Asahikawa American English Conversation School
for March 2006
NOTE: The OBJECTIVE of this BLOG is to help my students with their study of English.
AND
For all of you, out there, around the world to;
SEE HOKKAIDO
2006 March 31 Friday.
Today is the last day of March. It is also my little sister's birthday. She is 7 years younger than me and lives in Seattle. A city where I too lived for about 6 years between 1984 and 1990. Seattle is much warmer than Asahikawa during the winter months, but it rains a lot in Seattle. Cold and damp everyday, is the order of the season. In Asahikawa, winter means cold and frozen. Damp is what happens in the bathroom. Happy Birthday Sissy-Oh! I won't tell you how old she is this year, but if you know how old I am, you can do the math. Anyway, today, unlike yesterday, was a very busy day at the classroom. I had straight lessons from 13:30 until 20:00. I barely had enough time to eat some food between lessons to keep my energy up. Thank god for cheese and crackers. A quick and tasty snack. One of my short term students, came for her 3rd private lesson today. She told me that the company she just got hired by, a very big automobile parts company, will be sending her to Toronto Canada in May. Well, maybe. It could be some other city, either in Canada or the USA. Nobody is really quite sure yet. Anyway, we are using my original textbook for Overseas Travel 海外旅行で使える米会話 and she is doing very well. In her case, it is not really a matter of study, it is a matter of intense training. She can read and understand 99% of the textbook, but she needs some training in being able to say it spontaneously and smoothly. That is what I am doing with her. She is making rapid progress and will be ready to run when her feet hit the ground in North America. Her situation reminds me of my situation about 17 years ago when I first learned that I would be going to Japan to work at an American University Sister School in Asahikawa. At that time in 1990, I had already been studying the Japanese language for about 15 years, mostly on my own but also at the universities where I attended many classes. In order to practice speaking Japanese with a native speaker, I enrolled at the YMCA Language Training School in downtown Seattle. I was placed in a group lesson, and soon discovered that my Japanese speaking ability was better than all of the other students in my class. I should have taken private lessons with a native speaker of Japanese, but the university that I worked for at that time would only pay for group lessons. It was much better than not taking any lessons at all before my departure. I learned this fact from my own experience so I was not at all surprised when this young lady who will soon be going to North America, called my classroom after looking and this website and decided immediately to take private lessons from day one. She did not even want to have a free trial lesson for the first session. She had done her research into the various English Conversation Schools 英会話スクール in this city, and had discovered that her needs for a short term, intensive training course in spoken English with a native speaker of American English was her best option. She made the right choice, and I am very honored and happy to have her as a trainee, even for a short time. After all of my lessons were finished at 20:00, I spent some time writing the teaching schedules for my outside classes into my Daily Minder 手帳. I will be back into the outside world of academia starting the second week of April. For the most part, I like working at these universities, nursing schools, kindergartens and other places, very much. It gives me a chance to drive my van on a sunny morning, and also to meet new people. However, I must say that out of all the lessons that I teach throughout the year, I like the ones that happen in my classroom the best. That's because I am able to get to know the people much better when they are in small groups or during private lessons. TRUE COMMUNICATION in any language is really a face to face process. If you don't know much about the person whom you are talking to, you can't really talk about much that is important. Face to face. Up close and personal. That is what smooth communication is all about. The rest is just simulation, or masturbation.
2006 March 30 Thursday.
I only had one class today at 17:00 with three elementary school children. An other junior high school student who comes every week at this time is now in Asahikawa's Sister City of Bloomington-Normal Illinois for a 10 day home stay program. The other students are on spring vacation and enjoying their free time away from school. As a result I had some more time to figure out how to fix the broken links on this website. After reading again some of the books I have as well as reading the FAQ section of the web hosting company that serves my website to the internet, I finally found out how to recalculate the links directly on the server as well as on the hard disk original of this website. I know that some of you out there reading this who are more experienced webmasters than myself will be thinking "That was a no-brainer!" Yes, it is now, but for my first time it was a big challenge. After I recalculated all the links and then uploaded the website to the server again, the problem was fixed. Not only did I fix the broken links, but the links seem to work faster now. What did I learn from this near disaster? I learned not to try a quick and easy "cut and paste" approach to a new web design. If I want to make a new style of website, I should start from the beginning and build it from the ground up. That is exactly what I did after my only class of the day was finished at 18:00. I started designing a completely new website that uses shared borders and cascading style sheets CSS. Also, I will learn how to create a more interactive website that will be able to provide e-learning programs to the end users. This project will probably take about a year to finish. At least I won't be bored during the year. Lights out at 27:00.
2006 March 29 Wednesday.
No classes until 15:00 again today, so I did some more studying about how to fix the broken links on my website, that resulted from my faulty attempt to change the basic design of this website. As of 15:00, I had not quite gotten it right yet. With straight classes from 15:00 until 21:00, I was too busy to try again during the day. The young girl who comes to the 16:00 class every week at this time will be a 6th grader in elementary school starting this April. She and her cousin started coming to my classroom about 4 years ago. Her cousin quit a few months ago so that she could take swimming lessons, but this girl is still coming to her English lessons every week. When this young girl first started coming here at the age of 7, she and her cousin of 5 years old, were very playful and didn't take their lessons all that seriously. However, they always enjoyed their lessons and did make progress little by little. Nowadays, this young girl is very serious about her lessons and has made great progress since the time she first started 4 years ago. In fact, she is using my original textbook designed for junior high school first year students and is doing very well. She no longer uses Katakana カタカナ to write the pronunciation of the words in her textbook like she used to do before. She can read English as it is. Very impressive. Also her pronunciation is very clear and easy to understand. She is way ahead of most of her elementary school classmates. It will be interesting to see how big the difference in abilities between her and her younger cousin will become in the months and year ahead. Perseverance is Strength 継続は力なり.
