PTA Day was actually enjoyable than I thought. No one told me that junior high students would be visiting Fuetsu! I was pleasantly surprised to see them. The junior high students came to get a sneak-peak of classes. Most of them are interested in attending Fuetsu and some of these students are interested in the International Studies Program. Being that I was the only ALT at school on Saturday, about 10-12 junior high students and 3 or so moms visited my public speaking class. I forced my students to give a presentation on Saturday, only giving them two days in class to prepare. Considering those limitations and that they had an audience, they did well and impressed the junior high students and moms. I hope we encouraged them to apply to the program and didn’t scare them away. X_X
If you didn’t know this, my undergraduate majors were International Studies and Middle School English/Social Studies Education. While I’m really REALLY happy I was placed in two high schools, especially one international studies high school, I still have a special place in my heart for middle/junior high school students and get excited every time I see them. Teaching international studies high schoolers is a much better fit for me though as I can help them prepare for studying abroad, applying for Japanese and foreign universities, and can overall communicate a lot better with them. While I think I could encourage junior high students to pursue international related careers, I don’t think I would be utilized as well in a Japanese junior high school. I should try visiting a junior high school sometime though.
Filed under: Happenings
Sorry for not updating in a while. At one point I was sick, and I had final examinations to deal with a few weeks ago, for which I’m happy to say that I got A’s in both grad school classes. It’s been a bit busy at school too with classes in full gear, as well as the random guest speakers and gardening day activities going on. Also, I don’t know if it’s allergies or what but I’ve had a lot more headaches lately. I drink 8 cups of water a day now so it’s not dehydration. After class yesterday one of the teachers took me out to a pharmacy to show me what kind of headache medicine to get. One of the other teachers told us that it was the grand opening for this one new pharmacy/health & beauty goods/etc. store so we decided to head out there. This turned out to be a bigger cultural experience than I imagined getting meds would be. Upon arriving there, about 6 different traffic directors steered us here and there to the back of a lot while other guys in Japanese festival jackets greeted us. I have been to grand openings back in the US but have never seen this much fuss over a simple drug store. Apparently some people who are from the West side of Japan are happy this certain chain is now in Iida. Heh, whatever. There were some sweet deals so I ended stocking up on random household goods before getting back home early.
On Saturday we have a PTA day at school where parents can sit in and observe classes. I have two classes so that means I gotta go to school. Everyone gets Monday off to make up for going to school Saturday but the kids are probably going to go to school anyways because of club activities. Giving up one’s Saturday is tough, especially when it’s your husband’s birthday but it’ll be alright. I’ve been bringing him gifts home everyday including the nice box of gifts family members sent him. Thanks, everyone! The Cinnamon Life cereal, jelly bellies, soup mixes, carrot cake mix, etc. are all nice reminders of home.
Filed under: Happenings, JET, Japanese Cultural Notes | Tags: ALT, iida city, japan, orchestra
I got a bit carried away Tuesday to the point where I didn’t even talk about my orchestra concert. Yesterday was the final day of a four day music festival in Iida City. The Nagoya Philharmoic Orchestra came to this event and I believe some of the more talented Iida Symphony members got to play with them at their concert and helped out at the orchestra clinics that were held during the week. The final day consisted of our performance as well as some smaller ensemble performances by select members.
Being mildly uninformed but mostly just lazy, I opted to just take part in the final concert. Set up happened around 9am and rehearsal started at 10am, similar to our last concert but very different from any group I ever played with in the States. Practicing immediately before a concert?! It makes too much sense for us to do. Anyway, after practicing through all the songs for an hour or two we broke for lunch and so they could prepare the stage for the first emsembles. The concert went well. In addition to playing two longer pieces we’d be working on for a while, Light Calvary by Franz von Suppe and Carnival by Dvořák, we played three other short pieces to teach the audience, which was made up a lot of kids and moms, about different types of emotion shown in music.
I always feel extra eyes on me when I come on stage. Being the only foreigner in the orchestra makes me stand out, but I don’t mind as much as I did at my first concert. Maybe I’m internationalizing Iida by having joined the orchestra, maybe not. If anything I’m taking part in a decent activity that makes me feel part of the community so that in itself is enough for me.
Being a smaller concert, there were no eating/drinking parties afterwards and I was able to return home around 2:30 to otherwise waste my time playing video games with my hubby.
Here’s Light Calvary and Carnival if you’d like to hear them. One exciting thing about Light Calvary is that once you hear it, you’ll hear again as it’s sometimes used in cartoons and tv shows. A little after we started practicing Light Calvary Ryan and I were watching episodes of “Angry Beavers,” an older cartoon from Nickelodeon, and heard this song. I got really excited, Ryan just thought I was being crazy like usual. Yeah, being away from the US has made Ryan and me pine for random tv shows. We also downloaded the whole Ed, Edd and Eddy series. (7,000 miles away my mom is rolling her eyes)
Filed under: JET, Japanese Cultural Notes | Tags: ALT, clubs and activities in Japan, japan, JET
When you come to Japan as an ALT, know that you will have a lot of extra time on your hands. While I don’t typically have as much down time as other high school ALTs I know (with exception to Tuesday when I visit my ‘visit’ school), you’ll still be working a 40-hour job and need something to do with the rest of the 168 hours in the week. Besides, when you’re finished with JET you might want to have something to show that you used your time wisely. Luckily, there are a lot of activities, clubs, and groups you can take part in, which I think could generally be broken up into four groups: school clubs, community center-based groups, community groups, ALT groups.
