Three, Three, Three Entries in One!

AKA: Short, Blog-worthy Stories

The past few weeks have shown me several things that are worth blogging about, but maybe not for full entries. Thus, I give you - three entries for the price of one.

1. Imayasu-sensei's Warm Invitation
A few weeks back, Imayasu-sensei (one of the part-time English teachers) invited me over to her house for dinner. This is a really big deal - Japanese people, on the whole, don't entertain at home. I happily accepted and met her later that evening. It was a rather spontaneous affair, as Imayasu-sensei had only decided that day to invite me over, but it was absolutely wonderful. This was especially true because 1) Imayasu-sensei and her daughter, who was also at dinner, both speak wonderful English (having lived in the America for a few years), and 2) the real gossip goes on outside of the staff room. I heard a LOT about my predecessor that was ... hehehe. Anyway. The best part by far was toward the end, when Imayasu-sensei's husband came home. She wasn't expecting him till late, as he was going out to dinner with office people, but he ended up arriving just as I was leaving. Imayasu-sensei introduced me as "the new ALT at the middle school; she's very popular with the staff." :D

2. The Incredible, Amazing, Lovely Leslie!
I seem to have the ability to amaze the staff at my schools with little to no effort. Granted, I'm a crafts person (if I don't have a craft project, I tend to go a little mad), so some of the things I take for granted as being easy, like crocheting, is not taken as such by the general populace. Still, I seem to be able to amaze my coworkers just by living. I'm amazed they haven't complimented me on my ability to breathe.

Some of this is because the Japanese, on the whole, seem amazed that anyone who isn't Japanese could do anything that the Japanese do, like eat rice or take out the trash. I take this as honest curiosity rather than a blatant insult, which seems to be the predominant other reaction by gaijin ("foreigners"). Some of it, too, stems from the fact that my predecessor was not the overachiever that I am.

Still, the Japanese method of accepting compliments is to not accept them. A common response to a compliment on someone's ability is to say "I'm really not that good, but it's a hobby I enjoy despite the fact that I'm bad at it." In English, however, it's polite to say "thank you" and maybe downplay one's abilities, but not nearly to the extent shown in Japanese. I know how to say "that's not true" in Japanese, which is my default for when I am complimented, but I run into a hard time when I am complimented in English, especially by my students. I want them to know that we say "thank you" in English, but I don't want them to think I'm full of myself.

So yeah, compliments continue to be a stressful ordeal. :P

3. Halloween
As the token foreigner, and the first American to work at Ikushina Jr. High in at least 5 years, I had to be really upbeat about Halloween. The best part of this was that, after decorating one of the classrooms, my teachers were so pleased with my work that they let me pick a bulletin board to use as an English board and decorate it for the holiday as well. (I get to keep it; yay!) I got a lot of compliments for these decorations, and the kids really seemed to like it.

On Halloween proper, I dressed up as a witch (although I was hat-less...the kids seemed to get it, though) and taught special, Halloween-oriented lessons. I also gave out stickers to any of the students that came to me and said "trick or treat," which was a really big hit. (Some of my kids, after getting stickers from me, went trick-or-treating around the staff room, to little avail. ^_^) The kids seemed to really enjoy it, and I got to dress up and put on extreme makeup, which is always a blast.


There you have it - three stories for the price of one blog entry. :D