Category: JET

License Plate English

I did a hastily prepared worksheet today with four classes, from first grade to third grade (junior high 7th through 9th). I got the idea from a feature on the Anchorage Daily News website showcasing reader submitted vanity plates. The goal was for the students to figure out the meaning of real Alaska license plates. For example, “SNOMAN,” “IXLR8,” and “LVWNTR.” They then had to create six-letter plates from “Murakami” and “I love English,” then create their own personalized plate. If they wrote it on the board, they could get a sticker. It was an amazing success. I was astonished at how quickly they understood the concept, and how creative their own vanity plates were. Click the image below to see a whole gallery of my third graders’ creations.

JET Middle School Murakami

Globpdate

Sick with a cold. The fault of munchkins. Fluids. Doctor’s waiting room. Indifferent supervisor. Motherly, doting, caring supervisor. Pills. Throat throes. Voyager episodes. Hoarse Skype calls. Lack of antibodies. Lack of active verbs.

JET

Musical

Post author By admin
Post date December 9, 2007
4 Comments on Musical

For a while now, I’ve been participating in a play called “Alice in Japan” (highly modified version of Alice in Wonderland). It’s put on by the ALTs of Niigata Prefecture to raise money for charity. In the spring, we will travel to Papua New Guinea and build a school with the proceeds made from the musical. I am playing the White Rabbit. We’ve been practicing now for a month or two. We had a rehearsal this weekend in Joetsu and we actually got a lot done. I’ve included a video of us doing the final dance, “We’re all in This Together” from High School Musical, as well as the musical website.

car JET Murakami travel

このごろ

最近の大変なかぜがなくなってしまった。今日、仕事の後、日課の感じがしました。車を満タンしたり、灯油ももらったり、ペットボトルと缶を捨てたり、他の用事を終わりました。

最近の週末は新潟県チャリティーミュージカルの第二の練習でした。僕は、『不思議な国のアリス』のプレーに参加しています。実はプレーの名前は『Alice in Japan』です。僕は白いラビットに出ています。毎年、新潟県内のALTはミュージカルを発表して、売上金でパプアニューギニアの学校を手伝うようにしています。一月と二月に、９回ぐらい発表して、三月の末に一緒にパプアニューギニアに行って、学校を建てます。

三周前、第一の練習するため、他の村上市に住んでいるALTさんと一緒に上越市へ運転しみした。私とクリスとリードとカトリーナは僕の車に入って、高速道路でズームしてしまいました。

行く途中柏崎にとうして、本当に面白いものが見られました。

黄色いフラグを自動で振っている如何物の男です。アラスカの道路工事者、仕事を気をつけてください。

その夜、ジャスコの近くに、『Jacasse』というレストランに立ち寄った。英語の『Jackass』ということと同じ発音みたいだから、本当に笑われた。『Jackass』というのは『バカ』という意味ですから。スローガンもとても不思議な言葉がありました。

When you meet someone
you never dreamed you’d meet
you’re taken by surprise,
so you haven’t made up
any fantasies
and you’re not let down.

上越のテトラポット墓地にいる写真で終わりにします。テトラポットに死に行くところです。

car JET Murakami travel

Sweet times

Kind of a meaningless title, but I guess it’s appropriate. I’ve finally kicked the cold I have been struggling with, and today after work I almost felt as if I was now in a recognizable routine. I filled up with gas, and bought fuel oil, and threw away some bottles and cans, and finished some other errands.

Last weekend was the second rehearsal for the Niigata Charity Musical. I am participating in a production of Alice in Wonderland (called Alice in Japan due to copyright issues) with about 25 other ALTs from the prefecture. I am playing the White Rabbit. Each year the ALT’s in the prefecture put on a musical and use the proceeds to help schools in Papua New Guinea. During January and February, we will put on about nine performances, then at the end of March, we will fly to Papua New Guinea for two weeks and help build a school, or something along those lines.

Three weeks ago, we drove down to Joetsu, toward the southern end of the Prefecture for our first rehearsal. Me, Chris, Reed, and Katrina hopped in my car and zoomed on the expressway.

car Japan JET Murakami

Good ups and downs

I have had a cold for more than two weeks now, sort of a nasty thing keeping my immune system’s first line of defense hyperactive. My good friends Chris and Andrew visited over the weekend from Osaka, which was a lot of fun, if tiring.

