Say チーズ!

So today was school picture day. I found out when I got to school and noticed everyone wearing suits. Surprise! My new supervisor hurried over to tell me about it as soon as I sat down at my desk. Very helpful. She assured me that I looked fine, perfect in fact. I didn’t believe her but there wasn’t much to be done about it since the staff photo was scheduled for 8:30am. It’s not that I looked unprofessional or anything, (I was wearing my brown pants, green sweater, tan corduroy blazer combo that I’m sure many of you have seen a million times) it’s just that everyone else was much dressier than I was. If I had known, I would have worn a suit, too. I was pretty upset about it, especially as I had asked if there was anything going on today that I needed to be aware of. My supervisor had shown me the schedule yesterday and said there wasn’t anything that affected me. The staff photo wasn’t listed so maybe it had been communicated at the teachers’ meeting they had in the afternoon. They were still in the meeting when I left for the day, but it’s not like they don’t have my phone number. I stick out enough here already; I don’t need to be seen as the foreigner who doesn’t know how to dress appropriately for a formal group photo.

I felt a bit better when we got to the gym and I noticed a PE teacher still in his athletic wear and the woman in charge of school lunch wearing her apron. I wanted to hover off to the side to try and be less noticeable but somehow got pushed right smack dab in the middle of the photo, directly behind Kocho-sensei and Kyoto-sensei, who were seated in the first row. Oh well, maybe the photo will be black and white and it will kind of look like I’m wearing a suit.

At least I’ll look better than the last time I had an official photo taken in a middle school, although my bangs were pretty cool thanks to my cousin, Heather!

Yes, We Can!

Obama T-shirt from Obama, Japan

Tasty treat with a picture of the back of Obama's head on it from Obama, Japan
Raising a glass to the new President of the United States on Inauguration Day

Back in late January, I created a lesson on Barack Obama so my students could learn about the new President of the United States. Obama is pretty popular over here in Japan, and at election time lots of students were shouting, "Yes, we can!" at me in the halls or randomly in the classroom. My lesson consisted of a quiz game using PowerPoint and a worksheet about his inaugural address. I had to greatly reduce and simplify his speech so the kids would understand it, but I think I still got his main points across. Even so, there were several new vocabulary words we had to teach such as respect, responsibility, honest, courage, serve, and so on (all good words to know). Sorry, for some reason the textbooks teach the kids "such as" and "and so on" pretty early and they use these phrases often (and usually inappropriately).

Anyway, they were pretty interested in learning about him and at the end of class, we had them write their impressions of Obama. I was pretty interested and impressed by their comments. I thought you would be too and wanted to share some of them. I've left in any spelling and grammatical errors as I thought you might find those interesting, too. Any misquotations of the speech are my fault due to the massively abridged version I gave them.

I think Obama is great because he wants to stop global warming and he hopes many country keep the peace.

I think Obama is a very great person, because he said wonderful things and tries to do them. He thinks about America and the world.

I think Obama is good because he think many good things in the world. For example peace and stop global warming. I think Aso [Taro Aso, Prime Minister of Japan]should think peace and so on like Obama.

I think he is wonderful. First, he is thinking hard about problems now. For example, global warming and working and so on. Second, American people get courage because Obama said, “We also have hope and will work together so we can have a good future.” in the speech.

I think his speech is great. I hope Mr. Aso’s will better like it. He said “We must work with other countries to keep the peace”, but some wars were made by America. Therefore I don’t want him to start any wars.

This speech makes people happy because Obama think about poor people, war, and peace very much. He will gave freedom and courage to people. Americans can have a good future because he changes many things for example work, other country, money and so on.

I think he is good, because he will change America. His speech is very well. I think he makes many people happy.

I think Obama is good. Because he thinks of many people and countries. I want to help him many poor people.

I think Obama’s speech is great, because he try to make America peaceful. It is difficult to make people fair but I want him to make great America.

I think he is wonderful person, because he want to help many people. They help is very difficult. Obama’s work is hard, but he can help them.

I think Obama’s speech is great, because he said people can keep peace and stop global warming. So I respect to him.

I think he is very great man. He is 44th President of the United States. Yes, we can, Change!! That are his words.

I think Japan has to change, too.

I think that he will be more popular. And he makes America great. I hope America is be a great country.

I am happy to know about America. America is changed. So, It makes people happy.

Obama is respect.

I want Mr. Obama to change the world.

Thank you for your patience in reading all of those! As you can tell, there are high expectations for Obama, not just in America, but in Japan, too. I hope he can live up to them.

Yes, we can. Change we need. Thank you.