2006 March 28 Tuesday.
I didn't have any classes until 15:00 today, so I had a lot of time to try and put this website back together in its original form. The way it used to work before I "improved" it. I was able to get most of it back on line, but the links to the photo galleries are still broken. With my first lesson starting at 15:00, and my last lesson ending at 21:00, I was rather tired and hungry by the end of the school day. I ate some dinner while watching the news and other shows on TV, then I got back to work trying to get the links to all of the photo galleries working again. Still no luck. I'll try again tomorrow. Lights out at 26:00.
2006 March 27 Monday.
My first class of the day was at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会. Today, there were 4 new people who came to observe the class. If they all join the class, it will have 14 members. A lot of people for a 60 minute class were everyone gets a chance to talk about something. Also, I brought along 2 pages of my original textbooks. One is called IDIOMS, the other is a new one that I just starting writing called American Jokes. Today I explained the page about American Jokes. One type of joke that I introduced was the "knock knock joke." At first some of the members, didn't understand what was so funny about this style of joke, but I explained the basic pattern and they were able to get into it. As a home work assignment, I asked each of them to write their own knock knock joke for next week. I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with. After that class was finished at about 14:40, I rushed back to my classroom for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. Then, I sat down to copy all the files from my old website using frames, into my new website using shared borders. After I did that, I uploaded it all to my server. After the upload was finished, I looked at the result in my web browser. All of the main pages looked OK. However, when I tried to look at the photo galleries, I discovered that all of the links were broken. Oh my god! What a mess. I guess I didn't do enough study about this before I tried it for real. Back to the drawing board. Lights out at 26:00.
2006 March 26 Sunday.
A rather windy and partly sunny day in the morning. The snow continues to melt and the streets are mostly clear. The wind is very strong at times and still rather cold but spring is marching forward. I spent all day today working on a brand new design for this website. Right now, this website uses frames. One on the top and one on the left that shows a navigation bar. While this system works quite well and is in fact used by many other websites, it does not display well is some browsers and on some smaller sized monitors. So, today I decided to try a new design using shared borders and possibly cascading style sheets (CSS). After a few hours of reading about it, it was time to actually get on the PC and try making a brand new site. After experimenting around for a few hours, I got a design that looks really good. Now I need to start transferring files to the new website design and I should be finished by the end of this week. Stay tuned for that.
2006 March 25 Saturday.
I was supposed to have a private lesson with a high school girl who has been coming here for many years, but her mother called at about 10:30 to inform me that her daughter was not feeling well today and would come to her next lesson in April. I thanked the mother for her phone call and asked her to convey the message "Get well soon!" to her daughter. She said that she would. With no classes today, I had plenty of time to print up some more brochures that tell about this classroom to potential students. It took me about 4 hours to print and fold 25 of them with a one page insert. They are printed on high quality A3 sized paper on both sides. When the are folded in half, they become A4 sized. The same size of the insert that contains additional information. Another Do It Yourself job. As I was doing that job, I discovered a large number of business card sized posters that I had made last June which I use to promote this website. I had printed and laminated many of these last year, but I still had some left over. Therefore, I finished laminating the ones that remained today. That job took another three hours. Finally, it was time for some cold beer and a session on the electric bass guitar, unplugged. I didn't even have time to watch TV today. Oh, what a pity.
2006 March 24 Friday.
Today was a very good day indeed. After my 15:00 lesson was finished at about 15:50, the junior high school girl who will be going to the USA tomorrow, and her mother, came by to see me one more time before her departure. Her little sister also comes to my classroom every Friday at 15:00 so, I see her mother every week. The little sister said to me, "I want to be able to speak English better than my big sister." I replied that, "It is possible because you started learning English at a younger age." She gave me a big smile. At 17:00, a new student, who called my classroom just yesterday after looking at this website and decided to start lessons, came to my classroom for the very first time to start a short 2 month course of private lessons. This very nice looking young lady has just graduated from a university in Chitose and was hired by a very big auto parts company. As a part of her On the Job Training, she will be leaving for either Canada or the USA in May of this year. She will attend lessons about 3 times a week before she leaves. Her level of English is quite good so I asked her if she has ever lived in an English speaking country. She replied that while she was a junior high school student, she went for a 10 day home stay in Bloomington-Normal Illinois. I was rather surprised and also very glad to hear that. I told her about the student who will be leaving tomorrow. She also told me that she went to Kuri no Ki Kindergarten, a place that I am very familiar with. Today for our first lesson I used the first pages of my original textbooks Q & A and also Word Associations. She seemed to enjoy the lesson and was able to follow along with the conversations on various topics. When that lesson was finished at about 17:55, I had another new student come for a free trial lesson. He will be a second year student in junior high school starting in April. His older sister came to my classroom for about 4 years during her last year of elementary school and all three years of junior high school. His sister did very well at my classroom and was able to ask questions and state her own opinions by the time she started high school about 2 years ago. Her younger brother also did very well during today's free trial lesson. After that lesson was finished at about 19:00, I had one more lesson with a delightful young lady who comes every week at this time. During that lesson, my wife got a telephone call from the mother of the young man who had just taken his first free trial lesson less than 40 minutes ago. She said that her son kept saying how enjoyable his first lesson had been and that he wants to take regular lessons starting next Friday. I was very glad to hear that. I enjoyed the lesson too. That is what I am all about, 話せる、使える、楽しい American English.
2006 March 23 Thursday.
Another day of melting snow with just a hint of spring in the air. I had lots of time again today to write new pages for various textbooks. The junior high school girl who will be going to the USA on Saturday was very late for her 18:00 lesson because she was attending an orientation with the 8 other students that will be going with her. They were practicing what to do and say when they go through Customs and Immigration Procedures as they enter the USA. I have some textbook pages about this too, but I didn't use them with her. When she arrived for her lesson at about 18:45, we practiced one more time the first 4 pages of my American Homestay textbook. Then at 19:00 when the high school girl who wants to become a flight attendant arrived for her lesson, we switched to a Q and A textbook which encourages free talking. It was a very enjoyable lesson for all three of us. After all classes were finished for today, I spent some more time writing a few new textbook pages. Then, I played the electric bass guitar unplugged for about an hour. I really enjoy playing the bass guitar. I wonder if I will be able to play in a band again this summer?