My car blew a tire driving back from Yamagata Prefecture on Saturday. Sort of my fault for not putting air in it when someone said “Hey, your front right tire looks low,” but also route 290’s fault for suddenly turning into the Alcan without any warning signs. I drove the car down to Sanjo on Sunday to have it repaired, and I received a replacement car, which is a tiny kei-car, basically a tiny, short, lightweight, plasticky, rattly toy of a car.

Chris and Andrew also visited my middle school on Monday, and did a great job of making the classes interesting for the students. Later that day, we pulled a bit of mischief and hopped the fence into this funky little obstacle course up the coast, ziplining and swingfighting and then hightailing it when an old man slowed down and stared at us as he passed.

Today, I overslept for the first time, waking up, to my horror, at 8:20 AM, about when the morning meeting was starting in the teachers’ room and about 25 minutes before my first class. The rest of the day actually proceeded pretty smoothly. No one seemed to make anything of it except the older teacher I sit next to, who offered a helpful explanation that “because it’s so cold, maybe you just didn’t want to get out of your futon.” I swear she talks about nothing but the weather, which I still can barely understand. But all of these things have me feeling rather tired and antsy.

Basically, while I like it here and have settled in quite well, the weeks are beginning to fly by and I, always entertaining notions, have begun to consider them. Anyway, fall time is pretty nice here, even if the weather has recently been very wet. I’ll end the post with a happy photo of the fall colors and ocean from near the top of Gedo Mountain to the north of town, which I took during the very enjoyable and relaxing Monday I had off last week. I’ll post more soon about tetrapods, Andrew and Chris visiting, and other excitement.

JET Murakami

Thundersome Finances

The loudest thunderclap I have ever heard woke me up last night. Around 2 AM, I confusedly hopped out of bed to an enormous, violent explosion. Then, as if I were in a bad movie, it instantly began to rain like crazy. I haven’t experience a good thunderstorm in a few years. Nebraska has always been one of my favorite places because of its fantastic spring weather. Since August, I have come to enjoy Murakami quite a lot. Last night, after a pleasant day of errands, wandering, and a short mountain climb, hearing a violent and unexpected thunderstorm was a pleasant confirmation of my happiness here.

One of my errands on Monday was to send some money home from my most recent paycheck. I signed up with a remittance service with Lloyds TSB in Tokyo that allows you to send money home using the ATM at your local bank. After a rather long process at the post office last month to send money home, I decided this would be a better deal. The price was the same as the post office – 2000 yen, and seemed much more convenient. While the post office charges a flat rate of 2000 yen for any amount, its money orders are mysteriously limited to $700 US. It took me considerable time to write out my mother’s address four times and I figured using the ATM would be easier and just as cheap. Well, that is not so.

The exchange rate on Monday was a pretty good 114.83 yen to the dollar. I sent 100,000 yen home. My bank charged me ¥530 for the furikomi transfer (which was a mind-boggling kanjifest that took me about 10 minutes to finally get right), ~~and then Lloyds, in addition to the flat ¥2000 fee, charged 1% on the ¥100,000,~~ and then Wells Fargo charged me a $10 wire transfer fee to put the money in my account. So it cost me ~~¥4725 ($40.50)~~ ¥3675 ($32.00) to send home $843 dollars. Last month at the post office, it cost me about ¥2500 ($21.75) to send home $1466 dollars, including the international registered mail for the money orders.

My recommendation to others in this situation is to simply make it to the post office before they shut down their bank section at 4:00 and avoid Lloyds, unless you really like the convenience of the ATM. The postal method is especially recommended if you are sending home large sums, since it is a flat rate. The only advantage to Lloyds’ service is that it takes only one business day, which, now that I think about it, is really convenient. I submitted the remittance yesterday at noon and the money is in my account now. If you don’t have someone trustworthy in the states to deposit a large amount of money for you, or if you are in a rush, then Lloyds does make sense.

