ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

We were doing some more drawings today in class. We had to finish the drawing again. This time we had to draw a pet for a man with a leash. A lot of student drew things like cats and dogs, but I like to draw funny things. I decided to draw a cactus. It's especially fun because I'm from Texas and miss my dear cactus friends. In this way I got to share a bit of home in a fun way.
  

I always love my students pictures of me. There's always something special about a hand-drawn depiction of someone. These pictures help me see myself through another perspective, particularly the perspective of the student that drew it. In this case it was Rory. A young boy of two. I've gotten to see him for much of his life and to see his depiction of me makes me smile. Thank you Rory.
  

I've did some fun drawings in my classes recently. The idea is that half the picture is already done and we have to finish the drawing. In this drawing there was an old man that was angry. We had to decide why he was angry and draw it. I decided hat my guy was angry because of a banana man. My students always think it's fun to see the banana man ever since I dresses up like a banana for Halloween.
  

Spring is almost here which means~, Cherry Blossoms! The first time I saw them was at Marugame Castle and at the very top of the castle all I could see was a sea of cherry blossoms below me. It was beautiful. I think spring is my favorite time of the year, especially in Japan! What are some things that are fun to do during the spring here in Japan? I know for me it'll be the long distance cycling I plan to do.

- James Barbosa

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" - Leonord Nimoy
  

This morning I woke to the news of the passing of Leonard Nimoy, a great actor and legend among geeks. If you do not know Leonard, he is well known for his acting in Star Trek as the Vulcan Mr Spock. He was probably my favorite character in the show. I always took his catch phrase "Live long and prosper" to heart as a child amd even today. He will not be forgotten and will maintain his status as a legend in my heart.

Thank you for reading!

Leigh  

I've said before that I really like games. I really enjoyed making up games with my brothers and playing them all day. Even today I'm pretty good at making up games. What's especially fun is finding new games to play. While I was still in America, I found a really fun and simple game. The name explains the premise. It's called flip 'n stack monkeys. You launched these monkeys in the air and try to stack them. It was boat loads of fun.

  

  

Well, this has been an interesting week. I am still recovering from my eye infection, and I really hope that I will be back to teaching this week. I really missed seeing all of my students, and I missed having the chance to say goodbye to many of them who will be moving to new levels and new classes in GEM School. I cannot wait to get rid of this infection and get back to teaching!

The one good thing about my eye infection is that I have been able to spend a decent amount of time studying hiragana. I am very excited to be almost finished learning hiragana and to move onto katakana. Another lucky thing is that I have the most amazing co-workers in the world. Everyone has been so wonderful in helping me navigate the Japanese healthcare system, as well as buying me a few groceries so I don't have to go out and infect anyone else. I don't know what I would have done without all of my wonderful co-workers here to help me!
  

Last weekend I was ooking for something fun to do so I decided to head up to Imabari to work on my photography. I had a few subjects in mind, but not much time before dark. I grabbed my Canon X7, my "nifty fifty" (a 50mm, 1.8 lens), and headed out.

My first stop was at this auto scrap yard. I caught a glimpse of it the last time I came this way, so I decided to come back and try to get a few images. Unfortunately, there was nobody around to ask for permission, so I could only get a few pictures from nearby. Nothing special, really.


I talk about my interest in cars all the time on this blog, so it should be no surprise that I both loved and hated this place. Most of the cars present were highly desirable - they were classics and cult favorites from all over the globe. Fans of the Anime/ Manga "Initial D" should recognize this as a "hachi roku" - an AE86 model Toyota Trueno sprinter.



After that little slice of heartbreak, I headed north to the viewpoint overlooking the Shimanami Kaido bridge and Ma island. The currents were incredibly strong! Look at the swirls in the water here- It was very impressive.



I also noticed this interesting bronze statue while I was walking around, so I decided to take a picture.


Kristen wanted a twin photo, so I obliged.



It was getting dark, so we headed in to Imabari proper. We decided to stop at Imabarijo for a few night shots of the walls. I wanted to push my camera's ISO performance to the limit.



We quickly realized that the castle was actually open at night, which was a bit surprising. We went inside and I took a ton more photos. Here's one of my favorites.



