Another Victim

The other day at school, during the lunch break on Field Day, I was invited by the very nice parents of one of the younger students at my school to go over to their little tent and have some food and drinks with them. I was really thankful for that gesture, because I didn't want to eat with the teachers, most of whom went back to the office for lunch, and I felt a bit left out, seeing all the kids sitting with their families. Maybe somehow they sensed that, because they "adopted" me for about 30 minutes, which was really nice! (I had met the mother several times before but not the father.)

We talked about all sorts of things, including school, of course, and at one point the conversation shifted to my favorite school subject here in Japan, English.

That's when the mother said something like, "My English is a victim of the Japanese educational system." I knew right away what she meant -- that she could read and write English fairly well, but her speaking ability was rather poor.

I can't help but point out the holes in the system here on an almost daily basis, but my suggestions for improving how English is taught (almost) always fall on deaf ears. That's why it was so refreshing to hear those critical words coming from a Japanese.

Believe me, that woman's stock went skyrocketing in my book as soon as she said that!

Kanji in Context

I've been in Japan for just over three years now. When I first got here, I found a book called "Kanji in Context" either in my apartment or at my desk at school, and I've been using it ever since to learn kanji.

Yesterday, when I was reading the (almost) daily announcements sheet (instead of saving paper and sending the announcements to us by email, we get a paper copy in our "mailboxes" -- it's unreal how much paper is wasted around here), I came across a pair of kanji that I had yet to see written together. I knew at least one "reading" of the individual characters, but I wasn't sure how to read the two together, so I asked a junior-high-school student for help.

He had no clue, so he asked a classmate, but that guy also had no clue, so he asked a third guy. The third guy finally told me how to read the two kanji together, but what he said was not what I thought the reading was. Oddly enough, it turns out he was wrong and I was right.

So many kanji look alike, and it turns out that the student mistook the kanji I showed him for a similar-looking one. The proper reading of the pair I showed him was "sai gei," but the student told me it was "sai katsu." The former means something like "second posting," whereas the latter probably doesn't exist (if it did, it would mean something like "second thirst").

Anyway, you can see how similar the two kanji on the right of each pair are and therefore how difficult they are to learn.

How the heck am I, a foreigner, supposed to learn to read this stuff when the Japanese themselves can't even read them? It's certainly a challenge, but I guess you could say I'm making progress!

Countdown City

The kids at my school love countdowns. The annual Forestopia Festival (involving a one-day sports festival and a two-day art festival) kicks off in a few days, and when I arrived at school today, I saw a sign reminding me that there are four days to go. (The sign is posted in front of the students entrance to the school, which is about 150 feet from the main entrance, which is also for the teachers.)














There's also a countdown that shows the number of days left until the seniors take the annual "Center Test," which is basically an SAT-like college entrance exam that is given all over the country on the same day.











And the first-year junior-high students have the mega-countdown calendar, which includes how many days until the next time they go home, until they finish the school year, until they graduate(!), and until the Forestopia festival.











Since my time at this school is limited, especially now that my fourth and possibly next-to-last year has started, I tend to think about how many days I have left here. But I prefer doing things the Muhammad Ali way: Don't count the days. Make the days count!