The first thing...

Before I get into my main post, here's the link for my photos from Saturday at the Aki Matsuri: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155728&l=72c2f&id=655150561

So I (re-) learned today that when shopping for clothing, the first thing you should always do is check/ask for the price. For some reason, I decided this weekend that I was definitely going to buy another yukata. (I suspect part of it was the desire to not be seen wearing the same yukata twice in one weekend--albeit at different festivals.) Of course yukatas are summer clothing, so most stores no longer have them on display. I actually saw yukatas still on sale at the Jusco in Shichinohe last weekend, but I didn't want to drive out there just for that, so I decided to go to the place I bought my first yukata from: a store called Tasei.

They didn't have any on display, but I asked about yukatas so they went into the store room and brought out a selection for me. The first batch they brought out were all 1000 yen, but they were also all pink. I'm not a pink person, so even though the price was tempting, when they asked how I felt about seeing some slightly more expensive ones, I responded favourably.

In the next batch they brought out, they had a really cute red one with a rabbit and moon pattern. I liked it immediately, especially since it had yellow/gold in it, so it would match the obi I already had. Then I tried it on and I liked it even more.

So, without even asking the price, I was like "I'll take this one!" Well, when I got to the register I saw the price tag and had a bit of a shock. Luckily there was a 30% discount, but even then, it was a lot more than I had budgeted for in my mind. I'm embarrased to say how much exactly it cost (although, I like it enough that I still feel it was worth it), but suffice to say it cost more than twice as much as I paid last year for the yukata, obi, himo (things to tie it with), and waist thing (so the obi doesn't get bunched up) combined. ^^;;

Definitely should've asked the price before allowing myself to think that I really liked it and wanted it!! Ah well. I'm cheap on food and I don't go out that much, so I guess it's OK to splurge on something like this every once in a while.

Next summer, though, I'm definitely going to start looking at yukatas earlier! (Assuming that I'm going to want another new one next year too...)

Anyway, other than buying a yukata (forgot to mention, I'm going to wear it tomorrow at the Kirita area festival), I also spent a lot of time today making hamburgers, cheeseburgers and chickenburgers out of newspaper and coloured paper. I also made apple pies and am planning on making "colas," orange juice and shakes. The ichinensei at Kirita are going to be doing the burger shop dialogue on Tuesday, so I figured I'd do the burger shop role play activity with them for jishu gakushu. (I'll post pictures of all the stuff tomorrow, once I've finished making everything.) I'm really looking forward to the lesson, and I hope the students will have fun with it too!

At 4pm I went to a BBQ at Nori's farm. (Nori is Andy's brother-in-law.) I was the first person to arrive--people trickled in between one and two hours after me!--so I had a lot of time to eat and eat and eat. ^^;; I probably ate more meat tonight than I would eat in one or two months (not counting school lunches, but just my own cooking or meals eaten out)!

It was very relaxed and fun, which is not how I'd usually describe drinking parties. I guess a lot of that was because it was a small gathering at someone's home, rather than a huge event in a public place. Then too, given the nature of the party and the type of people there, I didn't have to feel responsible for anyone's behaviour.

After comparing the various types of drinking parties I've attended this month, I think I'm probably going to become more of a hermit this year and stay away from the big drinking events. I'm not a very social/out-going person, so large events aren't my thing to begin with, and then too I'm starting to get tired of being the non-drinker surrounded by drunkenness. I don't mind when everyone's just happy drunk, but when people get out of control, it starts to tire/stress me out. (That darn over-developed sense of responsibility to/for others at work again!)

Chibi Komadori

Well, today was finally the day of the Chibi Komadori (the children's horse dance)! For the past three weeks all of us ALTs have been practicing (some more regularly than others ^^;;) taiko on weeknights at the Chuo Community Center from 7:oo-8:30pm to take part in the Chibi Komadori.

