Dartboard

Thursday I brought Mama to class! We taught three classes. One with Hatakeyama-sensei and two alone. They weren’t actually very exciting classes, but she enjoyed getting to meet and talk to some of my students.

So this is what it’s like for me everyday.

Teach those kids!

My cute little class of five students!

I rarely teach this group, but I’m okay teaching them irregularly. They are very smart, but they are VERY quiet. Especially because my mom was in the classroom. They didn’t want to say a single word!

Today’s class was a listening class. They wouldn’t raise their hands to answer my questions so I made them write them on the board. Sometimes getting them to speak is like pulling teeth!

The team-taught class with Hatakeyama-sensei was mostly just passing back the students’ letters from America. I started a high-school exchange with some students from my high school in Oregon, Hilhi, and this is the second letter from them. Sometimes there are pictures and artwork inside the letters. It’s really fun—and they WANT to know what the letters say so they try hard.

Additionally, most of the American students are studying Japanese too. They try to write letters back in Japanese, but usually it’s just a few sentences and they don’t make any sense. It’s fun for my students so see Americans trying Japanese though. (…as if listening to me butcher Japanese daily isn’t enough!)

This letter obviously had something good in it—everyone wants to see.

Explaining to Maya what “squinting” is. Her friend sent a picture of herself, but said she was squinting.

Helping Megumi translate her letter.

Hatakeyama-sensei trying to read some hiragana written in Yosei’s letter. No one can figure it out!

This letter for Masumi is really long… but all in English! Akiko gives the double peace sign!

Mama took a bunch of pictures of my students. They turned out so well! I love this class so much because they were the first class I taught and they have always been genki! Here’s the lineup.

Keisuke. He lives near me and rides his bike to school everyday. Mom thinks he’s hot. (Mostly I’m just saying that to get a reaction out of her. Did it work?!?!)

Junya is one of my favorites… okay, they almost ALL are favorites, but he’s really energetic in class and tries SO hard!

Maya’s great. Captain of the volleyball team and about 4 feet tall. Adoooorable!

Mizuho loves to draw. It comes before all other studies.

Now Muso’s handsome!

Megumi. They just don't get cuter than this!

“Who, me?” Yusaku asks.

Then we got some shots around the school. The view from the classroom.

The gym.

The lockers where the students put their outdoor students.

A flower in the garden.

Some art hanging in the hallway.

For dinner tonight we ate at Mizuno. Yakiniku, Korean-style grill. The waiter is really cute too. He started to tell us our bill amount in English and then stopped because he was shy. So I encouraged him to continue and he said it all, then even counted our change back in English. People seem to try English a lot more around my mom. That’s cool.

Later,
Sierra

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