I'm waiting for a friend to pick me up to go have Mexican food with a couple others. It's drizzling outside and my body still feels chilled from biking home from school in a steady light rain. Chips and salsa as an appetizer and a hot chicken burrito for the main course will be the perfect dinner on this cold gray day.
This week I started teaching my new 1st year students. Most are genki (energetic) and a little nervous for class with the "foreigner." Today I had the extremes of a silent class that stared at me without a movement and a class that rarely quieted or sat down. The mute students made me smile because they were concentrating SO hard; the loud class made me smile because during the small group activity, they followed me around like ducklings, "Teacher, teacher!!" Both groups are sure to win my heart within a matter of a month or two, I'm sure.
With the start of the new school year, we teachers held a welcome party/dinner for all the new staff members last Friday night. Everyone, new and old teachers alike, gave a speech. I had about 6 seconds warning that I'd also have to speak in front of the 65-member crowd (in Japanese of course). Trying to buy a few more seconds to recall the important polite phrases when you first meet someone, I said, "Konbanwa" (Good evening) into the microphone and with only that, people roared and cheered! I thought, "This is going to be easier than I expected if they're impressed with 'Good evening.'" I kept it short and simple and sat down, relieved at the relatively painless (foreign language) public speaking experience. A few speeches later, one of the young male math teachers stood in front of everyone at the microphone ready to bow politely. Unfortunately, he misjudged the space between himself and the mic, and when he bowed, he rammed his forehead into the microphone! [I'm laughing out loud now just thinking about it!] :) A few people gasped from surprise, but then the whole group lost it and everyone doubled over in laughter! Poor guy. But it was stinkin' hilarious!!!!
My ride is here--I'm off for Mexican food!
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2 comments:
Your experience made me laugh, Sarah, but especially the microphone bamming incident! :)
LOL that is hilarious! I laughed out loud as I read it. And I can just picture it, too, because I think the same thing happened at my new-teachers party, except it was by the MC teacher who was, by self-introduction time, a little...um..inebriated. Thanks for making me laugh!
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