I am finishing off my first week at my third jr. high school: Seitoku. I was warned by the teachers of Ryosei and Yowa that students from Seitoku are delinquents and they don't like to study. But after four days, I can say that so far, I like Seitoku the best. It's true that the students' writing skills are not as good as those of the smarties at Ryosei and yes, the students are a little rowdier than the ones from both Ryosei and Yowa, but they more than make up for that in their friendliness and by being very outgoing. They are not afraid to come speak to me or to try and make conversation. Thus, in attempting to communicate with each other, I hope that they can learn more conversational English and that I can learn some Japanese. Now, I just hope that I haven't jinxed myself and that tomorrow, I'll have the students from hell. I've already gone through that at Yowa (there was one EVIL EVIL class that just put me in a really bad mood every day that I had to teach them), and I don't need that again!
So 3 jr. high schools + 3 elementary schools (so far. The grand total will be 7 elementary schools) = 51 self introductions and still counting. And I am so tired of talking about the U.S. and how it's different from Japan. And I've noticed that students don't really care. I've found that there are certain aspects of American culture that really get their noodle cooking. In short, the Japanese, they love their baseball. My geography lesson, which started out as a brief overview of important cities with historical landmarks and defining characteristics that I thought my students would find interesting, has devolved into a list of cities with famous baseball teams (ie these teams have or have had Japanese players).
BEFORE:
Los Angeles - where I was born and where I live now. Disneyland.
San Francisco - where I went to school. Golden Gate Bridge. One of my favorite cities (with lots of photos).
New York City - biggest city in the U.S. 9-11. Statue of Liberty.
Washington D.C. - the nation's capital. Our chimpanzee president lives there.
Florida - my predecessor JET lives in Florida. Disneyworld.
NOW:
Los Angeles - LA Dodgers. Hideo Nomo used to be the pitcher. Disneyland!! (oh, and by the way, I was born there)
San Francisco - SF Giants. Tokyo's baseball team, the Giants, were named after the SF Giants.
Seattle - Suzuki Ichiro plays baseball for the Seattle Mariners.
New York City - NY Yankees. Hideki Matsui plays for the New York Yankees. (9-11 what?)
Washington D.C. - "Do they have a baseball team?"
Florida - Disneyworld!!!! "Wow! It's BIGGER than Tokyo Disneyland??!?"
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