The castle at night was quite peaceful. It was a nice feeling. :)

Hope you enjoyed the photos!   

I absolutely love my job and while it can make you exhausted by the end of the day you can always rest knowing that you have impacted the lives of your students, even just a little bit. I recently received a letter with some drawings from a 5 year old student that I'll no longer be teaching. It's these small, thoughtful gifts that really make teaching such a rewarding experience.

Thank you Lana for the great gift! I'll definitely miss you.

- James Barbosa  

  

  

This was our final day in Kyoto. For breakfast, I ate absolutely nothing. I was still quite full from the night before. We had to clear out of the house by 10 am, since that was the checkout time. The thing was, we could only get a bus back to Takamatsu leaving at 4:50 pm. That meant we still had a lot of time to kill before we could head back. So, we took our luggage to the Kyoto station, tossed them in a locker, and tried to think of what we can do with our remaining time. We finally decided to head to Kyoto museum, which wasn't too far away.
When we got there, we found that they were doing a raffle, using what I think is called a "gara gara" (a wooden box that you spin around until a marble falls out). We all took a turn at it, and I ended up winning a prize! It was a choice between two different books, though I think they both had to do with the artifacts from the museum. The book I selected I later found was sold by the museum in the gift shop (about 1400円). Not bad, since I got it free, huh? Anyway, we wandered throughout the museum, which was nice. The wooden statues were quite amazing. Some of the other galleries (such as metalworks) I felt were a little lacking, but interesting nonetheless). After the museum, we still had a bit of time, so we also checked out another temple that was close by. I think it was called the Sanjuusangendou. It was quite a sight to see, a thousand statues all lined up like that. I wonder how much work had to go into making them all, and them placing them all as well. There were a bit too many people to properly enjoy the place, but I am still glad I went.

After the temple, we went back to the station to grab a quick lunch (I didn't eat due to still being full), pick up our stuff, and catch the bus back home. And so, after a four hour bus ride (and almost two hour train ride from Takamatsu) I finally made it back home. It was a fun journey, with enjoyable people. I would gladly do it again (though not too soon, this kind of stuff really takes a lot out of me!).   

"Be happy, be yourself. If others don't like it, let them be. Happiness is a choice. Life isn't about pleasing everybody." I love being who I am! A ton of people, especially young people, today have a serious problem with happiness. People either think good things have to always happen for them to be happy or they have to get everything they want to be happy. This is such a flawed way of thinking. When I was in high school a friend of mine said something that made me really start to think. Happiness is a choice. I really took that to heart because that had never occurred to me before. If you choose to be gloomy and depressed then you will be. If you choose to be adventurous and head-strong then you will be. Likewise, if you choose to be happy then YOU WILL BE! I don't care if you are having a tough day and everything is going wrong, there is happiness happening, you just have to open your eyes to see it. So next time you are having a tough day actively try to make yourself see the good things around you, to see how fortunate you are, to be happy.

  

SO ths past week, two new teachers arrived at GEM - Rose and Alex! Rose and Alex are actually good friends
of mine from Canada, which is super awesome! It makes me so happy to have them here in Kanonji with me :)

I got sick this week with a viral infection in my eyes. It's not fun. This also means I got to visit a Japanese hospital for the first time. Its a bit different for how healthcare is in Canada. In Canada (and I'm sure in America) we have general practitioners who work in clinics you can visit for non-serious illnesses and injuries. I found out that in Japan you usually just go to the hospital for everything here. I was surprised by the level of English the staff had (which was super awesome!), and everything went pretty smoothly. The weirdest part for me was having to pay for my visit. In Canada you present your health card, see the doctor, and leave. You don't usually have to pay as the health care system covers it. That was a bit of a shock to have to do that, and I'm glad my co-worker was with me or I probably would have tried to just leave the hospital!  

