It comes in threes...

What comes in threes? In Japan, everything does. The top three gardens, the top three waterfalls, the top three scenic views... and of course, it is never known which of the three is actually the best. So, keeping with tradition, here's a reflection of the best and worst of these past two years, in sets of three.

3 Great Parties

1. Sayonara 2007, Jibutei

2. Julia’s farewell party: yukata, purikura, Thai food, karaoke, Aussie Bar, lotus-opening at Korakuen, breakfast at Macca’s.

3. San-In Beach Party, 2006 and 2007.

3 Great Domestic Trips

1. Kyoto and Nara with Mum and Dad

2. Iya Valley with Amyko and Herbsuke.

3. Tokyo long weekend with Daniko.

3 Cases of Glasses Abuse

1. Thrust down my fundoshi during the Naked Man Festival, 2006.

2. Worn whilst jumping off a 20 foot rock into a lake, Iya Valley

3. Lost in the mosh at a Regurgitator concert, 2001 (not Japan, but still noteworthy).

3 Non-Japanese Cultural Experiences

1. Halloween

2. Thanksgiving

3. Whangi

3 Ways to Kill Time at Work

1. Write this blog

2. Plan trips

3. AJET business (including Fuzzy)

3 Miserable Rains

1. Descending Fuji-san, 2006.

2. Naked Man, 2007.

3. The Big Rain of Takebe, 2006; the one that washed away my bridge.

3 Kickarse Towns

1. Takahashi

2. Katsuyama

3. Takebe

3 Cool Kanji

1. 薬: medicine, drug; the radicals are “plant” and “enjoy,” so that’s just perfect.

2. 鏡: mirror; the radicals are gold, stand and see.

3. 苺: strawberry; the radicals are plant and mother, so strawberries are the mother-plant, I guess.

3 Great Fuzzy Articles

1. Interview With an English Teacher by Tiffany Tse

2. Getting the Most Out of It by Chris Cooper (ie the one with the anti-Pocky rant)

3. The Inaka Factor by Phil Jones

3 Regrettable Elementary School Lessons

1. Halloween: I did a terrible job of feigning interest in the topic.

2. Animal noises: I should point out, not my idea. Who would think teaching 12 year-olds “woof woof, meow meow” would be a good idea?

3. Maths: also not my idea. By someone else’s plan, I spent 45 minutes reciting sums for the children to answer.

3 Great Teachers

1. Ms Tsuuchi. JTE Extraordinaire.

2. Ms Fujiwara. Super-cool PE teacher; actually talks to me; kids call her Junko-sensei.

3. Mr Ando. Best elementary teacher I’ve worked with. Gets involved in the lessons and wears funky golf pants.

3 Great Students

1. Kuroda-sensei. The 88 year-old scholar of my eikaiwa class.

2. Haruka Hino. The best junior high student I ever had.

3. Nao Atsuta. Now in year 4, she came to my kid’s eikaiwa class religiously and tried so hard to get me to teach her the word “poo.”

3 Ways To Get Stares

1. Playing rounders in the front yard of a school in Fukiya.

2. Playing cricket on the Asahi River in the city.

3. Walking in a group from Champclair, all dressed in yukatas.

3 Stolen Items

1. My bike

2. Countless umbrellas, lost, stolen, abandoned.

3. DVDs and Tim Tams accidentally stolen by birthday party attendees at Red Moon (I had put my stuff down too close to the birthday presents, which were all gathered up and taken together).

