Second, Lastly, And then, However" etc.


Those kids had a great time with it and were enthused. For mine, I left out the arranging sentences part, since I knew the first part would take long enough and I wasn't sure if they've learned connector words like that. 


So I made several sentences about a popular idol here, who is a part of a huge, huge musical group, AKB48 Takamina. She's the leader of Group A, and the leader of the whole group overall. I don't really care for the music, but I knew everyone would know who this is. I put things like 'I have been to America once." and such. It went over pretty well. I had each group write one of the sentences on the board, then we'd go over it. My teacher T-sensei liked it and she said it was good so I'll be doing it again tomorrow with another class.


Now at the end of this class, one of the girls came up and mentioned one of the other English sensei's, M-sensei. She said he really likes AKB48 and particularly one of the group members that he "loves". T-sensei and I were surprised, we had no idea. M-sensei is 42 and married, mind you. Yet at the same time, I thought like it's normal, probably should've known. xD


Now on Friday after my observed class (I'll get to it!), I had a class with M-sensei. We were working on he vs. she-- something Japanese does not tend to often use, so you have to make sure the kids get it right in English. xD He pulled out a picture of the AKB48 group member, and indeed, said he "loves" her. I couldn't help but laugh. I'm still not sure weather he does this for laughs or if he's serious. xD Still, one student asked "but sensei, what about your wife?" to which he said "Well my wife loves the Arashi guys". (Arashi is a really famous group and has been for quite a few years). 


I may have to cogitate this further. And share with T-sensei. xD






Now as for my observation, it was supposed to be a secret from me.


Back in April, when I went to Sayaka's house for a BBQ with her family, she did me the favor of telling me that I was to be observed in June. Now we are all told from the beginning that we "may be recorded for future use and reference," but it really doesn't hit you right of the go like that. Others from other branches have been talking recently about how they've been observed and gotten good/bad feedback. I've been nervous about it, of course.


I don't know why they told this to Sayaka, she has nothing to do with my schools. She is an employee under them but still. Since then it had always been at the back of my mind but I never actually thought that the day would arrive- it just seemed like a story as opposed to real life somehow. 


Also this is totally out of nowhere-- but I've decided that next winter or summer or sometime-- it would be after next Spring-- if I can save the money, I wanna come back home to visit!!! So y'all better get ready for it (even though you have at least a year xDD). I've got a year or so to save the money for a round-trip plane! YOOOOSSSHH.


Anyway, T-sensei dropped the bomb on me on Thursday. She said as we were headed to a class that tomorrow someone was going to come and record me. Now she wasn't supposed to tell me-- it was to be a secret. However, she said she thought it was too mean for me to be ambushed like that. Really I can't thank her enough, I'm really glad she told me.


So what I did was make a fortune teller activity. The grammar to practice was "will". Not "will be," just "will". So I got a worksheet...that I think I'll just upload-- way fast than explaining. I can't actually upload it, so follow the link and then open the attachment.

Clicky!


So I tweaked a few things on that sheet, like making it 20th birthday instead, but it's pretty straight forward what the activity is. It's self-explanatory for us, but I used myself and T-sensei as role models for the activity for the kids. I got colored paper, printed out a bunch of answers for each fortune, and glued them to the corresponding colored paper. The kids lined up and went to both of us for the fortunes, and got normal and/or funny answers. xD Once they were all done, they were to use English to collect their classmates' answers. 


My mistake here was getting so nervous that I forgot that unlike an elementary school class, I can write on the board in English and the kids can read it. I had the chalk in my hand and everything, but I didn't go through with it. I should have written the questions and responses for them to use when asking each other their fortunes. Instead, T-sensei went ahead and did it, and then I had them repeat it. I felt really dumb, but you must know I was very nervous:


Not only was I  being recorded, but because the principal was there too. Even worse, he used to be an English teacher. So I was being watched by my boss at my company (basically, via camera) as well as the boss of my school who's English is really, really, really good and used to do my job.


