We wish your happy Romance Season!

Today I tought at the Japanese Aviation Academy. It is a beautiful place to approach on foot. You must walk across a massive airfield surrounded by wild grass fields, and beyond, on the horrizon, mountains laced with ice. It was a fantasticly clear day so I could see Fuji, more awesome in size than I had ever seen it before.


Today my lesson involved a mix of poetry and reptiles....

See, I teach four classes but the students vary greatly in their English ability.In one class the students are nearly fluent, while in another, most of the students do not even know what I mean by "stand up". All students are tested when entering highschool and then placed together with students who have similar abilities to themselves. As a result, I must design a lesson which is flexible enough to work with all levels of students.

So, in comes the wonderful children's game "snakes and ladders". I created a giant version of this game on a piece of paper that could easily be stuck to the board. I amped-up the educational component of the game by making some spaces display a colour (the students have to name something that is that colour), a letter (they have to say an english word that starts with it), the word opposite (I say a word and they say the opposite), a clock (they have to read the time in english), or an amount of money (again, they must say it in english). Here, is my handywork...

So, ya, this lil' game was more directed at the lower level english classes.

For the more advanced classes I did a wee lesson on

...ACROSTIC POEMS!!

acrosto-what-the-poems??!

haha! yes, they are a lovely magical variety of poetry. You think up a word like....

SNOW

and write it on a piece of paper this way....

S

N

O

W


then you add phrases after each letter and "bata bing bata boom" you have a poem...

Silently falling

Nice and cold

On the rooftops

White snowflakes

...I got the students to break in groups and, since it was my first day back from winter holiday, they wrote acrostic poems using the word "WINTER"

oddly enough in my most geinki (hyper) class most of the boys saw the word winter and thought: "erotic encounter"....

here was one of their gems:

What a cold night
I flirt with cute boy
Nice erotic feeling
To much memories
Erotic
Really erotic

oh dear!

SIDE NOTE: I have discovered that in Japan, christmas is, oddly enough, really associated with romance.

See the following framed wall-hanging displayed in Tully's Coffee Shop near Kofu station...

[yes, it served as inspiration for today's blog title]

and *ahem* this sign spotted as I was going up the escalators to Kofu station...


[it actually refers to the fact that there is going to be a huge sale and everything is going to be greatly/ "climax" reduced/"off" ...really...]

In my final class, I actually got some rather beautiful (G-rated :) poems from my students...here are two of my favorite...

Winter changed to spring
Ice melts into water
Night comes early in the winter
The winter was ushered in by the first snowfall.
Everyone has a snowball fight
Really beautiful snow

White beautiful snow is
In the yard.
Night
Time is silent.
Early in the morning the sun
Rose high in the sky.

Happiness to you all! - grace