Archive for the 'Education' Category

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Have a Nice, Steaming Cup of Graduation

Published on March 1, 2006 in Culture and Education. 0 Comments

The beginning of March ushers in the start of the furious graduation season in Northern Japan. Things kick off with the high school graduation ceremonies. I am going to give you an idea of how a typical ceremony works.

First, on the day before the ceremony they hold a full rehearsal. They call this a yokou(予行） It’s exactly like the real ceremony, but without the special guests and boring speeches. As you can guess, my presence was required at this as well. Oh joy! I get to watch my students graduate twice.

The next step is the ceremony itself. This is the real deal. You will see dignitaries and parents. They play all the music and go through the motions. Everything in a Japanese High School Grad is formal. If you breathe the wrong way, prepare for a world of shame. Therefore the students work their hardest to fall in line. After the students receive their diplomas, there is a round of speeches from VIPs. The principal usually gets the first address. These speeches are very formal and there is little or no humour in them. These are followed by more speeches as the remaining students choose a representative to say a word to the graduates, and then the opposite happens and the grads speak a little to the remaining students. Finally, a representative from the graduating students present the principal with a commemorative gift. This year, they made a commemorative CD for the school.

The best part of the ceremonies is that it’s -1 C in the gym, so they bring out these massive heaters. These kerosene filled behemoths are loud and awesome. Yet, ten minutes before the ceremony starts, they shut them off. That means that the temperature returns to -1 C and everyone begins to freeze. The heaters are then not used again for the remainder of the ceremony. Brilliant!

After all the formalities are over with, the teachers and parents are invited to a party. From what I can ascertain, Japanese students don’t seem to have any parties or after-grad ceremonies. I believe they go home while mom and dad go off to celebrate the graduation of their offspring. The party is fairly interesting. They show a video of the formal grad so I get to see it for a third time. After many beers, mingling and a little karaoke, the evening comes to an end.

As you can see, Japanese Graduation ceremonies, much like with everything else are quite different from their western counterparts. I really have nothing more to say about them. I have a hell of a hangover from that party, and I’m still recovering.

Old Horizons

Published on January 31, 2006 in Education, ESL and Technology. 0 Comments

Over the weekend I was racking my brain over what I could teach this week. I decided that I should teach my high school kids about the New Horizons probe to Pluto. I thought this would be a great lesson and get them excited about science at the same time. I downloaded the launch video and prepared an activity sheet with all the information I wanted them to pay attention to. I also planned to show where the probe would go. I wanted to start with the Earth, then expand my talk out to Jupiter and then finish with Pluto and beyond.

Obviously, since this was an ELT situation, I didn’t want to hit the kids with any complicated science jargon. So I took some time and edited my talk to make it as simple as I could. I looked it over and decided it was a killer lesson plan. I went into class ready for a knockout. How did it turn out?

Well, the first year students thought it was good enough. They seemed to enjoy learning the English names for the planets and most had no clue this mission even existed. The teacher for this class also enjoyed the talk, and everyone got a kick out of the launch video. This was not the case, however, for my second year students. During the talk(somewhere around Jupiter) , the class starts giggling. I can’t really figure out why, and continue with my diagram. Then at about the half way point, my teacher comes up to me and indicates that I have a dried up piece of rice stuck to my crotch. It seems that crotch rice is far more fun than a science based lesson.

What have I learned from this experience? It seems it is better to act like a buffoon than it is to actually teach about something that is important to you. It would be so easy to just show up with a grape juice stain down my shirt or my fly wide open. I know I am over reacting, but I am having a less than amicable week with my second grade students. It seems there is nothing that interests them. Either that or I am not trying hard enough.

School Culture Festivals

Published on October 22, 2005 in Culture and Education. 0 Comments

Working on the School Festival
Originally uploaded by jasohill.

It’s Bunkasai(文化祭）season again. Japanese schools usually hold these festivals on weekends, and go through a lot of work to put them together. The junior high schools usually have choral performances on Saturdays, and theatrical performances on Sundays. You can also visit their classrooms and view some of the projects and artwork that they’ve put together throughout the year. They spend many weeks practicing for this major event.

Tomorrow, I am also going to be attending a High School festival. They are a little different than the typical junior high festival. The classrooms are all theme based, and in the gym there are various performances. These festivals are an interesting part of Japanese culture, as most students these days are participating in them. If you teach in Japan, you will eventually end up at one of these.