English festivals JET Middle School Murakami

Teaching

Post author By admin
Post date October 20, 2007
7 Comments on Teaching

Today I ended my six-day week with an 80 minute lesson for my middle school’s annual culture festival. Over the past few weeks, I managed to overprepare while still squeezing in a good amount of procrastination. My goal for the lesson was to have students practice natural greetings. “I’m fine thank you” is perfect English, but it’s boring as hell and the students know it by rote, not by creative, situational choice. First, I taught simple greetings, like “yo, hey, howdy, what’s up, whassup, ‘sup, what’s happenin’, how’s it goin’, what’s goin’ on.” I made the students form a circle and pass some balls around to the right, each time saying one of the greetings, which I had magnetized to the board for their reference. Second, I taught answers to “How are you” besides “I’m fine, thank you.” “sleepy, awesome, great, OK, so-so, super, good” all topped the list. I also showed them which words could be intensified by “really.” I then made them toss one ball across the circle from person to person, after which the tosser and tossee would have a little conversation. They weren’t allowed to answer “I’m fine thank you.”

English JET Middle School Murakami

Boggle

Post author By admin
Post date October 4, 2007
5 Comments on Boggle

While in Shibata on Sunday, I found a game of Boggle at the Hobby Off. I bought it in a hurry, even though it was like 11 bucks and was missing the sand timer. I brought it to the middle school for the three days I was there this week, and used it in my classes. Student response was varied, although overall I was impressed with how well they did. I of course simplified the rules, allowing them to use letters in the 4×4 grid in any combination and any number of times in a word. I also had the students choose what letters to put in the grid, which resulted in 16 of the easiest letters in our 26-letter alphabet being on the board. But, still, they had to assemble words from their own memory, and from the textbooks in front of them, which I think was good recognition practice and got their brains working. One group of girls, who otherwise didn’t have very many words (one group had 26) found “Merry Christmas,” which, as they were sad to learn, is two words.

While the lessons went well, I was more impressed with the interest that other teachers and students showed in the game while I was at my desk, walking in the halls, leaving school. In those occasions, I would try to be a good linguacultural ambassador and show them the game as it is actually played. I would have expected that students would find it too difficult and lose interest, but the opposite was true. Even on a board with three L’s, three I’s, two R’s and a Qu with no other vowels, three second grade girls gave me their undivided attention for 10 solid minutes, and I was the one who had to call it quits. Outside in the parking lot, a group of eight or nine boys stood around me as I shook the letter cubes over and over again. One boy immediately stood out, finding words before I did, including making an entire sentence: “I use rope.” Not bad for a 13-year old non-native speaker of English playing by real Boggle rules. Here’s the game board he was working with. See if you can do any better.

English Japanese JET Middle School Murakami

Happier?

The internet has started being friendlier to me this evening. Since about 5 pm, it’s given me several 20 or 30 minute sessions of use before being interrupted by god knows what.

As I walk around town, sing and play with seven year olds, or wake up every morning and eat melon bread and drink cold coffee from a carton, I often think “this is an experience that I want to convey to others.” Since people have seemed fairly interested in this blog so far (you rock, Frankie!) I figure some lively descriptions of fairly mundane occurrences might be warranted.

Most people know about how Japanese students must clean their schools daily. I have vague recollections from my early childhood in the late 80’s, when Japan was poised to take over the world, of this fact being used as anecdotal evidence for Japan’s success – work ethic, basically. I might have bought into this myth before I actually witnessed students clean their school. Yes, everyone is assigned a specific location and team, with a supervising teacher, and a student leader, who must check, in a very official sounding voice, the satisfactory cleaning of their area. Yes, there are broom closets in every hall, and for 20 minutes, they bustle with activity of students cleaning. But they don’t seem to know how to actually sweep. Or mop. They are very good at spreading dirt around. During cleaning time, I usually try to find a broom and dustpan and sweep my way around somewhere. I don’t have to do much to fill up a dustpan so full of sand and lint and dust and dirt to make me start to sneeze. In terms of overall cleanliness, including paint job, condition of doors, windows, floors, etc, none of my Japanese schools compare to even the old Swanson Elementary school building in Palmer. And I’m pretty sure there were just one or two old dudes taking care of that place.