Planning, Games, Kobe & the FSOT
Today I went over the paperwork with my supervisor for changing my visa. The application is 17 pages long (really? do they need to know that much?), but looks like I'm going to go in and get everything settled next week. I also have to make an appointment to get an estimate on getting the tatami mats and sliding doors in my apartment replaced, as well as starting to think about closing all my accounts here (bank, internet, phone, gas, etc, etc...). I wish I could just leave all of them and let the next person take over, but Japan loves paperwork (ok, and it's all in my name and I'm going to be gone) so it's going to be another little adventure getting all this done (assuming that I'll be doing it in Japanese and going to try to do it on my own... wish me luck).
Last OC Class
Today was also the very last class with my 1st year students. The Oral Communication structure I've had for the last several years changed this year, and we're doing a Cambodia lesson (based on the current reading class textbook) instead of the normal textbook curriculum (greetings, body parts, directions, food, shopping... that kind of stuff) so I already feel like I finished these classes -- in their normal form, at least -- a while ago. Still, I wasn't really that sad to be done. I feel bad saying this, but I was actually kind of happy. After doing the same lesson for a minimum of 14 times (sometimes 3 or 4 times a day), it gets a little repeditive and the classroom experience loses it's luster. I think the saddest last class for me will be with the Intl Studies kids or maybe Eigo Hyogen.
Impromptu SOGO Awesomeness
Did do one kind of cool activity with my 3rd years, though. Check this out. We were doing Interview training for the upcoming STEP ("eiken") test and I realized that many of the kids in my group (of 8) had finished all the practice tests I had. I ran to the staff room and tried to find a new book for them, but I couldn't and didn't want to keep them waiting, so I thought we would try something new to give them some speaking practice...
While I was gone (searching for the book) I had each kid write down their 3 favorite words in English, and when I came back, I told them to choose their favorite of the 3 and we wrote all the words on the board. Then I had each student choose an adjective (after explaining what an adjective is...) off the top of their head, and we added those to the list.
Here were their words: courage, strawberry, challenge, orange, peace, (cherry) blossom, dream, hope, luck, hot, high, happy, beautiful, lucky, great, interesting, best & difficult.
We practiced saying all the words together and then played a miniture game of Scattergories (I think that's the game I'm thinking of???) where I gave them words related to the word on the board I was thinking of (like 'soldier' or 'brave' for courage) and they had to come up with the word on my mind as fast as possible. To my slight surprise, this game actually worked out alright and they were actually into it, so we broke into 2 teams (boys vs girls, of course) and did a few rounds. My favorite was definitely when one of the 3rd year boys used "puffy" to describe dog.
After a few rounds of the game, we moved onto a new activity (actually the idea I had first). Starting with me, we used the words on the board to make stories, with each person adding a sentence to the story using one of the words. It was pretty cute and I was surprised it worked. The kids even tried to get the grammar right and everyone broke out the electronic dictionaries.
Here are two versions (my sentence is first):
STORY 1: There was once a beautiful princess. She likes strawberries. She has a dream. Her dream is to have world peae. And she has a hope. But it is difficult. She tried to challenge the dream. But it is difficult. Luck was with her. As a result (yes! they're using STEP test vocabulary!!), she succeeded in her dream. She became a great person. There was peace. The end.
STORY 2: There was once a great dog named Andy. The dog can't eat oranges. But the dog likes strawberries. It is happy. The dog lives in a beautiful house. It is happy. It is very lucky. The city there is peaceful. The dog's dream is to become a human. The dog is hot.
(note - Yeah, I know... anyone else notice it sounds like they've been listening to a few Obama speeches lately with all the hope/dream talk... haha)
Anyways, awesome impromptu English practice (as well as speaking, which I suppose is sort of related to the STEP test...) and we had fun :-P
Movie Night in Kobe
After work, I headed to Kobe and met Dave for a quick bite and a movie at Cinelibre, this really cute movie theatre in Motomachi. The 1st of the month is always half-price movie day, so a group of friends by me went to see Transformers, but we opted to see The Wrestler instead (based on the reviews). The film was actually pretty good, but I would say it's merits lie in the acting ability, character development and artistic value... not necessarily the entertainment factor if you're out for a laid back night. The film itself was a little slow or depressing for a Wednesday, but I'd recommend it under the condition that you are in the mood for that kind of flick.
