Right now for the second graders we’re studying comparative adjectives. As a warmup for the class one of the teachers made a true/false quiz about Obama. It began innocently enough.
1. Obama is taller than I am.
Nothing wrong with that.

2. Obama is the youngest American president.
Nothing wrong with that either.

3. Obama thinks that basketball is more [...]

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“I live in Fukushima. It’s in the nose of Japan.”
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During school today one of the students started talking to me about Heroes (not to be confused with the Japanese drama/movie Hero). She started talking about how the new season had just premiered. I immediately decided that she was cool, as I had just watched episode three of the new season last night, and I [...]

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Sometimes my students are quite annoying. Sometimes they make me question the future of their country. Sometimes they happily surprise me with their intelligence, and sometimes they surprise me with how fucking stupid they are.
This is a story about the latter.
On this particular day the 2nd year classes were called into the gym to discuss [...]

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Internet. Some days I just want it at school.
Today I had two classes taking up the first two periods then have free time the rest of the day. Of first it sounds cool, but then you realize that you must take up that time with activities that would seem acceptable in an office setting with [...]

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It’s time for class. As usual, the JTE comes to my desk to pick me up, and we head off to the classroom.
We arrive to be greeted by a rowdy bunch of second-years (equivalent to US seventh graders). It’s supposed to be the JTE’s job to keep the kids quiet and in line. They’re the [...]

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I’ve noticed a trend.
In nine months I’ve been here I’ve gotten quite a bit better at Japanese. I’m still an extremely long way from where I want to be, but looking back to my initial arrival I see that I’ve come quite a decent distance.
But…
I talk less to students now. I talk less to teachers [...]

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At the beginning of every school year the teachers in the city play a huge game of musical chairs, so JTEs get swapped around and are placed at different schools for seemingly random reasons. Since the school year began a few weeks ago I’ve been getting to know my new JTEs.
At the school I’m currently [...]

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All told, I rotate between four middle schools and around nine or so elementary schools. Back when I first arrived in Japan my reputation for unicycling sometimes preceeded me (apparently word travels fast), so it wasn’t uncommon for me to show up to a school and they already start asking me about unicycles. This particular [...]

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Quick little anecdote.
Today in one of my classes some students came up and asked to see my driver’s license. I obliged. They looked at it then asked me what the picture of a heart and “donor” meant. Without thinking, I said (in Japanese), “When I died, I gave my body to someone.”
They started laughing, then [...]

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