Kenny Kimchee's EFL Adventures

Pomp and Circumstance

2006-06-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

Well kids, that’s it. I’m done. Finished. Finito. Owatta (in case you hadn’t guessed, that’s Japanese for “finished”). “I'm going to check out of this bourgeois motel, push myself from the dinner table and say, ‘No more Jell-o for me, mom!’”

In case you’re wondering what I’m on about (or just plain “on” – as in illicit substances) there is a cause for my behavior – and that cause is that about an hour ago I clicked the “send” button that mailed my final paper for my final class of my Master’s in Language Education (TESOL) with Indiana University. This officially makes me the most well educated member of my immediate family and possibly my extended family, as well… wait, I take that back – my cousin Dwayne is a lawyer.

I must say, dear reader, that there isn’t a whole lot of immediacy to this act. After all, I’m graduating from a school that I’ve never seen – I probably couldn’t find Bloomington, Indiana on a map. Technically, I’m allowed to walk in the graduation ceremony; I’ve often pondered the comedic aspects of rocking up to campus and asking someone “Excuse me, but where is the graduation ceremony being held? I’ve never been here before but I’m graduating today…” Unfortunately, the comedic value of delivering this line is far outweighed by the thousand plus dollars and 24 hours of travel time (each way) that it would cost me to deliver it.

Adding to this existential quandary is the fact that I have no idea when I’ll actually see my degree; I will have Indiana mail it to my parents’ house, where it will join my B.A. Philosophy from the University of Washington in my safe deposit box. This raises the age-old question: if you do a distance Master’s but never see the school nor the degree…does it make a sound?

After spending about 10 grand USD and who knows how many hours (1000? 2000?) to get this thing I hope it pays off. I’ve got that nagging fear that some employer will say “Distance degree, eh? Next!” Granted, Indiana University isn’t some diploma mill out of the Grand Caymans, but distance degrees don’t have the street cred that traditional degrees do (for example, you can’t get a university instructor job in Taiwan with a distance degree). I’m also worried if the course is as rigorous as a face-to-face course. I mean, I took 12 classes and made an A+, 10 A’s, and an A-. I know I’m a good student, but a 3.98 GPA in graduate school? Am I that good?

Well, there’s no point in worrying about it now, because what’s done is done. I’m proud of myself for what I’ve done. I completed a Master’s in two years while simultaneously working full-time and teaching a lot of privates. I’ve enhanced my career prospects considerably and can now get a job teaching at most universities in Asia with no problem.

Finally, doing my Master’s while on JET was the perfect symbiotic relationship. As you probably know, there are many days when I have no classes, and long periods of time (e.g. six weeks in summer, a month in spring) when I have no work to do at all (but still have to go to work). If I hadn’t done my Master’s I would have gone completely insane. Likewise, without all this free time at work, there would have been no way that I could have done my degree as quickly as I did – hell, I probably did 70% of my coursework while I was at “work” at school. I guess it’s a win-win all the way around for me.

That’s all for now. Next up: getting my US teaching certification by the end of the year

Trip to the PI

2006-06-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

Boy, oh boy - I just had a look back through the archives and it hasn't exactly been puppies and sunshine around here lately, eh? Time to think happy thoughts - and nothing makes me happier than thinking about my last trip to the Philippines!

I took a two week trip over Golden Week (a Japanese holiday season at the beginning of May). As always, I had a great time - scuba diving, reading, drinking San Miguel beer, and just generally decompressing. I met a beautiful girl named Mary Ann (see below). Can't wait to go back!

Mary Ann and I (or is it "Mary Ann and me"? "Me and Mary Ann"? Good Lord, I teach this language - I should know this stuff). Ken is looking a little rough in this shot - it was taken on my day of departure from Sabang after two straight weeks of partying and only five hours of sleep the night before. Mary Ann, OTOH, looks beautiful as always - but she's only 20 while I'm 34, so she bounces back a lot faster than I do!
Mary Ann - is she cute or what?
Peter, Karen, and yours truly. Peter is a 50-something dude from Australia. He's semi-retired from his printing business and now spends three months a year skiing in BC, three months bumming around Asia, and the remainder watching over his business. Karen is a stunning girl (as you can see) from Manila that Peter met while she was on holiday in Sabang. It's great to be a white guy with money in da Philippines!

Critters

2006-06-09T01:59:00.000-07:00

More pics from an old trip to the PI. An Austrian guy I dove with took these shots - high quality stuff, eh?

More Pics from da 'Pines

2006-06-09T01:47:00.000-07:00

These pics are actually from a previous trip to Sabang, not from the one I took in April. Hell, on the April trip I probably took less than twenty pics. It's not like I was worried about film or anything - my camera's digital so the shots are free - I just didn't see much of a point in taking any shots. I mean, there's only so many shots you can take of jeepneys, beaches, cute kids, boats, and palm trees....

Brass Band Al Fresco

2006-06-09T01:35:00.000-07:00

I'm back. You know, I never did have a whole lot of "stick with it." I have no problem starting projects, it's the finishing that's the difficult part - and obviously this blog is no exception.

To get the ball rolling I thought I'd dig in the archives. Here's some pics taken in the spring - but you probably knew that, what with the telltale cherry blossoms in the background. It was a rare fine spring day (it's rained a hell of a lot this year - let's hear it for climate change!) so the girls in the brass band club took advantage by hauling their gear outside onto the top of the hill in front of the school to practice.

The band is all-girl; in the three years I've taught here there's only been one boy in the brass band (smart kid if you ask me). Most of them are really good English students, too, including Mizuki (on drums - she's the leader of the band) and Ayumi (with the trombone and yours truly).

Momma said they would be days like this...

2006-04-12T00:44:00.000-07:00

I wrote this one about a month ago. I never got around to posting it, so here it is. Fortunately for me, the teacher I write about in this entry has been transferred to another school, where she is no doubt wreaking havoc on the children’s English-speaking potential…

Like most people, there are days when I like my job, days when I tolerate it, and days I want to scream; today’s day at work falls into the latter category.

As you may know, I teach at two junior high schools in Japan, rotating between them every two weeks. I teach with five Japanese English teachers; two of them are tenured, while the other three are on one-year contracts. Two of the contract teachers are covering for two tenured teachers on maternity leave; the town doesn’t want to fill the other position with a tenured teacher because it’s more expensive, so it just hires these people for one year contracts.

