The first cockroach of the year...

...pretty damn huge for February...we've broken the planet. Thankfully, this antenna waving monstrosity didn't have me in quite the same paroxysms of horror inflicted by it's kin nearly two years ago. Just as I'd made my mind up to leave as well...

Reading

There is nothing more likely to ruin a consistently solid run of reading than starting a book reviewing blog, but I've not stopped completely. At the moment I'm wrestling with ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 (Ge ge ge no Kitarou) and since it's in Japanese, I'm struggling.

First published in 1966, this series of manga by Shigeru Mizuki features pretty much the entire bestiary of traditional Japanese monsters, or 妖怪 (Youkai). The protaganist, Kitarou (meaning Ogre/Demon Boy) occassionaly acts as a go-between for the worlds of Humans and Monsters, helping out one when the other oversteps their bounds. What I've read so far is gleefully ghoulish. Take for example, Kitaro's father, Medama Oyaji (eyeball father) who lives in his son's empty eye socket, usually obscured by that rouge flap of hair.

At the moment, a young baseball player has happened across Kitarou's bat (lying about in a graveyard). The bat of course has magical powers, and the team are on their way to becoming professionals, when Kitarou turns up, wanting it back. The young player is reluctant to relinquish his tool to fame, so a challenge is declared, naturally, with a game of baseball...Kitarou's team mates are a variety of nasty creatures, and the human baseball players are appropriately terrified, as this game may cost them their souls...

...so that's what I'm doing now...

In defence of Native English Speakers in Japanese schools.

Mary Newton has recently written a rebuke of an article which appeared in the Daily Yomiuri on the 9th of February. Within, James W. Porcaro, Professor of English as a Foreign Language at Toyama University of International Studies, calls for an end to the Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) program (provided by JET and various private companies) on the grounds that it is a massive waste of money with little in the way of observable benefits.

The basis for his argument is a pessimistic criticism of Michael Auslin, a former ALT (from 1991-'92) who, as Prof. Porcaro neglects to mention, is himself a Professor at Yale. The picture Porcaro paints from Auslins remarks that he had "few responsibilities" and "a lot of fun", combined with his own opinions that the "fun and games" had by students in English class are in fact "detrimental" portrays ALT's as workshy graduates, looking for one more opportunity to slack off before they have to find jobs. Porcaro states that Auslin, and a total of 9,000 ALT's,

"...continue to demonstrate the same lack of educational value...at an annual cost of about 50 billion yen to Japan's taxpayers."

In an ideal situation, ALT's and their counterparts, the Japanese Teachers of English (JTE's) are supposed to present a "double act" in order to put an emphasis on communication, rather than learning grammar by rote, which doesn't necessarily aid conversation skills. The core of an effective English lesson with a JTE and an ALT is a good working relationship, but this isn't always possible for a variety of reasons.

For starters, I've been visiting four schools this year. No matter how good your relationship with the JTE is, it is impossible to be a consistent benefit to the students, because every other week, the ALT goes to a different school. When they return, the students and the JTE have adopted a routine that works without the ALT because they aren't there most of the time. Efforts are made to include the "guest", but usually these don't stray beyond the "human tape recorder" phenomenon.

Elaborating on the JTE/ALT relationship, very often, even with the most experienced JTE, they still make obscene errors of grammar. Some JTE's are hardly the "models of English-language" Porcaro describes. The ALT is useful because they represent an opportunity to communicate with the correct grammar. If the teacher is getting it wrong on the assumption that they're not, then they'll give this erroneous information to the students, which itself is deterimental to "cultivating Japanese with English abilities".

Prof. Porcoro dislikes the manner in which English is taught by ALT's, through the use of games,

"...as they merely reinforce the impression that learning English is not an important and serious endeavor..."

but a way needs to be found that makes the subject appealing to students. Many children don't see the point of learning an alien language spoken in countries on the other side of the planet. The serious approach apparently favoured by Prof. Porcaro could potentially be another opportunity for students to sleep in the middle of class, rather than a chance to get involved in speaking.

