teaching

starting this at school to give me a bit more inspiration to finally finish it. ive wanted to write more in depth about my whole experience teaching in japan, as in the actual teaching part, since that takes up most of my time here. and because i enjoy it. usually something funny or unusual happens at school and i want to write it down to remember it but then i forget. so here's some funny quotes from today

(this first dialog was almost all in Japanese, im not sure if that made it funnier or not)
JTE: one deer is the same as two deer, one or multiple, they're both deer. you remember we learned "sheep" before right? it is the same pattern with some animals like that.
Sakamoto kun: "goat" is the same too isn't it!
JTE: umm, i think that the plural of "goat" is "goats"...

JTE (same one as earlier, in English): OK class, please repeat after the Bryan.

ok so 70% of the time I teach at the awesome school where this happened, Takahagi Junior High School. The other 30% is split between a small middle school out in the middle of nowhere with 12 students total, and any of the various kindergartens and elementary schools in the area. Every time I go to another school (especially the mountain one) I am reminded of how much I like Takachuu. The funny thing is, before I started up at Takachuu, all I heard from staff at the board of education, other ALTs, even kids at other schools, was how bad Takachuu was. Everyone made it seem like it was more of a continual prison riot than a school for kids going through puberty. And while the kids might not pay as much attention or have quite the same level as Akiyama (nerd school), they make up for it with enthusiasm. Not for English, or even studying at all, but just in general. I am barraged by "Hello Bryan!"s every time I walk down the hall. Granted, this is at least partly because of the constant "manner up" campaigns to make sure the students have a genki aisatsu, but they do it outside of school too. There are a ton of great teachers at Takachuu too, the English staff is amazing, everything is great. I can't wait to get back there next week.