None of the three contract teachers are certified to teach; I guess they got the job because they can speak English (to varying degrees). Two of them are competent, while the other…

Japanese English teachers use a teacher-centered, grammar translation approach. Each page of text has grammar points embedded in it; the teachers translate the page, the students repeat ad nauseam, and then they teach the grammar. This approach is as non-communicative as you can get and it bores the hell out of the kids, but at the end of the day they understand the page and might be able to learn something they can use.

Today I had two seventh grade lessons with the incompetent teacher; let’s call her Mrs. T. Today was the last day of English classes for the students and Mrs. T. wanted to do five pages in one lesson (usually the other teachers teach a page over a two-day period.); here’s how it went:

50-minute lesson

0-10 minutes: The students took a bunch of listening tests; after the test, Mrs. T. gives them the answers on a handout. She doesn’t discuss the tests or field any questions. You want feedback, kid? Sorry, no time for that!

11-50 minutes:

Mrs. T. asks me to take over; naturally, we didn’t do any lesson planning before class. Trust me, I asked her what we were going to do and she simply replied “the textbook,” so I assumed that she had it under control; little did I know that she would be throwing the whole class on me.

The kids are still sorting their answers out from the listening test, so I wait until they get organized and get their textbooks open. Mrs. T. yells at the students to open their books and tells me to start, even though 30% of the class doesn’t have books open.

I know how this drill goes, so I tell the students “OK, open your text to page 95 and look at the words on the bottom of the page. Please repeat after me…” After we repeat the words I say “Look at the dialogue and repeat after me…” My part done, Mrs. T. tells the students (in Japanese) to underline the key phrases of the page, which turns out to be pretty much the whole damned thing. She gives a 15 second explanation of the grammar then turns to me and says, “Next page.”

And so it goes; I read the vocabulary and the students repeat, I read the text and the students repeat, she gives a minute’s worth of a half-assed explanation and then it’s on to the next page. The kids have no fvcking idea what’s going on; we’re just flying through this shit, mouthing words without meaning or understanding because Mrs. T. is in a hurry to “finish the textbook” – never mind the fact that the students don’t understand it. Mrs. T. is in a tizzy, I’m about to explode from frustration, and the kids are alternately confused or bored.

The unit, by the way, is about e-pals. It’s an end of the text consolidation activity; each page has an imaginary e-mail from students across the world talking about their lives, using the grammar from the previous units. We hit the review page, which is a collection of expressions from the unit. There are several different ways to phrase the same sentiment all grouped together (e.g. My name is Kato Ken/ My nickname is Ken/ I’m Kato Ken/ I belong to the tennis team/ I’m a member of the tennis team/ etc.). I read the Japanese instructions to myself; they say “Using these expressions, write an e-mail about yourself.” “Touchdown!” I think to myself, “Here’s a chance for the kids to actually use the language in a meaningful way!” I turn to Mrs. T.:

Me: This says that the kids are supposed to write their own email, right?

Mrs. T.: …

Me: Why don’t we have the kids write their own emails?

Mrs. T.: There’s no time! We have to finish! Hurry, hurry!

So, what do I have to do? Read every word on the page. I say “My name is Kato Ken/My nickname is Ken/I’m Kato Ken” – just reading nonsense. Mercifully, the bell finally rings and I get to escape, but not for long – I had to endure two more “classes” like that.

The thing that pisses me off the most is that she made me a party to her incompetence. She had no fucking plan or clue what to do, so she just foisted it off onto me.

I can deal with:

Teaching my own lesson
Executing a well-defined role in someone else’s lesson plan, no matter how boring it is
Standing back and watching someone else bomb

But what I can’t deal with is someone having no fucking plan, handing a book to me, and then sticking me in front of the class like I’m an idiot.

After the class, I thought about going up to her and saying something about it, but I remembered something that happened a few months ago and thought better of it. A few months back, this woman taught some absolutely awful lessons – I mean, the kids would have learned more if they’d just taught themselves. After watching this truly astounding display of incompetence, I decided to make some helpful suggestions. I took her into a room, where something like the following conversation ensued:

Me: (In a calm, measured voice) What did the kids learn today?

Her: Well, umm, we had to do pages 26 and 27, and…

Me: No, what did the kids learn today?

Her: Nothing.

Me: That’s right. (Continuing in a calm, measured, voice). When you design a lesson plan, you need to ask yourself the question “At the end of this lesson, the students will have learned…what?” Saying that you’re going to “do pages 26 and 27” is not a lesson plan. You need to find the grammar point that you want to teach and…

Her: (Bursts into tears and starts crying uncontrollably).

I swear to God it went down just like that. I didn’t yell at her, scream at her, or accuse her of anything; I was just talking to her as a peer and making some suggestions. Naturally, she told the other two English teachers, who in turn probably told the rest of teachers. She’s incompetent and I come out as the bad guy – great. Every time I saw her after that she would visibly flinch whenever I came near her. She had these eyes like a dog that’s been beat too much and I ended up feeling like the abusive stepdad.

It was with this event in mind that I decided to let it slide when she made me teach five pages in less than fifty minutes. I figured that she was on her way out (I was right – she got transferred out of my school) and nothing I could say or do would change anything.

At the end of one of those horrible classes one of the students came up to me. We had the following conversation in Japanese:

Student: I hate English.

Me: Why?

Student: I don’t know…

I’ve got a pretty good idea why that kid hates English.

Truth in Advertising?

2006-04-11T05:32:00.000-07:00

Right, so here's a new public service announcement in the bicycle parking lot next to the station. It says, "Don't throw away garbage or empty cans! Let's everyone make a beautiful..." ...err, sorry, I can't read that last Kanji, but I'm guessing from the context that it's "community" or "environment" or something like that.

I can dig that message. I hate litter. Hell, I haven't littered on a regular basis since I was twenty years old, when I used to ride down rural roads in my beige 1984 Chevy Cavalier with the sagging headliner (God, I hated that car), Metallica blasting out of my blown 2 inch dashboard speakers, throwing empty 20 ounce Mello Yello bottles at signs while moving at 50 miles an hour (didn't hit too many signs, obviously). I can dig a clean community. Damn kids - pick up your garbage!

The only thing is...like most things in Japan, there's a kind of incongruity between the message and the reality. Let's look closely at the sign again; we appear to have an idyllic flower-lined stream with some downright palatial houses on rolling green hills in the background. Who would want to pollute such a beautiful tableau? I certainly wouldn't. Now, let's look at the two bodies of water nearest the sign...

Body of Water #1 is a rice irrigation ditch about 2 meters behind the sign. Hey, where's the flowers? All I see is a muddy ditch lined with scraps of plastic and corrugated tin. This is not the beautiful stream in the picture! Where is it? Maybe it's nearby; let's walk a little further and see what we can see...

