happy how are you!
a belated halloween story...
like snoopy and the peanuts characters here, halloween is almost entirely a commercial phenomenon in japan (not that it has a lot of other purpose in the u.s., i suppose). starting in september, there were jack-o-lanterns hanging in the windows of flower shops, and sweets shops sold pumpkin-flavored desserts and the grocery store i frequent had a display of plastic skull necklaces. But there's no trick or treaters in japan, except, as shigeko explained to me, at English language schools.
at tk study room, one week is devoted to halloween. for children's classes that means the teacher (this year, me) gets dressed up in a ridiculously expensive and outlandish 'traditional' costume. (i was a 'feather witch'... last year adrian was batman, the year before the teacher was a vampire with a pretty incredible make up job, and the year before that the teacher was a black cat. in addition to costume, i had an unexpectedly fun time doing my make up... lots of eyeliner and green eyeshadow and a spider on my cheek and ratting my hair... probably the first time i ratted my hair and used aerosol hairspray since the FHS 7th grade halloween dance. and Shigeko was pleased because apparently the parents were impressed. one told her i had 'the face of halloween.' hehe.. i can only say i wish i hadn't heard that before... at the 7th grade dance.) children also wear costumes; some arrive with their own (a sampling included pirates, bats, Kiki - a witch with a purple dress and big red bow in her hair that's a popular anime character - and something called a 'puppet muppet'... i don't know), others took their costumes from two big bins of masks and clothes that usually get stowed on the school's 3rd floor. (Some highlights from the bins - a buddha mask, a horse mask, pink rabbit ears that tie under the chin and a curly bright blue clown's wig that just about everyone tried on at one point.)
Instead of a regular lesson, during halloween week, we teach some halloween vocabulary (witch, monster, etc. i never noticed that "owl" was a funny sounding word before, but in almost every class students laughed or stumbled on the word), and play games. The main game this year was a haunted house in which students touched "zombie brains" (a mixture of spaghetti and soba noodles), "lizard's blood" (red jello), "mummy's eyeballs" (peeled grapes, of course), and "monster's intestines" (the inside of a squash). Students were so scared - some, i'm sorry to say, even cried. oh, little ones. We made a haunted house under the stairs -- covered in black with scary music in the background and big fake spiders hidden around the room. then, trick or treat!
we also do halloween week at yochien. since classes are only 25 minutes, students don't dress up, but we have a special lesson, and they also learn to say 'happy halloween' and 'trick or treat.' yochien students are very young, kindergarten age, and so are just starting to learn english and don't know many phrases. yochien always starts the same - stand in a circle,
i say "hi!"
they say "hi!"
i say "hi!"
they say "hi!"
i say "kathy" and point at myself.
they say "kathy"
i say "hi kathy!"
they say "hi kathy!"
"hi kathy!"
"hi kathy!"
"i'm fine!"
"i'm fine!"
"i'm fine!"
"i'm fine!"
"hi kathy! (pause) I'm fine!"
"hi kathy! I'm fine!"
"hi kathy! (said in little voice): how are you? (big voice returns): i'm fine!"
"hi kathy! i'm fine!"
Then i go around the circle, saying "hi .... how are you?" to each student. they have to say "hi Kathy! I'm fine!" When I arrived in mid-August, they were just learning "I'm fine," and they only have English class once a week, so it's still pretty new to them.
For Halloween, we added "happy halloween." so, ideally, the conversation around the circle should have gone:
"Hi (tsubasa, karen, yumi)!"
"Hi kathy!"
"How are you?"
"I'm fine!"
"Happy Halloween!"
"Happy Halloween!"
This, of course, is difficult. Halloween isn't exactly an easy word to pronounce, it was only introduced minutes before, and a lot of students get nervous speaking individually. so on the way around the circle, in one of the classes, provided two moments which i want to share with the world wide web at large:
"kathy halloween!"
and
"happy how are you!"
on the subject of holidays, i feel i must mention that christmas (although not really celebrated as roughly 3 percent of the population identifies itself as christian) is already in the air in many commerical establishments here. cards, decorations, etc. are on display in many places, and today, walking past the discount produce store, i heard a japanese cover version of amy grant's 'my grown-up christmas wish' playing over the loud speaker. how about that?
like snoopy and the peanuts characters here, halloween is almost entirely a commercial phenomenon in japan (not that it has a lot of other purpose in the u.s., i suppose). starting in september, there were jack-o-lanterns hanging in the windows of flower shops, and sweets shops sold pumpkin-flavored desserts and the grocery store i frequent had a display of plastic skull necklaces. But there's no trick or treaters in japan, except, as shigeko explained to me, at English language schools.