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the entire setup, but basically there were city workers (like our supervisor, Mukainakano-sensei) walking in front with some signs. Then there were children dancing behind them. We were behind the children on a float (being pulled--it was also motorized though, so it's not like they had to do all the work--by some of the male city employees) playing three big taikos (there were also flute and small drum players on board). Behind us were more children dancing. People dressed in Towada mascot costumes (Komatsu-kun and his girlfriend--I don't know her name) also walked alongside the float and stopped to greet parade spectators every once in a while.

I could be wrong, but I think the Chibi Komadori (along with a bunch of other floats/dancers) was part of the Aki Matsuri kick-off parade.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I'm not sure if it's because it wasn't as sunny and hot as last year, or if it's because I've got more experience behind me now, but this year it seemed to go by really quickly. My arms weren't even tired at all by the end of it!

But yeah, I was glad everything worked out well. This morning I woke up well before my alarm clock to the sound of heavy rain. I lay in bed just praying "please let the rain stop!" (Last year our performance was moved to the Sunday because of a typhoon or something.) When I checked the weather report later on, I saw that it was supposed to be cloudy (and no longer rainy) by 3pm, but I was still a bit worried that they'd cancel.

Obviously, they didn't, and the weather forecast turned out to be correct, so it was all good. ^_^ My only regret is that I couldn't (for obvious reasons) get any pictures of myself playing the taiko. And since I don't look like a foreigner, I rather doubt that anyone would have bothered to take my picture. (Of if they did, that it would get published anywhere or find it's way to me otherwise.) =( One of the disadvantages of being Asian and blending in.

Oh well, I had a lot of fun and I look forward to participating again next year (assuming I stick around for a third year)!

Ah, I forgot to mention it, but this year us girls actually got to wear the yukata instead of just the half coats! I think we definitely looked cooler this year than last! (See more of my Aki Matsuri photos on Facebook.)

What JET Needs

There have been some messages posted in the Aomori Listserv in the past year about JET positions being cut in various prefectures to be replaced with private ALTs. Although that sucks for JETs, I can understand why cities would choose to do so, particularly from a monetary perspective: JETs are extremely well paid; we earn probably the same amount (or more than) as a public employee who has been working in a position for 5-10 years and our hours are significantly fewer than said employee! And if a city happens to get a JET (or string of JETs) who don't perform at a standard to justify such high pay, well, it's easy to understand why a city would want to get rid of JETs.

I've been thinking for quite some time about the JET Programme as a whole and the selection of ALTs in particular, and though my ideas are constantly changing, these are a couple of the things I (currently) think would benefit the JET Programme and the reputations of JET ALTs:

- a minimum 2-year contract: it takes almost a full year to start to get into the groove of working in Japan, so I think that first year ALTs get a lot more than they put in, but I think in their second year ALTs can really start earning their keep

- focusing on teaching rather than internationalization: I think that having internationalization as one of the explicit goals of the JET program is silly; internationalization is a natural result of honest communication and genuine relationships between people of different cultures and the development of those relationships and communication come from earning the trust of coworkers &etc. (usually through demonstrating a commitment to one's work!)

- pre-departure teacher training: I think it would behoove the different embassies world wide to provide some sort of teacher training to ALTs before they come to Japan; this would also strengthen the point that coming to Japan on JET is a JOB and not just a means of exploring Japan and Japanese culture

In my personal experience, the biggest problem with JET ALT program is the perception (among some ALTs and Japanese teachers) that the job of the ALT is to “make English fun.” I mean, I think making English fun is important, but only as a means of teaching English. Teaching English, after all, is what we are hired and paid to do. Making English enjoyable is a good strategy to increase the intrinsic motivation of students, but it has to be accompanied by solid learning, e.g. games/activities that practice and/or reinforce key vocabulary/grammar.

