Nihongo-a-Go-Go :: Aimee's Journal

Pic of the Day: Horse Sashimi

(Another cel phone pic)
This is a picture of the english menu at Watami, an izakaya that we like. I have eaten the food pictured in the middle (Horse sashimi=raw horse), in a story that Mandy recounted in her journal recently.

Well, it's getting closer and close to vacation. Only two more days now! I can't wait. I totally can't wait. It's going to be so great to have 9 consequtive days off. The plan is to go to Kyoto for 3 or 4 days, then head back here and veg a bit and see stuff around Nagoya that (for whatever reason) we haven't gotten around to. Like the World Expo and sundry other pleasures. We would like to go to Tokyo for a day, but... I guess I don't really want to go very much. I know it's like "You're in Japan, go to Tokyo" but I just don't like crowds. And I imagine Tokyo is as crowded as you can get.

So we'll see what we decide to do. At this point, I'm as excited about staying in a hotel with BEDS as anything else! (You'd be surprised at how comfortable a futon can be, but it's just not a mattress.)

Many of my students keep little notebooks for class. One of my favorite students, Nobuhisa, keeps a little notebook. He practices writing sentences on his own, which is great. It's part of why he can initiate conversation in Englisha nd knows how to talk about things he's interested in. Today during the lesson, I had him partnered up with another student. I was reading his notebook (upside down) while I was listening to their roleplay. It was enchanting. The two sentences that stand out in my mind were "I have pollinosis" and "It is difficult for me because a lot of snot come from my nose." That is totally something that you need to talk about this season. Smart man. Equally charmingly, when I was doing a vocabulary-building game, one of the high school girls suggested "Sky driver" as the word for "pilot." I don't know why, but I really liked it - it's very inventive, almost poetic. I really like most of my students - too bad the day is just so long because the lessons are so monotonous for the teachers.

Today I think I may have abused my position as not only a techer of the English language, but as a teacher of Western culture. Today my language exchange student asked me why Westerners say "Bless you" when someone sneezes. Explaining that it basically meant "good health" didn't really seem to fly with him. So... I recounted the story that my 6th grade Social Studies teacher told us, a story that I've never quite bought into. The story that back in the middle ages, people thought you were sneezing out a demon and so would quickly say a "Bless you!" to try to keep you safe and kinda get the big guy on your side. I don't know why, but this seemed to be easier to explain than any other feasible, correct answer. He seemed pleased with this answer, probably largely because of the little stick figure I drew sneezing out a little stick-demon.

We foreigners sure are weird.

Posted by Aimee at May 31, 2005 12:54 AM