鬱病の意味

Published on October 14, 2005 in Culture, Education and Senmaya. 0 Comments

今日、私は日本語で自分の気持ちを表現してみます。頑張ろう！　中学校では、女性の生徒が私に　『うつびょう』という単語を知っているかように尋ねました。私は『意味、全然分からない』と言いました。彼女は『鬱病は, 非常に気持ちが優れない状態の病気』と説明しました。そして、現代の気持ちが鬱病だと言いました。ストレスと悪いうちの状態ですから。私はこの話を聞いた時に、悲しくなりました。新しい単語と表現をな習うことが好きですけど、こういう方法は好きではないんです。大変でしたね。

Today, I’m going to try to express myself in Japanese.Here goes! At Junior high today, a student of mine asked me if I knew the meaning of the word “utsubyou?” I said that I had no idea what it meant. She explained to me that it had the general meaning of “depression or meloncholy”, and this is how she currently felt. She said that because of a lot of negative things in her life that she had become depressed. Upon hearing this, I became a little sad myself. I enjoy learning new Japanese words, but not like this. What a terrible sentiment.

Shout it out

Published on September 4, 2005 in Culture, Education and Senmaya. 0 Comments

Senmaya Junior High Sports Festival
Originally uploaded by jasohill.

I spent Saturday at the Senmaya Junior High Sports Festival. I was overcome by the amount of hard work that these young people put into their activities. It makes me feel so lazy in comparaison.

They got hit by two thunderstorms during the day. They came back from both and were able to finish the festival.

During the day, they perform full choreographed pieces of dance. Truly impressive. All this in addition to cheering and runnning around.

The dark side is powerful

Published on May 14, 2005 in Education and Senmaya. 0 Comments

The dark side is powerful
Originally uploaded by jasohill.

Long time no blog. I do apologize about the lack of updates. Nothing really out of the ordinary has been happening; Therefore, there isn’t really much to blog about. That is, until now.

All you Star Wars fans should consider yourselves lucky. Why? Well, It doesn’t open here until mid-July. All the major scenes will have been revealed to me long before I actually watch the film. *le sigh*

And now for some crazy news. Last year one of my favorites teachers retired. He and I used to always play igo together after school. Well, who should great me when I arrive at Fujisawa High School on Tuesday morning? Yes, Mr. Kenji Takahashi, back from retirement grave. I asked why he came back, and he said that when there are a shortage of teachers, instead of pulling from the already strained pool, they will go and ask retired teachers if they would like to take up the job for the remainder of the year. How about them apples?

Oh yes, last but not least…

There is a new arrival coming to my family. It’s white and small and 1.42Ghz. I am eagerly awaiting its delivery. I have had the kool-aid. I am now a pawn Uncle Steve. I will post pictures when I remove it from its womb.

Japanese Poster of the Week #3

Published on March 4, 2005 in Culture, Education and Senmaya. 0 Comments

Mar 2 2005 001
Originally uploaded by jasohill.

You need to eat breakfast! It’s important! I took a picture of this poster that I found in the Junior High School I work at. I think it’s cute. There are many good reasons for eating breakfast. I won’t list them all. Try and guess what they are. One of them is quite funny. Yes, it’s the green one.

I passed!

Published on November 23, 2004 in Education. 0 Comments

I took the level 8 Kanji exam a few weeks ago, and today I found out that I passed. It’s not a lot, since it’s what the grade 3 kids take to prove they know their kanji; however, I’m now certified to read and write 440 kanji. Whee! The next step is to take the level 7 exam, which then certifies me for 660 Kanji. While I can actually read about 1200 Chinese Characters(Kanji in Japanese) now I’ve forced myself to learn how to write them as well. Happy days! The highest level is level 1, which tests the your knowledge on 6000 characters. I’m not quite ready for the one yet, but who knows. The sky’s the limit.

Halloween Madness!

Published on October 31, 2004 in Culture and Education. 0 Comments

Oct 30 2004 009
Originally uploaded by jasohill.

This is the second year I’ve participated the Murone Village Halloween and Street Hockey Party. This year I helped out with setup and logistics, and I made a Travolta robot that comes out strutting to “Staying Alive”, and then hands out candy to the kids. I got the idea for this costume from my friends who did a “Robots for the vote” campaign earlier in the year. The kids were all over me when I came out. I almost toppled over. I’d like to extend a big hand of thanks to Greg and Nami who organize this every year. It gives underprivileged Japanese children the chance to experience another crazy pagan holiday by nutty westerners!

Earlier in the day we had a street hockey game to kick off the festivities; then we all headed to Hill Top steak house for tasty steaks. Now we can say that Japan knows how to rock Halloween!