On Sunday it rained and rained. I wandered around Asakusa a little bit, bought a couple of items from the shops in the covered outdoor mall, and then settled into a Starbucks to nurse a mocha and ponder my next move. The #1 thing I wanted to do that day was wander around town – Shinjuku, maybe, or even just in Asakusa – but the rain was making that decidedly unattractive. I decided to give up and went from the Starbucks straight to the train station to come back to Tsukuba. I had bought a poncho in Asakusa, and I unwrapped it when I got back to Tsukuba, intending to use it on my bike. For all the good THAT did! I ended up getting soaked anyway, and I did get a teensy bit lost but I corrected it within a block or two. Now I know that I need to turn on Higashi-dori dammit! Only Higashi-dori gets me home! Anyway, so I biked home, and despite the poncho I was all wet. I got up to my dorm room and toweled off, then just loafed the rest of the day. I did freak out about money in the evening, but I took a chill pill and was all right.
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On Monday, classes resumed, as they tend to do. Mondays are my ASL day, and honestly I think I enjoy that the most because I actually understand everything. There are two teachers – one is my supervisor, and the other is a part-time teacher who only teaches ASL. Last week I was just observing, but this week I got to start participating. The teachers each had me model correct signing technique (not that they were doing it wrong, but more like “let’s watch an American signing ASL!”), provide alternatives to signs, and monitor students for correctness during short conversations in front of the class. Most of what I corrected was handshapes; they have got the words in their head properly, but I think they’re not coming out right through the fingers. So anyway, that was a lot of fun, helping with the ASL classes! In the evening, I freaked out about money again, oh joy! I think everything is going to work out, I just have to be patient with the time difference and the time it takes for things to transfer electronically.
Today, an English day, I did a lot less helping than in the ASL classes. Mostly because the classes are taught primarily in Japanese, and there’s not really much for me to do in terms of teaching the language. What I will be doing, though, is providing cultural information. One English teacher asked me to talk about Washington DC next time, another wanted me to demonstrate “academic competition” like College Bowl next time (I told the kids to come prepared with countries and I would name the capitals – figured that was something that didn’t require much linguistic competency on either side), and another said that he wants me to teach the class when he’s gone next month! That one is going to be super awesome, I get to come up with my own lesson plan, anything I want as long as it’s about Gallaudet. The teachers have universally said that the kids really want to hear about me, my culture, Gallaudet, American deaf culture, etc. Maybe by the time I teach the class, about a month from now, I will have learned enough nihon shuwa (Japanese sign) to communicate better.
Speaking of which, my tutoring sessions have started! My first student was absolutely petrified. I tried as hard as I could to make him feel at ease, but I later found out that he went to a teacher and asked about it, and the teacher suggested that maybe he wasn’t ready for one-on-one tutoring, and should watch some DVDs instead. Poor kid, I would have kept working with him, but he just wasn’t happy. All of the other kids I have worked with have been fine, even the one who doesn’t know ASL or even JSL (oral background) – we managed just fine!
I’m going to end this now and go watch last night’s Big Bang Theory on my friend’s Slingbox. All hail American TV! Don’t forget to check out !