As we all know by now, when I say, "I'll update tonight," that means that the update will be in my head and will appear online in the next few weeks. This again won't be a very big update. I'm currently at work, with nothing to do as the teacher with whom I was supposed to teach today "forgot" me on his way to class. It's okay, though. I'm not bitter. I've been really busy lately, so I enjoy the free time. It's allowed me to get some important stuff done. In fact, I've almost completed my to-do checklist. All that's left is "Figure out if the Macarena starts with the left arm or right." If anyone could help me out with that one, I'd appreciate it.


On the Impending Speech Contests
Every year, there are several English Speech contests for junior high school students all over Japan. It starts in late September with district speech contests. Winners from that move on to the prefectural (state) contests, winners from that either move on to regional or to the national speech contest. Each school is allowed to send a few students to the district contests. Since I have 3 schools, that means I get to coach 6 students. Fun fun! Along with that, since I'm not in my third year in Japan, many nearby districts have asked that I help judge the speech contests for their district. I recently had a meeting with one such district. I'll be listening to and judging 27 speeches and 7 recitations. Since the speeches are judged on content as well as pronunciation, the district sent me all the speeches ahead of time so I could grade them on content.

I've started reading the speeches. Some are good, some are...not so good. In most cases, the students write their speeches in English, and the English teachers translate. The only problem is, many of the teachers don't have a grasp on the natural flow of the English langauge or on how speeches are written in English. Thus, many of the speeches lack a native speakers understanding of nuances and "real" English. I would feel bad for the teachers, but I don't. All of them have access to a native English speaker in the form of an ALT/AET (my job, remember?). Some of these teachers just decide not to ask their ALT for help. And thus you get a speech with the following quote. While the word choice makes sense, and is indeed very "slang" and "natural," using it in a very formal, serious speech contest was perhaps not the best choice.

"He [the speechwriter's dog] sometimes breaks our family rules. When I leave him home alone, he pisses everywhere in my house."