Matsumo, Japanese highschool teacher

They like typhoons

2007-09-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

A typhoon is now coming to central Japan. When you turn on TV, you can't watch it without being informed where the typhoon is located now. We are very afraid of typhoons, because they sometimes deprived some people of their lives.

However, students are happy about a typhoon coming. Why? Because there will be no school when there is a strong wind alert. Today my students asked me again and again, "Isn't there an alert yet?" "When do you think it will go out?"

In this afternoon there was an alert in my area. Teachers were summoned to the staff room through the loudspeakers. Then our students noticed that there came what they had expected, and they shouted happily. We went back to our classrooms and told them that they could go home because an alert was raised.

Do they really go home straight? I don't know!

It's over, and so is mine...

2007-09-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

The track and field world championships in Osaka are over. I kept my mouth and eyes open in seeing how strong USA athletes are. Japan got only one medal. What a difference! Anyway, I enjoyed watching these world championships on TV every day, and I've found myself more and more fond of watching track and field. But at last they are over.

And so is my summer vacation. Today is the last day, and I have to start a new semester tomorrow. I'm even forgetting my students' names. And I've completely forgotten how to teach! Our second semester is too long: September, October, November and December! I can't wait for my winter vacation...

I'm back again!

2007-08-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

I was away from this blog for a long time. But I've decided to restart it. Two things made me do so.

One is my travel to New Zealand this summer (I mean this 'winter' in NZ.) Due to my poor skill in English, I often failed to understand what people were saying to me. And I had difficulty speaking in English more often. English is not my native language, but I had thought I am a person who can communicate in English. This proved to be totally wrong! I reflected myself and decided that I would have to brush up my English.

The other thing that encouraged me is my 5-day seminar for Japanese teachers who teach English. This seminar was held for the purpose of training English teachers in terms of communicative skills. We were not allowed to speak Japanese, and had to give several presentations in English on how to teach English. I was very bad in my presentation, and I regretted it very much. How I wished I could speak in English more fluently! Another reason I couldn't speak was that I was poor at arranging my ideas in my mind. So I decided to write here again to improve my skill in expressing my ideas in English.

I don't know how long this will last, but I will try my best.

Give them time (II)

2006-01-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

My students are now taking end-term exams. We restart usual classes next week. Then I can help them reply to your comments. Wait a moment, please!

Give them time

2006-01-18T04:38:00.000-08:00

Thank you for leaving your comments in my students' blog. They are very happy to find out their blog is really read by foreign people. And they are eager to reply to each comment, but their reading and writing skills in English is not very high. I have to help them understand what is written, and it takes them some time to answer in English. So please be patient and give them time!

My students' writing

2006-01-16T04:59:00.000-08:00

My students wrote something about Japanese culture. Please have a look. They are looking forward to someone giving them some comments or asking questions. I will be happy if your comments and questions encourage them to study English harder.

Please visit: Written by Japanese students

A Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T06:36:00.000-08:00

2006 is a year of the Dog in the Chinese astrologic calendar. The Oriental zodiac signs are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar. Every Japanese knows which animal's year they are born in. I was born in 1960, year of the Rat. But I don't know about other years. I mean, I don't know which animal's year, say, 1980 is. This is cleverly used by the police. When they find a teenager smoking or drinking, they will ask him how old he is. He will, of course, say he is 20 years old, which is apparently a lie. He knows he should say he was born in 1985 when the police ask him which year he was born in. But the police will not ask him in that way, but instead they will ask which animal's year he was born in. He knows his own animal symbol, but he doesn't know which animal the year 1985 is. It takes him some time to calculate it, so he cannot answer it soon. This will reveal he is telling a lie about his real age. He will surely curse the Chinese astrology!

Bo-nen-kai

2005-12-18T01:23:00.000-08:00

In December you will see a lot of drunken men and women staggering in town. Everyone is on their way from 'bonenkai,' a big drinking party.

