Day two: Suddenly popular! :D

It only took 22 years, but I am finally the most popular girl in my school.

Today was school assembly. I got in this morning to discover that I had to introduce myself in front of the entire school. It’s one thing to introduce myself in front of 35 students at a time. But 900? And in Japanese? Oh my god.

Luckily, it went wonderfully! What I said was very basic, but it was error free! First, I introduced myself in English, and then repeated myself in Japanese. The kids were fascinated when I was speaking in English. The ichinensei (1st grade) had this wonderful look on their faces of “OH MY GOD, SHE’S SPEAKING A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE AT OUR SCHOOL, WHY?!” but by the sanenseis (3rd grade) they just seemed really excited because they knew I was coming to their class on Friday.

I suppose I should backtrack and talk about my first day too, ne? Monday was my first day. Now, during the school year, I wrote a movie about a foreign teacher who worked in a cram school in Japan, which is a different situation entirely. However, some things rang true. I had a bit of trouble getting out of the house, forgetting about a million different things. Which caused me to be late for my train by about 30 seconds. I watched it roll out of the station, cursing as many gods as I could. Luckily, while I might look to be far away from my school on a map, my train stop is on one of the fastest lines in the Greater Tokyo Area, spare the Shinkansen (bullet train) so it runs frequently and quickly. It actually goes THROUGH the mountains in the area. Hence the reason it’s a half hour drive, but a 5 minute train ride. The train I ended up taking could easily get me into the office on time. That would be, if I could shake this uncanny ability to get lost in even the simplest of situations. So I was wandering around the station for a few minutes, trying to find the right exit. I think I stopped to get something to eat too, because the kitchen was absolutely empty. I ended up being only five minutes late. But five minutes late is still five minutes late. I don’t think anyone minded too much, but I’ll be sure to not let it happen again.

With the schedule, I’ve been started with the rokunensei (6th grade) because they would have the most experience with English in the entire school. Still, I was nervous. Their English is really nothing beyond greetings and things they might have heard in songs. I’m very lucky, in this respect, because the first song everyone learns is a song that explains how to do a basic greeting. So I can say hello to anyone in the school, and they should know the response. My rokunensei certainly knew how to respond! They loved coming up to me, getting to say “GOOD MORNING!” instead of the normal Japanese greeting in the morning, “Ohayo gozaimasu.”

I just have to say this: I love my rokunenseis. Yesterday, I met 6-1 and 6-2, today is 6-3 and 6-4. They’re the groups I’ll be working with the most, it seems. I have each class at least once a week, which I’m really happy about. My 6-1’s are so much fun. Since their teacher is the English co-ordinator in the school, they’re much more confident in asking me questions, because they know their teacher can translate most of the time. The 6-2’s are just a loud pile of awesome. The boys are such… boys. It really is the best way to describe them. And the girls are SO sweet. After just one class, Okubo-kun, one of the girls in the class, drew a picture of me and gave it to me at lunch. It’s such a beautiful picture as well! I have it on my fridge at the moment, and it keeps me smiling when I’m having to deal with less than pleasant things, such as miscommunication between Interac and my school, and the hoops that have to be jumped through to solve them, and the rain.

Speaking of the rain. I really don’t like rain. It makes me feel really gross and uncomfortable. If I had a comfy chair to sit on or something at home, maybe things would be better. However, I don’t. There are a few things I need to invest in for my apartment, just so it can feel normal. Like shelves. And a set of drawers. And a toaster oven. And an extension cord and an extra long Ethernet cable so I can go on the internet curled up in bed.

But before all of that, I need my phone. And bank account, I suppose. But I really want my phone RIGHT NOW. The one I want, the SH906i, is brand new. As in, June 3rd (today) is the official release date. I was looking at the phone yesterday, and it truly is amazing. It has the Sharp Aquos technology in the screen, it’s a touch screen, and there is an antenna so it can pick up television. Plus, it has Bluetooth, which makes me happy because I can then send stuff from my computer to it. It seriously is one of the nicest phones I’ve seen. It’s not the pink Aquos phone from AU, but that phone wasn’t bilingual, which makes it somewhat useless to me. I just worry about the price. :/

I just finished with 6-3 and 6-4. It was more difficult than yesterday, because their English was not so good. However, I had my handy dandy DS Lite. Which the kids instantly recognized (which I doubt is a good thing, really…) and I had the teachers write in the kanji, which would then give me the English. It helped a lot today.

I’m writing this on my break at work (due to a schedule mistake, there are lots of breaks this week), and I was just visited by a group of sanenseis (3rd graders.) With them was a young girl, Elli-chan. The group pushed her to the front, and she said hello. I was impressed, her pronunciation was good, so I continued to speak to her, asking how she was. Once again, she replied quickly and easily. I was suspicious, so I told her that her English was good.

Her response? “That’s ‘cause I am English.”

She grew up in Washington, and only moved to Yokosuka last year, and is bilingual. I really wish I could keep her with me all the time, because she has proven to be even more helpful than my electronic dictionary. Plus, she’s the sweetest thing ever, and was the first person I’ve spoken to where English was their first language in days. I wanted to hug her, because just that fact alone, that she’d understand, put me at such ease.

And, luck really is on my side, because while I was talking in English to these sanensei (an age group who would normally never be exposed to this much English until much older) and they were answering back, the co-ordinator of the English program for the Board of Education came in and was watching. I’d just like to point out that the conversations we were having (“I like ~~~”) is something the sanensei won’t be covering until October. So I was looking GOOD. I’m so pleased that the BoE’s first impression of me was encouraging sanenseis to speak English. Plus, they were SO cute. The younger they get, the more I want to hug them all. It doesn’t help that I’m really wanting a hug. (._.)

Oh, I’m so relieved. Elli-chan has decided she’s coming back with her friends tomorrow. I like having her around, because she’s ENGLISH, and I feel a lot more at ease speaking with her there, because her Japanese is wonderful. And she’s so calm and soft spoken. There really is a lot of interest in English here. Perhaps we COULD start an English club… Something to think about in a few months time, when I’m settled.

…I’m surprised at how much the teachers want to learn! We’ve just been going over what to say when you’re leaving and coming back. Here in Japan, when you’re leaving with intentions to come back, the person leaving says “Ittekimasu!” and everyone replies “Ittarasshai!” So I taught them to say “I’ll be back!” and “See you soon!” Of course, they’re awesome and making Terminator references. They’re so much fun. Despite the huge language barrier, we’re getting around it, slowly yet surely. So as they say here, ganbarimasu! (I’ll do my best!)