Here's Body of Water #2, located about 50 meters from the sign. What, no flowers? All I see is a concrete-lined canal, surrounded by rusted white guardrails and filled with brackish brown water. This, my friend, is reality - your typical Japanese canal; right now it appears that my town is on a mission to dig up every vegetation-lined canal and replace it with the model you see here. I ask you - is this the kind of scene that would motivate you to keep beautiful?

It would be another matter if they actually provided a public trash can near the sign that you could throw your trash into - but they don't have those. The nearest trash can to this sign is located in the train station, about 100 meters away. This, too, is par for the course in Japan - there are no public trash cans anywhere. I guess they're relying on people's goodwill and sense of guilt to haul their trash around with them. It's like one giant national park around here. Fortunately for them, the good citizenry around here is crazy enough to get up at 7am on a Sunday and pick up the trash themselves. This, of course, is good news for the government - it means the money that they save on waste management and disposal can be spent on concreting over the canals instead...

On Your Knees, Boy!

2006-04-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d share the latest English school advertisement making the rounds on the trains. Sorry about the blurry picture quality, but I think you’ll be able to work it out.

Like most (all?) advertisements for English schools in Japan, no English words actually appear on the ad itself; I guess it’s kind of like “you want the milk you have to buy the cow, cause we ain’t giving out no free samples” – so if you want some English you gotta go to the school to get it.

Of course, the most striking thing about the ad is the image in the center (which I really wish was clearer) that features a grinning whitey being ridden like a horse by three kids. Actually, the girl in the back looks like she’s mounting him, but anyway…

So, what’s the message here? “Send your kids to our school and their English will improve”? “We have qualified and professional teachers at your service”? How about “Do your kids want their own pet foreigner? Come on down! Whitey's got no self-respect and will do anything for a buck - hell, he let us put him on this ad, didn't he?” On your knees, boy!

The Running Baby Step Scuttle

2006-04-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

Oh, the female teachers were driving me insane today with The Running Baby Step Scuttle! Those of you who don’t live in Japan are probably asking, “Ken, what is this Running Baby Step Scuttle of which you speak?” Worry not, Dear Reader, I will soon enlighten you – but first, a little background.

The Japanese are world-renowned for their work ethic. Everyone knows the story of how Japan rose from the ashes of WWII and became the world’s second biggest economy (soon to be third biggest – damn you, China and your 1.2 billion people!), and everyone’s heard the stories about the salary men who literally work themselves to death. Most Japanese office workers are at work ten or more hours a day, five or six days a week.

Notice that I said “are at work ten or more hours a day” not “are working ten or more hours a day.” No one can work ten hours a day, five days a week, year round; if a man works that much he’ll end up throwing himself in front of a train (which many people do, by the way – that’s why they’ve got Plexiglas walls between the tracks and the platforms in the subway stations) or dying of the aforementioned overwork.

The teachers do get paid vacation time – as longtime public employees they probably get a lot of it. They don’t actually take any vacation, though, because they’d be “letting the team down” if they went on vacation. It’s spring vacation right now but 80% of the teachers are here every day. Man, most of them aren’t actually doing any work – they’re just sitting at their desks, staring into space, waiting until they can go home. I’m not making this up. If they call in sick they don’t take their sick days, they take their vacation days. They don’t call in sick, either, unless their on their death bed (again, because they’d be “letting the team down”); if they can get out of bed they’re coming to work, where they will spread their illness to the students and other teachers.

So, as you can see, these people work like slaves and don’t take any time off – it’s enough to drive you to an early grave. To guard against such an unhappy fate the Japanese have devised a number of ingenious mechanisms to make it appear that they’re hard at work when they’re actually not. There are a number of devices, including The Running Baby Step Scuttle (and it’s masculine counterpart, The Fast Walk), but the most important of these is The Look.

The Look has both a masculine and feminine version. For men, The Look consists of a look of consternation coupled with vexation, while the feminine counterpart is a combination of near-panic and confusion. The Look can be used in almost any situation, but ideally it should be used in conjunction with a computer or document of some sort (e.g. staring at the computer monitor with a furrowed brow). Other defense techniques include:

· Loud sighing

· Looking up quickly from one’s work, scanning the room, creasing one’s brow, and then getting back to work

· Verbal utterances, such as “Yoisho!” or “Yokorosho!” which imply exertion or effort

For maximum effect, one or more of these techniques should be employed at the same time, e.g. using The Fast Walk with a paper in your hand while wearing The Look. I myself use these techniques to my advantage; for example I always walk fast (I stride, mind you – no shuffling for me!), even if I’m just going to the coffee maker. I also make it a habit to carry a piece of paper or a folder wherever I go (textbooks work nicely, too), even if it’s just to the bathroom. Whenever I’m surfing the Internet or writing email I always make sure to do it with a fierce Look on my face, and I keep a textbook nearby to make sure it looks like I might actually be working.

Hell, I’m sitting at my desk in the office writing this right now, but for all they know I’m hard at work, not writing a Word document that I’ll cut and paste into my blog when I get home. As they say “When in Rome…” and my life in the office has gotten a lot easier since I started doing as the Nihonjin do. After all, Japanese society is all about tatemae (appearance) and honne (the truth), and everyone knows which is more important…

So, back to the scuttling. The Running Baby Step Scuttle is a means of movement peculiar to the Japanese female. Imagine tying a foot long piece of rope to your ankles and trying to run as fast as you can – that’s The Running Baby Step Scuttle. As mentioned above, this is a way to make yourself look busy when you actually aren’t. Most female teachers like to do this when school is in session – they scuttle through the teacher’s room with that look of panic in their eyes; this is supposed to make you think “Wow, she’s really busy! Look how she runs!”

The school year ended last week and we’re in spring vacation (vacation for the students, anyway – the teachers still have to come to work). Japanese companies and governments have a peculiar habit of transferring people every April, and three of the teachers in my office got transferred, including the scuttlers. They’ve got a week to clean up their desks and tie up loose ends; that would certainly seem to have plenty of time to take care of business, yet here they were – pitter-pattering all around the office. Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle to the phone, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle out of the office, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle back into the office. They’re driving me nuts with this charade.

Why do they do it? I don’t know. I know that Japanese females are capable of walking fast or running just like any other normal human being; I see students doing PE every day and the girls seem to have no difficulty striding more than six inches at a time. Maybe the teachers think it’s cute; but for God’s sake these women are in their late 30’s and early 40’s – they’re well past the “cute” stage.