No
classes until 15:00 today so I had some more time to write more pages for more
textbooks. I have to do this in order to keep up with my students who are
making rapid progress. One of those students can be see in the photo on
the left. She is the second girl from the left. As you can see from
this article in yesterday's Hokkaido Newspaper, she will be going to Asahikawa's
sister of Bloomington-Normal Illinois for a 10 day home stay program starting
March 25. This young lady who is now in her second year at Kagura
Junior High School has been coming to my classroom almost every week since 3
years ago. She has made very good progress in her study of spoken English
and is able to say what she wants to say for the most part. Now, all of
her efforts and hard work will pay off as she takes her first trip outside of
Japan to an English speaking country. Since about 2 months ago, we have
been using my original textbook American Homestay so that she can learn the most
commonly used polite expressions in this type of situation. Student's who
memorize the vocabulary and set expressions in this book, always make a very
good impression on their host families. I haven't met any of the 8
other students that will be going with her, but I would not be surprised if her
spoken English is the best among the other members of this group.
She will come again tomorrow for her final lesson before her departure to the
USA. This will be a big adventure for her and she will come back to
Asahikawa with a different view of the world. For one thing, she will
realize how much bigger the USA is when compared to Japan. She will also
see customs and behaviors that will surprise or even shock her. I am
looking forward to hearing all about her experiences when she comes back in
about 2 weeks. This is one of the things that I like best about my job.
For further details, read my essay entitled
Job Satisfaction
on this website.
2006 March 21 Tuesday.
A cold
wind blowing wet snow is the reality of today's weather. Not only is today
the Vernal Equinox (Spring Equinox) 春分の日 but it is also a national holiday in
Japan. Therefore, no classes today. More time to write more pages
for more textbooks. I love writing. While I am sitting here in
my warm comfortable room typing this blog among other things, I am also reminded
that today is the annual
VASA cross country skiing competition that is held every year on this day in
Asahikawa. I tried it one time in 1995. It was raining that day.
I skied down to the bottom of a small slope where an ice cold puddle of water
awaited me. I fell down and got wet. I never have been back since that
day some 11 years ago. But I do think that everyone who lives here should
try it at least once. While I was taking a break from
writing, I read today's Hokkaido Newspaper. Towards the back of the
newspaper in the Asahikawa section, I saw the photograph of someone I know.
I will write about that in tomorrow's blog.
2006 March 20 Monday.
My first class of the day was at 13:30 at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会. Again today, two of the gentlemen talked about their trip to Seattle Washington and Victoria Canada. Another man talked about a Hokkaido Newspaper article that his name had appeared in. I had read the same article just a few days ago. It was about volunteer medical interpreters. He also mentioned that he would like to become an interpreter in a court of law. In order to do this he must learn a lot of new vocabulary. I am sure that he will be able to do it. He is a very motivated person. Other people talked about various things and the class went overtime again today as it usually does. When the class was finished, the members told me that they would like it if I would bring some copies of textbook pages to the class so that they could use them for study aids. I replied that I have hundreds of pages of dialogues that I had written by myself, each designed to learn the vocabulary and sentence patterns commonly used in various situations. One lady said that she would like to learn idioms. I thought back and remembered a textbook that I had written using idioms several years ago. When I tried using it with these and other students at that time, most students said the textbook was too difficult for them. I guess I will try it again next Monday. Another lady said that she would like to learn American jokes. That was a good thing for me to hear because I have never written any pages using American jokes before. After that, I rushed back to my classroom and had straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. When that was all done, I sat down at my PC to update my old textbook for idioms and also started writing a brand new textbook for learning American jokes. There are various kinds of jokes used in America so I decided to start out with the shortest examples of each type and finished two pages before I went to bed at about 24:00. I will continue to write more textbook pages tomorrow.
2006 March 19 Sunday.
It's a good thing I went for a walk last night, because it snowed almost all day today. Nasty weather. A good day to stay at home and,... do a major cleanup of the living room. Wait a minute, didn't I just do a major clean up of this room about one month ago? Yes, that's right. But because the room is lived in, it gets dirty and out of order a little bit every day. I spent almost half of the day just getting the place squared away. Then it was time to eat some natto and brown rice while watching some interesting science programs on Sky Perfect TV. I had planned to write some more pages for my textbooks today also, but I didn't have much time left to do it. Tomorrow is another day.
2006 March 18 Saturday.
The snow and ice continue to melt. A smile of sunshine is the only hint I need to go and take a long awaited walk along the main roadways and on the side streets which may or may not be totally clear of snow and ice. The less, the better. Walking on dry roads and sidewalks is not only a privilege, it is a major convenience of the modern world. No slipping and no sliding along the way. Just smooth walking on a flat level course. I did this for about 90 minutes and 7 kilometers. I walked slowly. And so, I got to enjoy the journey along the way. The air tonight smelled nice.
2006 March 17 Friday.
I
received a gift in the mail today. Well, more accurately it was a
package delivered by Kuro Neko. I was busy with a class of
elementary school students when my packaged gift arrived, but later when I
noticed it I asked my wife; "What is this?" "It is a gift."
She said. "A gift from whom?" I asked again. "A gift connected with the
naming of the new lake that will form behind Chubetsu Dam 忠別ダム."
Suddenly, I remembered the letter I had received on
2006 February 28. What a surprise. Something
beautiful and useful. The big box that it came in said; "Woody Clock".
After I saw the contents of the box, I understood the meaning for sure.
A battery operated clock and thermometer, together in one wooden display stand.
Below the clock is an interesting engraving that you can see more clearly by
clicking here. I was delighted and honored to receive this gift.
Being the dreamer while still having a foot hold in the logical world, I guessed
lucky and got a prize. A very nice prize indeed.
Other than that, it was a very normal day. Which means exactly what it
says. Absolutely nothing. Another good thing about today is that it
got warm enough to melt almost all of the remaining snow chunks off of my
veranda. Oh! What a feeling. It's not spring yet, but it
is getting close.
