By the end of 6th period yesterday (the fourth class of my first day teaching), the students at the agricultural high school basically had me in a full nelson, topped off with a few English cuss words. But I think it went OK, overall. Really.
One seventeen-year-old "PUNK" said fuck you to me, his shirt tucked in, yet strangely buttoned only halfway up displaying a sad row of scantily skin-clad ribs. He kept reciting two phrases: (1) Sid Vicious, making the gesture of shooting heroin into his arm while saying the name (in case I needed the action to trigger my memory of the man) and (2) I drums, because he was a drummer, and he was in a band (with the other punk-ass kid across the room, whom played bass and had an affinity for Linkin Park, whom kept insisting I'd come from China, not Chicago. How clever.). When I questioned the drummer--his name's Yuta--about the other members of the Sex Pistols, I learned he didn't even know whom Johnny Rotten was! What a poseur, right? I mean, he'd probably just seen the film Sid and Nancy at his last slumber party and made a role model out of the half-fictional character. Geesh, OK. Enough slammin' the schoolboys. Clearly I've redeemed myself to, er, myself.
[side note: Only the boys were total jackasses (of course). Most of the girls seemed somewhat interested in learning English, and a few of them could actually speak pretty well. For instance, while most boys would draw pictures of their suicidal dreams on my ‘Nice to Meet You!’ handout, the girls would leave adorable messages like, You smile good.]
Noukou, this school where I teach Wednesdays, is an agricultural high school. Some of the students "choose" to attend Noukou because (A) they don't like studying or (B) they're legitimately interested in developing farming techniques. I'm convinced, however, that most of the students are stuck at Noukou because they were born into a community where academic knowledge is deemed useless (they're farmers, so they've gotta point), and therein lies the (Sid) vicious cycle. They didn't do well enough at their substandard middle school, thus they didn't make the grades to get into an academic high school. Not too far off, really, from the state of public education in North America. But, here, the students seem to settle for it, and it becomes understood that nothing much is expected of them. (OH, and on top of all that, high school is optional in Japan.)
I taught my first classes at the academic high school (Kita Kou) today. Biiiiiig WHOOP compared to teaching at Noukou, so I should be happy to have entered the teaching world under some of the worst possible conditions. Today's classes were actually pleasant: I got to teach in my socks (because not one of the school's many pairs of slippers fit my feet), the kids listened, the girls didn't tell me my dog Bubba was ugly, and they actually answered my questions rather than straight-ironing their hair at their desks (one boy at Noukou actually did that yesterday!). So far, I have two favorite students. One is a girl named Shimuri, who also has two cats and a dog named Sukoto. The other is a boy (whose name I don't remember) whose "worst memory of summer vacation" is getting hit by a car. (He’s fine, he didn’t even break anything.)
4 Comments Manage Comments for this Entry
e.t.
i am exhausted just by reading this! the difference between the "boys and girls" seems typical, yet some how more severe and bizarre at the same time. i can't even look teenagers in the eyes here, let alone ones who don't speak my language and sware at me. you're my hero.
ps- joanna's new album makes me weep. truly. (i managed to download it all, though i will certainly buy it- i was just antsy after reading the complicated measures taken to create those arrangements and what not) anywho, i can't listen to it once with out feeling as though my stomach is wrenching itself into knots. she is the best story teller. don't you think?
Friday, September 8, 2006 - 03:11 PM
D.C
I'd like to see the sucidal dreams version of the "nice to meet you" .. sounds interesting.
Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 03:16 AM
Johnny
I'm with D.C. Man, aren't the boys over there dicks? At school they would always get pissed when the girls would swarm us and in one particular instance, a boy actually whipped out his penis in the middle of the hallway for some strange reason, to prove his manhood I presume!? His actions went unpunished even though the principal of the school was right there when it happened, he just giggled nervously and grabbed the kid by his arm and told him to get lost essentially! Strange.
Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 04:56 AM
japanezee b
Could you ask the kid with the straight iron if he would lend it to me?
Tuesday, October 3, 2006 - 06:52 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment