Today was actually a pretty good day. First off, I was only scheduled for one class today, but I ended up getting two! - Both of them were with 1st year classes (7th graders) so they were all very genki (EN: energetic).
My first class of the day was the class that my kyoto-sensei (EN: Vice Principal) assigned me. He is also the English teacher for 1st year students. It wasn't until lunch time, however, that I really noticed kids were warming up to me.
For lunch, I usually rotate through each class of each grade. This week, I was rotating through they 2nd year classes (8th graders). They're usually not really a talkative bunch - by 2nd and 3rd year of Junior High School, they all become quite shy -- especially with English. Today's lunch, however, was a breakthrough lunch in my opinion. The students must've gotten to the point of feeling comfortable enough with me to speak English, even if it's not too good. One student was talking to me, asking in broken English, "What...ramen......kind....duu....like" or something alone the lines of that. Still it was a good gesture and it definitely means there's progress being made.
After lunch I was walking back to the Staff Room, saying "hello!" to all the students passing by, when one of the 3rd years (9th graders) saw me and gave me a very genki "HELLO!"
He started talking to me a lot in broken English and I figured out that he was captain of the school's baseball team. I also learned that he was a pitcher and also knew about Buster Posey ("He is number one catcher!" he says) I asked if he wanted to become a professional baseball player, but he said no. I started asking if he wanted to play for any of the Japanese teams, and it seems that he wants to play for the team in Osaka, Japan.
Anyways, as I was talking to him, more 3rd year students were strolling by -- most of them would be stretching their arm out, getting ready for a high-five, as I seem to have made that a common greeting with the students (but they like it, so yay). One boy passed by, gave me a high five, and suddenly, after that, he gave me a sort-of half hug. My reaction was something along the lines of "Um, Oh, what? Awww"I was under the assumption that kids his age felt "too cool" to do anything like that, or that they simply grew out of it.
After lunch was 5th period. I was scheduled to go with Kyoto-sensei to his 5th period English class, so I went. This class was crazy genki. They had so much energy despite saying that they were all tired when I was doing the daily greetings. We were planning to play a game of bingo with the new vocabulary, but the sheets were misplaced, so we got straight into the day's lesson, which was "self introductions". Many of the students were asking for my help. So, between the talk with the 2nd years during lunch, the talk with the 3rd year baseball captain after lunch, the countless high-fives and my 1st year classes, I'm starting to think that they're finally starting to warm up to me. Even if they aren't, today was a good day.
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