Classes and Papers

Yesterday I had my first day of actual classes.

The school day started with a big opening ceremony to open up the semester. As part of this, I had to do a speech, in front of the entire school. It was supposed to be in English and in Japanese, but what ended up happening is I stood up there and stammered in both languages for like thirty seconds to 300 blank stares. The teachers told me my speech was great, but I was like, "Ahaha...kay."

I'm getting really close to the brass band club. One of the girls came up to me shyly in class and said, "We're playing a song that's from a really famous Japanese movie. Will you come and listen?" And I was like, "Of course!"

I have a VIDEO of it. >:D I've been toting my camera around. Hahahaha! I'll have pictures soon!

Afterwards she quietly snuck up to me again and said "I'm really happy that you came." It was adorable.

My second grade class was NOISY. During my self-introduction lesson, they were all loudly talking to each other and not paying attention...still in summer vacation mode. I tried to get them to pay attention for a while and then just quietly trailed off, watching them. They sensed something was amiss, since I was just watching them with a little smile on my face, and quieted down. So I was like, "Okay, are we ready for class now? Great!" and went on with my lesson. They weren't entirely inclined to pay attention until I handed out some puzzles and told them the first person to finish both of them would get a quarter. HAHA BRIBERY.

Third grade was exactly the opposite. They were DEAD. This class was after lunch, so I got all sorts of dull stares. One kid, front and center, was literally conked out on his desk, fast asleep. Front and center!! In the back, I don't care, but....when you're sitting up front? That's gutsy. At least they seemed to generally get things, and did a good job, though they weren't very responsive. But that's about par for the course for third years.

Oh, by the way, when I reference first grade/year, second grade/year, and third grade/year, I really mean seventh, eighth, and ninth. These kids are in the 12-16 range - middle school.

I was correcting papers today and got to see some really adorable English. Some of my favorites...

"I like animals. But I hate the zoo." (PETA, here we come!)
"I play my sister every day." (Dude, she got PLAYED!)
"I walked euphonium." (...wha?)

And my favorite was a conversation I had yesterday in the hallway with a handful of girls...

Them: "HALLO!"
Me: "Hello!"
Them: "How are you?"
Me: "I'm pretty good! And you?"
Them: "YESTERDAY!"