Sassy Chuu

So today was this first day that I actually went to my middle school. Sasachuu. Sasachuu is somewhat of an abbreviation or as close as you can get to one in Japanese. (Sasayama chuugakkou=Sasayama junior high school--->Sasachuu) It was a rainy day and pretty rainy inside the office as well.

The school is really modern looking. (I'll get photos up as soon as I feel like taking them in the first place.) Supposedly it is designed after the castle (Sasayama Castle), but nothing about it is very castley. Anyway, the day mostly consisted of me sitting at my desk reading the English textbooks which Tokyo has deemed appropriate for use around the country. In my second grade class, the first lesson will be on the Hiroshima bombing. I've heard it's pretty common for schools to start with that lesson. Personally I think it's a part of the ongoing re-militarization and indoctrination of nationalistic ideals in this country, but I'm just a petty foreigner. And from the country that actually used the atomic bomb, so I'll just keep quiet and remember how to say "sensationalist capitalist propaganda" if they ever ask my opinion.

Oh, by the way, the naming of the grades are a little different in Japan than from the US&A. Even though they have the same basic 12 grades as us, they split them up differently. Grades 1-6 are elementary, which is the same. But grades 7-9 are Junior High school and are called 1st, 2nd, 3rd years. So a 1st year Junior high school kid would be a 7th grader in Peoria. The same basic concept extends into senior high with the grades 10-12 called 1st, 2nd 3rd years. So if I ever say 2nd years of 3rd graders, odds are I'm talking about 13-15 year olds.

Of the 4 people that spoke to me at school, they were really nice. One of the teachers, the math teacher, took me to lunch. He was this incredibly nervous man who talked to himself the entire time. One of the waiters at lunch was his former student and he spent some time convincing her to go onto university instead of staying in Sasayama. Good times. One of my english teachers is really nice though. She speaks english very well and lived in Seattle for some time. Having someone in the office that speaks English is amazing. She is also really eager to actually teach kids instead of indoctrinating them, which is the popular method so far. But other than a few token people that said hi, most people were really cold and just plain ignored me. I've been told to expect this though.

Then tonight the four middle school ALTs in Sasayama met with the English teachers union at the union building. We met to communicate with them about how to better teach English in the classroom. That went pretty well I think. My elementary school teachers were very nice and said they wanted to work together to teach English. Which is not really the case in Japan. Elementary school teachers generally have very little English background and are very scared of the prospect of being forced to teach English in elementary schools. Every year Tokyo puts forward some sort of hooplah about passing a bill that requires English at the primary school level, but so far it hasn't happened. But according to the union, it's likely that English will be required as soon as December or the latest next June. Japanese educational politics are way too dramatic for what they really are.

Look at that, a post that isn't 2 weeks of catching up!