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Published: December 12th 2007
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Ichinensei
The first graders and the christmas tree they decorated. These students are from Kaminate Shogakko. Japanese Vocab 学生・gakusei: student
小学校・小学生・shogakko/shogakusei: Elementary school/Elementary school student
一年生・二年生・ichinensei/ninensei: first and second graders
中学校・中学生・chugakko/chugakusei: Junior High School/Junior High Student
Hello everyone!
I am coming home soon- My flight leaves from Kansai International on December 20th at 7pm and arrives in SFO on December 20th at 11am...funny huh? I relive the same day all over again, but in America...unfortunately though, when I go back, I leave in the afternoon from America and arrive in Japan the next evening, so I lose a day. I am very excited and come visit and see you all if there's time! I am stuffing my suitcase full of goodies from Japan (haha, which I have yet to buy...) for all to enjoy- if I make it through customs that is. Christmas here is a completely different thing here...first of all, it is more popular to spend it with a significant other, rather than just the family, at least for teenagers and the like. While people in america are stuffing their faces on turkey and roast beef and all kinds of goodies, the Japanese people head to the bakery to buy their vanilla and strawberry Christmas cakes (
kurisumasu ke~ki) and then off to
Ho ho ho- Meeeerrry Christmas!!!
My all time favorite class, Kaminate's Yonensei (fourth graders)...the best kids ever, so cute and sweet and enthusiastic about everything. I always leave this class with a smile on my face! (often) KFC (no lie) for their roast chicken (
rosuto chikin) which is KFC's seasonal specialty (no joke)...Most of the christmas trees (
kurisumasu tsuri) here are fake, but a surprising amount of people have them in their own homes. Also, there is no lack of christmas music- it is everywhere: nat king cole, johnny matthais, mariah carey...but then also some very horrible karaoke like versions as well. All the department stores here also throw their christmas campaigns and decorate the windows and such, but there aren't really any sales for it or anything. The gift giving is not as abundant as in America.
I have been doing Christmas lessons in Elementary school, which has been really fun! The kids are really cute, for the most part, especially at the smaller schools that I teach at. My smallest and favorite, as far as students, is Kaminate Shogakkou. It only has about 60 kids. For Christmas, I made Christmas trees and decorated ornaments with the shogakkou ichi and ni-nensei. With the rest of the classes, I talked about christmas and showed pictures of christmas in america. The kids were amazed by the big christmas trees and all the different foods. When we
more yonensei
aren't they cute?! started talking about
santa-san, I showed how he goes down the chimineys to leave gifts for the children. Seeing as almost no Japanese houses have chimineys, this was a point of great concern for the kids...I told them that he comes through the window...even if it's LOCKED! At this point, all the kids declared that Santa was very scary.
I taught them the vocabulary for winter clothing and then we played a santa clothes game. I gave each team of kids a set of santa costumes and scarves and gloves and socks. Everyone had to say "Brrrrrr- it's cold!". Then I would say "put on your~" and the first kid in line would have to run to the pile of cloths, find the named item and put it on. When they put it on they had to say "Ho ho ho, Meeeeeeeerry Christmas!" and that team would get a point. It was sooooo cute and crazy! I definitely prefer shogakusei to chugakusei...chugakko is when mandatory english begins and some kids absolutely hate it. By some, I mean about half the class. Plus my co-teacher is on the verge of retirement and has no respect with the students and really
Class pic
the yonensei class doesn't speak english very well...sigh...Those classes are always disheartnening, but I always end my week with shogakko which cheers me up, especially thursdays, which is when I either teach at Ozu or Kaminate Shogakkos...they are both smaller, more remote schools and classes are smaller and the kids are generally sweeter.
Chugakusei are something completely different and somewhat horrible. For some reason, once they hit Junior High School, they bottom out and lose all interest in life, happiness and sunshine...okay, maybe just in learning English, since it is compulsory starting at 7th grade. Half of them are annoying and loud and the other half are quiet and disinterested. Sigh...oh well!
Anyhow, I am sorry that all of this webpage stuff has taken so long, but I am looking forward to coming back to California and seeing everyone!!!
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