Bonenkai is held only in the end of the year, because 'bonen' means 'to forget the year' and we are supposed to drink in order to forget all the bitter memories of the ending year. Bonenkai is a drinking party not among friends but with co-workers. In my school, for example, several guys are designated as 'kanji.' Kanji are people who are totally in charge of the party. They must prepare everything. They decide the place(usually a big restaurant or hotel), ask everyone whether they will join or not, ask for a bus to take them to the place (we will be fined $3000 for drink driving). Once the party has begun, everyone asks kanji to order beer, sake, or soft drink. Kanji have to count how many people want beer, how many sake, and how many orange juice...

In our party, the principal and the vice principal sit in front. Other teachers' seats are decided at random by lot. If your principal is a disgusting guy(fortunately mine is not), no one wants the seat next to him (or her, very rarely). Before you give cheers and start drinking and eating, usually a long speech is made by your principal. And at the end of his speech, he will say "Drink as much as you like. Talk as freely as you like. This party is a 'bureiko.'" 'Bureiko' means that you don't have to keep polite in this party. Japanese people are required to be polite to their elders or bosses, but today you are told that you can be frank or sometimes even rude... Hey, don't believe what your boss has said! Even if he looks very drunken and keeps smiling when you complain something about your job, he will remember every word from you, and will never forget it. If you believed in the word 'bureiko' and performed a naked dance just in front of him, pouring beer on to his head, you would certainly be fired the next day.

I don't like bonenkai. Everyone starts to talk to me with alcoholic breath, "Matsumo, you are a bit too permissive to your students..." or "I think we had better change our school curriculum..." What I hate is they say this sort of things only when they are drunken. Why don't they speak out when they are in school, not at a drinking party. At school they would say, "Matsumo, I respect your way of treating your students," or they would never complain about the curriculum. You may wonder why this happens. It is because Japanese have 'hon-ne' on one hand, and 'tate-mae' on the other. 'Hon-ne' is what you really think in your mind. It is not presented easily on usual occasions. Japanese try to hide their hon-ne as much as they can, because being too frank is considered somewhat rude. So usually they protect themselves with 'tate-mae,' their public position on the surface. Japanese don't think of this as a lie, but they believe it a necessary strategy to make their social relations smooth. But of course you will be tired from hiding your hon-ne all the time, so the power of alcohol lets you free to give it out. 'Bureiko' actually means that you can state your hon-ne to your heart's content.

This is why

2005-12-11T03:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't written for such a long time that a reader asked me if 'noni' juice made me ill. No, I'm fine, thanks. It's just the juice made me forget how to write in English!

Now I'm recalling my acquired foreign language(that is, English)...so wait a moment!

Noni Juice

2005-09-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

Aichi Expo is over. I visited it twice, and the best thing I found there was "noni juice." I entered the pavilion of Tahiti or Samoa (I don't remember which) and bottles of noni juice were sold there. I had not known what it was, but I was curious and bought one.

Noni juice turned out to be the most revolting drink that I'd ever had. It smelled terrible, like shit or sewage! The label of the bottle recommended that you had better mix it with other kinds of juice if you could not drink it straight. I don't think there are a lot of people in the world who can drink this noni juice straight.

At first, I regretted having bought such a disgusting thing. But I started drinking it because I thought it would be a waste of money if I threw it away. I added some fruit juice each time I drank it. What happened to me was, to my surprise, that I gradually got used to it! I started to feel it was not so bad, or even delicious.

The bottle of 500ml I bought at the Expo was emptied in a short time. What do you think I did after that? I ordered two more bottles on the Internet! This time the bottles were of 720ml. Now I drink noni juice every day. One of the two bottles was emptied in a few weeks.

Why do I keep drinking it? The main reason is for my health. A lot of people say that noni juice is very good for health. I think that people in Tahiti started drinking it, and they are very healthy both physically and mentally. That was why people in other parts of the world also began to drink it.

I was very busy for several weeks, preparing for my school festival. But I didn't feel so much exhausted. I don't know whether this was due to noni juice, but I still keep drinking it. Have you ever tried noni juice? If not, why don't you give it a try? You must be interested, aren't you? I don't know if it really works, but I recommend it to you, although I can safely say that it is revolting in smell and taste! (On our TV show, drinking it was used as a kind of penalty for the loser of a game)

We can't say much...

