I survived my first kids class and all I got was this lousy entry

Today wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My kids in the class were really well behaved, and even though I seriously botched parts of the lesson they seemed to like it (and me) so that worked out well. 3 kids and an hour isn't too hard to kill, by the end I just had them running around madly in a circle in a frantic, never-ending game of musical chairs (I supplied my own DUNUNUNUNUNUNU music).

I also had a class of 10 junior high school kids. They were somewhat rowdy and probably bored after being in school since 8am, when it was almost 9pm. When I was asking for names one boy said "Yuuki" and I asked "Miyuki?" Which is a girl's name. It's useful and I'll keep this on the backburner if he's ever loudmouthing too much. That one was a pretty riled up class, but only 25 minutes long, so not too difficult.

After the class, I was sitting at a small extension of desk in the main lobby (there is no private "Teachers' Room" at this school) and the staff member asked in Japanese "how was your new teacher?" I looked up and smiled at them, and she added: "He can understand Japanese!" (Mi)yuki followed up with "noo he can't!" He was in sheer disbelief. I like the idea of them knowing I can understand them though, it might put the fear of BEN into their hearts. :)

Mostly, I just have to work harder in preparing for my lessons. With kids, you can't take a minute to review the book during class, you just have to keep things happening constantly. Otherwise, they get bored. A few weeks in and a set routine are all that I need.

One train wasn't running this morning which extended my trip by 20 minutes - then on the way home I managed to make a few mistakes which led to me take about an extra hour. These mistakes included taking an express line that went past my stop, and getting off when the train really just didn't have any correct maps inside the car.

Also, one of the trains I rode splits after my stop (Tachikawa) onto 2 separate tracks, depending on what traincar you're in - if that's not confusing, I don't know what is.

Some funny pronunciations I heard my adult students making today: "get pushy" sounded like "get pussy" and "what for" sounded like "what whore." I know there's more that I'm forgetting. I also got to explain sarcasm and dry humor, which was fun.

I watched the Vice Presidential debates and am further convinced that Palin is a stupid twat, but her dumb charm will rub off on the generally dullard American public. Dammit. I'm still with George Carlin when it comes to voting, though:



"And when you're on the street, depending on the street, I can tell that you are definitely in the top 3 most good-lookin' girls on the street...Yea you're so beautiful, you could be an air-hostess in the 60's." - Flight of the Conchords

"Everybody knows this is nowhere" - Neil Youg and Crazy Horse.