But after that, things went alright. I also got really awkward at the end, but I had been shaking almost the whole time and my brain was losing it so I think that shouldn't be all too surprising. The class I was observed in was actually the same one I had been eating lunch with that week too. One girl said she could really tell my nervousness, and I told her why the camera person was there- that I was basically getting graded and so I was scared. xD But also thanked her and whoever else was listening for being an energetic and good class (as they usually are, but still) because that only ever helps a lot. ^^


So you can see on the WS that there are spaces for 10 friends' info-- I told those who could get all 10, would get a stamp from me--I've never actually issued my own stamps or stickers before in any class, so I was satisfied that it would draw an appropriate amount of motivation. Overall, I was shaky and nervous and my brain was messed up for the rest of the day, but it was still fun. xD I liked telling the kids that they would one day drive a tank. Plus, now they know what "sensha" is in English. See, they learned even more! xD


So the camera lady was just there to record me- but I do wonder if I'll get a call one of these days about it. :/ Anyway, my principal talked to me about it. Overall, he seemed please but told me to work on my realia- (props, materials)- he was talking about when I forgot that the kids didn't know the English to ask each other.... ^^;;;; I told some friends about this, they said they've all done that too. Somehow, even though it's imperative, it's easy to forget. u.u;
But he also mentioned that I worked very well with T-sensei, and he was impressed by the students and how much they like me. He said that one of them came up to him, thinking he would be part of the activity. Knowing the principal was passed his 20th birthday, the kid adjusted the words "What DID you get for your 20th birthday?" Many children often just repeat things, not really grasping the usage or meaning. But it's clear that this kid did. So, the principal said "I got a cake from my girlfriend." I was happy to hear about this, and thought it was really cute. ^^




So now, before this I had a class with H-sensei. He's been sharing his classes with the trainee, Kojima-sensei lately. As I may have mentioned, she's just in college, and this is her training time for a few weeks. Sadly this week was her last which I'm bummed about because she was nice. Though she did say she might visit for when the culture festival happens~ Anyway, it was her class that day, and H-sensei was in the back, working on stuff. Today's lesson was an activity for writing, and it was on Japanese culture. With me there, she had them get into groups and write about Japanese culture. Then they were to come up and present to me on it. (Even though everything they said-- I already know about it xD). 


One group of girls came up and told me about penmanship (so using the brushes to write kanji and such- traditional way of writing), as well tea ceremony. Which is, as they said, fairly difficult. There are many specific ways of doing every single thing. From the tea itself, to how it is consumed, to the position one is on the floor, to how they move, to timing all of that as well. It's very proper and traditional. You have bitter green tea, but sweet bean sweets to counter it. When it's good, proper sweets and tea matches, its really quite good even if you don't like those things separately. Oh, these kids- they have no idea what I know. xD They even still get surprised at my Japanese.


Another group of girls told me about onsen- hot springs. Now hot springs are really awesome- but it's not somewhere I want to go by myself. You go to your gender's locker room, but your stuff away. Then you get to the bath area, wash yourself and get in. And um, you're naked, and you gotta pin up your hair. No one wears anything, and no one cares. Genders either have separate hot springs, or they change the hours available to each. I've only been once- it was last summer with some of the other girls in the group when I did the internship (yes, I was the only intern, but there were other programs happening too). At first we were kinda awkward but then we were like- whatever. You can't stay in too long, because the heat will get to you-- though there was also an outdoor one I tried--really really nice. 
After, there's all kinds of grooming products you can use. Massaging stuff, everything~ super luxury ^^
I'm never going alone though. I'm far too awkward for that. I need one other person at least. xD


Another group told me about natto--this is fermented soybeans I've mentioned. Just look it up. Some people love it, many hate it. I cannot even smell it or eat just a nibble. They also talked about sumo. And described it as "fat people fight". While...accurate, it's also hilarious.


The last group, all boys, just brought their paper to me, and waited.  I didn't make them say it out loud. It was about H-sensei (who was in the room). It looked like this:


H = Japan culture
H = OTAKU
H = yakuza マフィア (mafia)
H > Ki (sensei)


Otaku basically just means nerd. xD I told them that I am one also, and they were really perplexed. xD (Well I mean, I am) and I also said it's a secret-- they seemed quite intrigued. xD
yakuza is, the Japanese mafia. Now I highly doubt H-sensei is in the yakuza, but it was relaly funny nonetheless. "Ki" is just other sensei, who apparently they don't think as much of in comparison to H-sensei.
All in all, I was quite amused~


Also, real quick, on Tuesday I taught a class entirely by myself at the elementary school- the teacher wasn't there and everything. I dunno where she was, but...well, it wasn't there. But the kids were good, mostly behaved and when it was time for me to go, they were good kids and properly began preparing for their lunch time in an organized fashion as if the teacher was there. Man, Japan- US kids would be going crazy. xD



So aside from all of that, I went to a friend's place as we often do every two weeks or so to watch movies and chat.
As for the rest of the weekend, I've been doing cleaning, and other necessary boring junk. Though I've finally put together my kotatsu~:


Click!


Of course I don't use the heating function right now-- just the table part until it gets cold again.


And that's about it for me~!!


Til next time, I'm on a mission to attain free plastic coke glass from the local McDonalds! (I've always wanted @3@).