Prof. Porcaro suggests that the money thrown at ALT programs would be better spent on more training for JTE's, but I know few of these overworked and underpaid public servants who have time to spare. Also, on a broader level, there is the fundamental fallacy of "education for all" - the fact is that the only students who will be good at english are those who are interested in it, and no amount of penny pinching will change that.

He also complains that the prescence of ALT's,

"...marginalizes and diminishes the role of JTEs in front of their own students..."

as if the JTE's were the most important thing in the classroom. Education is not about the "professional growth and development" of the teachers; it is about educating students.

What Prof. Porcaro completely misses is the cultural benefits of ALT programs. This is a opportunity for genuine cultural exchange on both sides. As many ex-JET ALT's have said to me, the JET program is less about English language education and more about introducing Japan to the rest of the world. Professor Porcaro's proposals completely erase this benefit for both students in a relatively isolated society and foreign visitors with a lot to learn.

Product misplacement

Laugh? I seem incapable of stopping.

Another enkai

I have been home for two hours since this seemingly purposeless gathering of teachers. I was warned previously that the principal of this school has taken to getting extremely drunk and making inappropriate speeches...thankfully, my Japanese ability is still equal to that of a particularly gifted chimp, and I missed the bulk of any faux pas he may have made...but he did get drunk extraordinarily quickly...and I was sitting next to him, and consequently, was denoted his drinking foil for the evening...suffice to say, it's friday night where I am, and enkai has been confirmed as my favourite Japanese word.

You ain't got nuffin' on me...

Today, I was stopped by the police. Considering that I've been here for nearly two years, I'm lucky that this is my first brush with the law. I was on my bike, approaching some roadworks when they hailed me to stop. First they told me it was dangerous, then asked me if I was going home. They then informed me that they wanted to check the registration number of my bike, presumably to make sure I hadn't stolen it. It's a good job I told them that it was a Christmas present from my girlfriend, and therefore would have been registered in her name. They radioed whichever bureaucrat they had to talk to, who checked the appropriate documents and confirmed that it was indeed registered to the person whose name I gave them.

It could be argued that these guardians of society were just doing their job, but as any disgruntled ex-pat in this country might point out, I was stopped because I'm not Japanese.

Recently there was a bit of a hoo-ha over the magazine Gaijin Hanzai Ura File (Foreigner Crime File), an undeniably racist publication that depicts foreigners committing crimes across the nation, touts the statistic of 47,000 felonies committed by non-Japanese each year and, according to Radio Australia News, asks

"...whether they (foreigners) should be allowed to devastate Japan."

The chain of convenience stores, Family Mart, pulled copies of the magazine off their shelves in response to complaints from customers. Considering that foreigners make up a tiny percent of the population, one can take comfort in the probability that it was Japanese customers doing the complaining. However, in the wake of such a row, it's still easy to feel threatened, especially with the apparent resurfacing of Nationalism in Japan

Claims like "47,000 crimes a year" can be misleading though. Whilst foreign crime is increasing, so is the foreign population. Also, according to statistics found at Japan Reference, over half of the 20,007 foreign nationals arrested in 2003 were apprehended for "offences" such as drug use, prostitution, speeding etc, as opposed to "crimes" like murder, robbery, arson, rape etc. Most of those arrested for offences were charged with overstaying a visa. 50% of the serious crimes were thefts, whilst only 477 arrests were for vicious crimes. Also, what is recorded is the number of arrests, rather than convictions.

There is the added problem of the language barrier - whilst most disputes between Japanese can be sorted out amongst themselves without the need for Police intervention, if one side of the conflict doesn't speak the language, it's inevitable that at some point, the Police are going to be called upon, thus adding another foreign "crime" to the pile.

According to the Instituto de Estudos Japoneses, promotion in the Police force is determined

"...as a rule, by recommendation on the basis of evaluation of their ability to carry out their duties, their experiences and their record of service."

