Entries this day: AM_dream Class Computer Nihongo Today zzzz

AM dream

8:41am MVT Friday 10 June 2005

Had a scary dream

I was back in the house on Methil and it was haunted on the top floor; some kids were outside and they were like, "the house is haunted" and I'm like "damn right" I was inside on the second floor and I went running around the different rooms SCREAMING like RAAAAAAAA knocking around curtains and stuff to prove to them it was haunted. But at the same time, trying to scare away the haunting. I'm not sure if it was successful or not, but it was interesting and I was definitely scared during the dream. I ended up in my parents' room; up near the head of their bed, there was something between the wall and the bed or some crap like that.

Class

11:08am MVT Friday 10 June 2005

I just finished my sixth lesson for Cheerful Dancing Fellows. We haven't really used our class name yet. This was a lesson for which I had not prepared any worksheets. It was a worthless worksheet I had cut-n-pasted from so we didn't use it. We practiced using gestures to do things they will need to do tomorrow. Like how to order coffee -vs- tea in a restaurant, etc, because tomorrow is All Silent/English day so they will be required to use only gestures in the morning and then only English or gestures to do what they need to do in the afternoon.

Aki made an awesome card for Shunji. I'm really impressed. It includes his picture and spaces for all of us to write notes to him.

Computer

11:19am MVT Friday 10 June 2005

eek. My computer screen flickered a bit before it settled when I turned it on today. The case is perfectly intact, and I've been using the cooling fan to keep it cool so I'm surprised if it's getting old/mad about something.

Going to transcribe some tapes now.

Nihongo

2005年06月11日14時00分(土)

今から１０時までは日本語だけの日。だから皆GETの先生は何でも日本語を話せいます。もし、日本語をしゃべりましたら、スマイルファイスを書いてくれいます。でも、もし、英語を話しましたら、バツをくれます。がんばります。

Angie先生のクラスは二時までもした。だから、二時に日本語になりました。

１７時１５分

いっぱい日本語を話してます。さいきリコさんもケイコさんと話した。ケイコさんはすごいちかいに住んでます。私は元住吉、彼女は武蔵小杉に住んでいます。すごいびくりした。

後、リコさんと話した。彼女はファマシストです。私たちはいっぱい富士さんを話て、いろいろを忘れた、でも楽しかった。

彼女はいっぱいコスツムをすかいます。１３日彼女はベリダンスのコスツムを着る予定です。楽しそう。きれいそう。彼女と話すこと時は楽しかった。

２１時１５分

もスマイルファス２５こをくれいた。バツなし。も４５分あります。

Today

6:33am GST Saturday 11 June 2005

We entered a new time zone last night, and today is a holiday from GET classes, so many teachers took an opportunity to party it up.

Yesterday:

1. Toko and Hanayo didn't show up again for class (Happy Wonderful Girls). They've missed quite a few lessons considering how few we've had (6).

   At 1:30, Mariko, Yuko, and Naoko left for the Petra orientation, leaving only Ikuko and Rie. Ikuko helped Rie catch up with the class; I'm not sure if it's above Rie's head or what.

   I told the girls (during one of their moments of silence) that they can tell me what's in their heads, even if it's "I don't know" or "I don't understand."

2. From 2pm to 10pm we had all Japanese day to psyche up the students for all English day, which is today. We carried sheets of paper (telling the rules and duration) and people would draw smiley faces if we successfully spoke in Japanese and Xs if we used English.

   During the day I had relatively long conversations with people in Japanese, which arguably allowed fewer people to write smiley faces. Many students tried to trick us by asking slash shouting "hello!" "how are you today?" "are you okay?" which was a bit annoying, but maybe was the limit of their English abilities.

   During the formal dinner, I sat by Yoshika, and she asked me a question to which I answered (in English) "no" Oops! I told her it wasn't English, but the japanese syllable の, pronounced "no." She knew I was full of it (and of course I was); there's no conceivable reason to say の in answer to an English yes/no question.

   So I came up with a proposition; I would write a haiku to discourage the use of "no"

   It was *far* more difficult than I thought. Even ん and っ count as syllables, and the unspoken final す of です counts as well. But Yoshiko helped a lot and we came up with this:

   いいえって　      iiette            when no is
   僕が言ったら      bokugaittara      spoken by me
   良い子です。      iikodesu          I'm a good kid
   

   I'm not sure if it's customary to have the 。 punctuation or not.

   At the end of the day I had 0 Xs and 25 smiley faces.

3. I met a woman named Rie with whom I watched waves through the 7th floor window for a while. She used the word 「あきない」"akinai" which Yuuka translated as "never get bored." Rie seemed rather comfortable chatting with me and using the same window: beyond what I would consider normal Japanese "customary shyness," and I wonder if her shyness was affected by alcohol intake, though she said in her GET class (Peace Text with Kris) she's the least shy person in class.

   I got bored (and secretly a bit motion sick) watching the waves, so I suggested that we play GO, for there are tables along that side of the deck with GO boards set up.

   She taught me a different game, called gorarena (not called gorarena) or something (it starts with 'go' and has either 'ra' or 're' in it and I think 'na'), which is quite similar to Pente, which Fred and I played a lot as kids.

   (I'm not done writing, but I have to stop for a sec)

   1:02am GST Sunday 12 June 2005

   I think the game is called goranabe.

   So she whipped my ass, generally speaking, even beating me at Pente, at which I had planned to beat her. She probably won 66% of the games we played. Both goranabe and pente. Nice to find someone I can aspire to.

4. Went upstairs and saw the Sri Lankan students stumbling out of the Sports Bar and up to the Yacht Club. I met them and definitely learned Neshan's name: he has a scar on the back of his right hand where he melted some Legos when he was 5 years old (built a crane then lit it on fire) and the molten plastic seared his hand.. Yeouch!

   Also met Shalini and Gayani.

zzzz

12:30am GST Sunday 11 June 2005

Was about to go to bed, but Dave suggested we go look at starts.