In Japan, "My Neck, My Back" is a perfectly good song to play in the lobby of an English school all day long.
Every time I ask my kids to give examples of words that start with certain letter combinations, I can always count on at least four instances where they try to pass off names of Pokemon as legitimate English.
Takashi The English-Speaking Cable Guy came to our apartment again today to help out with communication as we got our modem fixed. He's been here like four times total, he always stays a little longer than is necessary, and he's very eager to come back if we have any problems at all. He even gave me his personal email address.
Anyway, as he was leaving today, he crossed paths with Liza, who was coming out of the shower in her bathrobe. He flipped out: "Hoohoohoo! Today is a lucky day for me!"
Okay, dude.
I am presently watching some very strange Japanese children's television. My listening comprehension level has risen from "Teletubbies" to "singing dancing cartoon birds in pants." I'm hoping I can graduate to Pokemon soon.
Oh, and a commercial just came on for an instructional baseball video called "How to Hit & Run." Is that funny to anyone else?
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
What a day.
First, I woke up with a cold. Same one I've had for three days. Took the same medicine I've been taking for three days - a nice hearty dose of 12-Hour Sudafed. Weeeeeee...
[I found out today how to say "runny nose" in Japanese. Turns out it's "hanamizu ga deru" which literally means "nose water is exiting"]
At work, I had my usual Nippori Nightmare Kids. But something must be in the water this week, because the kids were unusually out-of-control across the board:
The "Mini Kids" - Three kids and their moms showed up. Hiromi and Kazuya spent the whole class laughing hysterically while running around/rolling on the floor/throwing things. Their moms spent the whole class attempting to get them in order, which was of course impossible. Meanwhile, Mikoto stood there like a little statue, completely unfazed by the chaos around her, focusing on the flash cards and repeating "train" "ticket" "platform" etc. like a good little Asian Robot Child.
The Eight-Year-Olds - Chiharu spent the whole class YELLING in Japanese and bossing the other kids around, which is to be expected. Hirokazu spent most of the class either riding Akinobu like a horse, or attempting to mount him. When not being mounted by Hirokazu, Akinobu was generally making a mess of the room. When I asked what kind of game we should play, Tatsuya suggested a "kicking game."
The Ten-Year-Olds - You know how the bartenders at Drunky are always teaching me dirty words in Japanese? Well, this class is where I get to hear these words. Besides the non-stop flow of dirty talk and mean comments directed at each other, which is what I deal with every week, the kids seemed especially keen to piss me off today. Tetsuhiro wouldn't stop cracking his knuckles. Takumi mocked everything I said. Toru was just plain rude, disruptive, and demanding. Kazuki was okay...I guess I should be counting my blessings that he stuffs everything down his shirt now and not his pants. And poor Gi, the only girl in the class and the most ostracized, just sat in the corner and scowled. To top it off, someone in the class was farting freely about every ten minutes, it reeked like the devil, and it was too cold to open the window.
After the kids' classes, I had only ten minutes in which to either blow my nose or stab myself with safety scissors (I chose the former). Then I strolled into my first adult class of the day. Four students, and NONE of them had ANYTHING to say. They just stared at me. My best efforts to come up with topics would be answered with a "nothing special" or an abrupt answer then a look back at me. At this point, I did not have the energy to be Super Entertainment Power White Girl, after spending close to three hours threatening kids with "time-outs." Ugh.
So yeah, today was particularly bad.
The few not-so-bad things about today: I ate a sweet BLT sandwich for lunch, had a nice relaxing dinner at the Excelsior Cafe after work, rented a couple movies on the way home, watched horrible TV with Liza (Ripley's Believe It Or Not, so easy to make fun of), and had a phatty Chopin jam session on my keyboard.
Now I'm sitting here in my Relaxation Hat and the Temple sweatshirt I "borrowed" from Tom, and it's 2:20, and I'm not tired.
Yup.
First, I woke up with a cold. Same one I've had for three days. Took the same medicine I've been taking for three days - a nice hearty dose of 12-Hour Sudafed. Weeeeeee...