2006 March 16 Thursday.
It was much warmer during the day today as well as during the evening. Is springtime peeking out from just around the corner? I certainly hope so. I had some new students come to my classroom for free trial lessons today. The first one came at 16:00. It was a 4 year old boy, his mother and his 1 year old sister. The first thing I teach young children is how to say the names of the colors in English using colored flash cards. Then I teach them how to say "yes" "no" "please" and "thank you". Also, they learn how to count from 1 to 10. (see the lessons and levels page) The little boy really enjoyed today's lesson and even his 1 year old sister got into the act by learning how to say "pink" and "no". The second trial lesson for today was at 19:00 with three cheerful young ladies from South High School. I used page one of the brand new textbook that I am writing which promotes free talking by using a set of simple and not so simple questions that must be answered verbally, after listening to the speaker ask the questions. The speaker who asked the question, must then write down the answer that they have just heard. It was a big success because the girls really got into it and had a wonderful time. They also learned some new words and phrases along the way. It is a good feeling when you can make something that other people find useful. After my last lesson of the day was finished at 20:00, I went over to the nearby Seikyo supermarket to buy some natto 納豆 and other essential foods. Then, it was back to work, writing some more pages for my new textbook. I just love it when I have the time to make something new. How about you? Lights out at 25:00.
2006 March 15 Wednesday.
The worst season of the year continues again to day. I can't decide what kind of clothes to wear. My first lesson of the day was at 15:00 and the last lesson of the day ended at 20:00. Today at about 17:00 I got a telephone call from a young lady who had seen my advertisement in the Town Pages (Yellow Pages) and then took a look at this website. She wanted to come over to my classroom and take a free trial lesson 無料見学. I said; "OK, how about the 19:00 class?" The timing was good for her too and she came at exactly 19:00. When talking on the telephone to someone in Japanese, it is not possible to determine that person's level of spoken English, so I always give prospective new students a type of English proficiency level check using small cards that have basic questions written on them. This young lady who came tonight whizzed right through all of the cards. Next, I showed her two pages from an original textbook that I have written called American English for All Occasions 日常表現. She zipped right through those textbook pages also. Her reading ability and pronunciation are both very good so I asked her if she had ever lived in an English speaking country. She replied that she had not, but she had taken several short vacations to Hawaii, Hong Kong, Korea and a few other places. I asked her if she had spoken English while she was visiting Korea and she replied that she had used Japanese only. That reminded me of the time, about 16 years ago when I visited Seoul for three days and two nights in order to get a working visa for Japan. At that time, I too spoke Japanese with almost everyone I met. The next time I go to Korea, I will be able to speak, read and write simple Korean. Enough to get around. When am I going to visit Korea? I don't know yet, but it will be sometime after I have learned much more Korean than I know now. That way, my trip will be much more meaningful. Lights out at 26:00.
2006 March 14 Tuesday.
Welcome to the worst season of the year in Asahikawa. Above freezing temperatures during the day and below freezing temperatures at night. What does this all mean? I means that all of the ski slopes are icy and dangerous. It also means that cars get really dirty during the day and slide all over the road at night. In other words, being outside is not much fun this time of the year. I am already beginning to look forward to Golden Week. No classes until 15:00 today so I had plenty of time during the morning and early afternoon to keep working on an entirely new type of textbook. One that promotes free talking more than the memorization of useful words and phrases. I was able to finish the first four pages. Then, I had straight lessons from 15:00 until 20:00. After that, I went back to work on the above mentioned new textbook. At about 21:00, one of my students called me and said "I am leaving for the USA tomorrow. Thank you for teaching me useful English. I will continue to study at your classroom when I come back to Asahikawa in about 2 or 3 months. Please tell me your email address so I can send you mail while I am in America." This young lady has been coming to my classroom ever since she was in elementary school. Now she is a university student in Kyoto. She will be spending 2 or 3 months at the American Language and Culture Institute at California State University in Chico. I know she will learn a lot from this experience. It may even change the entire course of her life. Do your best, and see you when you get back! 走る遥か、この地球（ほし）の果てまで、 Lights out at 24:00.
2006 March 13 Monday.
My first class of the day was at 13:30 at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会. Today, the two gentlemen who had gone on a small group tour of Seattle Washington and Victoria Canada for about 10 days came back and told us all a little bit about their big adventure. I felt nostalgic 懐かしい when listening to them describe the places that they had been to. I used to live in Seattle for about 6 years right before I came to live in Asahikawa. Also, I have visited Victoria many times before because I used to have friends who lived there. That was a rather long time ago and that is why, I felt somewhat nostalgic today. Also, two persons who belong to this class and also read this blog from time to time, had both read my blog of Tuesday March 7. They both expressed surprise and amazement at what they had read in that day's blog. I won't go into details about what they said, but they were not angry at me nor did they think that I had done anything wrong. One person mentioned the fact that the newspapers and TV broadcasts regularly show the photographs of young children and even print their names, addresses and other personal information along with their photos. Talk about the leaking of private information!!! Everybody knows that a whole lot more people read the Hokkaido Newspaper than ever look at this website. That's for sure. That's an undeniable fact. I agreed with them and thanked them for their concern in this matter, but as far as I am concerned, this case is closed. I will not be taking any more photos at those two elementary schools and therefore I will not be putting any new photo galleries of them on this website. I did so in the past with only the best of intentions in mind. End Of Story. After that class was finished at about 14:45, I rushed back to my classroom for straight lessons from 15:00 until 20:00. Then, it was time for me to start writing a new textbook (a collection of worksheets) that promotes the use of free talking, instead of just memorizing common words and phrases. My lovely wife continued to work on our tax return 確定申告 for 2005. The deadline is March 15. She says that she will be finished by then. I believe her words. Thank you so much for your support. You, and everyone else in this wonderful community. Lights out at 26:00.
