Can you walk this way? Talk this way?: Retroactive Post

Over the last couple of days, I've been asked to grade papers for all the English course students. The first years wrote the first drafts of their self-introduction speeches, the second years wrote letters to this woman that they had read about in their textbook and the third years wrote a brief composition in response to whether Japanese people are modest or not. Doing so has given me a better idea of their different English abilities and just the sophistication and growth of thier writing and thoughts.

Another thing that happened yesterday was my main first-year teacher pointed out an observation he had about our English course students. He had expressed concern that their speeches were rather simple, "I was happy." "It was beautiful," but believed that this was simply a result of English being thier second language. However, on the 3 day trip he went with them this week, reading their diaries written in Japanese, the thoughts remained on the same level, thus prompting him to believe that it was rather a lack of writing skills and not language skills. So he wants to work on developing their writing styles this term.

I point this out because it's so different from what the other JTEs seem to be doing with their students; he seems to want to teach them to be learners of English, and not simply learn English. And I'm a bit chagrined to find that he's the one that this is coming from. I feel like it's easy to adapt to the Japanese style of teaching English once you're here, and for him to remind me of that, I feel more inspired to 'rock their worlds.' Today, I really feel like a teacher. It's great. And I'm a bit sad to think about leaving this country and this life.

Facebook: Retroactive Post

This year is now, officially, the Facebook Year. And yes, while I know that it can be sometimes inane and annoying, the last 7 or 8 months that I've been on it have allowed me to keep in contact with people that I likely wouldn't have, and to restore it with people with whom I've lost touch. I've reconnected with one friend whom I haven't spoken to for nearly a decade, and another for about half of that. Not only that, but it has genuinely allowed me to make new friends, something which myspace severely lacks, due to the number of guys that use it as a dating trough. Hard to believe that we once used to live in a world without Facebook. And at least today, I'm glad it's around.

The Way of Tea: Retroactive Post

A few weeks ago, my sado-bu teacher gave me this book and I just started reading it the other day.

The Book of Tea

It's DEEP, in the way that I remember Albert talking about other writings on Asian practices, like Buddhism or Kung Fu. I think I'm finally getting to the point where I'm getting past the superficial layers of this 'hobby' and really getting to the meat of it. It's enlightening and moving in a way that I have found lacking in religion or other spiritual writings.

I certainly don't want to be one of the New Age-y generation that comes from America and falls into "Asia" and takes up tai chi and becomes Buddhist or whatever, but I can see the draw. Living here does change you, in ways more subtle than you realize, and I think that I am certainly the better for it.

It's a tiny book, and one can easily finish it in an hour of reading, but another thing I've learned while in Japan is the value of 'slow' and doing things slowly. This is just the type of thing that deserves to be read and enjoyed and digested (mentally), slowly; that is better for having done so.