[I found out today how to say "runny nose" in Japanese. Turns out it's "hanamizu ga deru" which literally means "nose water is exiting"]
At work, I had my usual Nippori Nightmare Kids. But something must be in the water this week, because the kids were unusually out-of-control across the board:
The "Mini Kids" - Three kids and their moms showed up. Hiromi and Kazuya spent the whole class laughing hysterically while running around/rolling on the floor/throwing things. Their moms spent the whole class attempting to get them in order, which was of course impossible. Meanwhile, Mikoto stood there like a little statue, completely unfazed by the chaos around her, focusing on the flash cards and repeating "train" "ticket" "platform" etc. like a good little Asian Robot Child.
The Eight-Year-Olds - Chiharu spent the whole class YELLING in Japanese and bossing the other kids around, which is to be expected. Hirokazu spent most of the class either riding Akinobu like a horse, or attempting to mount him. When not being mounted by Hirokazu, Akinobu was generally making a mess of the room. When I asked what kind of game we should play, Tatsuya suggested a "kicking game."
The Ten-Year-Olds - You know how the bartenders at Drunky are always teaching me dirty words in Japanese? Well, this class is where I get to hear these words. Besides the non-stop flow of dirty talk and mean comments directed at each other, which is what I deal with every week, the kids seemed especially keen to piss me off today. Tetsuhiro wouldn't stop cracking his knuckles. Takumi mocked everything I said. Toru was just plain rude, disruptive, and demanding. Kazuki was okay...I guess I should be counting my blessings that he stuffs everything down his shirt now and not his pants. And poor Gi, the only girl in the class and the most ostracized, just sat in the corner and scowled. To top it off, someone in the class was farting freely about every ten minutes, it reeked like the devil, and it was too cold to open the window.
After the kids' classes, I had only ten minutes in which to either blow my nose or stab myself with safety scissors (I chose the former). Then I strolled into my first adult class of the day. Four students, and NONE of them had ANYTHING to say. They just stared at me. My best efforts to come up with topics would be answered with a "nothing special" or an abrupt answer then a look back at me. At this point, I did not have the energy to be Super Entertainment Power White Girl, after spending close to three hours threatening kids with "time-outs." Ugh.
So yeah, today was particularly bad.
The few not-so-bad things about today: I ate a sweet BLT sandwich for lunch, had a nice relaxing dinner at the Excelsior Cafe after work, rented a couple movies on the way home, watched horrible TV with Liza (Ripley's Believe It Or Not, so easy to make fun of), and had a phatty Chopin jam session on my keyboard.
Now I'm sitting here in my Relaxation Hat and the Temple sweatshirt I "borrowed" from Tom, and it's 2:20, and I'm not tired.
Yup.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
"MOROZOFF WILL NEVER CEASE CREATING SOMETHING NEW. BATHED IN GENTLE SEA BREEZES, FRESH AIR, AND THE BRIGHT COLORS OF A LIVELY, MODERN CITY. THE ETERNALLY BEAUTIFUL CITY OF KOBE, BIRTHPLACE OF MOROZOFF. THE FINEST CHOCOLATE, THE FINEST CAKES."
-from a box of Valentine's Day chocolates I received.
After an inspirational bar conversation I had last night with a British stranger named Nick, I decided that today would be the day when I would finally go out and buy a keyboard. The piano kind. I've been meaning to take it back up for years, and I need a hobby over here other than Nintendo DS and nosepicking.
So I bought the cheapest keyboard at the local music store ($150, not bad), brought it home, and within fifteen minutes had tripped over the power cord and broken a little piece of plastic off the back. At first, I thought I had rendered the power adapter unusable, and had this conversation with myself as I struggled to salvage the situation:
"AWWWWWW awww AWWWWWW SHIT NO oh motherfucker ugggggh you have got to be kidding me oh. okay."
I bent that motha back into place. It's fine now.
I wonder what my roommates are gonna say when they get home. There's a friggin' piano taking up half the dining table.
Addendum: My roommates have come home. We've been layin' down phat beats for the last hour (read: playing with the demos and the "percussion" setting). All is well.