I wonder if I’m the only one who sees through this. Are the others under some kind of collective spell that makes them believe that others are busy? Maybe it’s a deal they make with each other “I’m not busy and you aren’t either, but we’re stuck here for ten hours a day. Let’s just pretend like we’re busy, OK?” I shouldn’t jinx myself; after all, I’m writing blog entries and papers for my online classes on the company dime, so I should just play along. Still, I wish they’d find another means of movement!

Cherry Blossom Fever

2006-04-02T01:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it's spring time in Japan, so that can mean only one thing: it's time for the gaijin to get his camera out and go take pictures of cherry blossoms. The Japanese go absolutely nuts over cherry blossoms - they're supposed to be a metaphor for existence, how they bloom vibrantly yet are short-lived, falling from the branch in the prime of their beauty blah, blah, blah. I personally think it's just an excuse to go to the park and get loaded after being trapped inside all winter (nothing wrong with that, BTW).

I got together with some friends yesterday to join in on the festivities. Our setup was decidedly less elaborate than the locals - while they had grills and coolers full of beer, we had some singles a few bags of chips. It was also rainy and cold. Of course, today was lovely but I couldn't persuade anyone to give it another go. I moseyed down and took some shots - enjoy.

More cherry blossom pics

2006-04-02T01:52:00.000-08:00

Who's this dude?

2006-04-02T01:51:00.000-08:00

Just some ugly dude I saw in the park...

Inspirational toilet paper - "Lets enjoy the natural life"

2006-04-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

I bought some toilet paper today and thought I'd share the inspiring messages emblazoned on the packaging. Here the manufacturer says "Lets enjoy the natural life." Indeed, what could be more natural than the occasion to use toilet paper? I for one certainly enjoy these events. The message written in katakana says "suito memorii" - i.e. "sweet memory."

Inspirational toilet paper - Sweet memory

2006-04-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you guys, but any time I find the need to use toilet paper it gives me a "sweet memory." The smaller print says "Sweet memory toilet tissue is made from 100% recycled paper.we prior to the environment and hope good relationship between earth and people." Inspiring!

They Keep Coming Back for More

2006-03-30T00:13:00.000-08:00

The recently graduated third graders cannot stay away from school! They graduated over two weeks ago, but not a day goes by that at least one doesn’t drop in. Here’s a kind of class reunion. The woman in the picture above was their homeroom teacher when they were in second grade two years ago. She got transferred (along with half of the teaching staff) to another school last year, but somehow she organized a picnic with her old students. It looks like every student turned up, even the bad ones – I guess that shows you the Power of the Group. That’s kind of sweet, I guess.

It’s nice that everyone got together to see their old teacher (Could you imagine that happening in the States - everyone turning up? I think not.), but some of these kids…it’s kind of pathetic. I mean, they got put through the grinder their last few months of school – a nonstop pressure cooker of high school entrance exam preparation, yet they can’t stay away from this joint. If I was them I’d want to run as far away from this place as possible, but I guess they have that same kind of syndrome Patty Hearst got (you know, the one where you become loyal to your tormenters).

It’s not like they can just turn up, either – if they want to come to school they have to wear their uniforms. So, you see that it’s not just a case of them riding their bike down the street thinking, “Hey, there’s the school. I wonder what Sato Sensei is doing? Maybe I’ll pop in…” – it’s more like “Gee, another day off. I’m so bored. What will I do? Hey, I’ve got a great idea – I’ll go see Sato Sensei! She’ll be thrilled to see me! Mom, what did you do with my uniform?”

One girl came to school three days in a row, mostly to see her old math teacher. On the third day the principal asked her (in Japanese) “Yuria, what have you been doing lately?” and I said (in Japanese), “Coming to school every day.” Everybody got a chuckle out of that one – it always surprises them when the gaijin can chime in with a witty comment.

Seriously, though – I don’t get it. The day I graduated from middle school (actually, there was no “graduation” – it just ended) was the last day I set foot in that place. I think I went back to my old high school twice after I graduated, and that was to watch my sister cheerlead at a football game. Then again, I never came to school during every vacation and break (spring, summer, and winter) to do club activities, nor did I ever step foot in the teacher’s room, nor did I ever talk to one of my teachers for more than ten minutes at a stretch. These kids do all of this stuff; hell, it’s spring break right now but more than 70% of them are here every day, playing sports or instruments. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that they keep coming back like ghosts once they graduate – but it’s still weird.

Models of Instruction and Educational Technolog

2006-03-19T00:35:00.000-08:00

I found an article by Judith Conrad that gives a nice summary of models of instruction and their application to educational technology. Although it is quite dated (1997), it was very helpful to me. I am taking two courses this term on educational technology (W505 and 500) and one course on learning and cognition in education (P540), so this article helped me to see how technology ties in with theories of education.

In the article, Conway gives a rough guide to the evolution of educational theory and their applications in technology. Conway observes that direct instruction continues to be phased out and replaced by a number of cognitive approaches to instruction - cooperative/collaborative learning, cognitive apprenticeships, discovery learning. Conway gives a number of examples of software that employ each type of approach.

What a difference nine years makes! Conway’s article makes no mention of WebQuests (which are about ten years old) or podcasts (which have just come on the scene in the past couple of years), two of the fastest growing educational technology applications out there today.

To me, both WebQuests and podcasts exhibit elements of cooperative learning, discovery learning, and cognitive apprenticeships. WebQuests are cooperative because students work in groups to complete a task, they delegate duties and responsibilities among themselves, and they work together to create a finished product - usually a multimedia presentation. WebQuests are a type of discovery learning because the students usually research a topic in-depth, and they are cognitive apprenticeships because the instructor serves as a cognitive mentor who provides scaffolding and technical assistance to the students. Check out the link at http://webquest.sdsu.edu/for more information about WebQuests.

Podcasts, too, are cooperative, as students take turns creating and producing audio segments; some students may serve as writers, while others are producers or announcers. Podcasts employ discovery learning –both about the subject matter and about the technology necessary to make a podcast (computers, audio editing software etc.); as Mr. Vincent notes in his podcast (LINK HERE), the students dig deeper into a subject to come up with interesting content. Finally, the teacher again serves the role of cognitive mentor, providing scaffolding and teaching the students how to use the software. To see how you can use podcasts in the K-12 classroom, check out this

References

Conway, Judith. “Educational Technology’s Effects on Models of Instruction.” 1997. Accessed at http://copland.udel.edu/~jconway/EDST666.htm

Ain't Nothing Funny When You're Messing With My Money...

