Japanese World

I feel like today has been "super Japanese" day, but, luckily, it's also been a really laid back one.

Show & Tell Speeches - IS 1

We started off the day (first period) with student presentations. I hate making the kids memorize everything (it's common here and my Japanese colleagues do it a lot), but I will admit that my students gave probably some of the best speeches of any class I have ever seen today... precisely because they did just that. Memorizing their speeches really gave my second years a chance to think less about their notecards or the content (they should have been doing that at home) and more about presentation (gestures, eye contact, etc). This 2nd year class, in particular, was doing a "show and tell" activity talking about their most treasured posessions and I also had a lot of fun just learning more about my kids' hobbies and interests. One girl played her trumpet (I was amazed), another talked about the rules of Rugby and one of the boys who usually acts a little "too cool for school" (no pun intended, haha) gushed about how cute his family's dog is. Loved it.

Unicef Lectures with IS2

My next class was all in Japanese, just observing another teaching using props and and a video that we borrowed from Unicef. The students seemed really into the topic and learning about Development, though. I did use a little English at the end when I narrarated some of the interviews in the video (showcasing child labor in places like India, Mexico City and even in the US), but I also found it kind of funny that when I wrote my name on my copies of the handouts, I instinctively used the Japanese version (ﾌﾞﾚﾝﾀﾞ) and not my normal "Brenda". Weird.

Handling Bank Matters hitori de...

During lunch, I finally made reservations for my first few nights in Australia (trip is about a month away!), talked to the new nurse (who lives in my building) for a little while and then headed to the bank to exchange money and apply for an international ATM card. 

Thankfully the tellers working at the local branch of my bank, SMBC, are used to me now, but I was a little surprised that I was able to fill out the forms to get an international ATM all on my own... and complete the process all in Japanese.  I'm definitely used to being babied in these situations in Japan (especially when it comes to forms and official things), but that experience sort of showed me that I really can do it on my own.  

I think it also gave me the confidence to try to get my Japanese license on my own, too. I know it's been over two years since I arrived, which is more than enough time to make this kind of language progress, but sometimes you just have to celebrate the small things.

Anyways, I should go. I have Japanese class tonight (sticking with the theme) and have to leave really early in the morning for Tokyo but I wanted to write about this stuff because you have to celebrate the small stuff to enjoy the ride. 

I'll hopefully udpate you during the weekend, but if I can't (I plan to be busy)... hope you have a good weekend and more later.  - bu ren da ;)