2006 March 12 Sunday.
A very cold day with wind and snow. Not much fun to be outside. At about 19:00 my wife and I drove over to the AEON Shopping center to get some White Day gifts for the people who had given me a Valentine's Day gift. I let my wife do the selection of gifts. While we were at the shopping center, we ate dinner at the HeiRoku KaiTenZushi shop that is there. There used to be a branch shop right next door to my classroom, but they stopped their business after only 7 months. (See my blog of 2005 March 25) I was a regular customer at that time, but recently I haven't been eating out at any kind of restaurant at all. Today and yesterday were the first time in a long time 久しぶり that the wife and I have been out for dinner. Anyway, it was nice to eat delicious sushi again. In fact, one of the young men working behind the counter used to work at the shop in Kagura. We recognized each other immediately. After that was finished, we drove back home slowly and got back to work on our tax return 確定申告 for 2005. That is mostly my wife's job because I teach all of the classes and make all of the learning materials. Both of them are equally important and endless jobs. Lights out at 27:00.
2006 March 11 Saturday.
I spent most of the day editing the photos I took
last night and putting them into a new photo gallery. It was rather
windy, and as the day wore on, it started raining. Today, is also
my wife's birthday so we decided to go to a concert at the Taisetsu Crystal Hall
and after that go eat dinner somewhere. The photo you can see on the left
is of a flyer that advertises the concert we saw this evening. In English
I would call it "A concert for the Garden in which the Gods play."
This refers to the Ainu Language expression Kamui Minta カムイミンタ which means
roughly the same thing. More specifically, it refers to the Taisetsu
Mountain Range 大雪山脈 and the Kamikawa Basin 上川盆地 were Asahikawa is located.
Along with a wide variety of musicians playing various musical instruments,
there were also some opera singers as well. Everybody who performed in the
concert was excellent. In fact I would rate it as world class. I was
a bit surprised at how good it all was. In addition, while the music was
playing, there were photographs shown on a big screen in the background which
were all taken right here in this area of Hokkaido. Many of the pictures
were taken from the mountain tops and are scenes that I have never seen before.
Another thing that surprised us was that not only were all of the seats taken
when we arrived just before 18:30, but that there were already a lot of people
standing in the aisles as well. Obviously, they had sold many more tickets
than they had seats available. Next year, we will go much earlier so
we can get a seat, any seat. This was only the third annual event
for this concert so it is still a relatively new thing. Also, the
concert lasted for more than two hours with no intermission. I had to take
a toilet break one time during the show, so I quietly exited through a side
door. When I came back from the toilet, I sat on a bench in the
lobby to wait for the end of the current stage. As I was sitting there, I
met the mother of one of my former students. Her daughter had studied at
my classroom for about one year before she started junior high school. The
mother said to me; "Thanks to you, my daughter is doing very well in her English
class at school. In fact, her best scores of all her classes are in
English. Also, she really likes English now." I was very
glad to hear that. That is precisely the reason why I have a classroom in
this city. When the current stage was finished, I went back into the
concert hall to listen to the rest of the music. While one of the
opera singers was singing a beautiful song, somebody who was standing near the
wall on the left, passed out and hit the wall with a loud thump.
Several of the staff members went over to revive the person and take them out of
the hall so that they could get a breath of fresh air. It was rather
hot in the concert hall and I too was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable
myself. Eventually, my wife and I moved over to the place on the
left side where some other persons had been standing before, and we were able to
sit down on the steps of the aisle. What a relief! The
ending of the concert was just as enchanting as the beginning. It also
started and ended with the same photograph on the big screen in the background.
A photograph of Mt. Taisetsu taken from a field of green leaves and white
flowers with a blue sky on a sunny day. Oh what a feeling!
When the entire music celebration ended at just past 20:30, the wife and I went
back outside into the cold wind and rain, only to find our umbrellas were almost
useless in the strong gusts of wind. We walked over to a local Korean
Style BBQ 焼き肉 place called 北光園 North Light Garden. We have been to
this place many times before, but we haven't been there in a long time.
The owner and his wife remembered us as soon as we walked in the door.
As a matter of fact, they still had my old business card pasted to their
business card bulletin board, which kind of surprised me. It also
made me feel good. After a wonderful meal, we walked back home in a
lighter wind and a lesser rain. A feeling of satisfaction and a feeling of
eating too much meat. I think I'll have natto 納豆 and brown rice 玄米
for breakfast tomorrow.
2006 March 10 Friday.
My
first order of business today was to attend the graduation ceremony 卒業式 for the
Kosei Nursing School JA北海道厚生連 旭川厚生看護専門学校 which started at 11:00. I didn't
take any photos at the graduation ceremony this year, because it looked exactly
the same as last year. To see last year's photo gallery
click
here. This year was the second time to hold the graduation
ceremony in the new school building. There were 48 graduating
students this year including one young gentleman. The ceremony was
scheduled to last until 12:30, but it went overtime to about 12:40. Just
like it did last year. After the ceremony was finished, the students
and the teachers got together for a big group photo. When that was all
finished at about 13:20, I got into a taxi and came back to my classroom just in
time to have my first lesson of the day at 14:00 with the two lovely ladies that
come every Friday at about this time. Then, it was straight lessons from
15:00 until 18:00. I canceled my last two classes today so that I could
attend the graduation party held at the Grand Hotel starting at 19:00.
When that was finished at about 21:00, I went to the second party 二次会 held at a
place called V BAR (旭川市４・５仲８丁目 関東ビル地下). I have never been to this
place before, but I liked it very much. It had a very good interior design
and the all male staff was very friendly. I stayed there and watched
all of the graduating students get wild and crazy. I left the party a
little bit early and went back home. You can see a photo gallery of
today's events by
clicking
here. Lights out at 26:00.
