English Club Retreat

Went with the university English Club members on a retreat this last weekend to a spot up in the Yunoyama area. We borrowed the home of a friend of the club who was not going to be there for a few days. It was a very comfortable home, and it was great to be there for a couple of days. I guess there will be photos up on the club site in a couple of days. I'll let you know when they're up.

We started the first day at about noon with a quick lunch. I had organized a scavenger hunt for the group so they could get a look around the neighborhood. They split up into teams and had to find objects, information or take pictures with a digital camera at various points. They seemed to have had a good time with that.

Then it was off to the hotsprings. There is a hotel called the Green Hotel nearby where we all went for a soak before preparing dinner. Our evening repast was "nabe"[knob ay], which is a glorified way to say that various stuff is boiled in a soup base in a large pan on a burner on the table and people eat it with rice. After dinner we talked ate, and drank until I knew that I had to get to bed or be totally useless the next morning. I was correct in assuming that there would be a need for at least one functioning human in the morn to care for the hangovers.

The next day it rained like crazy, which, in addition to the slow start, caused us to cancel plans to drive around the local sites, such that they are. We stayed in, played some card games and conversation games until it was time to clean up and go home.

The objective of the two day event was to get together so that everyone had a reason and a place to use English. That was mostly achieved. Some people who rarely speak relaxed and made an effort to express themselves in English. The folks who are already speaking got to speak more than they usually would by themselves.

winter gray cold

Hadn't posted a picture in a little while. This was a cold gray Yokkaichi day in January. You'd hardly recognize the place now. It is sunny and warming up.

winter gray cold Originally uploaded by Yokkaichi 1.

My English classes refused

I have blogged about the volunteer classes that I teach a few times a month for a local organization that works with children who refuse to attend regular schools. I have been doing these classes for about two years now, and it has been a struggle for me to get there and teach classes for the few kids who manage to get themselves out of their homes to come have fun with English. It isn't easy or even fun sometimes, but I feel that if the kids don't have the opportunity to have some fun outside their home, they may never get out, and what I have to offer is language.

Anyway the organizers of the group closed the place that they had been in for the past two years because they couldn't raise enough money to pay the rent. I was curious why they hadn't tried harder to get kids into the English classes, and they said that they had tried. (I mean when I lived in that same neighborhood, strangers would knock on my door and ask me if I was offering English lessons to children. Seriously, they saw a foreigner walk into his home, and they accosted me about English lessons. One woman had even talked to a group of other mothers and came with a yen figure in mind. I told them, as I tell anyone who asks, I don't teach classes outside the university, which is technically a lie, but I don't teach for money outside the university.) The problem turned out to be that when parents came to inquire about the classes and were told that they may be in the same group with kids who refuse to go to school or who have learning disabilities, the walked away.

My guess is that the people who came to inquire about the lessons were the same ones that darkened my doorstep earlier, and were tickled at the thought of getting their kiddies enrolled in a cheap English class, the procedes from which would go to the organization, taught by the fellow they had hit up so many months ago, but when they found out that they would be sharing time with real children with real problems, they got scared. The result is that the facilities were closed, and we are thrashing around trying to find a spot to put our class in now.

Sometimes I hate dealing with people.

Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister - New York Times

Wow! This editorial really lets Japan's Foreign Minister, Aso Taro, have it. This article singles him out for negative press, but he is an appointed minister, so it isn't just him.

Here is another more thorough article on Aso's background and nationalist leanings. It's hard to believe that people like this are elected to national office.

Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister - New York Times

Calls in the Phillipines for English in schools

Global Nation says that a workers' group demonstrated to denounce the re-introduction of English as the medium of instruction in schools. Some business groups were calling on the government to re-introduce English in the schools "so that more Filipinos could be hired as call center agents and medical transcribers. "

Seem like some pretty narrow goals for a nationwide change in education policy like that. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

10,000 visits!

I looked at the counter at the bottom of the page today and saw that there have been 10,000 visits to the site. I am happy to have reached this landmark. When I started this page, I did it as part of a computer literacy project that I presented to a group of junior and senior high English teachers. It is nice to have kept writing. For a later posting it may be interesting to explore the reasons I have for blogging, but for now the recognition of the number is enough.