Late Registration

If you're a first time ALT like me, there are two words that you're probably used to hearing by now. 挨拶 (aisatsu) means "greeting" or "salutation". 自己紹介 (jikoshoukai), on the other hand, is usually translated as "self-introduction" and generally refers to a formal introduction speech. As I've been teaching these past two weeks, my co-workers have told me that I will be doing aisatsu every time that I have taught a new class. Only once so far have I been expected to make an actual introductory speech and that time I was told in advance that I needed to prepare a jikoshoukai. Today I was scheduled to teach at Momoishi Elementary School, where I have been teaching for two weeks now. For some reason they wanted me to come in at 8:00 am but I figured that it was just because I was teaching older kids this time. When my co-workers told me that I would be doing aisatsu there, I assumed that they were referring to the fact that I was teaching the fourth graders for the first time.

Anyway, I woke up a little off schedule this morning, so I ended up running a little late. I have not been late once to the office or to any of the schools yet. In Japan punctuality is taken very seriously and being late somewhere is often interpreted as a personal insult. Anyway, I figured that since they usually have me come in a good half an hour or so before I have to teach, I would probably be able to sneak into the teacher's office undetected.

I arrived at the school at 8:06 am. As I sat in the entranceway putting on my school shoes I couldn't help but notice how eerily silent and ominously empty the school was. Without warning, the school principal appeared from out of nowhere. I apologized to him for being late and he wordlessly motioned for me to follow him. He was clearly not pleased. "Are you ready to give your speech?" he asked me tersely as we walked towards the gymnasium. When we arrived, I saw that the entire school was assembled, watching my welcoming ceremony. Meep.

When it came time for my speech, they had me stand at a podium on a stage in front of all of the teachers and students. I recited off of the top of my head all that I could remember of my introduction speech that I had written earlier. I messed up at least once but other than that I think it went reasonably well. As is customary, every teacher in the school came up to me afterward to tell me how good my Japanese is. However, they would have done this had I just gone up there and said "Konichiwa" and waved.

My "pin the pieces of the face on the egg man" game went over really well with the fourth graders. They got really excited and yelled so loud that it was deafening. And when I asked for volunteers, practically every hand in the class shot up. So much for the reticent, quiet Japanese student. Two of the teachers ran to get digital cameras during the classes-I think they had never seen a game like this before. One of them came up to me at the end of the day and said "That was very enjoyable".

In one of the fourth grade classes I taught today, at least two girls were wearing Playboy t-shirts. I wish I had brought my camera.