Speech Competitions

Yesterday we had the 8th annual speech competition at my school! While the prefectural competition isn’t until October, we hold one every year where all of the students at my school must compete to see who will represent the school at the prefectural level.

We welcomed two guest judges, an ALT from a nearby town and a judge from the prefectural tournament. We were able to get a lot of good insight and opinions from these two and decided on a first and second prize for each grade! I’d like to tell you about one skit in particular which, while it wasn’t chosen as the winner, was the true winner in my heart. They got a special mention due to their incredible creativity and hilarious delivery.

We set the stage with two middle school boys who decide to spend the Saturday at the mall.

A: Let’s go to the game center!
B: Yes, let’s! That sounds fun.
A: Oh, look! That game looks fun. Let’s go play games! Come with me!
B: Okay! Let’s go.

Suddenly the boys spot a blonde beauty from behind. She’s wearing a school issued skirt and has long blonde hair spilling down her back.

A: Oh my gosh! Look at that beautiful woman!
B: You should go talk to her!
A: No, I can’t do that. You should talk to her!
B: No, you do it!
A: No, you go!
B: Okay, let’s decide by rock paper scissors.

The boys prepare themselves for a battle in rock paper scissors. The situation is quite intense. Rock Paper Scissors Go! Go! Go! They play the same move five times in a row before deciding that they should just go talk to the girl together.
They walk over.

A and B: Hello. What’s your name?

The blonde beauty turns around and…it’s their friend! Who is also a boy!

A and B: Oh my gosh! No!

The boys fall to the ground. The third boy comes over to comfort them.

A and B: GO AWAY!

And that was seriously the best skit I’ve ever seen in my entire life… I wish you could have actually seen it because just the description doesn’t do it justice.

 

Until next time!! xx

Running and Running…

Today, I’d like to share two stories about two separate students in different years at different schools. Both of these stories, as you may have guessed, are about running. That seems quite strange, I realize, but as most people know I was a runner in high school (and even some of middle school).

Currently one of my elementary schools is training for a “marathon.” I don’t quite understand what that means as I can’t imagine any elementary school student could run anywhere close to 40 km, rather I assume it’s a much shorter distance. Regardless, they run every morning after doing some stretching, and instead of having a set distance to run, they simply run laps for a set amount of time. Last Tuesday when I was working at that school, I decided to run with the kids (as many of the teachers were) and kept a light pace with the principal who I was talking with. A group of 6th grade (6th grade is the last grade of elementary school here) boys were far ahead of the rest of the students, but as they were coming up on me and the principal, one of them broke off and took the lead. Immediately, I quickened my pace to run with him, and he tried to lose me. We all know how competitive I am, so there was no way I was going to fall behind a 6th grade boy. He started getting frustrated and vocalized it, but we ran together for the rest of the time. At the end, so many teachers were shocked and told me that they were impressed that I ran with that student since he is the fastest in the school. All I know is that he finally has a rival, and the fact that I’m a girl should be even more motivation to win.

Then, at one of my middle schools, there are two 3rd year middle school students (9th grade) who are in the track and field club. One of these students is exceptional at English and, upon completion of his in class task, he began talking to me in English. I guess he’s been practicing English conversation lately and wanted to test it out. He asked me if I do any sports and I told him that when I was in school I used to run (because I knew it would be something that he could relate to). Of course, he wanted to know my times in different races. I told him a few of my times and he was surprised, and told the other track and field member what I had told him. The other student looked straight at me and said “you’re lying” to which I laughed and told him that I wasn’t lying, but that those were my high school times and I couldn’t run that fast anymore. The student that I was originally talking to told me that I had faster times in all of my races than him and that he should be faster. I reminded him that I had been in high school at the time and that he was only in middle school. To this he replied “but I’m a man.” I believe I now have two rivals…

While it’s funny to me that boys are so threatened by girls who are better in sports than they are, I felt like it was a great opportunity to connect with some of my students and to give them something to work towards. Even though it had nothing to do with English, encouraging and challenging students is a teacher’s job. And this was probably the most fun I’ve ever had doing just that.

 

Until next time! xx

 

Japanese BBQ

Usually when you hear BBQ what do you think? Roasting hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill, then assembling them with buns and toppings; and don’t forget those side dishes like potato salad, potato chips, baked beans, and anything else you may dream up.

Well, Japanese BBQ is quite a different experience. Everyone sits or stands around an open grill and cooks together (much like in a Korean BBQ restaurant), and once the meat and vegetables are cooked, they’re dipped in a special sauce and eaten right away. Cook as you eat, and eat as you cook! Another big thing is eating rice with your meal! Many people eat rice with their BBQ meals, which seems so strange to many Americans, but we have side dishes too.

So, the other day (it’s actually been a while and I just forgot to post about it), I did Japanese BBQ with my middle school students. It was a blast! I was invited by the math teacher to take part in this event, and even helped wash and cook the rice, light the fire, and cook the food. It felt nice to be so integrated in the process! We all ate our fill and had a great time.

Then, just this past weekend, I had another Japanese BBQ event! This time it was with other JETs. We all drove up to a camp site on a mountain, brought various meats and vegetables (and rice), and had a great bonding experience with other people who live in our area. Since no one was staying the night at the camp site and a few JETs had opted to stay the night at my apartment (it’s huge, and I have a living room plus two spare bedrooms for people to sleep in), we left at around 4 pm to play card games at my apartment. We played games like codeword, spoons, and cards against humanity. It was an awesome time!

But, even with these awesome experiences, I can’t wait to go to yakiniku (which is basically Korean BBQ/Japanese BBQ, but unlike what we’ve been doing, it’s inside a restaurant). I want to go because they have an all you can eat option where you can order as much meat as you can cook and eat in an hour and a half – believe me, it’s a lot of food and so incredibly worth it.

 

Until next time xx