2006-03-17T00:56:00.000-08:00

Found this humorous article on yahoo today:

TOKYO (AFP) - Nearly half of Japan's housewives keep money secret from their husbands and most of them doubt their spouses have any idea about it, a survey found, showing women's hold the purse strings here.

About 46 percent of housewives said they had secret funds, with the sum averaging 2.41 million yen (20,000 dollars), according to a survey of 500 wives in salary-earning households by Sompo Japan DIY Life Insurance.

The hidden savings seem to be accumulating with time, as the average sum was four million yen for housewives in their 50s, nearly three times as much as the 1.46 million yen for those in their 20s.

On the other hand, 76 percent of the women believe their husbands keep no such secret money.

Even those who suspect their husbands have funds they don't know about estimate the sum at a modest 364,000 yen.

"After all, most wives believe their husbands have no secret assets and they have a grip on their family purse strings," the life insurer said.

Damn, the older women have got 4 million stashed - that's about $34K USD! The bank interest rate here is negligible (about .02% APR at my bank) and they're probably not investing it, so that's probably straight savings. That means they're stashing about a grand a year - how can their husbands not notice that money going missing?

I've lived in Japan and Korea for five years and still don't understand how the women got a hold of the purse strings. I mean, these societies are completely partiarchal in every other aspect, yet the women are doing the books.

I can see the conversations the mothers have with their daughters on their wedding day: "Hide money from your husband. Hell, I've been hiding dough from your father for years and he has no clue. He better not divorce me, because if he does I've got a good head start on cleaning him out! If your husband calls you on it, act indignant and tell him that he blew it all at the snack bar - shuts 'em right up every time!"

Rack 'em up!

2006-03-16T00:49:00.001-08:00

Today I'm going to take you on a virtual tour of my gym. Like the gyms in Korea, the gyms in Japan are pretty crap and mine is no exception. I guess the whole fitness craze didn't make it across the pond - probably because people aren't fat here like they are in America, so they're not really motivated to work out - because most of the equipment is awful.

My gym is in a community center; while it may have awful equipment, I can make do with the free weights. Price is a big selling point; there's no membership and it's pay per visit, with each visit only costing 150 yen (about $1.25). This pay as you go is both a good thing and a bad thing - good because you don't waste money if you don't go, but bad because your motivation to go is lower because of the same reason (it doesn't matter if I don't go - I'm not wasting money by not going).

About 90% of customers are dudes, a mix of adults and high school kids who have no clue how to work out. Most of the adults are blue-collar workers, which contrasts with gyms back in the States that generally have a mixture of blue and white collar guys. Maybe it's because working out is a blue-collar thing, but it's probably because blue-collar guys get to punch out at 5pm, while the salarymen have to slave away doing unpaid overtime until 8pm and then go out and get wasted with the coworkers.

Right, on to the first picture: the weight rack. Woo-hoo, the dumbbells go all the way up to 10 kilograms - that's 22 pounds to you Yanks. If you want to do any more weight than that, you have to use the old-school bars where you add and remove weight and then put collars on them; this pretty much kills any rest period you might have between sets because you're spending the whole time switching the plates out. Ah, well, I guess it keeps you busy...

Roll me away

2006-03-16T00:49:00.000-08:00

Here we have the "biyuti rora" - aka "beauty roller." You sit on the high seat, turn the roller on, and the little wooden thingies spin around. You put your legs and/or butt on the spinning wood and it's supposed to knock the fat off. I guess it operates on the same principle as the fat shaker (see below). Like the fat shaker, they got these things in Korea too. People use this thing - it's all I can do to suppress my laughter...

Shake Your Booty

2006-03-16T00:48:00.001-08:00

Oh yeah, baby - it's the fat shaker machine! Put the belt around your waist, turn it on, and shake shake shake those pounds away! The gym has two of these puppies - and people use them, too, including dudes who actually know how to work out! Before I came to Asia, I hadn't seen one of these since Olivia Newton John's "Physical" video. The Koreans have (and use) them, too.

Behind the fat shaker is some twisty-turny thing that I guess is supposed to work your abs. You stand on the platform or sit on the seat, grasp the handles, and then spin from side to side. Oh, mercy!

Bad Equipment

2006-03-16T00:48:00.000-08:00

You see all that gear in the middle of the room? I only use two of those machines - the combination lat pulldown/row (on the corner nearest the photo) and the combination leg extension/hamstring curl (not visible); if you use any of the other stuff you're begging for an injury.

See the pectoral fly machine? Notice how the starting position has your arms behind your shoulders - that's a great way to get hurt. That machine bench press the guy's doing is crap, too. All of this stuff is fairly new but is definitely ergonomically unsound. It was the same at the gyms in Korea, too - Ken sticks to the free weights.

Funny story about the exercise bikes; the driving age in Japan is 18 and high school kids can't drive to school anyway, so they usually ride bicycles or scooters. The gym is on the second floor and has big sliding glass doors. I was working out one day and looked out the window to see two high school girls riding their bicycles; they were wearing the uniforms of a school on the other side of town and it probably took them about 30 minutes to ride to the gym. They came into the gym, changed in the locker room, then came out and got on the exercise bicycles and rode them at the same exact speed they were riding their bikes outside! I thought to myself "Girls! You just rode bikes! How about some free weights?" Of course, they probably don't know how to use free weights, so...

The Lady who volunteers at my gym

2006-03-16T00:47:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned earlier, the gym is housed in a community center; AFAIK, it's staffed by volunteers only (maybe that's part of the reason why it's so cheap). This lady volunteers during the weekdays, so I only see her if I get there before 5pm. She's a nice woman - she's kind enough to speak to me fairly slowly and clearly, rather than using the rapid-fire dialect that everyone else does. This woman has three kids, including one who just graduated from university, yet she's still rocking the peace sign in photos. Gotta love these people...

Check out a great video blog - Bicycle Sidewalk!

2006-03-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

If you’ve got some time on your hands (and you obviously do, since you’re reading this), check out my buddy Nathan Miller’s video blog, bicycle-sidewalk. Every week, Nathan makes at least one (usually two or more) video entries each week about his life here in Japan and his trips to other countries (e.g. Korea, China).

Nathan is a cool guy with an interesting story. He arrived in Japan in the summer of 1999 as a participant in the JET Program and was placed in a rural town in Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu (the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands). At that time, he was a newly minted university college graduate from North Carolina and spoke hardly any Japanese.

