Public Announcements, English Drama, and a Little Burr-Sheets.

It's getting colder here. Tonight I'm sleeping with a sweatshirt over my T-shirt. Also, I closeted my fan in exchange for the space heater. I didn't expect it to happen so soon, and I'm a little worried. What kind of winter am I in for?
No sleep last night. Like many small towns in Japan, mine has a public announcement system, which also serves as a public alarm clock(for factory workers and farmers) and a public nuisance(for everyone else). Something must have gone down last night, for at the hours 12, 3, and 5am, it blared messages; something about a car, I think. I actually got up and peeked out my window to see if my car was properly parked, lights off, etc. Call me egotistical, but I have this terrible fear that one day I'll hear my name in one of those things. This might be because I often hear them when I'm walking somewhere new, and not sure if I'm supposed to be there or not:
ATTENTION: THE AMERICAN HAS WANDERED ONTO THE HOLY TEMPLE GROUNDS; WOULD THE CLOSEST INDIVIDUAL PLEASE REMOVE HIM AND STERALIZE THE GROUNDS. REPEAT: THE AMERICAN....
It doesn't help that I can only understand a few words, and that the same message, slightly delayed, is playing in another area of town, just as loud and distorted.
Classes at Mountain Village Middle/Elementary today. It's still my favorite, and now I'm directing an “English Theatre” production of Momotaro, a popular Japanese fairytale. Among the translated lines, my favorites are:
“Honey, I'm home!”
"OGYAH! OGYAH!"
and,
“Oh, my GOD! What a big peach!”
(I did not translate. I only direct...and chuckle quietly.)

Mountain Village is also my favorite school because the elementary teachers are really serious about team-teaching, and if you know anything about this program, you know that's a rarity. We're either running the whole show, or we become a sort of expensive tape-recorder the Japanese teachers use for pronunciation exercises. This is especially true for some of my schools:

ME: Banana.
STUDENTS: Banana!
ME: Apple.
STUDENTS: Apple!
ME: Bullshit.(as in: This is____)
STUDENTS: Burr-sheets!

I suppose there's no point in me doing this blog if I'm not honest. Some of the classes are like that, and I think it's a shame.

But back to Mountain Village. One teacher, we'll call him Montag-sensei(he loves Ray Bradbury, I found out), comes to me before every lesson and explains what he wants covered that day. We exchange ideas, and usually end up with something very effective. He is helping to direct the English version of Momotaro, but instead of just getting the students to memorize the English lines, he thinks up lessons to explain the various grammer points the characters use. Of all my coworkers, he seems the most connected with the kids. I also like him because he's got a great sense of humor and laughs like a cartoon character. If nothing else, my weekly trip to Mountain Village is a breath of fresh air.

Japanese Word of The Day:
Burr-sheets

Quote of Current Book:
"You deal with the madmen. All men are mad in some way or the other; and inasmuch as you deal discreactly with your madmen, so deal with God's madmen, too-the rest of the world." -Van Helsing, from: Dracula