Reading between the lines, and considering how important appearance is over here, if an officer is seen to be making a great effort, then that promotion is within their grasp. At the end of the day, if they can produce a folder bulging with potential offenders, stopped in the nick of time, then surely they must be doing something right. I, and quite possibly many others like me, are easy targets. My mistake of riding a bike in the wrong place at the wrong time, although not an offence, is no doubt going to go on a file somewhere and resurface in the next deliberately inflammatory publication as one of 47,000 "crimes" committed by foreigners each year.

Their investigation complete, they thanked me, and before sending me on my way, advised that I carry my rucksack on my shoulder rather than the basket in front of my bike, lest an "unknown person" apprehend it. If only they'd told me how to take precautions against ambitious or bored policemen.

Hakone

During the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868) this town was an important stop off on the old Tokaido, the route which connected Kyoto to the new capital of Edo, now Tokyo.


At the base of Kamisan (God Mountain) lies lake Ashi, pretty much the centre of our long awaited break.


However, a surprisingly constant companion was the notoriously elusive Mount Fuji.


I still find it astounding that such a prominent mountain can be so difficult to spot. Our excursion last autumn to the Five Lakes region, at the very base of Fuji, gave us only this vague glimpse.


Fuji cheered us home on the way back to Kawasaki, its' unmistakable silhouette standing out against the orange sunset like a massive mound of mashed potato.

This trip was all about relaxing, which we did in style at the Fuji-Hakone Guest House, truly worthy of the plug. After the madness of commuting on a friday night from Kawasaki, we stepped off the bus into the mountains, fresh air and utter silence. Within an hour, we were in a rotenburo, unconcerned about the rain beause of the geothermally heated water. One drawback of bathing in volcanic springs is that you will reek of sulphur for days to come.

Hakone also, surprisingly, contained a museum dedicated to the novel Le Petit Prince.



The story being a memory from childhood, it was great to find this place, but one wonders what the hell a museum devoted to one book by a Frenchman is doing in a mountain town in Japan.

What have you done to me?!

Even in English, I struggle to tell hairdressers what I want. I'm going to get so teased at school tomorrow...


...thankfully Hayley & I are off to Hakone after work...photos to follow...

日本語能力試験四級 - Nihongo nou ryoku shiken yon kyuu - Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4

I passed! 328 out of 400, boo-ya! I may even go for level two this year, the exam I've just done being but small potatoes, especially compared to the glut of alien grammar already encountered after only two months of level three study...

凄い上手 - Sugoi Jouzu - Amazing skill!

Recently I've been engaged in a very short debate with Andy about the way Japanese people react to foreigners using their language - one almost universally receives hearty congratulations for displaying the most elementary linguistic hoop jumping, so readily that doubt is cast upon sincerity.

This is something I noticed just weeks after my arrival...reading back, those entries betray a wide eyed bubble of enthusiasm, a sharp contrast to some of the black rage I've since experienced...at worst, being complimented for being able to say "yes" in a foreign language is patronising, insulting and makes a mockery of ones efforts to communicate.

However, the consistency of this response makes me think that there's more to it . Also, the remnants of my faith in humanity convince me that not even a society as unconsciously racist as Japan can be so uniformly condescending.

Since the dawn of Japan, the backbone of this society has had everybody mucking in and working on labour intensive rice production. With such an impetus, it's vitally important that everybody gets on with everybody else, even if it's only on the surface. In all probability, such freely given praise is a reflex - they don't even think about it, being neither complimentary nor patronising.

All this was churning about whilst I was doing my shopping. As I'd finished, I was unlocking my bike, and an elderly lady next to me apologised for having the audacity to be potentially in my way (she wasn't in the slightest). In Japanese, I replied "no, no". She looked at me and noticing that I wasn't Japanese did a double take. The inevitable resounding compliment arrived. Considering what I had just been thinking about and the conclusion I'd reached, I had no choice but to laugh in her face. I thanked her and cycled off, utterly bewildered.