On Wednesdays I teach at a branch that has just opened this April, so I am it's first English teacher. I think this is appealing on some level because it means these kids have no other teacher to compare me (possibly unfavourably) with. It is a good day for me in so many ways - it is easy because being a new school, the class numbers are on the smaller side so the kids are not too much to handle. There are also a couple of classes with no students at all yet, so I have a couple of free periods. On top of this, there is not one kid at this school that I would call a problem - they are all really friendly, enthusiastic, and pretty quick to learn new things... I wish all days were this easy! I love Wednesdays.

However on the way home I found myself reflecting on words that should be taught carefully... one of the books we use for the younger kids is a Sesame Street ESL book, and we learn the names of the characters as we go... one that I have found I need to be very careful how I pronounce is The Count, because a couple of times the kids have shocked me by saying something that sounds more like a certain four letter word in English that you certainly wouldn't want to be teaching to 5 year olds :) It's a bit like the caution you take when you teach a child how to say 'fire truck' for fear of how it might come out. It reminded me of when I was little, my mum told me that my version of 'Where is Thumbkin?' used to sound very much like 'Where is Fuckin'... apparently it used to have my Nana in fits, she would trot me out to sing it for all of her friends because of this. Sometimes in my classes it is all I can do not to giggle at the off pronunciation of The Count...

In other amusing news, I read this snippet in the Tokyo Metropolis about new technology to prevent oversleeping:

... you might consider buying a Clocky, which is a new alarm clock on wheels that rolls away during the night and hides so that you have to get out of bed and find it and turn it off. This fiendish device was developed by a Japanese grad student at MIT.

Man, I need one of these things! My routine the past three mornings has consisted of me turning off the alarm clock at 7am and re-setting to 8am, then waking at 8pm and re-setting to 8:30, then waking at 8:30 and re-setting to 9am, then waking at 9am and finally stumbling out of bed around 9:15 because there is no way I can be at work by 10:15 if I don't. So much for my morning yoga... every night I tell myself it will happen tomorrow morning, but in the morning the bed is always that much more appealing... I did consider leaving my clock downstairs so that I had to climb down from the loft to turn it off, but then there is the great danger that I would sleep right through it, as I am inclined to do if my alarm clock is more than a foot from my head. But tonight... I have sworn to be in bed by 10pm and there will be yoga tomorrow morning...

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This is copied straight from my other blog, since that is where I am doing most of my musing lately and I feel this one has been sadly neglected... the new journal is primarily for keeping in contact with the people I know in real life and letting them know what I'm up to here in Japan. I had intended to keep this one up for more personal stuffs... but since the whole new country/new job thing accounts for most of what's going on at the moment, a lot more is getting posted there just now. Please feel free to visit me there too!

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