2005-09-09T06:05:00.000-07:00

Japan's laws require that Japanese teachers be politically neutral. And that makes it diffucult for me to make some comments about the coming election. If I write anyting advantageous to a certain political party, I might be arrested (I'm not joking at all!) I might be arrested, too, if I criticize someone like, say, PM Koizumi.

My students don't know which party I support, because I don't tell it to them. To say it is also prohibited. So, even if I want to tell my students about political problems which now exist, I must do so without criticizing the present dominant party, which I find very difficult.

Actually, teachers avoid picking out political issues in their classes, and it has made Japanese kids less and less interested in politics. They are not given many opportunities in which they have to think deeply about political issues.

PM Koizumi is very successful in trying to persuade Japanese people. He uses very simple phrases, such as "This election is asking you whether you agree or disagree to the privatization of the post offices. That is the only point. To vote for us means that you agree, and to vote for others, that you don't." You might see that this is very tricky, because you want to consider other issues as well. What if you disagree to the present diplomatic policies by LDP, although you agree to the future privatization of post offices? But many Japanese do not think that way, and are very fond of the way Koizumi puts it. They admire him, saying "He is always simple and easy to understand."

Oh, Japanese people like mere simplicity better than political complexity. I must admit this attitude is a product of our education. Are teachers responsible? Or are laws?

I'm back!

2005-09-04T03:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for a long time. I have to apologize if there are some people waiting. I was awfully busy during my summer vacation. Busy during a vacation? It may sound somewhat contradictory, but that is what Japanese teachers are.

Now we are having an national election. I don't expect much of the result, because nothing will be changed. But I'm interested anyway.

I will try to write here as often as possible, although you won't believe me!

What I do not understand about English

2005-05-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

Suddenly a question about an English sentence came to my mind. What does this mean?

I can't love you any more.

Yes, I know that it should mean the speaker once loved his or her partner but has stopped loving the partner for some reason. My question is whether this sentence can mean something else.

I asked the AET of my school, "What does this mean?"
"It means literally," he said. "Yes, I know. But what about this? I love you at my maximum, so to love you more is impossible. Does the sentence possibly mean that, too?"
He thought a little while and said, "It's an excellent question! Yes, it can mean that way." Then, I gave him another question, "How do you know whether the sentence means that you don't love your partner or that you love her very much?" His answer was "It depends on the context." Uhmmm...

Readers, if you are a native speaker of English, please give me your opinion on the meaning of the sentence. I'm thinking that, if you want to say that your love is max, then you should say "I couldn't love you any more," using the subjunctive mode. What do you think?

Skunk Cabbage?

2005-05-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

We are now in the 'Golden Week.' If you don't know what it is, read my previous post. (You can find it by using the PicoSearch on the right side of this page.) A lot of people don't want to stay home, so they go on a trip to many places. That causes traffic jams here and there. My wife and I went to Takayama, and usually it takes us three hours to return home, but yesterday it took nearly six hours!

On our way to Takayama, we found a place with a lot of flowers of mizubasho. Japanese people love this flower, because it symbolizes the best season in Japan. It blooms between spring and early summer. Like so many Japanese, my wife and I shouted "Oh, mizubasho!" when we found it. We stopped our car and got out to take pictures.

I didn't know what is the English word for mizubasho, so I looked it up in my dictionary. It said 'skunk cabbage'! What a disappointing name our cute flower has in the English language! Skunk? The animal that farts? And cabbage? We never make salad or soup with it!

Oh... Skunk cabbage... Why? I guess many Japanese will become sad if they learn how mizubasho is called in English.

Just wait

2005-05-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

Oh, I haven't written anything for a long time. I guess many of you have visited my blog only to get disappointed in it not having any new post. I am sorry for that.

I have been very busy since the new school year started in April. I am in charge of the third graders of my school. They are studying harder to pass their entrance examinations at the end of this year. I am also busy helping them.