-from a box of Valentine's Day chocolates I received.
After an inspirational bar conversation I had last night with a British stranger named Nick, I decided that today would be the day when I would finally go out and buy a keyboard. The piano kind. I've been meaning to take it back up for years, and I need a hobby over here other than Nintendo DS and nosepicking.
So I bought the cheapest keyboard at the local music store ($150, not bad), brought it home, and within fifteen minutes had tripped over the power cord and broken a little piece of plastic off the back. At first, I thought I had rendered the power adapter unusable, and had this conversation with myself as I struggled to salvage the situation:
"AWWWWWW awww AWWWWWW SHIT NO oh motherfucker ugggggh you have got to be kidding me oh. okay."
I bent that motha back into place. It's fine now.
I wonder what my roommates are gonna say when they get home. There's a friggin' piano taking up half the dining table.
Addendum: My roommates have come home. We've been layin' down phat beats for the last hour (read: playing with the demos and the "percussion" setting). All is well.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Yesterday, I was teaching a class of four Level 4 students. I looked at their "passports" and saw that the only lesson all four of them hadn't taken was one called "Going to the Doctor." Lame.
So of course I had to teach it, and of course it contained the word "diarrhea" in the vocabulary list, and if you know anything about me you know I'm ten years old. Needless to say, I cracked up every time someone said "diarrhea," and the students continued to ask me what was funny. Jeez.
Tonight at my favorite dive bar "Drunky," the following exchange occurred:
*Japanese people chattering away about something while I chill, too tired to deal with the language barrier at the moment*
*All stop and look at me*
Ken: "Christine!"
Me: "Yeah?"
Ken: "Chikubi wa nani iro?"
Me: "Huh?"
Ken: "Chikubi wa nani iro?"
Me: *shrug* "What color is...chikubi? What's a chikubi?"
Ken: *points to his nipple*
Hide: "What color nipple?"
Me: "...Black."
All four Japanese people: "ahhhhhh Really?"
Me: "psssshNo!"
Ken: "Pink nipple?"
Me: "I'm not telling you!"
Hide: "Ahhhh Is secret!"
*Japanese people launch into a heated discussion about how their nipples are brown and only babies have pink nipples*
A little while after that, they all lined up to touch my face, after the girl sitting next to me insisted that my white skin had some magical quality. At least that's what her tone and facial expression conveyed. I had no idea what she said.
Also, Ken was wearing a white t-shirt with red lettering across the front that said "IF YOU DONT LIKE THIS MOTORCYCLES, YOU ARE 100 PERCENT GAY" [sic]
So of course I had to teach it, and of course it contained the word "diarrhea" in the vocabulary list, and if you know anything about me you know I'm ten years old. Needless to say, I cracked up every time someone said "diarrhea," and the students continued to ask me what was funny. Jeez.
Tonight at my favorite dive bar "Drunky," the following exchange occurred:
*Japanese people chattering away about something while I chill, too tired to deal with the language barrier at the moment*
*All stop and look at me*
Ken: "Christine!"
Me: "Yeah?"
Ken: "Chikubi wa nani iro?"
Me: "Huh?"
Ken: "Chikubi wa nani iro?"
Me: *shrug* "What color is...chikubi? What's a chikubi?"
Ken: *points to his nipple*
Hide: "What color nipple?"
Me: "...Black."
All four Japanese people: "ahhhhhh Really?"
Me: "psssshNo!"
Ken: "Pink nipple?"
Me: "I'm not telling you!"
Hide: "Ahhhh Is secret!"
*Japanese people launch into a heated discussion about how their nipples are brown and only babies have pink nipples*
A little while after that, they all lined up to touch my face, after the girl sitting next to me insisted that my white skin had some magical quality. At least that's what her tone and facial expression conveyed. I had no idea what she said.
Also, Ken was wearing a white t-shirt with red lettering across the front that said "IF YOU DONT LIKE THIS MOTORCYCLES, YOU ARE 100 PERCENT GAY" [sic]
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