One day, he was walking down the street in his small town when an older gentleman came up to him and indicated that he wanted to teach Nathan Japanese, but Nathan said “No thanks” and went about on his business. Nathan kept running into this guy and the man kept pestering Nathan to study Japanese with him, so Nathan finally relented and agreed to study.

It turns out that this older gentleman was running a cram school with his wife out of their home. Nathan studied there for eight hours a week for a year and a half and learned to read and write Japanese – no small feat, considering that he came to Japan with virtually no knowledge of Japanese - one of the most difficult languages for L1 English speakers to learn.

Nathan learned Japanese so well that in 2002 he received a scholarship to study Japanese literature (in Japanese) at Kurume University in Fukuoka Prefecture. He received his Master’s in 2005 and is currently a doctoral student in Japanese literature at Kurume University – pretty impressive, huh? Nathan is a big of a jack-of-all-trades and has a lot on his plate. He’s a student, he’s got his video blog, works as a medical technician in a hospital in Fukuoka, and he teaches.

His video blog covers a wide range of topics – nightlife, Japanese culture, quirky and eclectic sights, language, education, etc. For those outside of Japan, it provides a window into an often-strange world. For me, it serves as a mirror for me to reflect on my own experiences in Japan. I’ve lived here for 2.5 years and have some understanding of the language and culture, so some of the things he talks about resonate with me; on the other hand, he’s been here far longer than me and has a much better grasp on the language than I do, so he is able to see and understand things that I cannot.

All of the episodes are insightful and fun to watch, but educators might find episodes 101 and 104 particularly interesting. In these episodes, Nathan guest taught at an elementary school and filmed it. These segments provide a glimpse into the world of Japanese public education (and one that I could definitely relate to).

Anyway, enough rambling - get out of here and go check out bicycle-sidewalk!

The Hardest Working Man in School Business

2006-03-01T02:11:00.000-08:00

This is Mr. Ishibashi, the vice-principal of Ryujo Junior High School. In Japan, the vice-principal is the hardest-working man in the school. Japanese junior high schools only have three administrators – the principal, vice-principal, and the office manager. Like a president in a parliamentary government, the principal is more of a figurehead and he’s always going to some meeting or other at other schools, City Hall, etc. The vice-principal is like the prime minister – he’s the guy that has to do all the heavy lifting. He has to coordinate the schedule, manage the teachers, take care of discipline and administrative matters and answer the phone (there is no secretary and the office manager works in a different office and doesn’t answer the phone).

(Side note: “Ishi” means “stone” and “bashi” means “bridge” so his name means “Stonebridge.” The Japanese tire company Bridgestone was founded by someone named Ishibashi; why they decided to call it Bridgestone instead of Stonebridge is a mystery to me.)

Mr. Ishibashi works Monday through Friday from 7:40AM to 8PM; he’s the second person into the building (the principal arrives at 7:20AM) and the last person to leave. In addition, he coaches the school baseball team every Saturday from 8AM to noon, so he’s knocking out about 65 hours a week, every week, with no overtime pay.

Unlike school administrators in the States, Japanese principals and vice-principals do not major in educational administration – they are all former teachers who worked their way up through the ranks. Mr. Ishibashi is a former PE teacher, while the principal is a former math teacher.

Mr. Ishibashi’s career is a little unique; he majored in PE, then worked in an educational center for two years, worked in a social physical education program for three years, was a PE teacher for six years, worked in educational research for another year, worked in the prefectural educational curriculum planning department for nine years, and has been a vice principal for the past four years.

His case is an exception; usually the progression goes: teacher – head teacher – vice-principal. A more typical case is found in one of my former co-teachers; he was an English teacher, then became a head teacher (while still teaching normal English classes) and then was promoted to vice-principal last year. It was a shock when I visited him at his new school and he was the vice-principal; I had to change the way I addressed him from “Sakai Sensei” (Sakai Teacher) to “Kyoto Sensei” (vice-principal).

I really respect Mr. Ishibashi. I believe in leading by example and hate working for slackers. He works far, far harder than I do, and that drives me to perform and do my best.

I’ve worked for him for 2.5 years. When I first got here, I thought he was wound really, really tight. I couldn’t speak any Japanese at that time, so I didn’t know what he was really like. As time goes on, I can speak more and more Japanese and I have come to find that he’s actually a funny guy. He believes in taking care of business, but he’s also got a good sense of humor. I had a little – ahem – “friction” with one of my co-workers recently and Mr. Ishibashi took me out for dinner and beers to help me sort things out. He’s also one of the few people in the office who actually talk to me; some of them ignore me like I’m not there, but he’s always happy to help me out and answer my questions. I wish that I spoke Japanese better so that I could communicate better with him and express my gratitude and respect without sounding like a six year-old.

Get to Work!

2006-02-27T00:54:00.000-08:00

My 8th grade students went on a work experience program two weeks ago. They made posters about their experiences and posted them in the hallway this morning. Here's a shot of one of the posters (sorry I didn't get a full hallway shot of all of the posters for perspective; I'll try to get one tomorrow). Across the top it says "Work Experience Program Report" and just below that it says...hmm, let's see... "Honda Purimo Furendo" - that's a katakanized version of "Honda Primo Friend." Below that they have a report of their day, and at the bottom are some photos printed out on normal A4 paper. See the posts below for closeups of the report and photos...

2006-02-27T00:49:00.001-08:00

Here's a closeup of the photos on the poster; sorry about the poor picture quality. These are printouts on regular A4 paper that have been taped to the thin green poster paper and then taped to a window; the sunlight was streaming in to the back of the poster when I took the photo.

2006-02-27T00:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a closeup of the description of what the boys did on their work experience program. Hmm, looks like they washed and waxed cars from 9am to noon, took lunch from noon to 1pm, then washed and waxed some more cars from 1pm to 4pm. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me...

Stranger in a Strange Land

2006-02-27T00:10:00.000-08:00

Here are four of my 8th grade students. From left to right are: Claudiu, Misaki, Aki, and Yuki. Cladiu is from Romania; his mom married a Japanese man and they moved here about six months ago. Out of the four junior high schools in my town (totaling about 1200 students), he is the only non-Japanese student; I do have one half Japanese/ half American student (who the Japanese - in their oh-so-politically correct way - call a haffu), but she has lived here all of her life.

Claudiu's got it tough. They don't have anything resembling a "Japanese as a Second Language" program here, so when he arrived they just threw him into the general student body, despite the fact that he barely knew any Japanese. None of the other teachers tried to help him out; they had never had any experience with immigrant kids and they quite frankly seemed like they didn't know what to do with him. Fortunately, he speaks English pretty well (in contrast to his Japanese peers who can hardly speak any English - maybe the Japanese could go to Romania to get some hints on how to teach EFL) because guess who became his Japanese tutor? That's right - me.

