June 7, 2000

Hello.  Yes, I realize that this is three days in a row.  Well, you will be relieved to know (my mother especially) that the computer problem was fixed fairly easily by �gthe guy�h at my school, who even had a spare part FROM GATEWAY that he could use to replace my CPU �gon-button�h.  Incredible.  It was a real stroke of luck.  He refused compensation of any sort for his time.  I even offered to order a replacement for his replacement just in case he ever needed it.  He`s the man.  Anyway?I plan to stop buy and pick up a his favorite beverage and snack, just as soon as my go-between finds out for me what they are.  It has to be non-alcoholic as I must bring it to the school to give it to him.  I might throw in a Methodist College baseball cap while I`m at it?he really saved us a ton of hassle (and expense) that we would have incurred if we had had to drag the CPU unit all the way to Kobe.  That saved us 60 bucks in travel expense alone, not to mention having to worry if the guy would speak enough English to be able to understand our problem.  Lucky for me, we have English teachers just kind of hanging around here at the school?hahaha!  He is a really smart person?and everyone is always very impressed with his computer prowess?he offered to teach me some of the basics of computer maintenance when we both have free periods.  I teach full loads every day but Monday and Wednesday, when I only have two classes those days, plus club activities and the ESS lunch groups!  I also work privately during those days with students trying to go to college and cramming for the English portion of the entrance exams.  It will take a little shuffling, but I plan to make time for him to teach me some stuff?handy skills to have, right, Uncle Wally?  I suppose if all else fails, Uncle Wally can suggest a book or two, as I know that most of his skill is self-taught.  He would know where I needed to start reading.

It is 90 degrees today.  I am happy that they promoted me to this part of the staff room.  I have an open door, a clear corridor and an open window to the outside on my right hand side.  On the left are four desks and then the open window to the courtyard.  There is a very nice cross-breeze in this row of desks?no wonder why everyone wants to sit over here!  It is also called �gcandy lane�h (in English?it`s a big joke) because this is the only row that is completely out of the line of sight of Kyoto-sensei.  Kyoto-sensei will see somebody snacking, or sharing something from home that they brought, usually fresh-baked bread or cookies, or fish salad or something with suckers on it, and he will come over and stand around until you offer some to him.  It is a huge joke.  So, the people who bring stuff usually bring it directly over to candy lane, and then we all get to share with everyone.  Unless it is especially fragrant, Kyoto-sensei stays put.  You see, the teachers really WANT him to stay put, at his desk, so that he does not catch them sleeping, reading magazines, or otherwise goofing off.  The people on candy lane are the homeroom teachers of the last-year students, generally too busy to do much goofing, and me.  It is really humorous?you have to imagine that the staffroom is basically quiet, kind of simmering with energy but still basically serene.  Then, Kyoto-sensei gets out of his chair without warning.  Suddenly, the place is at a full rolling boil.  There are people grading papers at mach speed!  There are lines at the copier, and printers start spitting out complete reams of paperwork.  Everywhere you hear the clacking of computer keyboards and the snapping of pencil points.  If people are goofing, they usually just get up and rush away from their desks, late for their appointment with the water fountain, you know�cI never have to worry about looking like a goof-off.  The only thing that I do, besides work, is write these letters to you.  Even then, I LOOK BUSY, and when he walks nearby, he is genuinely satisfied that I am working hard at my job, a well-greased cog in the machine.  His spoken English is good enough to travel and get by, but his ability to READ English is severely lacking.  I have to do reports for him every so often.  I don�ft bother to make it easy.  It wouldn�ft matter anyway?so I just write the same way that I always did at Methodist College, full of technical terms when needed, and full of baloney sometimes, too.  He must be satisfied because I always get top marks on my monthly profile sheets.  Maybe it is because (like every other report) it just is there for accountability, and nobody will ever read it.  Oh well.  It gives me good practice in choosing exactly the words I want to use if and when I am ever asked about it.  I have digressed again.

