Crying Boys & Other Miscellaneous Things

Well first...I nearly made a 12 year old boy cry today!!!

Yasuaki is a returnee (meaning he's lived in another country for several years and studied there so is pretty much fluent) and he was my fourth class of the day. Well the lesson was going fine and our topic for the day was space travel. So we get through the warm-up, discussion and reading stages and then I ask him to get out his journal. He complained that he didn't want to write because it's too hard. I try to compromise saying we are only going to write 5 sentences and if he finished he won't have any to do for homework. Well he throws himself on the floor saying that's easy for me to say because I'm Canadian and it's easy for me, but he's Japanese so it's too difficult for him!! So I say, ok we'll only do 3 sentences!

By now his eyes are all red, and he's pouting and won't talk to me anymore but he does start writing. Now his mom has returned to pick him up and is looking in the door. He's sighing and grumbling and using his dictionary because he won't ask me for help. Well his mother is just laughing at the door because of the way he's carrying on. So now I can also say that I've pretty much made a 12 year old boy cry.

I know his mother quite well because she also is a student, so I just told her that he was good up until the writing part when he got quite upset, of course she just apologized and then started asking him stuff in Japanese...well he probably won't like me much anymore!

Hmm...in other happenings of the day, a student, Masanori, who is always in Voice (a general discussion room) asked me if he could organize a goodbye party for me with a few of the other frequent Voice students. I told him that would be alright and he also offered to drive me anywhere in Japan that I still wanted to go to before I went home. The Japanese are indeed very thoughtful.

I was also told I have a very clear reading voice by a student I had yesterday. This isn't the first time I've heard that by students, so maybe I should consider a job in audio books for Japanese people. Or well, maybe not.

I hear pretty much everyday now from different students that they have heard I am leaving. They always say how sad they will be. What am I supposed to say to that? I just say, "yeah, I'll miss Japan too!"...but is that true? I don't know...maybe, I think I will in many ways, but I am certainly happy to be going home!

Now I need some help. I am completely OUT of Voice (the general discussion room mentioned above) topics!! I am out of original ideas and am sick of the general travel, food, movies, Canada topics. Please give me some ideas...any topics for discussion or debates or any good games you know of or have tried with groups...I'm also tired of the NOVA Voice games...

Well am finally on a weekend again. Have no real plans. Maybe checking out a friend's art exhibition at the Tochigi International Center, having a nice breakfast with Kedist, booking my flight and meeting Rie and Kaori for lunch (on Friday)....

I'm sure I'll post again at some point this weekend....

Countdown Summary:

14 days left of NOVA...
which means 112 lessons left to teach!!!