2006 March 9 Thursday.
I had no classes today until 17:00 so I had plenty of time to look at my weekly WEB STATS REPORT. Most webmasters use this kind of report to analyze and then maximize the potential of their websites. While reading today's report, I noticed that the number of persons accessing this Web Log page has increased dramatically. Also way up, were the number of new readers. Hummmmm. Well, I hope you all enjoy this blog. It is entirely NON-FICTION. As strange as that may seem from time to time. A Website Statistics Report can be obtained for free in it's basic form, or you can pay money and get,... about the same thing. The one that I get every week is included in the price of my website hosting service, located in Toronto Canada. It is in full color and very detailed. Useful information at a fair price. That is what good business is all about. Isn't it? The three classes that I did have today, were very enjoyable and with serious students who have a goal for their study of English. That is why they progress so quickly. One of my students who came today will be going for a 10 day Home Stay in Asahikawa's Sister City of Bloomington-Normal Illinois, during the end of this month. Therefore, she has the most immediate goal of all the students who are currently attending my classroom. And, she is one of the most motivated at this point in time. Naturally. Another student who came today will be starting her last year of high school in April of this year. When she graduates she plans to go to a technical school in Chitose which trains future employees for the airline industry. She wants to become a flight attendant, and she certainly has the good looks to make that a reality. Her biggest challenge now is to get used to speaking English on an almost daily basis. She is making good progress although she misses a lesson here and there, from time to time. Today was a very nice day all in all. No annoying phone calls. Just good feelings everywhere. Lights out at 24:00
2006 March 8 Wednesday.
A very ordinary day. Straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. About one week ago, I sent a post card to one of my former students who now lives in Honshu. It was a Happy Birthday postcard, an original design that I made myself. This little girl is only 8 years old, but she took the time to send me an e-mail and thank me for the greeting card. This is what she wrote;
I have deleted her name for reasons of personal privacy, but the rest of the e-mail message is exactly as she wrote it. When I read her message today, I felt very happy. Not just because she took the time to send it, but that she did it mostly by herself. She was one of my best little students and I know that she will be able to do well in all of her studies from now on. There is a small photograph of her on the top page of this website, but I won't tell you which one it is. She asked me a question at the end of her message, so I sent her a reply by email. I send these Happy Birthday postcards to most of my students, both past and present. Only about 20% of them make any kind of reply to my message. It is that 20% which I hold dearest to my heart. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS. God bless you. Lights out at 24:00.
Tuesdays with Mr. T. who comes every week at
15:00. More about that later. When I got back to my classroom
early this afternoon at about 13:30, I noticed that there were two messages on
my answering machine 留守番電話. I assumed that they were from two of my students, but
when I pressed the replay 再生button, I could hardly believe my ears. The
first message was from a very high ranking person at the nearby Kagura
Elementary School 神楽小学校. The message said; "I would like to talk to
you about something. Please give me a call."
The second message was from a very high ranking person at the Asahi Elementary
School 朝日小学校. The message said; "Thank you for coming over to our school
on February 2 to give
an English lesson to our 6th year students. Also, I was
very surprised to see a photo gallery on your website of the Sunrise Cherry
Orchestra. Please give me a telephone call." What a
coincidence! This has never happened before. These two
phone calls arrived at my answering machine within one hour of each other.
"I wonder if they like my website?" was my first thought.
After I finished eating lunch and just before the start of my first class at
15:00, I
returned the first phone call to Kagura Elementary School. I was
told; "I just saw your website for the first time today. I noticed that
you had a photo gallery of our graduation ceremony on
March 18,
2005
and also one of our Sports Day Event 運動会 on
May 22, 2005 and
also one of our Music Festival 音楽フェスター held at the Taisetsu Crystal Hall
on
October
21, and also one of our School Arts Festival 学びフェスター on October 22."
I replied; "Yes that's right." Then I was told to;
"Delete 削除 them from your website." I was stunned. So stunned
that all I could say was; "But, Why???" I was told; "There is
heightened concern these days about the leaking of private information of
individuals. It is for safety reasons." I replied; "OK,
I understand. I will delete the photo galleries from my website."
End of conversation. Still stunned at what I had just heard, I dialed up
the Asahi Elementary School to return their phone call. I was told to;
"Delete 削除 the photo gallery of the Sunrise Cherry Orchestra from your
website." When I asked; "But, Why???" I was given the same
answer. I said; "OK, I will delete them." And I did so.
You may be thinking to yourself right now, "Norman, why did you go to these events and
take these pictures in the first place?" Answer; Because
I was
invited to go to these events. That's why. Who invited me?
In the case of the events at Kagura Elementary School, I was invited by some of
the students who attend school there, and also take English lessons at my
classroom. My students invited me. In fact they were happy to
see me there, and later they enjoyed seeing their photographs on my website.
Isn't it odd how all of the people whose photos were on my website never ever
asked me to remove their photos. Never. Not even one person. They
didn't seem to think that it was a safety concern for them, and neither did their
parents. There were no names of any persons in those photographs.
All you can see from the photo galleries is that the photos were taken of
elementary school students who go to these two schools.
In the case of
the Sunrise Cherry Orchestra, I was invited by the teacher who is in charge of the
band. A person who has also come to my English Conversation Classroom in
the past. One performance was on 2005
February 4 at the Asahi
Elementary School, and the other performance was at Takasu Melody Hall on 2005
February 19.
Absolutely none of the photos taken at the elementary
school performance were in that photo gallery. All of the photos in that
photo gallery
were taken at Takasu Melody Hall. The band director herself did not ask me
to remove the photo gallery. What is going on here?
When Mr. T. came for his lesson at 15:00, I told him about
the shocking phone calls I had just received. He seemed to be more upset
about it than I was. Mr. T. is a retired high school English teacher
who taught in Asahikawa as well as in Furano. He knows what the public
education system is like, much better than I do. He told me many
things about the mindset of these "career academics". It became
obvious to me that many of them don't engage in a lot of critical thinking.
Hence the type of very short and rather rude telephone calls which I received
today. Now that I have voluntarily removed the
photo galleries from my website, I am wondering if they will call me back, one
more time, and say "Thank you for deleting the photo galleries."
Something that I was not legally obligated to do, and something that they could
not do for themselves. I am waiting for your phone calls!