As you know I bought a guitar, a Yamaha LL6 acoustic for a grand total of around 55,000 yen. I’m quite satisfied with it. In fact, last night at my usual haunt I jammed a bit with Risa and another local musician named Onishi. That man is hilarious as well as being a great singer himself. I am constantly astounded by how talented these two are. It is also worth noting that Risa has taken to learning some English songs, so there’s that to look forward to on my weekends, too. I realize everytime I join this company how important “proper” and early starts are. When I started learning guitar back at the end of my high school years and the start of my college years (I put down the instrument after 2 years of obsessive playing for the sake of reading more and doing homework) I never played with a properly tuned instrument. In fact, for the first two weeks I didn’t even play with a tuned guitar at all. Consequently, I am with a basically absent ear for pitches, the effect being my inability to identify any note that I hear. My obsessive playing has backfired in that it has ingrained in me a block to note recognition, to the point that I cannot even identify the quality of my own voice in my head. In other words, bad practice has made for bad results.

It is important, thus, to recommend “proper” practice, or what amounts to conventional practice. By “conventional” I mean an adjective qualifying a thing (“practice”) that follows social norms or expectations. One of my goals in teaching (or pedagogy) is to make pleasurable autonomous learning, of making self-motivated reflections or meditations an aim in daily living. The first step I think is to accept those around you, and to converse, share, and debate with them. Ultimately, we have to accept that “best” is proper, or conventional, at first. In other words, we have to start somewhere.

Which brings me to another development I’d like to briefly share: I started vocal lessons! I had a “free” trial lesson earned for purchasing my acoustic guitar. That lesson was humbling, embarrassing, and exciting. Here I was in class getting taught by a native Japanese singer who hardly knew English. What did she mean by “giri giri”? What is a better English word for “way,” the word that she kept using to describe how my voice travels? And more to the point, how can I take language and translate that through my BODY? How can I “imagine” my head passages and lungs expanding so that those body parts actually do expand? The basic lesson for the day was to “open” my head, to “make big” my nose and eye passages, as well as my belly to engage my diaphragm. We spent the first 10 minutes on stretches and breathing exercises. Next we practiced some humming, and then the teacher had me sing with her “Stand By Me.” The end of the lesson was the most shocking experience I’ve had: She made me sing into a live microphone and to imagine that I was on stage! So embarrassing! But this embarrassing experience was one of two things that compelled me to sign up for the monthly lessons. The other reason was that she seemed in control and confident, not to mention a lot of fun (supposedly, she sings at clubs “funny dramatic pop songs”). She had down a teaching curriculum: stretches, breathing, humming, singing, live performance. This rigor is something that I feel that I need, as I have always lived my life “on my own,” “as my own person.” Or, in other words, I have always had too much arrogance in my undertakings. But shocks are needed from time to time to open up my horizons again.

Because I didn’t get a good picture over the weekend with me playing guitar, instead have a picture of me before getting my hair cut! I cut my hair yesterday so for my next blog I’ll probably talk about my shopping and hair cut experiences.


  

  

As I mentioned before, I recently went home for a wedding and after talking to some of my students I realized that many Japanese people are curious about weddings in America. In America typically the man proposes to the woman at which point they become engaged and can be refer to themselves as fiancé (for the man) and fiancée (for the woman). Yes those words are pronounced essentially the same. Usually engagements last about one year but of course there is a lot of variation in this. For example my friend's engagement lasted only six months and I have other friends that have been engaged for 3 years.

During the engagement the couple and their family plan the wedding and ask their friends and family if they'd like to be in the wedding. Usually the bride (the woman) asks her friends or sisters to be bridesmaids who will stand up with her at the ceremony. There is one woman she picks out to be special and she is called the Maid (or Matron) of Honor. Likewise the groom (the man) does the same and ask his friends or brothers to be groomsmen and a special person to be his Best Man. Also a flower girl and ring bearer are usually asked to join the wedding party as well and play a small part in the wedding.
  

Last Saturday was Valentines Day so my students and I decided to paint some pictures. We called the series "Art from the Heart". Pictured above is one of the students paintings "Jackie's Heart". I asked the students to paint their image of love and happiness and this was Jackie's impression. Art is boundless and beautiful. Your imagination is so valuable to the world. If no one used their imaginations where would we be in this world? What is your interpretation of "Jackie's Heart" and what is your image of love and happiness? Whenever I observe art, I think of what emotions the piece evokes and base my interpretation off of that. Art is unique for everyone and is based on interpretation and feeling in my opinion. I hope that everyone can gain a good understanding and love for art in their lifetimes.

Thank you for reading!

Leigh