I'm an American who has never studied Japanese in a classroom or taken a lesson. He's a Romanian kid who speaks English as a foreign language. We're living in Japan, in a school with Japanese teachers who speak English - and they nominate me to teach him Japanese. Classic.

It gets even better, because the ALT at another school in my town is fluent in English, Japanese, and Romanian! She grew up in Romania and moved to the States when she was ten. She studied Japanese in high school and minored in it in university. She's probably the only ALT in Japan who is fluent in all three of these languages. What a stroke of luck! Her school is only a 15 minute bike ride from mine, and Claudiu could go to that school, since it's in the same school district. She could tutor him much more effectively than I or anyone else could.

It's a no-brainer, right? Well, if you lived in a world where logic prevailed that would be the case, but this is Japan. It's more important to include someone in the group than to meet their needs (which is why were have severely mentally disabled children thrown in with the general student body - so they don't get left out). We can't bend the rules to meet this kid's needs, so he's staying right where he belongs - at the school that serves his neighborhood.

Claudiu's doing alright. He has been accepted by the "cool" kids in his class, and in a society where being in the group is so important this is a good thing. He's hopelessly behind in his classes, though, and he'll probably never catch up. Japanese is one of the most difficult written langauges in the world; his peers know more than 1000 Kanji while he knows less than 50. If he got some hard-core tutoring in his L1 he might have a fighting chance, but he's not getting that. Sometimes I just don't understand how these people think...

2006-02-27T00:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the same slogan but on a different poster in the back of the class.

2006-02-26T23:57:00.000-08:00

Right, time for another class slogan. This slogan is also for an 8th grade (2nd year junior high school) class. In the middle of the poster are individual photos of each student and the teacher, plus two group photos. The message (roughly) says "We are a 'bright smile class.' In times of joy and times of sadness, we share everything with a heated sense of cooperation and responsiblity." Or something like that.

The Writing's On The Wall

2006-02-23T00:20:00.000-08:00

There are two things that most public junior high school classrooms in Japan are guaranteed to not have:

Anything resembling technology (e.g. a computer or even an overhead projector)
Heating or air-conditioning (unless they’re way up north, in which case they’re blessed with heating). That’s right, kids – around here, winter temps hit freezing and summer temps (we have classes in July and August) regularly hit the 90’s with high humidity, yet we have no climate control. The kids freeze in the winter and bake in the summer – it’s a wonder they learn anything at all.

However, there is one thing that each classroom is guaranteed to have, and that’s the class slogan. The Japanese are big fans of team-building, so at the beginning of each school year the class gets together with their homeroom teacher and comes up with the class slogan. These messages are pretty much usually the same (e.g. “Let’s be a happy class and work together towards our goals” “In good times and bad, we are one big group. Let’s not leave anyone out of the group and let’s work towards our goals”); I have a sneaking suspicion that somewhere is a big book of “Classroom Slogans” that the teachers dip into if the kids can’t come up with anything.

Let’s look at a couple of classroom slogans today. Both of these messages came from the same 8^th grade classroom; most classes only have one slogan but these guys have two – I guess they felt like getting a little crazy with it.

From right to left, top to bottom, this message reads: “Responsibility, Cooperation, Concentration, Distinction from (Settle the matter), a Smile.” I can’t quite figure out the meaning of this message, since the meaning hinges on the third word, “kejime,” which has two definitions. My dictionary gives two definitions for this one; the first is “distinction from” (as in “make a distinction between play time and work time”) while the other meaning is to “settle or resolve a matter.” So, this message could be saying, “We’re here to work and not to play” or “A smile is the resolution of hard work.” This is one of the tough things about the Japanese language; it’s often very vague and subjective, which makes it difficult for a foreigner to work out the meaning. Most class slogans are usually of the “we’re a big happy class” variety, so I’m guessing that this message is promoting the idea of smiling in class; maybe someone more competent than me in Japanese (Nathan, you reading this?) can help me out.

The second message is a little easier to work out; from left to right it reads: “Each person/everything/earnestly/can tackle (can come to grips with)/ 1^st class (the class number)” So, I’m guessing that the meaning is “First class: Each of us can tackle any situation in earnest.” My Japanese isn’t so hot, though, so I may be wrong.

I just realized that these messages are a lot like those cheesy inspirational posters you always see in the States Still, this is something the kids produce themselves (with varying degrees of assistance from the homeroom teacher) and I think it’s a good team-building exercise. Look for future posts featuring more class slogans.

Born to Ride

2006-02-18T21:03:00.000-08:00

There she is – my ride, my steed, my wheels, my jitensha. Zero horsepower of pedal-powered Bridgestone steel. It’s got a light for riding at night and a granny basket for hauling groceries – what more could you need?

I don’t own a car. I don’t say this in a snobbish “I’m too cool for cars and they’re bad for the environment” kind of way – more like “I’m too cheap and lazy to get a car.” A Japanese driver’s license is insanely hard to get. It is virtually impossible to pass the test the first time without going to driving school. I don’t know a foreigner who has passed the driving test on their first try without going to driving school. Most people have to take the test three or more times before they pass; at seventy bucks a pop (plus having to take vacation time to go take the test) the money and frustration adds up.

Why is it so difficult to pass the test? Cronyism, my friends – the good old boy network. Former employees of the license testing centers supplement their pensions by working at the driving schools, so they serve as a kind of de facto retirement plan for the cops. The schools teach you the “secret handshake” of the tests – when to check your mirrors, what angle to take a turn, etc. The guys at the testing centers can tell if you haven’t gone to driving school and will most likely fail you if you haven’t gone – because they want to keep the gravy train going for when they retire.

Driving school tuition is close to two thousand bucks, and I don’t want to pay that much money for a license that I might only use for a year or two. Besides, cars are expensive – gas is almost four bucks a gallon, plus parking, insurance, tolls (all highways are toll roads), taxes (you have to get your car “tested” every two years – this test costs almost two thousand bucks, and that’s if there’s nothing wrong with the car – repairs are extra). It all comes down to Econ 101, wants versus needs. I don’t “need” a car, I just “want” one – but I can’t justify that kind of expense; ergo, I ride a bike.

My bike is good. My bike is probably the only thing standing between a beer gut and me. Depending on which school I’m working at, I ride anywhere between five and ten hours a week – that’s a lot of exercise.