I wonder if anyone else is interested in this story??? Does this have
anything to do with Freedom of Expression? Maybe I should ask an
expert in that field. I wonder if any newspapers would be interested
in this story? Sounds like a pretty hot topic to me. I
guess I will just have to wait and see. By the way, the
server that hosts this website is located in Toronto Canada. Does
that mean anything? Meanwhile, I will be asking everybody I know, what
they think about this rather bizarre situation. Lights out at 26:00.
2006 March 6 Monday.
My first class of the day started at 13:30 at the Kagura Public Hall 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会。Various people talked about various things. One lady whose father owns a construction company showed us all some plans for the New Kagura Public Hall which will be moved into the empty building that used to be the offices of the Forest Management Office 営林局. This building is right next door to the Local Products Center 地場産センター and has been empty for about one year or more. The plans showed how the space would be divided up into 4 different sections. One section will be for a Kagura Branch of the City Library 神楽図書館, one section will be for a Children's Recreation Center 児童センター, one section will be for the Kagura Office 支所 and the biggest section will be for the New Kagura Public Hall 新神楽公民館. I was very happy to hear this news, because walking past that empty building made me feel bad inside. "What a waste." I would always think to myself. Especially good news was the part about a public library in Kagura. This may be the first time that Kagura has had a branch of the city library in it. I plan to make good use of it. The new facility is scheduled to be opened in February of 2007. I am looking forward to it. After that class was finished at 14:30, I came back to my classroom for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. Then it was time to do some more reading about web development. Lights out at 24:00.
2006 March 5 Sunday.
Ah
yes, a much better morning today. The morning after the morning after. I got busy making the
other two photo galleries that I should have made several weeks ago. The
first one is of the performance of the swing jazz band Sunrise Cherry Orchestra
at the Takasu Melody Hall on February 19. See
my blog of that day for
details. The other one was of the day that Mr. T. and I went to the
Asahikawa
Winter Festival on February 11. It took me about 5 hours to
make everything, because I was able to take my sweet time and didn't need to rush it. While
I was making the photo galleries, I was listening to French and the German
conversation CDs in the background. The other day when I was in
downtown Asahikawa taking care of some business at the bank, I remembered that I
had been intending to rediscover the French and German languages.
So, I dropped by Fukido Book Store and walked up to the second floor.
There I found what I was looking for. Textbooks with audio CDs
attached. When I say rediscover German and French, I mean just that.
The first foreign language that I ever tried to learn was German. I
started at about 5 years old because my father was always listening to German
language conversation tapes downstairs in our house, while he was making
dentures and inlays for his patients. As you may have guessed by
now, my father was a dentist. I continued to do this for about 7
years, and I could listen to and understand daily conversations spoken in
German. When I got to junior high school, I wanted to take a course in
German, but all that my school offered was French, Italian and Spanish.
A bit disappointed to hear this, I decided on French because it was at that
time, the language of diplomats 大使. I studied French for two years
in junior high school, and one year in high school. You can read in detail
about my experiences with learning foreign languages by reading the speech
that I gave to the Asahikawa West Rotary Club on March 8, 2005. I wrote
the speech in Japanese, and then translated it into English. You can read
it now by
clicking here. To make a long story short, I wanted to see
how much I could still remember of what I had learned so many years ago.
To my pleasant surprise, after listening to the CDs for about 6 hours, I
discovered that I could remember a lot of what I had learned more than 30 years
ago. What does that tell you about learning a
foreign language? Start as young as possible. Because what
you learn while you are very young can be remembered and put to practical use
even when you get much older. If you have the need or the desire to
speak a foreign language that you learned as a child, when you have become much
older, it is much faster to rediscover what you already
know, than it is to try to learn it from zero at 40 or 50 years old.
Believe me, I know from personal experience. Another
example, I first started learning the Japanese Language when I was about 20
years old. That is almost 30 ago to this day. It was not too late to
start, but there are many words and phrases in the Japanese language that I
still do not know. Although I can read 98% or more of what is
written in most newspaper articles, I still cannot read essays, novels or other
types of free form writing as well as I would like to be able to read them.
Many of my students who are the same age as I or somewhat older, delight in
using very common and well known words and phrases that any native speaker of
Japanese would surely know, to test my ability in the Japanese language.
Most of what they say, I cannot understand until they explain it to me in
simpler Japanese. I enjoy it when people quiz me in this way.
After they explain the meaning to me they say; "Did you
know that?" My reply is; "No, I didn't, but I do now! Thanks
to you." Speaking of set expressions
決まり表現 and proverbs 諺, one of my favorite of
them in Japanese is 教えることは学ぶことなり Teaching is Learning.
That is why I decided to become a teacher because I can always learn something
new in a job like this. Having the privileged environment to be able
to learn something new every day is my single greatest pleasure in life.
What's yours.
2006 March 4 Saturday.
There's got to be a morning after,.... Does anybody recognize these words from the theme song テーマ曲 of the movie; The Poseidon Adventure? If you do, you are as old or older than I am. This song is a song of hope, but taken another way the words can mean something like, "Did I have too much fun last night?" In my case, this morning showed me the latter nuance of the meaning. What did I do? See yesterday's blog. What I didn't tell you was that during the long long evening, I drank beer, whiskey and mugi shochu. I didn't eat all that much, and I drank a lot. Therefore, I felt less than optimum when I woke up this morning. However, I was GENKI 元気 enough to make a photo gallery of yesterday's graduation party. You can see it by clicking here. As I was making that photo gallery, I remembered that there were still two other photo galleries that I have not yet made. One of them is for the Sunrise Cherry Orchestra and the other one is for the Asahikawa Winter Festival. I guess I will do them tomorrow. Right now, I need to take a long hot bath and relax for a while.
2006 March 3 Friday.
Today is
not a National Holiday, but it is a very important traditional observance in
Japan. It is known as Hina Matsuri 雛祭り or Dolls' Festival. I
certainly did see a lot of dolls today, but they were of the human kind.
