3/5/08 Slow Times at Yamabe Junior High

Several of my second year classes, I fear, have turned into zombies. Not those lovable, violent, and brain thirsty sort either, I'm talking about the comatose, unblinking, and unmoving kind. I think it must just be because of their age, as many of the English teachers from other schools have reported the same phenomenon. The first year kids are over-hyper, the third years are confident and capable of more complicated conversation, but the second years aren't really much of either, it seems.

So the teacher likes me to ask questions about the short readings the class does. They barely react, though, to even the most patronizingly easy questions. So one question in particular was a real agonizing experience. The reading was an email that a pretend person sent to their pretend host family living in New Zealand. One line read "I hope I can help you on your farm". So my question for the students was, "What can he do to help them on their farm?". After a few minutes of blank stares, the teacher writes "He can take care of ____ on their farm" on the blackboard. Stares. The teacher starts naming examples of farm animals, one by one, hoping someone will catch the pattern. Stares, blanker than before, if it wasn't my imagination. After a bit more prodding, a girl in the back finally raises her hand. "Ghengis Khan" she said. This time, the blank look was all mine.

*****


Here's a a beer I bought out of pity for the sad little thing. At 135ml a can, a six pack fit inside the length of my hand.


I visited the Tochigi Prefectural Museum in Utsunomiya on Sunday, and I thought this little print was worth sharing. It's an advertisement for medicine, made to look like a little war against illness Godzilla style.



Here's an entertaining little Pro-Hillary video by Jack Nicholson.



Here is someone's parody/rebuttal, which is pretty funny. Enjoy.