Hi all.Ý Welcome back to the show.Ý We had a little
break in there, but with all of you being busy with shopping and the like,
I decided that was best...actually it was more the fact I had nothing
even remotely exciting to report.Ý After searching high and low,
I have found a few interesting tidbits (I use that word a lot).Ý
Okay here goes...a little Guam insight, Christmas songs, and a little
more about Japanese education. ÝÝÝ ------->Well Guam as you know
>from my other emails was pretty good.Ý One of the amazing things
I learned was just how important America's liberating Guam was to
ending WWII.Ý My friend Rafi and I visited a few interesting places.Ý
One of those places was a site that had a few unused Japanese war
guns.Ý Seems the Japanese hadn't completely prepared them by the
time the American troops came.Ý When I learned that I just had to
laugh because their trains are always on time (you could set your
watch by them)...oh well.Ý Another interesting thing about Guam was
its way of trying to make the island seem just like mainland America.Ý
Case in point...on a plaque outside the stadium where the Japanese
Pro team, the Tokyo Giants play, it said something along the lines of
"baseball evolved across sandlots in America and the fields of Guam to
become America's past time."Ý For some strange reason I didn't happen
to notice Guam's "important" role in baseball history when I went to
the Baseball Hall of Fame a few years ago... maybe it was an oversight.Ý
So it was a pretty interesting time, and I learned a great deal about
an area of the world I barely knew existed. Also the weather was
perfect and the full moon made nights almost look like day. -------->So
the other day one of my teachers asked me if I could teach a Christmas
song..."sure" was my reply.Ý Thinking...thinking...how about Silent
Night?Ý "Too difficult."Ý Okay, how about Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer?..."Too easy"...okay how about you choose the song?Ý "How
about Santa Claus is Coming to Town?"Ý I retorted "Sounds good to
me"... "Do you have a CD with that song?"Ý My thinking response..."Yes
in my back pocket"...my actual response "No"..."Is that a pretty
popular song?"Ý My thinking response "Yes, Americans everywhere are
buying up any CD with this song on it...they can't get enough."Ý My
actual response..."Well sure, it's a traditional Christmas song...and I
think that students will like it."Ý Her reply.."Okay then we will
tomorrow."Ý Tomorrow came and she came over to me with Mariah Carey's
Christmas CD and said "The students want to learn this song" as she
handed me the words for "All I want for Christmas is You"...I laughed
and actually said what I thought..."This is probably the most difficult
and longest Christmas song I know."..."Okay" the reply.Ý Well if
all were willing then who was I to say anything?Ý Making an already long
story short we played the song a couple times.Ý I read the words line by
line in complete monotone (I was fighting laughter the whole time) as they
repeated after me...such wonderful lines as "I just want you for my
own...more than you could ever know"..."I'm just gonna keep on waiting...underneath
the mistletoe"..."All I want for Christmas is you...you baby"...As
I read this very NOT traditional Christmas song I pondered how this
could possibly be internationalism...never concluding if I thought
it was at its best or worse.Ý The best part was when after 2 readings
of it we played the CD again and everyone "sang"...Notice the quotes?Ý
That is because as it turned out it was a duet of the teacher and
me...I once again learned that Mariah Carey should never be sung to because
her rollercoaster singing "trips" are very difficult to copy...even
if you have her range...which neither the teacher or I came even
close to possessing...but we all laughed...and laughed and laughed...at
me...for 9 classes.Ý Still I was surprised to learn that so many
Japanese have Christmas trees and celebrate the holiday. Many believed
in Santa Claus when they were younger.Ý -------->And now a
word about Japanese education.Ý Hold on tight because I am flying
through this.Ý Each grade is broken down into classes...like American
ones (I have been told it is done randomly, and not based on a student's
ability...in America some schools do this...it is called a tracking
system), but these classes do everything together.Ý Each class a
couple times a year, i.e. the Sports Festival and Cultural Festival, compete
against each other.Ý I have video of the Cultural Festival, which involves
singing competitions.Ý These classes stay in the same classroom all
day.Ý It is the teachers who come to them...changing every 50min class
period.Ý Another thing is that in April many teachers leave one school
and go to various others while a group of new teachers come in...the
reason for this I still haven't figured out.Ý ÝÝÝ Getting back to
ability I have seen some students with learning disabilites.Ý They
are part of the mainstream class.Ý From what I can tell they sometimes
go to a resource room some time during the day.Ý Also I have been
told that sometimes they go to a special school.Ý I found out this
information when one of the teachers told me that a boy in one of
my classes was upset because he wasn't going to be in my class the
next day and I would know that he was in a special class.Ý The teacher
told him that I actually wasn't going to be there the next day because
I was going to another school...he was relieved I wasn't going to
be there >from what the teacher said.Ý What information I know has
been as a result of observation or if a teacher volunteered it.Ý
I don't ask a lot of questions because I know that the Japanese are
pretty vague with their answers even if they decide to answer the
question.Ý I guess you could say I'm on a "need to know basis" and
with many of these things I don't really need to know. ÝÝÝ Oh yeah...yesterday
I overheard one of the female students saying how I had a beautiful
nose.Ý How bizarre.Ý I've never gotten that before, it being a big
Adams nose and all...oh well. ÝÝÝ Well that is all the news that
is the news...let the count down begin...Ima (that's on purpose)
coming home.ÝÝÝ