3 Nightspots That Suck

1. Friends

2. Desperadoes

3. Mars

Reflection

I have one month and two days left in Japan, so naturally, I’m getting into a bit of a reflective mood. I came to Okayama with twenty-seven other people. Of the twenty-eight of us who went to the Takashimaya Beer Garden on our first night in Okayama, only three (myself, Eric, Dylan) were at the Sayonara Party a fortnight ago. That got me thinking: these two years have been quite an adventure, and as always, the people with whom I began this adventure hold a noteworthy place in my memories, even if we didn’t see out the end of the adventure together. So, to Herb Moscoso, Amy Dunn Moscoso, Betsy Herzog, Adam Dunajko, Julia Lam, Jess Chadwick, Dave Jones, Dawn Lee, Wendy Strachan, Dave Hakaraia, Eric Azevedo, Alison Clarke, Alex Richards, Claire Thomas, Grace Key, Dylan Lawson Brown, Patrick Chaury, Ashley Hamilton, Jarek Polak, Michael Agcanas, Jeff Walz, Adam Stuart, Brendan Daley, Ted Tsung, Greg Porter, Kathryn Fleming, and Gabriel Pliska, cheers! You guys are fab.
Meanwhile, in a completely different realm, Kevin, Tibor and I had a fabulous night out on the town on Saturday, with help from Reed and Andy. Here's some photos.

What's wrong with English education in this country.

Yesterday, in class, my co-teacher writes the word "marvelous" on the blackboard. He asks me, "is this spelled correctly, or are there two Ls?"
I tell him that both are correct; he's written the American spelling, though Australians spell it with two Ls.
"Oh," he replies, "I suppose the American spelling is better."
WHY is American English so much better? Just by sheer force of numbers? In that case, do all Spanish students learn Mexican Spanish? This is becoming another rant, but I should like to think that students of a foreign language should learn a sort of internationalised version of the language to enable them to handle variations of the target language. They don't have to use one particular kind of English or another, just whatever is understandable. I tell my students, that as foreign speakers of English, they can say mum or mom; mobile or cell; bog or restroom - whatever they want. So when I hear that students who write words like colour, programme or marvellous in their exams will be marked as wrong... well that's bloody stupid.

I've been watching lots of YouTube...

...particularly music videos, which can be fabulous. Here's my favourite 21 videos that I could find. Unfortunately only one is Australian, since Aussie bands are usually broke and can't afford to make videos. Oh well. Enjoy!

The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be
The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
The White Stripes - The Hardest Button To Button
The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl
Bjork - All Is Full Of Love
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop
Blur - Coffee & TV
TISM - Thunderbirds Are Coming Out
Massive Attack - Teardrop
George Michael - Freedom (yes, I'm serious)
R.E.M. - Electrolite
The Strokes - Reptilia
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Hot Chip - Boy From School
The Guillemots - We're Here
Bjork - Joga
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Junior Senior - Move Your Feet

The bright and the not-so-bright

In the past, English classes at my school were divided into two smaller classes, for the brighter and not-so-bright students. This year, the classes are instead divided into two smaller mixed-ability classes. I'm generally in favour of mixing students of different ability levels, because a) students can learn from each other, and b) if you're put in the lower-level class, chances are you're stuck there for good, which isn't very motivating. However, the dictation tests I've been giving lately have made me reconsider. These tests are just a case of me saying three sentences, and the students writing down what I say. Every time we've done such a test so far, there have been seven or eight kids with perfect scores, and a few others who turn in their papers virtually blank. Now, these students are either so far ahead or so far behind that I have to wonder how much they're getting out of the classes, if, for example, they can't manage a sentence like "I am a baseball fan," whilst at the other extreme, some are coming up with work like "I usually sleep late on Sunday, and today was no exception" on their own.
Now, I am a big fan of foreign language education (obviously) but in a rural school like mine, a lot of the kids are likely to end up in blue-collar, unqualified work, where they're not likely to need the kind of grammar-based education they're getting. They should be focusing on international education and general communication strategies. The more academic students should get that as well as more complex grammar, composition and conversation study. In other words, in cases of such huge extremes as in my school, maybe ability streaming isn't such a bad thing after all.
Rant ends.

Meanwhile, at elementary school today, the office staff and I bonded with an impromptu English lesson over "Spot's Big Book of Words." I taught them "beanie" and "touque" for "woolly hat," so you Canucks should be happy.