And I have another problem: my knee! It suddenly began to hurt so much that I couldn't walk. I went to see a doctor, and he examined my knee. He told me it had some water (sorry, I don't know the correct English word for it) and he got rid of it. Now I can walk, but my knee sometimes hurts. I had never thought of how important the function of one's knee is.

Readers, just wait for a while. I will start to write again pretty soon.

Roommates

2005-03-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

In the United States, I hear, it is very common for a man and a woman share a room. Is it true? To us, Japanese, it is just unthinkable! No Japanese woman wants to share a room with a man unless they are lovers or couples.

There are a lot of things I do not understand about roommates between opposite sexes. First, why don't they fall in love with each other? This question may sound ridiculous to many Americans, but if I were younger and if I started living with a girl in the same room, I would absolutely fall in love. Or at least, I would begin to imagine that something romantic would happen between the girl and me. How can American boys stay so calm, when a young girl is always near them? Don't they ever get aroused? And don't girls?

Second, why don't girls feel anxious about their roommate becoming a peeping Tom? How can they feel so secure while they are taking a bath, for example? This question may also be silly to Americans, but Japanese girls would absolutely feel uneasy.

Japanese are in a conservative society, and if a woman shares a room with a man, she will never be regarded as just having a roommate, but she will surely be thought to be living with a lover. Everyone will start rumor about her. Her parents will try to stop her, afraid of her losing an opportunity of happy marriage because of the rumor.

Americans having the opposite sex as a roommate is a mystery for me and for many Japanese. What about in other countries, I wonder.

Trackback Exercise

2005-03-03T05:23:00.000-08:00

I have wanted to know how 'trackback' works in blogs. I have had no idea how to use it, and now I've found a site for trackback exercise.

I'll give it a try, although still now I don't know what 'trackback' is and what it is for.

How to Urinate

2005-03-01T04:27:00.000-08:00

Sorry for a vulgar topic.

I just want to know how Western gentlemen use toilets when they urinate. Because there has been a change in the way we do it. Decades ago, no Japanese boys or men sat on the seat when they urinate. But now there are many who have started sitting.

To understand why we didn't sit, you have to know something about Japanese toilets. We didn't use Western-style toilets. For men, we had the same type of toilets as you see in your public lavatories. They were used only for urination, of course. Womens used another type of toilets which are like a hole. Men also used them when they move vowels. You had to squat down over them.

These days Japanese have begun to stop using Japanese-style toilets. Instead Western-style ones have been introduced in most houses. It was when I was a high school student that I saw that kind of toilet for the first time in my life. Since we didn't know how to use them, there was an explanation on each toilet about how to use them. It said that, if you are a man, you must raise the U-shaped seat when you urinate. I did as I was told, but I didn't like using them, because it was difficult for me to put my water exactly into the pot!

Not only me but many Japanese men must have felt that way. Some of them (including me) have thought of a better way. If we sit, we will never miss! Then our wives will stop complaining that the floor gets dirty from spills. I guess that more than half the Japanese men sit when they urinate.

Now, my question is whether Westerners also sit, or the explanation on the toilets I saw is also correct in Western countries. It doesn't involve my life at all, but I really want to know!

Entrance Examinations (II)

2005-02-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

In order to enter a national university, you have to take two different kinds of exams. One is "National Center Test for University Admissions," which we usually just call "Center Test." The other is "General Entrance Exam." The total score of the two exams will determine whether you can pass or not.

All the students who want to enter national universities must take the same test on the same day in the middle of January. That is the "Center Test." The subjects are Japanese, English, math, social studies(like world history), and science. All questions are answered by marking small ovals in answer sheets. The full score is 900.

After taking the test, each student estimates his or her own total score. They can do this because they can see all the correct answers on the newspaper the next day. There are several companies that provide students with information about entrance examinations, and they collect data from a lot of examinees about the results of their tests. Then, those companies will give examinees some information about how much score is supposedly needed to pass the later "general entrance exam" done by each university. So if you had wanted to enter Tokyo University but your score was less than, say, 700, then you will have to apply to another easier university instead of Tokyo University.

