Living in Japan Makes You a Weirdo

There is a wonderful post floating about the Internet called, "10 Ways Living in Japan Makes You Talk Like a Weirdo," and it's one hundred percent true! If you've never lived or studied abroad in Japan, you won't understand. Sorry!  However, if you are about to embark on this JET journey, get ready for Japan to change you in ways you never thought imaginable!

My favorites from this post are:

"Nani kore?" means "what's this?" I use this when I am utterly confused, which is often.

Omiyage is souvenir-like food from wherever you just visited

Sometimes, I get creative and use Espanihonglish! For example, in Ishigaki, I said, "Donde esta the beach desu ka?" It came out so naturally, it freaked me out for a second.

For more laughs, there is an awesome Tumblr blog with hilarious ALT-ism: Inner Thoughts of a JET

Enjoy!

English Lesson Plan - Use it or Lose it!

I often receive complements for my fun and interactive English lessons. Therefore, I am here to share some lessons plans with you. Remember, English in elementary is meant to be fun and a way to spark interest. Nevertheless, I like to challenge my students by making the material a bit harder. Take a look and feel free to use any activity for your own lessons! If you have any questions, let me know by commenting below!

Kindergarten

• ごれい：これから英語で遊ぼうを始めます。よろしくおねがいします
• （Let's start English Playtime. Regard us favorably)
• あいさつ (Greeting): Good morning or good afternoon
• If You're Happy and You Know It (regular tempo and fast)
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (regular tempo but speed up until ridiculously fast)
• Days of the week practice
• Days of the week marching game: Have the kids line up behind you and march while reviewing the days of the week. When you yell out "Stop!", they have to freeze. If they move, they are out. It's similar to Daruma-san Ga Koronda or our Red Light, Green Light.
• Today's Lesson: Colors
• Practice the name of the colors
• Play "Hot Potato" with colors.
• The students pass a ball around while music is playing. Whoever is holding the ball when the music stops is out. However, in order to pass the ball you need to say a color in English. You are also out if you say the word in Japanese, repeat a color over and over, or repeat the color of the previous person.
• Review colors once more
• ごれい：これから英語で遊ぼうを終わります。ありがとうございました。
• Rock, Paper, Scissors with them and quickly leave before they get touchy.

4th Grade

Saturday and Sunday as well
 

• ごれい： (Class leader chants and everyone repeats): Pay attention! ::clap,clap clap::  Lets start English class!
• あいさつ (Greeting): Good morning or good afternoon
• Days of the week Review, regular, fast, super fast, and slow motion
• Months of the year - regular, fast, super fast, and slow motion
• Let's count: 1-50
• How's the weather? It's ~
• How are you? I'm ~
• Today's lesson: ABCs
• Pronunciation
• Caution: B and V; G, J, and Z; R, L, and O
• ABC Song practice
• ZYX Song practice (yes, we sing it backwards too)
• ABC Song Mini Game
• Split the class into two teams and have them form a choir at diffent ends of the class room. See who can sing the loudest. The losing team has to sing the song again.
• A-Z line up game
• You can split the class into teams or just have the entire class participate. Time to see how long it takes them to arrange a set of mixed alphebet cards on the board.
• Right now, I have the whole class participate and they are competing with other grades.
• ごれい： (Class leader chants and everyone repeats): Pay attention! ::clap,clap clap::  Lets finish English class!
• Together: Thank you! See you soon! Goodbye: Rock, Paper Scissors, 1, 2, 3!

6th Grade

Hi Friends! Textbook

• ごれい： (Class leader chants and everyone repeats): Pay attention! ::clap,clap clap::  Lets start English class!
• あいさつ (Greeting): Good morning or good afternoon
• Days of the week - regular speed, fast, super fast and slow motion
• Months of the year - regular speed, fast, super fast and slow motion
• Let's count: 1-100
• How's the weather? It's ~
• How are you? I'm ~
• Today's Lesson: Alphabet (lowercase)
• ABC Writing Drill: They have three minutes to practice writing the alphabet. Then, they have two minutes to do it by memory on a seperate page.
• Ex: Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee...etc.
• A-Z Line Up Game (timed competition between 3rd - 6th grade)
• Z-A Line Up Game
• Hi Friends! p. 4 Activity: 見たことあるアルファベットの表示を書き写そう。(Copy English signs that you have seen)
• Ex: Stop, Koban/Police, open, etc.
• Students then need to tell you what they found, spell it and give you the meaning in Japanese.
• I always get a funny reaction when I have them give me the meaning of "taxi." Because in Japanese, it's "taxi."
• ごれい： (Class leader chants and everyone repeats): Pay attention! ::clap,clap clap::  Lets finish English class!
• Together: Thank you! See you soon! Goodbye: Rock, Paper Scissors, 1, 2, 3!

