Maybe that's because I actually am in a middle school. But it's more than that. I really do feel like the new kid in school, which I am, except that I'm not a kid, I'm a teacher. In the classroom, I'm safe, because I can make silly voices, or dance or sing or whatever, and it's ok because I'm the dancing English monkey - nobody knows what to expect from me, and I'm just there to entertain. But outside of class, sometimes I feel just as lost and confused (and embarrassed) as any student.
During lunch, for instance, I can choose to sit with the teachers or look for a gap at a student table. You know that feeling when you don't know anyone in the lunchroom... yea, it feels like that most of the time. So I sit down at random, and try to remember the names of the kids I'm sitting with. Half the time I lost the straw in my milk, and then I get embarrassed. Or I make a mess, and apparently Japan doens't believe in napkins... there are just washclothes all over the place, but they're mostly for cleaning the tables and floors.
During recess, I've joined in a couple of sports games. Turns out the sports I like and play (basketball and soccer) are two of the sports that women here never play. Quoth one 6 yr old boy when I said I liked soccer - But only boys play soccer!! Explains why when I play with the boys, they have No Idea what to do with me. When I get the ball, I have about a 3 foot clearance on all sides. Then I don't know who to pass to, since I don't know them well enough to remember teams, yet. So another awkward pause while I'm yelling 'Who's on my team' and no one understands what I'm saying. It's actually rather hilarious, so I usually just laugh and shoot the ball - the safest course of action under the circumstances. But! I think they're starting to see that I can actually play - now that I've intercepted a couple of passes. We'll see what happens next time.
And I had forgotten how easy middle school math was. And beautiful. I learned the words for 'beautiful' and 'interesting' yesterday, and applied them to Math, only to get a few stares from students and even some teachers. I'm pretty set on the idea of attending the occasional math class and helping students with it before/after school. At least it's something I understand without having to know Japanese.
I've also been exchanging letters with a couple of students (a bonus point activity, if they choose, but one girl insists she doesn't want the points) and exchanged some origami with a student. He gave Nakamura sensei a bag of origami to show me, then I tinkered with and made the objects with a couple others and gave it back. Then he sent me a more complicated crane model, then I folded him an even crazier crane model. It was a fun back and forth that involved no English whatsoever. Between that and watching kendo and playing soccer and basketball, I'm starting to get to know the students, and it's really great. While the boys are generally curious, the girls are really shy, so it's going to take some more time and coaxing to get them to talk. Or I can just talk to them about the boy band groups of whom they all seem to have pictures. Looks like my homework now is to listen to music and learn the name of the Justin Timberlake of Japan. I have interesting homework assignments.
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