Learning Curve

Overview of Kakegawa from the castle

September 25, 2006

I survived hell school. The last two days are made up of three lessons each day, something hard for me, especially bearing in mind that hell school is made up of delinquents and over energetic kids. My wise strategy has been to make use of the large classroom and work the kids to exhaustion with vigorous races and games. They were complaining that they were tired from p.e. at school. I did not care - they had to do the races. My revenge. But I end up getting a work out also, cuz I have to umpire all the races and activities. But it is worth it seeing them engaged and actually using some English, rather that tuning out and beating up on each other. I was actually surprised to see myself conducting a class of 8 unruly 9-year-old boys. I would have never foreseen myself being able to do this. I scream, I yell, I snarl and I give Satan’s evil look to the boys from demon school and what do you know – they are actually responding to my threats. When I get really mad – they know it and a heavy thick blanket of oppression hangs over the class, as I stew at them. T-chan warns me that they will get used to my anger and not respond. That is ok. I will start throwing the furniture around then.
On a chirpier note, one of the girls from demon school said she saw me at the Osuka matsuri. She was probably too scared to say hi to me. This is something I have become acutely aware of – the fact that I have over 400 students means that I might bump into them. I have been aware of this with the local school that I teach and I have been avoiding the supermarket in their neighborhood. I have so many kids and there are several groups that look similar, like little clones with similar temperaments, genetics at work no doubt here. So I have begun to run around in some kind of disguise, if I can. For instance, I will always wear my glasses when I teach, so that I look scarier and more intimidating, I hope, and brainier. Then, when I walk about town, I am usually without glasses. When I see children around, I avoid them like the plague. I don’t want to recognize a student and have to acknowledge them. Chances are that I will not remember their name. Plus who wants to deal with work on your time off, not me! But when you are the only foreigner in a small town partying away during their festival, it can be hard to remain incognito, as I discovered. So I asked my student if she was taikoing. She was. I congratulated her and encouraged her to keep on drumming. So many of my students are drumming and I am so jealous. I let them taiko away in class, cuz of course I have a soft spot for the drummers.
One more thing about the demon school. I saw the huge spider on my last day while I was cleaning up. We were so close, we both freaked out. (I was vacuuming and moved some items under the table so I was a foot away on all fours, head right in front of it. I got a good look! I am glad that it is as scared of me, as I am of it. It was freakin huge! Like a tarantula! The body looks like it is covered in velvet; I actually had time to appreciate its beauty. I’m telling you, when this thing walks, you can hear it shuffling! Ughhh.

Large preying mantis (thanks Diane)- not the spider....too scared to take a pic of the spider


I bumped into Jacob, another teacher at Mal’s who was there with one of the Japanese teacher, Keiko, and his Canadian pal, Bruno from St. Leonard, that is a burb of Montreal that I grew up in, amongst the Mafioso. Anyways, Bruno was talking about the huge spider he found in his apartment and said the same thing – that you can hear it walking on the walls or ceilings. He chased it out with a broom. That is my nightmare scenario, that I will inadvertently take one of those monster insects home with me. I am so very careful to seal my bags closed tight when I am at all the schools. I even turn my shoes over and have them on a shelf so that nothing will crawl in there. I am not taking any chances. This bug proofing of my bags and shoes has become second nature to me. When I saw my first giant spider at a school, I got wise very quicly.
So it was fun hanging with Jacob and company. This also supports my theory that the Japanese teachers court the male foreign English teachers. None of my teachers want to hang out with me! I wonder it they have lotteries to see who will get the male foreign teachers that arrive in our district. Anyways, Keiko was tea toddling so I pegged her as the designated driver. Apparently, Japanese laws do not permit even one drink for drivers. It is a 3000 thousand-dollar fine for the driver and a 2000-dollar fine for anyone accompanying the driver. That does not seem to stop some drunkards, as I recall a news story where some drunk driver smashed another car and the 3 kids in the car all drowned. The parents were heartbroken to say the least. If you drink in Japan, you are not driving; perhaps the rationale allows them to get shitfaced, which appears to be the norm. I drink and drive my bike, but stick to the sidewalks. The ride back usually sobers me, as it is often a workout.