Clean up長田

Ｔoday was "Clean up Nagata" Day! After lunch time, all the students gathered outside on the school field, put on gardening clubs and with some instructions from the teachers, set out to do some garbage picking! The students separated into small groups with 6 students or so each and headed out for the alleyways around Nagata JHS.

I followed a bunch of third year boys and was absolutely shocked by how willing they were to talk to me! One of the boys, Shoma, started talking about "Takamine", after 10 minutes or so I finally realized he was talking about a boy from another class. He then proceeded to tell me that Takamine is a "molester" and had talked to/asked(?) me about sex! I asked if they were friends and he said no because Takamine "tell a lie every time". Oh and when I started picking up garbage as well, Shoma promptly gave me one of his gloves, such a little gentleman! haha!

Even Kobayashi, one of the class leaders who is usually all proper, was joking around and it felt like they had really let their guard down. I was no longer just their English teacher who they were obligated to speak English to, but someone they actually wanted to talk to. They were trying so hard to think of what they wanted to say in English and when I understood some of their Japanese, they told me "You speak Japanese very well. " HA, as if!

Of course I got questions like "Have you ever had sex?" and "Do you smoke?" along with blurts of "He had sex!" "He is dangerous!" about each other. I was really surprised when Kobayashi kun replied "You mustn't believe what he is saying." Every now and then my students really catch me off guard with their vocabulary. I mean if they can't even understand when I ask them "Are you going home?", where in the world did they get "You mustn't believe..." from! Amazing! haha.

When we got back to the schook, I started talking to the first year boys and they had a blast asking me which person I liked the most. They also called this chubby boy "Doraemon" and when he started chasing the boy who said it, we were all going "Ehh! Doraemon hayai desu!" This one kid could put both his feet behind his head too and when I asked him if he practiced, he replied "natural" lol... such silly students.

I find the students are so much more personable and talkative when you learn their names and say hi to them instead of just a generic " good morning ". However, with 3 schools and more than 800 students, getting to know students one on one is easier said than done...

Btw, can you tell I'm totally still in the "Honeymoon phase" of the 4 phases of Culture Shock?