Junior high schools and senior high schools have a set curriculum to get through, so it always surprises me when a junior high school sends a "play some games for 50 minutes" lesson plan rather than a "please think of a game related to the passive voice" lesson plan. I also think a lot of JTEs don't realize that it is possible to cover new grammar AND play some sort of a game when an ALT visits. Maybe it's just me, but I think that most ALTs are more than capable of planning a game to practice a new grammar point if given sufficient notice. Then again, maybe that--"sufficient notice"--is precisely the problem. I haven't discussed this with other ALTs, but I suspect that Towada ALTs are rarely blessed to get lesson plans faxed to us ahead of time. (We're supposed to get them at least one week early, but some schools leave it to one or two days before, which is still better than nothing!)

For elementary schools, "making English fun" is an OK mentality right now since there's no set English curriculum, but by 2011 English will be on the elementary curriculum so I think it'd be a good idea for schools to start planning for that time now. I know that when I was teaching at the Woodlands, the English department had its own "continuum of learning/skills" document that outlined precisely what type of knowledge/abilities/skills students should finish each grade/class with. If elementary schools could start putting something like that together now (e.g. grade 1: learn fruits, colours, sports, animals and basic question pattern "What ~ do you like?"), they'd be in good shape for when mandatory English cames are implemented in 2011.

I guess overall what I'd like to see is schools and ALTs working together in thinking about and planning for is the direction of English education for a school as a whole, rather than always just working on a class-by-class, grade-by-grade sort of basis.

But I guess I've kind of gotten off track from things that JET can control and into the realm of things I'd like to see more of in Towada specifically... (Although I suspect this could be equally applicable to a lot of towns/cities with ALTs.)

Why my Japanese has barely improved...

As I was thinking over various things last night, I realized that the reason why my Japanese has barely improved after a full year of living in Japan is mostly due to four characteristics/traits of mine:

1) I learn better through reading/writing than listening/speaking
2) I have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility to/for others
3) I have an underdeveloped sense of responsibility to myself
4) I'm lazy

The first is pretty obvious. Even though I'm surrounded by people who speak Japanese, because I'm not much of an auditory learner, I pick up relatively little from conversation alone; I need to study (i.e. read about or write things down) to really retain information.

And the reason why I haven't been studying Japanese is related to the other three characteristics. The overdeveloped sense of responsibility to/for others means that I am willing to expend a lot of energy on things that I feel will impact others. It's the reason I will stay up late making materials for classes, or will go to Kirita or the office after other school visits or on weekends (i.e. on my own time). If I feel that I am accountable to or have a responsibility to someone else, I will push myself to live up to (and hopefully exceed) expectations.

Conversely, I don't really feel much of a sense of responsibility for my own health, mental well-being, etc. So I often work late and skip dinner, or stay up late getting things done in spite of fatigue. It's a rather deadly combination, actually. The first two weeks or so after I came back from Canada, for example, I was at Kirita helping the students prepare for the speech contest until between 6:00 and 6:30pm. (If I had other school visits I was going to Kirita on my own time afterwards.) Then I would rush straight to either an eikaiwa, Japanese dance class, or taiko practice. I'd get home between 8:30 and 9:00pm and be too tired to bother eating dinner. But then I'd stay up late working on lesson planning or the junior high school newsletter or other work related stuff. (Japanese dance seems like a personal thing, but the main reason I joined is because I was told there has always been an ALT in Japanese dance, and the teacher is one of my student's mother, so I felt like I should join.)

So basically I put a lot of time/energy into things I feel are obligations/responsibilities at the expense of eating and sleeping properly and taking care of personal things. And since the level of Japanese I have right now is sufficient for teaching/getting along in life, improving my Japanese falls into the easily neglected category of "personal things" (i.e. a responsibility only to myself).

Throw in my final characteristic of laziness and you can see that when I actually do have free time, I'm too lazy to study and choose to do things like reading books/manga or watching TV series/movies instead.

Well, now I know why it's so difficult for me to study/improve in Japanese, but I have yet to figure out how to change things. Maybe I'll have time to figure something out next (school) term when it's not so busy. ^^;;