On my way home, I decided to walk from the rapid station about 10 minutes from home, rather than going to the closer, local stop. Partially because I left my bike there (bike park was closed so getting it tomorrow -- bummer), partially because I broke a necklace this morning and needed to find a part of it I didn't have (found the clasp - whew) and also partially to get some air.
Well, on the way back, this huge, black "stalker van" (convention vans that a lot of locals drive) with tinted windows drove past me a few times, cat-calling the second or third time. I ignored the two guys and put on my headphones, but when I turned down a side street by my house, the van was suddenly beside me with the guys calling out again. This time I said hello and told them to please go away (all in Japanese). They kept trailing me for a while and when it was obvious I wasn't going to talk to them, they drove on. When I turned the corner onto the block I live on (now walking down dark, residential streets), the van was parked in the middle of the street and one of the guys was walking towards me. He was about my age, but still bigger than me; I think he was coming to cut me off on my path. On their own and in the van, these guys didn't seemt that threatening but now I was honestly a little scared because this van was now blocking my path and it was dark. I stopped walking and told the guy I had a boyfriend and wasn't interested to get them to go away. I was friendly enough, but I think he sensed I was getting annoyed (and maybe tht I was a little nervous or that the situation didn't come off too well), so the guy gave up after about another minute or so, told me I was cute and got back into the van and drove off again.
I didn't see the van when I got to my apartment, so I don't think the guys know where I live -- and this sort of thing happens to girls here more than it should!! (it's a sort of tactic to pick up girls called "nampa") -- but kind of scary. Lucky it stopped at that, but any more and I would have called someone from my apartment to meet me down the block :-p
FSOT
Finally, when I got home and logged into my computer, I also discovered some surprising news waiting for my in my inbox: I passed the US Foreign Service Exam! I was a little shocked to be honest. I thought I'd take it to see how it was, didn't really study that much (read a book about the US Government that the embassy gave me when I came and reviewed some other things, but nothing too serious) and didn't think I'd pass it the first time (as I've heard most people don't), but I am pretty stoked. Now I have to fill out some personal narrative essays, the whole process takes about a year and there's an interview in D.C. that I would have to perform well on before I was offered embassy employment... but yeah... still happy about this :) Who knows if I'd do it, but it's an option. And an intriguing one.
I've got to get to bed, but finally going to meet up with Serene, my friend from growing up who lived here when she was a child (her family was sort of my introduction to Japan, in fact), in Osaka tomorrow. Serene's here for about 3 weeks with another friend and we've got some fun plans for the weekend... so more to come soon. Until then... 'night :)
Last OC Class
Today was also the very last class with my 1st year students. The Oral Communication structure I've had for the last several years changed this year, and we're doing a Cambodia lesson (based on the current reading class textbook) instead of the normal textbook curriculum (greetings, body parts, directions, food, shopping... that kind of stuff) so I already feel like I finished these classes -- in their normal form, at least -- a while ago. Still, I wasn't really that sad to be done. I feel bad saying this, but I was actually kind of happy. After doing the same lesson for a minimum of 14 times (sometimes 3 or 4 times a day), it gets a little repeditive and the classroom experience loses it's luster. I think the saddest last class for me will be with the Intl Studies kids or maybe Eigo Hyogen.
Impromptu SOGO Awesomeness
Did do one kind of cool activity with my 3rd years, though. Check this out. We were doing Interview training for the upcoming STEP ("eiken") test and I realized that many of the kids in my group (of 8) had finished all the practice tests I had. I ran to the staff room and tried to find a new book for them, but I couldn't and didn't want to keep them waiting, so I thought we would try something new to give them some speaking practice...
While I was gone (searching for the book) I had each kid write down their 3 favorite words in English, and when I came back, I told them to choose their favorite of the 3 and we wrote all the words on the board. Then I had each student choose an adjective (after explaining what an adjective is...) off the top of their head, and we added those to the list.
Here were their words: courage, strawberry, challenge, orange, peace, (cherry) blossom, dream, hope, luck, hot, high, happy, beautiful, lucky, great, interesting, best & difficult.
We practiced saying all the words together and then played a miniture game of Scattergories (I think that's the game I'm thinking of???) where I gave them words related to the word on the board I was thinking of (like 'soldier' or 'brave' for courage) and they had to come up with the word on my mind as fast as possible. To my slight surprise, this game actually worked out alright and they were actually into it, so we broke into 2 teams (boys vs girls, of course) and did a few rounds. My favorite was definitely when one of the 3rd year boys used "puffy" to describe dog.