Tonight, I will go to teach my private students.  I always like teaching the junior high kids.  They have a lot of energy.  I usually try to teach them the meanings behind the lyrics in the popular songs that they import from America.  They sit, spellbound, as they read the words that they are hearing and then become all smiles when they realize that they will be able to learn the words and impress their friends at school.  Their spoken English, listening English and comprehension of English has greatly improved in the last few months.  One of my students, Eri Ishihara, recently won second place in an English competition for the entire Tajima region.  I was so proud of her?she worked really hard.  Eri is a really sweet person.  She is one of the shyest people that I know.  It was months before she would speak out in her lessons with me.  I thought that all she COULD do was whisper.  Her mother, Hiroko, is one of my adult students on Thursday nights?and she is a musician, teaching piano lessons in her home.  Eri and her older sister Yukiko played a duet at Christmas time, and it was the first time that I had seen Eri really perform in public.  So I went from the musician`s angle with her, and started asking about her favorite composers, etc.  All of a sudden, she was ALL WORDS!  It was great!  I think that she will try to study abroad when she gets older.  Right now she is still working on the 7th grade.  First things first.  Her best friend is Ayako Katayama.  Ayako is in the private lesson with her.  Ayako`s mother is best friends with Eri`s mother, and their older daughters are also the same age and go to the same school.  It really works out well, and the two families do a lot together.  The fathers of these families are in medicine?Dr. Ishihara is a dentist and oral surgeon, and Dr. Katayama is some kind specialist (cardio/pulmonary I think).  Ayako is not shy.  She tries hard to memorize new English words all the time, and is the �gleader�h of the three students when speaking English, although her comprehension is less than Eri`s.  She is very energetic, and the two girls compliment one another very well.  Their �gthird�h in the group is a boy one year younger than they are, and a fellow student at their school, named Tatsuro.  Tatsuro is very energetic.  He loves music, struggles with English, but tries REALLY hard to follow along with everyone.  His ability has increased, and his mother said that he really enjoys the lessons.  I like Tatsuro.  He is funny.  He is also a very talented skier, always going off on the weekends to competitions in the Japan Alps.  Last year he was the Prefectural Junior Champion for Slalom Skiing.  This year, he fell defending his title, and came in 9th out of 200+ skiers.  Everyone speculates that he would have won again had he not fallen.  He took it like a champ, though, and is already training hard for the next one.  He dreams of going the Olympic route when he gets older.  Eri wants to be an artist.  Ayako doesn�ft know yet, but does know that she wants to be a mom.  These are great families, and they are always so very nice to us.  During golden week, I picked up some various sweet candies made in Kyushu to share with all my students, and I picked up a whole box for each family.  (This kind of thing is expected here)  I thought that I did pretty good.  Well, the Katayamas went to Gifu prefecture, which is famous for ceramics, and they brought me a gorgeous sake decanter and matching cups.  I was stunned.  Those things are NOT cheap.  It is a really beautiful keepsake for us after we return from Japan.  These fams are always doing stuff like that for me.  Plus, they pay me to speak with the kids for an hour a week.
After I leave the Katayamas, I go to my friend Naomi`s to teach her middle child, 17-year-old Eriko.  Eriko is very sweet and works hard.  She wants to go to America for college and has her heart set on this goal.  She`ll make it.  (Her dad`s a doctor, too.)  Eriko is crazy about American magazines.  Every week, we take one (I have old ones sent to me from the foreign buyer`s club in Kobe) and we look at advertisements and we dissect the plays-on-words, the hidden clever meanings behind the ads, and we talk about things like subtlety and sarcasm, American-style.  This kind of pop-culture awareness is what she really craves.  She wants to know WHY we laugh at some things that do not appear to be funny.  She wants to understand what the movies are showing her.  In a sense, she just really wants to be savvy.  Eriko is a really great kid.

Well, I have continued to ramble about my students.  They are wonderful.  I mentioned earlier that on Mondays and Wednesdays there is the �gLunch Group.�h  The lunch group consists of seven sophomores who want to practice English and learn about America, so every week there is a new topic, and I bring pictures or research from the internet and we sit around and share these Q&A`s over lunch.  Here in Japan, lunch is NOT a social thing.  Most of the teachers in the staff room eat quickly, in ten minutes or less, the box lunch they brought from home, and then it`s back to work.  There is no socializing for the students either, who eat quickly at their desks and then run off to talk to their friends in other classes for the remainder of the time.  I told the advanced class that in America, lunch tends to be a very social thing.  Even the teachers are surprised to hear that at Methodist College, I took an hour every day and went out to lunch with my friends to a restaurant, or for a little picnic, but that we talked during lunch and it was relaxation time, a very social thing.  They are more surprised to hear that sometimes people will actually have �glunch meetings�h associated with work.  So I taught them the phrase �glet`s do lunch sometime�h and what that meant, and then put up a poster that said �gDo lunch with Lynley-sensei and Goto-sensei!�h  Two came the first week, and then four, and now seven.  These seven are coming regularly and sometimes mention bringing another student with them.  They practice questions in English and then we work hard to answer them.  I usually only get three or four bites of my lunch down before the end of the period, and then I cart the rest back and eat it quickly at my desk.  But Goto-sensei and I have been encouraged by the turnout so far.  We have only had it going for two months, and the students really show a lot of promise.  I am proud of them, and Goto-sensei is elated.  Today, during the lunch group, Kyoto-sensei walked in the conference room to check it all out.  Frankly, he scared me because he just barged in while we were all laughing together about something.  The rule in lunch group is that you can only speak in English, so the students impressed him with their English.  It made me look pretty good, but it made Goto-sensei look even better!  It was a stroke of luck for both of us, and it just happened to coincide with a meeting he scheduled with the board of education in Wadayama.  One of the lunch groupies is the son of a BOE administrator, and Kyoto-sensei said that he would mention our efforts at the meeting, to impress the student`s dad, naturally.  Everyone is always talking about us foreigners in Japan?we are somewhat used to it.  I have to admit, though, that it does feel a lot better when you are CERTAIN that what they are saying is POSITIVE!  Hee hee!

Okay?I have rambled enough for one letter.  I apologize again for all the length of this letter?I just never got to Ryan`s to let you know beforehand that it would take awhile for you to hear from me again.  Now that we should be up and running?you have no excuse NOT to write back, (Mom�c)  I send lots of love, and a promise that the next letter will NOT be three days in the compiling!  Love, Lynley