Every elementary teacher in Japan has had the joy of trying to work with Eigo Note: The frustration that comes with its lesson plans, which hardly incorporate the native speaker at all, the “digital blackboard,” which pretty much makes us obsolete. While I don’t disagree with the English level, it’d be nice if they were a bit more inclusive, after all the ALTs in the elementary schools pretty much run the lessons (or should be anyway).
But they’re the standard text for 5th and 6th grade, so you do what you gotta do.
Well some ALTs took out their frustration on Eigo Note by turning it into something completely twisted in wonderful, in the “How To Use Eigo Note to Pick Up Women.” All of these conversations come from the CDs that accompany our textbook. I’ll never forget the time one of my teachers sprung the “Green Cap” song on me in class, and now I’ll never be able to do it with a straight face.
Let’s enjoying our English teacher humor everyone!
New term tomorrow
What will the students do now
That they’re used to me?
I can’t believe it’s been a year already. I start working again tomorrow and have the opening ceremony for 2nd term. It will be so much better this year now that I don’t have those pesky introduction lessons. It’s just been so weird thinking that I actually kind of know what I’m sort of supposed to be doing now (maybe?).
We had Christy’s birthday party today. A group of girls went out to all-you-can-eat pizza and karaoke. I ate so much that I’m still full 8 hours later. At karaoke a partial list of what we all rocked out to included:
I went grape picking today at a vineyard near my house. You pay ¥1000 and you get to go eat all the grapes you can then any grapes you want to take home you pay for. I took the new English teacher in our town for some shaded grape-picking delight.
Once we got inside the vineyard we were told we could cut any grapes we like, except for the very expensive Ruby Romans, which sell for about $1,000-$2,000 a bunch. One Ruby Roman can cost as much as $80 dollars. One grape.
So instead we decided to enjoy the grape picking and eat any of the other varieties out in the field. In the end we went home with a single bunch of grapes. The ladies back at the packing house gave us two bonus bunches to take home for free. Thank you!
They also let us taste the mythical beast that is Ruby Roman. It was very sweet and juicy. It would probably be good after chilling in the refrigerator on a very hot day, but a little out of my price range at the moment. (more…)
It’s me rolling in a deathtrap of perhaps the most fun park I have ever been to in my life. The hiking trail had obstacles on it, there were great play structures all over the place, and there was even a giant climbing bridge that had all different pathways through it. I just wishI had worn better shoes …
Or rather, who has the right to? I have a BMI indicator on my Mac Dashboard and as I input my weight tonight I decided to play weight fantasy. Right now my weight is 65 kilograms. (Sorry, you’ll just have to convert to imperial measurements on your own!) The indicator said that my weight was normal for my height. Then I decided to play weight guessing and see waht I’d be a few kgs lighter. Apparently I’d be IDEAL. While I am at a completely normal weight for my height apparently I’m not ideal until I drop those last 2 kgs.
It’s times like this that make me want to go on crazy crash diets.
Oh and by the way, BMI measure, I’ve already lost 8 kgs since coming here. I’ll take my fat-ass normal weight, thank you.
I’ve been experimenting a lot with my cell phone a Softbank 930SH. Since it’s all fancy and pretty I’m disappointed in myself with not using it to it’s fullest. The other day I decided I’m going to use my cel phone to it’s fullest extent. Apparently the fullest extent might even mean giving me internet access where I need it the most.
It started playing with my phone and computer connection using bluetooth, finally able to transfer photos off of my phone and onto my computer with ease makes my life a lot more enjoyable. I also bought a 8 gb memory card so I could fit a lot more software on my cell. But perhaps my favorite thing that my cell phone can act as a wireless modem for my computer, meaning I can finally use the internet at work. Which means a lot more time to surf the internet (and my poster rate is going to increase dramatically).
Follow this tutorial to learn how to surf the internet with your Mac and Softbank phone. (NOTE: you will need Snow Leopard.)
We’ve all been trying to figure out how to save the dying newspaper industry, trying to get people to care more and realize that papers are still relevant, but newspapers haven’t done perhaps the most important thing: a sexy ad campaign to air during the Olympics! Take a look at this ad for Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. With a circulation of more than 14 million for its Japanese edition alone, Yomiuri has one of the largest circulations of any newspaper in the world. But this ad, showing Hiro, the lead singer for the Japanese band Exile flexing and wearing a tight wife beater, shows that this newspaper is f***ing serious.
The text in the ad is as follows:
What is real?
Is the thinking passionate?
Does it have the strength to move hearts?
REAL STRENGTH
Yomiuri Shimbun
So, if you want to sell papers, get a hot pop star, have him show off his sexy muscles and BOOM! You’ve got yourself a successful business. Industry saved.
Yes it’s controversial. Yes it’s against everything I’ve ever been taught, but when it’s there in the supermarket staring me in the face, I can’t resist the call. I wanted to try whale meat. I’ve wanted to try it ever since 1999 when the Makah were granted permission to hunt a single gray whale and eat it. And boy did I get flak for it. From my friends to my boyfriend I got loads of “I can’t believe you’re going to eat that.” Well what do you want me to do? Return the hunk of whale meat to the wild? No, it went into my belly (and my boyfriend’s too even though he claimed he’d never want to try it.)
The first problem I had with the whale meat was “how do you cook it?” Luckily, the World Council of Whalers has a Web site complete with recipes. And while Japan by no means relies on whaling for “cultural, nutritional and economic sustenance” it has been a part of Japanese culture for hundreds of years. Though, I found it interesting that although whale is no longer hunted “commercially” I was still able to purchase it at my local grocer. Someone’s making a profit on this meat and I don’t think it’s a scientist.
Long story short I cooked the meat and ate it. It was OK. It tasted kind of like steak, but was a lot more tender. I would prefer beef to this any day because beef comes with a lot less stigma and ire.
So after I make a big New Years resolution to be better about updating my blog regularly I don’t write in it for about a month. I’m sorry. Let me say it wasn’t my fault. There’s been a lot of darkness in my life and last month I had another bombshell dropped on me. I’d talk more about it on here, but it’s a family matter and there are other people in my family who might not appreciate a lot of soul-bearing and my thoughts on personal issues. And I’m going to respect their wishes.
I will say that dealing with these issues while in a foreign country is not easy, though. You’re far away and it’s easy to close yourself off to everyone. Sadly, I’ve done that too much over here and I feel now like people never got a chance to know me. They just know this girl who’s quiet and lost in her own thoughts. I’m trying hard not to fall into that trap again. I’m trying to reach out to people this time instead, but it’s hard because people don’t always reach back. But I’ll survive, I always do. In the end that’s what I excel at. I’m not going to let other people’s stupid decisions get me down anymore. I’m going to make my own path out here and not fall into a pit of self pity again.
Every elementary teacher in Japan has had the joy of trying to work with Eigo Note: The frustration that comes with its lesson plans, which hardly incorporate the native speaker at all, the “digital blackboard,” which pretty much makes us obsolete. While I don’t disagree with the English level, it’d be nice if they were a bit more inclusive, after all the ALTs in the elementary schools pretty much run the lessons (or should be anyway).