After a few rounds of the game, we moved onto a new activity (actually the idea I had first). Starting with me, we used the words on the board to make stories, with each person adding a sentence to the story using one of the words. It was pretty cute and I was surprised it worked. The kids even tried to get the grammar right and everyone broke out the electronic dictionaries.
Here are two versions (my sentence is first):
STORY 1: There was once a beautiful princess. She likes strawberries. She has a dream. Her dream is to have world peae. And she has a hope. But it is difficult. She tried to challenge the dream. But it is difficult. Luck was with her. As a result (yes! they're using STEP test vocabulary!!), she succeeded in her dream. She became a great person. There was peace. The end.
STORY 2: There was once a great dog named Andy. The dog can't eat oranges. But the dog likes strawberries. It is happy. The dog lives in a beautiful house. It is happy. It is very lucky. The city there is peaceful. The dog's dream is to become a human. The dog is hot.
(note - Yeah, I know... anyone else notice it sounds like they've been listening to a few Obama speeches lately with all the hope/dream talk... haha)
Anyways, awesome impromptu English practice (as well as speaking, which I suppose is sort of related to the STEP test...) and we had fun :-P
Movie Night in Kobe
After work, I headed to Kobe and met Dave for a quick bite and a movie at Cinelibre, this really cute movie theatre in Motomachi. The 1st of the month is always half-price movie day, so a group of friends by me went to see Transformers, but we opted to see The Wrestler instead (based on the reviews). The film was actually pretty good, but I would say it's merits lie in the acting ability, character development and artistic value... not necessarily the entertainment factor if you're out for a laid back night. The film itself was a little slow or depressing for a Wednesday, but I'd recommend it under the condition that you are in the mood for that kind of flick.
On my way home, I decided to walk from the rapid station about 10 minutes from home, rather than going to the closer, local stop. Partially because I left my bike there (bike park was closed so getting it tomorrow -- bummer), partially because I broke a necklace this morning and needed to find a part of it I didn't have (found the clasp - whew) and also partially to get some air.
Well, on the way back, this huge, black "stalker van" (convention vans that a lot of locals drive) with tinted windows drove past me a few times, cat-calling the second or third time. I ignored the two guys and put on my headphones, but when I turned down a side street by my house, the van was suddenly beside me with the guys calling out again. This time I said hello and told them to please go away (all in Japanese). They kept trailing me for a while and when it was obvious I wasn't going to talk to them, they drove on. When I turned the corner onto the block I live on (now walking down dark, residential streets), the van was parked in the middle of the street and one of the guys was walking towards me. He was about my age, but still bigger than me; I think he was coming to cut me off on my path. On their own and in the van, these guys didn't seemt that threatening but now I was honestly a little scared because this van was now blocking my path and it was dark. I stopped walking and told the guy I had a boyfriend and wasn't interested to get them to go away. I was friendly enough, but I think he sensed I was getting annoyed (and maybe tht I was a little nervous or that the situation didn't come off too well), so the guy gave up after about another minute or so, told me I was cute and got back into the van and drove off again.
I didn't see the van when I got to my apartment, so I don't think the guys know where I live -- and this sort of thing happens to girls here more than it should!! (it's a sort of tactic to pick up girls called "nampa") -- but kind of scary. Lucky it stopped at that, but any more and I would have called someone from my apartment to meet me down the block :-p
FSOT
Finally, when I got home and logged into my computer, I also discovered some surprising news waiting for my in my inbox: I passed the US Foreign Service Exam! I was a little shocked to be honest. I thought I'd take it to see how it was, didn't really study that much (read a book about the US Government that the embassy gave me when I came and reviewed some other things, but nothing too serious) and didn't think I'd pass it the first time (as I've heard most people don't), but I am pretty stoked. Now I have to fill out some personal narrative essays, the whole process takes about a year and there's an interview in D.C. that I would have to perform well on before I was offered embassy employment... but yeah... still happy about this :) Who knows if I'd do it, but it's an option. And an intriguing one.
I've got to get to bed, but finally going to meet up with Serene, my friend from growing up who lived here when she was a child (her family was sort of my introduction to Japan, in fact), in Osaka tomorrow. Serene's here for about 3 weeks with another friend and we've got some fun plans for the weekend... so more to come soon. Until then... 'night :)
posted by Brenda Ann Elizabeth McKinney @ 6:29 AM
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