Entries this day: Hitomi Peaceboat Ultimate_Work

Hitomi

12:31pm JST Tuesday 8 June 2004

Hung out with Hitomi today; we chowed at Jonathons in Kawasaki where I gave her three quick lessons on astronomy (in honor of Venus' solar transit today), two on our solar system: (1) [sun plus 9 planets (+ 1 new one) in order (assuming the Neptune is closer to the sun than Uranus (I always seem to get those two confused)) not including the asteroid belt, but including the number of moons around the rocky planets and estimated number of moons around Jupiter and Saturn, plus a mention of Saturn's rings] (2) [the amount of time it takes the sun's light to reach earth, which I had remembered (yesterday when I told Hitomi this story) as 6.33 minutes but is 8.33 minutes (according to our calculations today) (oops)] and then (3) [a lesson on our closest solar neighbor Alpha Centauri (4 light years away) and then, because in Okinawa she had seen the Milky Way arcing overhead, a sketch of our galaxy and its diameter of 10,000 light years. "That's too long to wait."]

High five; she understands.

- - - -

Saw a little girl eating a popsicle for a commercial being filmed in Cinecitta. So cute. You go, little popsicle girl.

Peaceboat

1:08pm JST Tuesday 8 June 2004

Last night Hitomi showed me a P/B poster so I copied the number and called them today. Gave the woman my name, phone number and address; told her I want to teach English on the 47th (よんじゅうなな not よんじゅうしち) P/B adventure. I think they'll send me an app. I had sent two emails previously but hadn't heard back from them. I wonder if I'll receive 3 apps.

3:28pm JST Tuesday 8 June 2004

Calling P/B worked. Got a call back from Alison who said the peeps who I need to talk to will be back in town starting tomorrow. She confirmed the correctness of the email address I had used already and said I didn't need to send another email to that address.

She said the application process requires !) a resume, !( a letter of intent, !* a lesson plan for a high level lesson, !& a lesson plan for a low level lesson, !^ a non-teaching activity that I can bring to the voyage.

Hmm; there's work to be done, you say? Not just a free fun trip around the world, eh? The first pits of this bowl of cherries have become visible.

I have my _More New Games_ book here in Japan. I can adapt many of them to non English speakers.. That will do nicely for my non-teaching activity list.

For the lesson plans, I wonder if these are group lessons or what.

Ohh - an idea for low level classes is basic English to describe the P/B and the current journey.

Ultimate Work

11:11pm JST Tuesday 8 June 2004

Fuckin' A; I had two empty lessons at the end of my day and then someone filled my last lesson, so I couldn't go home as early. But I got to practice Chinese, so it was cool.

(the first sentence above was my feeling for about five minutes. I quickly flipped it to being happy about the ability to study while I waited. But I want it there to contrast with the rest of the story.)

Student came; and did not fit student stereotypes well. From the errors she was making, she should be in Snaps 3 (if she does her homework) or Snaps 2 if she doesn't. But she was using Business Objectives, a really high level book. But she didn't use the book; she might not have even brought the book; I don't know. (I could hear her in Andrew's lesson (prior to mine) and they were just chatting. I was like, "crud; that could mean she wants to get down to work in my lesson" (but it didn't mean that))

ANY way.. I was like, "please ask me some questions," which is how I gauge students' level and how fast to talk to them etc etc when I first meet them. She asked some okay questions; I can tell she has learned a lot of English, but she has just forgotten the basic grammar rules, but remembers the idea of the structures.

[[fuck I have to go soon]]

Okay okay okay um, she asked, "what sports do you play?" and I was like, "I don't play sports in Japan, but in Texas, I used to play Ult.." and I was writing down "Ultimate" because I like the word, and I like promoting the sport, and (this is the important part) as I wrote the letters U-l-t-i she was like, "Ultimate?"

"You know ultimate?????" then I quickly rememebered when this has happened in the past, they are thinking of ultimate fighting, a bane of our human civilization. "wait what ultimate are you thinking of? ultimate fighting?"

"No, ultimate." She made a frisbee-throwing action.

I broke a cardinal rule; I hugged a student. It was just a quick "peck" of a hug, but OH MY GOD!!! She knows ultimate! In 15 months of teaching English, no other Japanese student has known ultimate frisbee, much less wanted to play.