Wow, can you handle it? Two posts in one week. Sugoi, ne? I just, again, wanted to post a quick update. There is a Mid-year seminar going on, so I must get my beauty rest tonight so that I don't kill anyone tomorrow during my presentation. That always tends to mar any presentation.

Since I, again, don't have time for a massive update, I'll just share a quick anecdote from a friend. My friend was quite impressed with the way I look as if I understand everything being said to me in Japanese, and even mangage to reply correctly to statements which I didn't understand. I guess I'm just good at B.S. I told her that when someone is talking to me, I try to pick up the gist of what they're saying and then guess at what the proper answer would be (can you tell I've been around British people today? Proper... that's not American English. Next thing you know, I'll be calling it a "holiday" instead of a "vacation"). So impressed was she, that she decided to try this bit of language acquisition. So at one of her elementary schools, a Japanese teacher was talking to her in Japanese. She heard the word "Japan" and lots of other words, and she realized that the teacher was probably asking her if she could speak Japanese. Her answer? "I can a little, but not very well. I've been practicing a lot." She got a bit of a strange look from the teacher, but she answered in Japanese, so she figured her Japanese must have been strange.

Only later, when she was talking to a teacher who was fluent in English and Japanese, did she learn that the first teacher had ACTUALLY asked her, "Can you use a Japanese style toilet?" Her answer in Japanese had been flawless, though just a little strange considering the context...

So in keeping with the flow of the last 4 blog entries in which I have stated that I will update soon: once more, I will update soon. At least I changed the template of my blog so now there's new and pretty colors to entertain people with. But it's almost 11 now, and I still have to organize my handouts for a student newspaper meeting tomorrow. It should be interesting. I'm excited about it, but the thought of trying to teach 13 year-olds to write a newspaper in a foreign language is a little bit daunting. Especially since I never took a newspaper class in high school or college. I guess I'll make it up as I go along. The good thing is that if I teach them wrong, no one will know. That probably didn't sound as professional as I wanted it to.

Anyway, this next week is going to be insanely busy. I've got tons of stuff to do for school, tons of stuff to do for our Mid-Year Seminar (does anyone know how to team teach or how to motivate students? I've got 2 and 1/2 hours that my group needs to fill...), and I've got to get ready to go home, too. And winter is coming, so my lack of indoor heat is making me hole up in one room of my apartment and not move. But it's worth it to move. Today, I had a 2 hour conversation with one of my JTE's (usually, Japanese English teachers are really busy, so they don't have a lot of time to chat). And it was a useful conversation because while we were talking, he learned that not all Americans have guns. Or sing really well. Or play instruments. Seriously, these are apparently things that almost all Japanese people assume Americans have/can do. I had fun explaining the concept of "Mennonite" when I told him about my college. "No, NO ONE had a gun. They were pacifists. Well, except those football players, but we holed them up in their own dorm and let them destroy whatever they wanted." He was surprised that I hadn't at least SHOT a gun. But we decided that we could make textbook English more interesting. Instead of saying, "We stayed in a house built in 1904." we changed the sentence to say, "We shot a gun made in 2002." We even went so far as to say, "I drank wine made in 1908." We think students will appreciate the new, updated, and "cooler" version of English. (And come on, what kind of weinie English is "We stayed in a house built in 1904."? How often do you use that sentence pattern in your daily life? But let's not get started. These last 2 weeks have been test weeks at all my schools, and I've led a life of constant complaining about textbook English being silly, stuffy, and stupid.

Okay, so now it's after 11, and I really must go so that I can get my newspaper handouts ready and prepare games for the elementary school students. And I've gotta find some pliers so I can attack the bulletin board. But more on that later.