- School Clubs: If you’re placed at a junior high school or high school, your school will probably have a nice range of clubs to choose from. ALTs are generally welcome to join the clubs and can learn a lot about Japanese cultural activities or can just enjoy playing your favorite sport while far away from home. My main school has 30 different clubs to choose from; 15 sports clubs (we’d call them teams in the US), and 15 cultural clubs. You could learn karate, kyudo (Japanese archery), calligraphy, flower arranging, tea ceremony, or how to dance to hip hop music, play folk music on the guitar, or take part in any sport. Clubs can meet up to every day of the week (including Saturday and Sunday) so students usually belong to just one, maybe two clubs (though the exchange students have been known to join three or more.) If you join a meet-everyday-club, make sure you can arrange it so that you don’t have to go every day (unless you want to). Being in charge of the English Club is in me and my ALT buddy’s job description. We should meet twice a week but lately it’s been once a week. We’ve somewhat become an English movie appreciation club which has made planning very simple, but makes me wonder if we shouldn’t do something more. Whatever makes the kids happy, I guess.
- Community Center-based groups: The community centers “kominkan” 公民館 around town offer many different clubs and activities. You can learn Japanese, help others learn English, study martial arts, yoga, taiko (traditional Japanese druming), photography, traditional dancing, etc. It really varies by community center, but if you’re in a good sized city there’ll be several community centers in the area. Also, this is one resource that was not mentioned at the JET Program Orientation last year but I think it’s worth mentioning. I should follow my own advice and join a group sometime.
- Community groups: There are a lot of clubs and groups out there in the community if you know where to find them. Think of something you’re really interested in and try to find a group by asking around. After watching the popular Japanese drama Nodame Cantabile I got swept away by the idea of playing viola in Japan. With the help of a Japanese friend from Iida, I found the Iida City Symphony Orchestra website and left a message saying I’d be moving there soon and can play violin or viola. Turns out the orchestra had a dire need for violists and were excited to have a foreign member. On a side note, I stopped going to the bunraku (traditional Japanese puppetry) troupe back in October/November. Due to a variety of reasons including the distance, difficulty traveling there, difficulty with the Japanese language, needing time to study, etc. I decided to end it. Orchestra has allowed me to meet 3 times as many Japanese people, some who are my age, some who speak English, at a closer, more convenient location, and we’re doing an activity I’ve been doing since elementary school. Familiarity might be another reason orchestra won over bunraku. Sometimes ALTs feel like they have to do something “Japanese” while in Japan. You’re already adjusting to a new culture, if you like an activity and are good at it, doing it in Japan might help you feel more at home, whereas trying too many new things at once might burn you out. There’s a lot “mights” here, just do what feels right to you.
- ALT groups: AJET (Association for JETs) has a lot of activities to keep their members happy and active in Japan. My predecessor was an editor for the monthly(?) Nagano ALT newspaper and helped organize a lot of events. They’ll have parties, go skiing, mountain climbing, Christmas caroling, host talent shows, and other fun stuff.I don’t do anything with AJET, I’m not even a member of the Nagano AJET mostly because I’m at the far South of a really top-heavy prefecture, putting most activities outside my car-less, penny-pinching reach.
Dream big, dream now, just don’t dream too hard and imagine Japan to be some perfect rosy-tinted world of bliss (like I kinda did). You can learn a lot of cool things here though, both in and outside of school. Just make some plans and stick to them.
My profile: Jeanne A Beck
School Club: English Club (English movie appreciation club?)
Current activities: Iida Symphony Orchestra
Masters of Education in TESOL Education student
Ryan-san’s cheerleader to help(?) him earn his associates/bachelor’s degree
Golden Week is a wonderful series of back-to-back National Holidays in Japan that will nicely keep me out of school until Thursday of next week. The ‘week’ officially started last Wednesday the 29th with Showa Day, a national holiday to honor the late emperor. After a short time back at school Thursday and Friday, school is out again until next Thursday thanks to Constitutional Memorial Day on the 3rd, Greenery Day on the 4th, and Children’s Day on the 5th. Actually, the 3rd fell on a Sunday this year, but Wednesday will still be a national holiday day.
Many people use this time to take vacations around Japan and to other countries, including assistant language teachers. We were thinking about taking a vacation but decided against it after we spent waaaay too much money in March going to Tokyo and Osaka. I have an orchestra concert on the 5th anyways and need to be around for that. As I said before, I hope not too many people come and go from Japan during Golden Week; with swine flu threats in Asia now the airports will certainly be a hassle.
