Come on Pig!

Come on pig! Hurry up and kill the mosquitoes in my room! So they stop screaming in my ears.

If you don`t know how to control mosquitoes at your place, get one of these! 

Buggy About Spring 2013

Buggy About Spring 2013

Here is our seasonal bulletin! Happy that kotatsu season is almost over! 

This project took about 4 hours with help, but mostly because we were laminating new goodies received from the foreign buyer's club.

This is my door decoration. I remembered tissue paper decorating and, in the washroom one day, realized that the pink toilet paper we use would make a great tree on my door. I could only do half because they are sliding doors and three dimensional would not work for it. 

Detail on the bug. We put our faces on the big ones.

What the full door looks like.

We had so much fun at our school decorating party.  I'm thankful another of our school's teacher, their friend, and my husband were there to help out. It was a nice night. 

Napoleon Dynamite TV Show Address Song- Funny!

Napoleon Dynamite Address Song (From the television show which was aired on FOX but unfortunately didn't continue for long) It always had me in stitches! Love it!

AND I find myself wanting to sing it in my English classes...

Cooking: Takoyaki

Japan living: what to do with local ingredients? Takoyaki was cheap and delicious.

Vlog Day #3 Biking and Ghosty House

The Hook (Story for Discussion)

The Hook

(Source unknown, but probably an ESL resource website)

A teenage boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began kissing the girl.

A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcers voice came on, warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the state insane asylum,--which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane--and that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.

The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he pulled out of the parking space.

When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook.

What is the moral of the story?

___________________

I'm not sure what to think of this story, I found this going through the ESL resources at the school I'm teaching at. Hm. Probably from Dave's ESL cafe or something... I'd love to give the original author credit though.

Vlog Day #2

These videos probably aren't going to have a lot to do with teaching. The teaching is going to be much more basic... I'm still working on my online lesson (well, still need to get to it) and work starts on... this Saturday! I got my schedule. It's like high school all over again, except I'm the teacher. And I don't have to control 40 student classes, I think the max is 4 or so. Most are doubles or privates. So its more like my college tutoring gig except I get to make lesson plans from the books and incorporate my own topics into them.

Well, for now, enjoy Vlog Day #2. I'm still getting used to this Vlog thing.

Around my New Home: Japanese Apartment Tour!

I really apologize for the fidgeting. I don't know how to do video editing (so more than one take is out of the question). But in the future I hope to learn those things. I have a feeling there are going to be too many things going on for that though.

Japan Living: Caring for Tatami

Caring for your Washitsu

A tatami-floored washitsu with a tokonoma (the recessed area with traditional item display) visible in the background.

Source: http://litlotrs.blogspot.com/2007/01/mans-home-is-his-shiro.html

If your accommodation in Japan has a Japanese style room, then it is worth it to know how to properly care for these reed and rice straw mats, for your health and for the health of those who will be living in the same residence once you have left.

Caring for Japanese Tatami, published on the Iwate JET website:

http://iwatejet.com/node/177

The site offers some helpful tips about ow to keep your tatami room clean and healthy so you can enjoy the relaxing scent of this traditional Japanese flooring.

Most important (Summary) :

-Futons should be folded and removed from the mats during the day, and if possible, dried outside, since futons themselves can mold just as easily as tatami (and beaten from time to time)

-They can be vacuumed, wiped with a damp cloth. This should be done following the grain of the matting to prevent damage. This should be done regularly since dirt and dust aren't good for the tatami or for you

Feast or Famine

I think it's safe to announce that:

*drumroll*

My job search is over! (for at least a year, but likely longer than that!)

After facing some setbacks with my school and some companies! (Including ones that I trekked all the way to Japan to see!) I was successfully hired after a skype interview at a small, informal, but very warm English school in the town were I lived for my first study abroad. So advice to all the hopefuls out there, dreams will come true, just be patient! (Moral of the story: try to interview in your home country, unless you really have the itch to travel, enjoy the travel but if you're not there for an extended time, don't expect anyone to hire you because you went to see them, but also don't be discouraged if a door slams shut in your face-the universe has something better in store.)

I really do dream of working in the countryside one day (the place where I'm going to is suburban/medium-large, but some areas of the town feel small), but I declined a job as an ALT in Nagano, just because the opportunity to be near friends and in a central area of Japan (Aichi) is too good to pass up.

And on the website I'd definitely recommend, www.gaijinpot.com, a similar small, warm, and personal eikaiwa school requested I contact them. Not that it's a job offer, but it made me happy all the same to be contacted.

I will be going back to Aichi-prefecture, sometime in September with work starting in Fall! After my long job search, it doesn't even feel real! But it is!

SAT Vocabulary List

SAT Vocabulary: Great for Native and Foreign Speakers alike!

Ones that I have seen on repeated practice and official SAT tests are bolded.

aberration

abeyance

abjure

ablution

abrogate

abstruce

accost

acquiesce

acumen

aesthetic

aggrandize

amatory

archaism

auxiliary

avant-garde

bellicose

conflate

consonance

cerebral

decorous, decorum

deleterious

delineate

denude

derogate

dissonance

edifice

grandiose

gregarious

ignominious

inscrutable

latent

laudatory

malapropism

miserly

mitigate

munificent

palpable

partisan

pernicious

quackery

retroactive

sophomoric

supercilious

synergystic

tactile

vapid

verbiose

venerate

Eiken Writer, Editor, Consultant Interview

Link to interview with Mr. Graham McDarmott (spelling? guraamu makkudarumotto-san)

http://careercenter.ecentral.jp/ja/2011/05/31/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8A%E3%81%AE%E5%9B%BD%E9%9A%9B%E4%BA%BA%EF%BC%9A%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2%E6%A5%AD%E7%95%8C%EF%BC%9A%E8%8B%B1%E6%A4%9C%E3%81%A7%E6%B4%BB%E8%BA%8D%E3%81%95%E3%82%8C/

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

I recently got official word that I company I thought I was set to work for couldn't place me for fall. So I and my husband continue to browse the gaijinpot and Japan English Teacher. We also came to the conclusion that I may start out in Korea. Not being single, or rather, having a spouse accompany me, locks me out of a job market designed for singles but I know ALT companies tend to be more flexible and are still an option in the future if I do what I need to do to make myself competitive. The interview above is with someone who works writing the Eiken exam. It sounds like an interesting position and the interview is not that hard to read (easy kanji), and would be good for anyone interested in working in Japan someday to read.

My friend just made it through the AEON interview. As I said, these common entry-level teaching jobs are exclusive to singles or those who intend to come to Japan alone, or come without co-habitating with a spouse. I ran into this issue at an interview for an independent eikaiwa chain in Aichi. If there are any readers out there who are married (especially to an international... his English is excellent but he can't be considered native-born English speaker), perhaps they can identify. But I'm thrilled for him as he does not only have solid interpersonal skills for a position like AEON, but is also business minded so it will be a great experience for his future.

I have a phone interview tonight with a school near my husband's parents' home in Korea, and perhaps one ALT company that would probably be able to place me by spring. All the Japan stuff is yet to come though. It's so competitive these days!