Necessary score to a university does not change so much from year to year. So students and teachers know how much is needed to apply each university. The companies I mentioned kindly send us "ranking lists," which tell us about necessary scores for all the universities. We tend to think that, the more difficult it is to enter a university, the better academic qualities that university has. So we cannot help rating universities, saying that Tokyo University is better than Kyoto, which is better than Osaka, which is better than Nagoya...and so on.

Entrance Examinations (I)

2005-02-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

Many of 18-year-old boys and girls are now studying harder than at any other time of their lives, preparing for entrance examinations to universities or colleges. Their parents and teachers persuade them that their future success is up to which university they will enter.

We have two kinds of universities: national and private. Generally, national universities are more difficult to pass. They are more popular than private universities for two reasons: First, school fees are usually less expensive in national universities than in private ones. You pay about 500,000 yen a year when you study at a national university, while you have to pay twice as much if you choose a private one. The second reason for the supremacy of national universities is that they are regarded as having higher academic levels. Of course there are several privileged private universities, such as Keio, Waseda, Doshisha, Ritsumeikan and so on. But most private universities are thought to be somewhat lower in academic level, when compared with national universities. (Although I do not always agree.)

Next time I will tell you about entrance examinations to national universities.

Coming-of-age Day

2005-01-09T04:39:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is "Coming-of-Age Day." It used to be on January 15th, but it has been changed to the second Monday of January for several years. Tomorrow, or maybe today, each local government holds a ceremony for those who have come of age.

You are socially accepted as a grownup when you are 20. You are legally allowed to drink, smoke, bet on horses (although everyone starts drinking and smoking much earlier, of course!). Your real name will be on newspapers if you commit a crime. Some people say, and I agree, that one should be regarded as a grownup a little earlier, say, 18 years old, because at that age people start working, or studying at college, and their smoking or drinking is completely accepted in the society, apart from the law.

Still, Japanese 20-year-old people are sometimes a little too childish. It has often been reported that some of them cause troubles at Coming-of-age celemonies that are held by local governments. For example, I hear about young people who behave very badly during a ceremony. Some talk loudly or make noises while their mayor is making a celebrating speech. Others drink too much before or during the ceremony and sometimes start fighting with each other. The ceremony is held in order to encourage them to feel responsible for themselves, but we sometimes learn from what it is like that there are so many irresponsible young people.

If you are a daughter's father or mother, it will cost you more. On the day of the ceremony almost every girl wears kimonos. A kimono costs you hundreds of thousands of yen, equal to thousands of US dollars. What's more, this type of kimono, which has broad sleeves, is worn only by an unmarried woman. And Japanese women do not usually wear them; they wears kimonos only on some special occasions, say, once in a year. That means they are only worn several times in life, unless they stay unmarried for long!

If your daughter is considerate, she will tell you that you don't have to buy an expensive kimono because she can rent one. But what really happens in Japanese families may be that the daughter insist on buying one, while her parents try to persuade her to rent one.

If he weren't a liar

2004-12-27T06:42:00.000-08:00

Japan's Self Defense Forces (Jieitai) have often been appreciated for their rescue operations after natural disasters happening in Japan. Their activities after the Niigata earthquake is one of the examples.

Prime Minister Koizumi says that Japan has sent SDF to Iraq, not because the USA wants it, but because it is necessary for helping Iraqi people rebuild their country after the war. He has been trying to persuade people by saying that it is merely for "international contributions" and "humanitarian assistance."

If he really meant it, then why wouldn't he think of sending SDF to the Asian countries that are suffering damages caused by the tsunami after the big earthquake?

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but there are many English signs here and there: "Merry X'mas." I hear it will be "Xmas" if you want to abbreviate "Christmas." You don't use the apostrophe, do you? Why do Japanese add it? Or is it another correct form?

Global Warming

2004-12-20T03:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know if global warming is really going on, but I do wish it would be colder. We have no snow in the mountains, which means I cannot go skiing. Usually at this time of year, there is some amount of snow in the mountains. But this year there is scarcely any. When will I be able to go skiing this year?

It makes you laugh

2004-12-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

Jessica has kindly told me about 'Engrish.com.' It makes you 'raugh.'

http://www.engrish.com/