I advise anyone to set some time aside in order to make a successful lesson plan. Elementary is fun, but children who are bored are not. Have the students say the flashcards, quiz them individually, or have them quiz eachother. Have they sung the ABC song until their throats bleed? Now, have them sing it while facing the back of the room. Also, set rules to every game! You'll be surprised that the children will call each other out when someone has broken a rule - ruthless!

 

Since it's summer time, give the kids a two minute water break if you are doing any physical English activities. This is especially true for the kindergarteners, so take into account the heat and/or lack of A.C.

 

Last, ask your B.O.E or school for a planner so that you know what lessons were taught the previous class. You can also purchase a regular day planner as well. The idea is to be organized.

 

My planner! Isn't it cute?

 

 

Good luck!

 

Hold on, I Need a Moment (With Update!)

So, I've been a little out of sorts lately. I'm not exactly sure what is wrong with me, but I just know something is wrong - like my chi is off, my light as dulled, or as though my environment is not very feng shui. 

I am a fairly active person, but I've noticed that I am becoming a bit more lethargic and reclusive. It's frustrating because I know that's not me, but I can't seem to slap out of it. The good news is that warm weather and bright, sunny skies are upon us in Okinawa, and I have a solo trip to Hong Kong in the near future.

I have a few other surprises planned to help me out of this "funk" so until then, stay tuned! 

Moment #1 

 I forshadowed a bit with the picture of me wearing the mask. Sayonara long-haired Gabie  ;)

Moment #2

I took a small bunny hop to freedom at Macau Tower (the world's highest!)

It may seem cliché and something out of a feel-good movie, but I don't care. It's a fresh start (●` ཅ ´●)

Fifty Shades of Censorship

Mr. Grey will see you now

The Announcement

 Last year, the teaser trailer to Fifty Shades of Grey announced movie's worldwide release on Valentine's Day. Worldwide release? I snickered a bit knowing that the announcement naturally excluded Japan, a country where movies were released months after their original release date.

 

Don't believe me? Let's take a look at the release dates for Mockingjay Pt. 1, where you'll notice Japan's ridiculously delayed release date in comparison to the original release date in the United States and its neighboring countries. 

 

U.S. release date was November 20th, 2014.  Japan's release date is May 15th, 2015!

 

I can't tell you why this is but multiple sources have suggested that certain movies are released during holidays for the convenience of families and, in particular, students. In short, no matter the reason, Japanese bureaucracy plays a heavy hand. Nevertheless, these delayed release dates, in conjunction with expensive ticket prices ($17), are the reason why I have mostly abstained from movie theaters and relied heavily on online streaming. Therefore, I was skeptical about this "world-wide release" until I saw the Japanese trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey.

 

 

 

Wait, what? February 13th! What! Whose first child did they sacrifice for this? I couldn't believe it, but I rallied the OkiJETs ladies for a Galentine's Day appointment with Mr. Grey either way. 

 

Censorship

There were a couple ladies who attempted to ruin my excitement with their distain over the movie's possible censorship. Censorship? Yes, as I discussed in this post, pornography, whether bought or streamed, is censored in Japan. However, I was unsure how this censorship law would transfer to a non-pornographic movie. To be honest, I didn't care much either way, but I found it interesting that the movie was given an R15+ rating.

 

The Result

I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone living in Japan, but just know that the movie is censored. It's difficult to explain, but it seemed like negotiations took place in order to see how far they could go with the mature content. For example, the audience got a good, close up view of Ana's pubic forest, but all other possible sightings were blurred. There was one strong sex scene, in particular, that would switch from a giant black blob to no censorship. I couldn't see the reason for censoring one scene but not another and thus, it seemed like a give-and-take situation; as though someone said, "We'll give you this nude scene, but censor the next." Despite the censored scenes, I saw plenty! We all saw too much! The movie definitely exceeded and surpassed my low expectations. The OkiJET ladies had a good laugh, and I was happy they eliminated most of the abusive elements from the book and made Ana's character stronger.

 

Once I see the original uncensored version, I'll have more insight as to why certain scenes were censored. Until then, enjoy the naughtiness! ;o)

 

Update!

I saw the uncensored version online and there wasn't really much to see aside from a man-bush shot. However, I am still unsure as to why certain scenes were censored over other similar scenes.