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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

♥ Introduction Speech

I felt the need to update this real quick with the results of my intro speech. See, I had to give a little speech in front of 900+ students and teachers. If that wasn't terrifying enough I was initially told it had to be in Japanese... though then a few days ago I was told it could be in English. So what did I do? I split it. Japanese, English, Japanese, English, Japanese, English, Japanese... Whoot. Basically I went through a phrase book and adapted some words and wrote it all out in romanji. But yeah so I walk into the gym and there's hundreds of kids and immediatly they start turning and staring and talking to their friends, whispering, etc etc. Most of them (the grand majority anyways) have never seen me before so I'm sure they were all like ZOMGWHUTGAIJINWITHTHEBIGHAIR?!?! I give this sort of timid smile and keep shuffling after my supervisor as we try to figure out the order in which this is proceeding. My intro was first and it turns out the head of students wrote a welcome speech for me (D'aaaawwwww). So it was to be Kocho-sensei's intro, my speech, and then my welcome speech.

It was so funny as soon as I got on stage, thw whsipers just grew and as I looked over the crowd of little black heads and white shirts I realized just how foreign I was. Anywho, he rambles a bit and I unerstand like every 15th word or so and finally its my tur. The mic is too low but I just bend over a bit and immediatly apologize for my horrible Japanese... and then proceed to read etc etc. Some random phrases and a "Yes we can!" later I bow to the sound of applause and Kocho-sensei smiles and shows me where to stand. Only then I have to move as I have to meet the student leader and some awkward scrambling later she rads off a rather adorable little thing about how excited they are, etc etc, they want to learn about America (the ALTs for the past 5 years have been Aussies), etc etc. It was adorable and it was a surprise so I was rather pleased (and more pleased my part was over). So finally I wander back down and after a moment of standing by my supervisor I see out of the corner of my eye himw riting something and he sort of nudges it my way and I read;

<i>You did a very good job!!!</i>

It was the little boost I needed. My pronunciation was horrid, but the good thing about Japanese is that there are no inflextions like Chinese... therefore the word, no matter how it is sad (usually) is still the word. WHOOT! So the rest of the ceremony preceeds and a teacher I've never talked to comes up to me as we're leaving and says "Thank you for the wonderful speech! It was very good... I enjoyed listening to it." It was so sweet! And then I get back to the staff rom and everyone is smiling and stuff and Blueberry-sensei comes up and says how excited the kids are and that they thought I was very sincere. Apparently they could understand me, and he thanked me multiple times. Then Candy-sensei said the fucking funniest thing ever. "I really liked your speech. I could hear it very well... your pronunciation was.... weird... I could understand it though."

lol.

I'm pleased. I didn't think I did that well, but I think everyone was just really impressed I tried speaking Japanese. The students were apparently very surprised and impressed. Yay. I just want them to like me.

So yeah, first meeting with my JTEs on Thursday for the intro lesson. I have it all done, so I just need to print off copies for them all. Whoot. Now how to work the printer...

そうですね。。。
3:43 PM


♥ Kristina



      The Curls. The girl. The Nippon.

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      22 yrs old
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      ALT for Yaizu Chuo HS
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      This blog is rated PG-13 for language, occasional violence, crude humor, and lack of pie.





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