I'm Awesome: A True Story

Another weekend of nothing.  It was raining, it was gross, I barely left the house.  I did, however, go to the mall to get some household stuff and put together the shelving unit I bought earlier this week to go over the washing machine.  So exciting.  (No, actually, it kind of is.  Organization makes me really happy.)

Today I was in the school, doing a mixture of lesson planning and pretending to work.  I basically planned the best lesson ever.  Last week I was speaking with my supervisor about the lesson we teach together, English Conversation (third year, aka graduating class).  It seems like a pretty fun, laid back class, and there`s a lot of freedom for me to be able to make my own materials, so long as the kids are still learning whatever it is they`re supposed to be learning.  Awesome!  My first class will be my self-introduction lesson.  Cool, that`s already done.  Then I looked at the textbook, and the first real lesson I`m doing is "Talking on the Phone/Inviting." 

I was stuck.  I spent most of last week googling different ESL phone lessons, trying to figure out what to do, because the textbook is a) really boring, b) better than some of the horror stories I`ve heard about Japanese English textbooks but still not terribly practical.  The problem is that no one really uses the phone anymore, except for in business, so it`s difficult to come up with a lesson that will be teaching the kids actual things that they could potentially apply to their daily lives and not some vague future instance.  I messaged a friend who had taught Senior High in Hokkaido (thanks, Lina!), but she couldn`t recall teaching a class on phone conversation, and agreed with me that no one really calls to invite people anymore.  We text or Facebook (because Facebook is a verb now, as is text). 

So I`m walking home from the mall on Saturday and I have the most brilliant beyond brilliant idea.  It`s a double-period class (periods 5 and 6, so I have tons of time), so I`ll divide the lesson up! I`ll spend the first half of the lesson strictly on phone etiquette for business, with just a bit of informal phone FYI, so they're getting the phone part the curriculum demands for whatever reason.  Then the second half of the class, the "inviting" focus, I can actually teach the kids about texting, and have them practice inviting people to do things through text!  I refuse to teach them text "speak" until after they`ve completed the activity, though.  I don`t want to get them into bad habits.  I`ll probably just play some kind of mini-game to introduce them to things like "brb," "lol," and "l8r", but not dwell on it so it doesn`t really stick in their minds.  I`m designing worksheets that look like phone screens, with text bubbles and photos, and then I`ll give each partner the scenario for their characters and they`ll have to pass the phone worksheet back and forth as they send each other `texts.`  I`ll have things like, "Mickey is texting Minnie to invite her on a picnic," and then the Mickey sheet will have details of when he wants to have a picnic, etc., and the Minnie sheet will have her availability, interest in the picnic, and so forth.  The students won`t see the other character`s sheet, so they`ll have to respond on the fly based on what they get back from their partner.  I am so ridiculously excited for this lesson now.

Am I awesome or what?!

I spent this afternoon with the English Club students, because they had to make posters about me and my country for the school Culture Festival happening later this week.  So we got chatting, and that always eventually leads to, "What do you like about Japan?" which leads to, "Do you like anime?" which leads to, "Which anime do you like?"  The following conversation happened between me and my two third-year club members, partially in English but mostly in rapid Japanese (which I could understand, because I have the context for it:
Me: I like Polar Bear Cafe...
Haruna: Ah!  I love Polar Bear Cafe!
Mayu: (this is where the Japanese starts) Polar... Bear ... Cafe...?  Like, a polar bear-themed cafe?
Haruna: No, no.  It's a cafe owned and operated by a polar bear.
Mayu: What?
Haruna: Yeah!  And there's a penguin, and he talks like this [imitates old-style Japanese comedian voice].  And there's this panda, and he's super lazy and his mom is always cleaning the house, so when he says something lazy or doesn't do what he's told, she vacuums him!
Mayu: ....What?
Me: "Don't suck me up!" (the panda's catchphrase from those moments)
Mayu: Seriously.  What?!
Haruna: Yeah, that's what the panda says every time!
Mayu: Because she's vacuuming him...
Haruna: Right!  She's got the vacuum on against his side and his fur gets all messed up and stuff!  You have to watch it!  It's so funny!
Mayu: ...Right.

So by this point we've pretty much convinced her we're crazy.  It gets even better, though, because Haruna and I continue to talk about anime, and I mention Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, which she also enjoys (this girl and I are going to get along really well, I can tell).
Haruna: I like Free too!  Sousuke is my favourite!  And I like the voice actor for Rei.
Me: Haru is my favourite.
Haruna: Ah, Haru! (laughing)
Mayu: (again, switching back to Japanese) What is this?  Why is it so funny?
Haruna: Free!  It's about a swim club.  Haru is funny because he always wears his swimsuit under his clothes and he strips off his other clothes every time he sees water!
Mayu: He's always wearing his swimsuit?
Haruna: Yeah!  And then he just takes off all his other clothes whenever he sees enough water to get into, no matter where it is!

 And that was my day.  Now I'm sitting here, digesting supper and trying to convince myself that I want to go for a run (I really, really don't.  My thighs are like, "Nah, we're good.  We biked to and from the school today," but my stomach is like, "Uh, hello?  Do you realize how much fat is sitting on me?  We need to get this off!").