Oh, but there are days that I wish I had a car. Days when I have to ride twenty minutes to school in the pouring rain. Days in the winter when I don’t go to the gym because I don’t want to freeze my ass off to get there. Days in the summer when I take a shower and go out on a Friday night, only to arrive at the train station eight minutes later covered in sweat. Days like these I grit my teeth and tell myself “It’s good for you. It’s good exercise. It builds character – but I really wish I had a car!”

Podcasts

2006-02-18T00:37:00.000-08:00

One exciting development in the world of education is the advent and proliferation of podcasts. The word “podcast” is derived from “I-pod” (Apple’s portable digital audio and video player) and “broadcast.” A podcast is an audio file that you can download to your computer and then listen to at your leisure on your computer or portable audio device (e.g. mp3 players, such as the aforementioned I-pod).

Podcasts have exciting applications for education, especially for distance education students like me. My online courses at Indiana University are great and I’ve learned a lot from them, but they are completely visually oriented. In a traditional classroom setting there is a combination of visual and aural instruction – students read the materials and attend lectures, where they listen to their instructor and (hopefully) take notes. Online classes, on the other hand, lack the aural component; students have to read books or articles, write papers, and read and reply to topics on an online classroom discussion board, and there is no aural input.

Podcasts are a great way to incorporate the aural element into distance education. If you visit my Professor’s website Teach With Tech you can download and listen to his podcasts. This is the first class that I have taken that has offered podcasts; now, I can download Professor Essex’s talks and lectures and listen to them while I ride the train. This is great for distance students who have an auditory learning style. Different people have different learning styles and strategies; some people learn best by visual input, some people like an auditory approach, while others prefer a kinesthetic (movement-oriented) approach to learning. Podcasts are a big step towards bringing the aural element to distance education students who have an auditory learning style.

Instructors aren’t the only ones creating podcasts – students are getting in on the act, too, including – amazingly – elementary school students.

While my current teaching situation in junior high school isn’t conducive to employing podcasts, I am excited to be able to use them as a student. I hope to teach at a university or high school in the near future, and I think that employing podcasts will be one of many ways I can use technology to enhance my students’ learning experiences.

Hi Tech Japan? Try "No Tech Classrooms"

2006-02-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

When you mention the words "Japan" and "technology" to Westerners, many of them will have a vision of a Blade Runner-like futuristic world. They would be right on one count - it sure seems to rain a lot here like it did in Blade Runner - but they would be wrong about the hi tech bit.

I, too, thought Japan was hi tech - until I set foot in a junior high school. Here's two shots of a typical Japanese junior high classroom, taken at my school today (one shot from the front of the room, the other from the back). As you can see,the only thing that passes for technology is the clock on the wall. Computers? Nope. Overhead projectors? Negative. Heck, there isn't even a TV - the space once filled by the TV is now occupied by a trophy (back of the room in the top shot, near the curtain). The classroom setup is probably the same thing they had going on back in the 1920's.

I'm a distance Master's of Language Education student at Indiana University. I took Computer-Assisted Lanuage Learning in a previous term and am taking two technology-related courses this term. Whenever my classmates talk about how they use technology in the classroom I think "That would be nice" and whenever I design a technology-related project or lesson I think "Well, I can't use this now, but maybe someday..."

Ken

Let's Eat!

2006-02-15T01:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, My friends, there are many differences between Japan and America. Japan is a country of islands, while America is a continental nation (with a few islands thrown in). Japan's constitution forbids it from aggressing against other countries, while America has a curious habit of invading sovereign nations every few years. The Japanese speak Japanese while Americans speak...err...English.

One thing Japan and America do have in common, though - people gotta eat, including junior high school students. Today I have some shots of my kids getting ready to eat. Japanese elementary and junior high school students usually eat in their own classrooms. Some schools have school lunch; mine, thankfully, do not; Japanese school lunch makes American school lunch seem like dinner at the Four Seasons.

My students bring their own lunches to school. They usually bring "bento" - a home made box lunch with rice and random bits of meat and vegetables thrown in on the side. Bentos are usually pretty healthy and they're definitely low-cal - most of them clock in at under 1000 calories. Some kids don't bring bento (lazy moms?) and instead eat some decidedly unhealthy bread-based snacks instead (one kid today ate a big baguette filled with butter that he bought at the 7-11). Chips, cookies, and sodas are off-limits (I found this out the hard way when I brought in chips, sandwich, and a coke and was met with gasps of surprise and looks of jealousy), but they're allowed to eat chocolate-filled bread - go figure.

2006-02-15T01:06:00.000-08:00

Here's Toshiyuki and Takuma getting ready to have at it; Shohei (not pictured) has the biggest lunch. I reckon most of these lunches are less than 1000 calories.Their moms make the lunches either in the morning or the night before. It must take forever to make them, because each lunch usually has four or five little things in it (if you look closely at Toshiyuki's you can see at least three items). I tried to make my own for a while but it always tasted like crap and took too long to make; now I just buy one at the supermarket for about 400 yen (about $3.50).

2006-02-15T01:04:00.000-08:00

The kids bring their lunches (known as "bento" or boxed lunch) to school in the morning and then put them in this giant wooden lunch-warmer box. Come lunchtime, they bring them to class on these big trays; most of the lunches had already been snagged before I could take this shot. Unfortunately, the warming service is only provided during the winter; in the summer, they have to eat them at room temperature. Bummer.

2006-02-15T00:59:00.000-08:00

Here's Aki on the left and Maho in the middle, getting ready to dig in The girl on the right is Miho but she wouldn't turn around. The kids bring their own lunches and the school provides the milk. In Japan, the kids eat lunch in their classroom. Aki and Maho have matching chopsticks - how cute!

2006-02-15T00:56:00.000-08:00

Yum, what's for lunch today? Hmm, looks like some pot stickers, a sausage, a little piece of fried chicken, some random other stuff. That brown stuff on top of the rice is some kind of seaweed, and that yellow stuff came out of that little hamster package - it's dried egg and more seaweed.

Welcome to Kenny Kimchee's EFL Adventures!

2006-02-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

Hi, welcome to my first blog (as if the world doesn't have enough of these already) and my first post.

This blog will serve a number of purposes. It's main purpose is to serve as a place for me to reflect on my classes that I'm taking via distance education at Indiana University http://www.indiana.edu/%7Elangdist/, where I am a Master's student in Language Education.

Like any good blog, this will also probably end up as a place where I can rant about whatever strikes me - work being a likely target.

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned!

Ken