As you can see from the photo on the left, I went to a graduation party
謝恩会 for the Hokkaido Prefecture Nursing Academy of
Asahikawa 北海道立旭川高等看護学院. This year was the
31st graduating class of 30 students, 29 ladies and one gentleman. The
party started at 18:00 and was held at the Asahikawa Grand Hotel.
After about 2 hours of food, drinks, fun and games
Dr. Kuroda a professor emeritus of the Asahikawa Medical College
旭川医科大学名誉教授 黒田 一秀 様 stood up on the stage to make some closing remarks.
This gentleman is about 80 years old and was a second year student in medical
school when he heard the live radio broadcast reporting the Imperial Navy's
attack on Pearl Harbor. In fact, he said he was in an anatomy class
dissecting a cadaver with his fellow medical students at the time of the live
broadcast. When I heard his words, history
really came alive for me. Here I was, sitting in the same
room with a guy who was old enough at the time the Pacific War started to really
understand what was going on around him. And here I was listening to
him tell all of us about it. Of course, he talked about many other
things ass well but, those remarks made a really deep impression on me. As
everyone was leaving the hall for the next party at RAM JET, I walked up to Dr.
Kuroda and told him how meaningful his words tonight had been to me.
It is a great honor for me to meet such people.
The second party 二次会 started at 20:30 at a place called RAM JET ラムジェット in the
entertainment district of Asahikawa. I have been to this place many
times before on just such an occasion as this evening. It is a big
spacious place for having a wild drinking, singing and dancing party.
That's exactly what everybody did. I was obliged to sing a song, and
in my drunken stupor, I choose a song that everyone else in the room had never
heard before. A song called
LOVE SHACK by the B52's. Yeah, I know a lot of you folks
in the USA reading this blog will think something like, "Yeah! What a kool
song to sing at a rocking party!" At another place and another
time, yes, it would have been cool, but tonight it was a complete flop.
Not only couldn't I sing the song well, but my back up singers were puzzled by
the music and couldn't really get into it even though they did their best.
It was a disaster. Maybe I should have went with a
Billy Joel number instead. Lessons learned but soon forgotten.
You can see the photo gallery of tonight's events by
clicking here. After that foggy party broke up at about 22:40, I stumbled on over to the
ぴあの in
Pub on the 8th floor of the Planet Building. I have been frequenting
this place since about 15 years ago. The owner is a very accomplished
piano player by the name of Hirama Eiji 平間英治. He is also the piano
player for the
本間幸治カルテット which I wrote about along with the Sunrise Cherry Orchestra in
my blog of
2006 February 19 Sunday. Anyway, the bar was not very
crowded tonight so I had many opportunities to play the bass guitar along with
several other musicians. It was a nice finish to today's
events. Lights out at 26:00. Oh! Just one more
thing, congratulations to all of you graduating students this year. Do
your best and never look back.
2006 March 2 Thursday.
What? It's snowing again? Yes! Why wouldn't it be snowing? It's below freezing in the sky above. Today, not only snow, but also very small hail was falling in the early evening from about 16:30 or so up to about 17: 15. The 3 elementary school students who come for their lessons every Thursday at 17:00 were right on time again today. Before the start of the lesson, there was the usual small talk about the weather and such. I mentioned that from my window it looked as if hail were falling. "Does it hurt when it hits your face?" I asked. For the word 'hail' I used the Japanese word 'Hyou'. The mother replied, "It is not Hyou 雹, it is Arare あられ." I thought to myself; "What is the English word for Arare?" I couldn't remember, so I got out my faithful old electronic hand held Japanese/English dictionary and looked up あられ . The English translation came back as 'hail'. "That's odd", I said out loud. I then looked up Hyou 雹 using the same hand held device and the English word associated with it was also the same, 'hail'. Maybe it should say something like "small hailstones" or use some similar expression for Arare. In the Japanese mind, these two words have a very precise meaning about the weather. Again, I thought out loud "Why does the English language have only one word for 'hail'?" Then a new theory came into my mind. "It's probably because they have a lot more rain than snow or hail in the British Islands. They have no need for more than one word for 'hail'." One of the mothers laughed out loud (LOL) and said, "That does make some sense." I didn't say anything to her but, I thought silently to myself about how I have heard that the Eskimo (Asiatic peoples who live in the very coldest regions of this planet) have dozens of words for 'SNOW'. Each type of snow has a different name. Makes sense. They live together with the weather which is mostly snow each and every day, so they need a precise vocabulary in order to describe to each other what the weather is, was, or will become. A weather forecast is very useful information. Especially for people who can fly. Useful knowledge is well remembered. Well remembered because, it is USEFUL.
2006 March 1 Wednesday.
What!?! It's March already??? It seems like just yesterday when it was a cold and snowy February. Nothing has changed. It is a cold and snowy March. I must have been thinking that this was LEAP YEAR 閏年 or something. By the way, when is the next leap year anyway? And what happens to people who are born on February 29??? Do they have four times longer to live? I can't think of anyone I know who was born on Feb. 29. They could only have a birthday party once every 4 years. They would receive 75% less birthday presents than people born on any other day. Is there a law to protect these hapless humans? What does COSMIC LAW have to say about this situation? These are questions worth pondering. Or not. My theory is that when babies are born on February 29 as indeed they are every four years, all around the world, the mothers give them all a choice. "My darling baby, you have been born on a rather unusual day. From now on, this day of your birth will be called your birthday and we will have a party every year on this day. Many people will gather from all over the area to bring you gifts and eat many delicious foods. We will even bake a cake, especially for you! It will have one candle on it for every year after this day of your birth. We hope that you will be able to enjoy 100 or more of these birthday cakes, but that is now uncertain. The only thing that is certain right now on this very day of your birth is that YOU must make a choice. Do you want to receive your birthday cake on February 28, OR March 1?" I just lay there in my mother's arms, not being able to see too well yet, but hearing and understanding every tender word that she spoke. My immediate reaction sent back to her by grunts and giggles was; "Say What?" Remember, this is just my pet theory but it does seem to make some sense even though it is a complete work of fiction.
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