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

Pics.

Miscellaneous pics of Amber and Justin's visit so far.

Long time, no post!

I have been very very lazy about posting, largely because nothing of great importance has been happening on the personal front.

My Kinder students draw pictures for or of me very often. I usually don't get the pleasure of keeping them, as they draw them on the back of their worksheets. The picture above is by Hikari, a five year old. She brought it in for me, drawn on her own stationary. Darn cute stationary too! She's written "Aimee Sensei" at the top. Except that she's little, so it's spelled wrong. In katakana, my name is written as as エイミー (Eimii)、 she wrote エミぃ (Emii[the second "i" written in hiragana]). Isn't that really really cute?

Life here is progressing as per normal, really. Things have fallen into a comfortable rhythm. As of Wednesday, I will have been in Japan for 6 months and be half-way through my contract. It's strange how comfortable I've become here. While I don't like my job, I do enjoy living here. I miss strange things, though. I miss speaking English with people I don't know. The other night, Mandy and I stopped at the convenience store to grab some dinner components. On the way out, another Westerner and his wife (probably tourists) were coming in. The man held the door for me, I said "Thank you," he said "You're welcome" and we went on our way. It was so normal that it was wholly surreal.

Nova has a huge turnover rate - many teachers don't finish their contracts, and very few teachers elect to renew their contracts after the first year. March is a big import time, I guess, so a lot of teachers contracts were up at the end of February. My branch lost two full-time teachers, and we have been very short-staffed for several weeks. My own responsibilities have grown, as I am now a "senior teacher" (at six months!). We recently got two new teachers, both American. I'm delighted, as it means my accent has a chance of still sounding American when I get home. It was started to get dilluted down into an Amero-Canadian-Aussie-Brit mix. We have an Oklahoman, and a Californian. They both seem nice, though one of them seems to be rather snippy and judgemental. Hummmm.

This is another adorable, though admittedly less flattering, picture of me. Little girls exaggerate the length of my hair and usually draw me in a dress. Crazy, man. The real gems are from Kasumi, who draws pictures of me in her workbook and writes "Sensei " next to them. She's also the one who flops down (jarringly, near bruisingly) in my lap and loudly proclaims in Japanese "I LOVE YOU!" She's cute. Though she's very moody and petulant most times. Naofumi has recently started a debatably cute trend of naming characters in the storybook/textbook after classmates. So now, instead of waving and saying "Hi Alex!" to the little green monster on the cover, he waves and shouts "HI AIIIIIIMEEEEEE!" The other kids now join him in this ritual.

Lifewise, not much has been happening either. Like I said, it's not exciting, really. The most exciting events coming up are Amber's visit, the Aichi Expo, and the blooming cherry blossoms. I'm excited about all three. I plan to buy a new digital camera to take pictures of all three! I'll probably go get a Canon A95 on Thursday. W00+! Sounds good for me!

Thanks to a Japanese-English word game on my cell phone, I am slowly learning pointless Japanese kanji. Kanji like "guest bedroom," "slender," and "to die off." Ah, the learning curve is kicking my ass. ;)

Fun Quiz!

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=14457200288064322170

"You scored 100% Beginner, 95% Intermediate, 98% Advanced, and 86% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Test statistics:
Compared to users who took the test and are and in your age group:
100% had lower Beginner scores.
100% had lower Intermediate scores.
100% had lower Advanced scores.
100% had lower Expert scores.
With respect to Beginner, users aged 55 to 59 scored highest.
With respect to Intermediate, users aged 55 to 59 scored highest.
With respect to Advanced, users aged 55 to 59 scored highest.
With respect to Expert, users aged 55 to 59 scored highest."

Hina dolls.

Mandy and I got hina dolls last weekend. They're part of the Girl's Day festivals on March 3 (which is also the Doll's Festival). These ones are mine. They're all ceramic.