at tk study room, one week is devoted to halloween. for children's classes that means the teacher (this year, me) gets dressed up in a ridiculously expensive and outlandish 'traditional' costume. (i was a 'feather witch'... last year adrian was batman, the year before the teacher was a vampire with a pretty incredible make up job, and the year before that the teacher was a black cat. in addition to costume, i had an unexpectedly fun time doing my make up... lots of eyeliner and green eyeshadow and a spider on my cheek and ratting my hair... probably the first time i ratted my hair and used aerosol hairspray since the FHS 7th grade halloween dance. and Shigeko was pleased because apparently the parents were impressed. one told her i had 'the face of halloween.' hehe.. i can only say i wish i hadn't heard that before... at the 7th grade dance.) children also wear costumes; some arrive with their own (a sampling included pirates, bats, Kiki - a witch with a purple dress and big red bow in her hair that's a popular anime character - and something called a 'puppet muppet'... i don't know), others took their costumes from two big bins of masks and clothes that usually get stowed on the school's 3rd floor. (Some highlights from the bins - a buddha mask, a horse mask, pink rabbit ears that tie under the chin and a curly bright blue clown's wig that just about everyone tried on at one point.)
Instead of a regular lesson, during halloween week, we teach some halloween vocabulary (witch, monster, etc. i never noticed that "owl" was a funny sounding word before, but in almost every class students laughed or stumbled on the word), and play games. The main game this year was a haunted house in which students touched "zombie brains" (a mixture of spaghetti and soba noodles), "lizard's blood" (red jello), "mummy's eyeballs" (peeled grapes, of course), and "monster's intestines" (the inside of a squash). Students were so scared - some, i'm sorry to say, even cried. oh, little ones. We made a haunted house under the stairs -- covered in black with scary music in the background and big fake spiders hidden around the room. then, trick or treat!
we also do halloween week at yochien. since classes are only 25 minutes, students don't dress up, but we have a special lesson, and they also learn to say 'happy halloween' and 'trick or treat.' yochien students are very young, kindergarten age, and so are just starting to learn english and don't know many phrases. yochien always starts the same - stand in a circle,
i say "hi!"
they say "hi!"
i say "hi!"
they say "hi!"
i say "kathy" and point at myself.
they say "kathy"
i say "hi kathy!"
they say "hi kathy!"
"hi kathy!"
"hi kathy!"
"i'm fine!"
"i'm fine!"
"i'm fine!"
"i'm fine!"
"hi kathy! (pause) I'm fine!"
"hi kathy! I'm fine!"
"hi kathy! (said in little voice): how are you? (big voice returns): i'm fine!"
"hi kathy! i'm fine!"
Then i go around the circle, saying "hi .... how are you?" to each student. they have to say "hi Kathy! I'm fine!" When I arrived in mid-August, they were just learning "I'm fine," and they only have English class once a week, so it's still pretty new to them.
For Halloween, we added "happy halloween." so, ideally, the conversation around the circle should have gone:
"Hi (tsubasa, karen, yumi)!"
"Hi kathy!"
"How are you?"
"I'm fine!"
"Happy Halloween!"
"Happy Halloween!"
This, of course, is difficult. Halloween isn't exactly an easy word to pronounce, it was only introduced minutes before, and a lot of students get nervous speaking individually. so on the way around the circle, in one of the classes, provided two moments which i want to share with the world wide web at large:
"kathy halloween!"
and
"happy how are you!"
on the subject of holidays, i feel i must mention that christmas (although not really celebrated as roughly 3 percent of the population identifies itself as christian) is already in the air in many commerical establishments here. cards, decorations, etc. are on display in many places, and today, walking past the discount produce store, i heard a japanese cover version of amy grant's 'my grown-up christmas wish' playing over the loud speaker. how about that?
posted by kathy at 7:55 PM
1 Comments:
This is dredging back into your archives, and I'm sorry for being so random, but I think you might be my only available resource. Maybe.
I recently found a job listing online for an Ishinomaki eikaiwa called TK International. Further digging seems to indicate that this establishment is the same as the TK Study Room. Since I am applying to as many places as possible I applied, and am apparently a reasonable candidate and have an interview.
And find myself unable to find out any details whatsoever about the school. Japanese websites barely offer any information on the place, and the only English site that MIGHT mention it is your blog...in posts that are four years old.
So I'm wondering if you did indeed work in an Ishinomaki English school called TK Study Room/International and, if you did, if you would give me your opinion of what it was like. Even opinions that are four years old would be better than nothing.
Thank you,
Karen Henderson
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