Aojima Junior High School

As I’ve mentioned, I’m assigned to work between three junior high schools in Fujieda, a relatively small town 20 minutes/five train stops west of Shizuoka City. Each of the three schools houses grades 7-9, and I rotate between schools every 2-3 weeks. My first weeks of work were spent at Aojima, the largest junior high school in Fujieda with 700+ students (a typical homeroom size is 35-40 kids). Aojima is located just a short walk from the Fujieda train station, and the school consists of two 3-story buildings connected by a walkway, two gyms (one specifically for kendo and judo), a scummy outdoor pool, and a large dirt field used for recess, P.E., sporting activities, and earthquake drills.

Aojima has four English teachers, 75% of whom are lovely to work with. Even the fourth isn’t bad; with her standoffishness and monotone voice in class and outside conversations, I thought she hated me, but when she brought me homemade blueberry taffy I realized she just has a very reserved personality. And the taffy was amazing.

For two weeks at Aojima, I visited English class after class; there were so many homerooms that I only got to visit each class once. And my first lesson is a self-introduction… so basically, for the whole two weeks I just talked about myself over and over, with various props and photos, making slight modifications to the guessing game and activity components of the lesson, depending on the grade level.

In fact, I did so much talking about myself that by Wednesday of the second week, I’d lost my voice. Truly. I could speak in a whisper with an occasional squeak—not fun. But despite my not-feeling-awesome-ness during the last portion of my stay, the school was really great!

A few highlights:

1. Part of my introduction lesson was a guessing game, where I’d ask a question and give students a choice of three (ex. “What country am I from?”…I’d put three flags on the board…“Canada, America, or South Korea?”). When I got to “What sport did I play in school?” they would absolutely freak out when I picked soccer from the choices of soccer, basketball, and tennis. They would all vote for basketball or tennis, and just scream when I narrowed the choices down and their choice was eliminated. I did not expect such a lame question to be so entertaining!

2. If students didn’t have club activities after school and were dismissed around the same time I was leaving, I’d oftentimes have a pack of girls walk all the way to the station with me, trying to figure out how to ask me questions in English such as, “Do you like ice cream?” I had a tiny little 7th grade boy walk with me a couple times, too—so cute! Except he would ask harder questions, like “What’s your favorite anime character?”

3. A sweet 7th grade girl came up to me after class one day (after I’d talked about being from Wisconsin) and whispered, “Excuse me, Miss Lindsay? I lived in Indiana for five years!” with the most excited look on her face. (Can you tell I like the 7th graders best? They are just so kawaii...)

4. And lastly, my most notable experience at Aojima: I didn’t attend opening ceremonies at the school (in Japan, the school year begins in April; I arrived when ceremonies were over and classes were starting), so I hadn’t the chance to say hello to the fully assembled student body. I was fine with this, but the principal decided that a good time for me to give a little speech would be early the first week of classes, during the earthquake drill. (And what sort of impression would I have made, were I to question the appropriateness of this on one of my first days?) Teachers wearing hardhats (myself included) herded all the students outside, where the students were divided and counted by homeroom and neighborhood, then asked to sit down. Someone had set up a rickety metal platform, and the principal climbed it and made a few announcements into a megaphone. Then it was my turn! Oh, my. I’d been asked to use both Japanese and English, so I spoke line by line, first in English, then the Japanese translation (using the megaphone, natch):

Hello. Konnichiwa.
Nice to meet you. Hajimemashite.
My name is Lindsay. Watashe no namae wa Lindsay desu.
I am 27 years old. Watashe wa ni ju nana sai desu.
I’m from America. Watashe wa Amerikajin desu.
I’m excited to speak English with you. Thank you!
Dozo yoroshiku. Arigato gozaimasu!

(I have a very limited Japanese vocabulary.)

Absolutely hilarious. This was an experience I will never, ever forget.