Snipets from a drunken night in France....
Last night was my end of the year enkai (staff party). Everyone gets drunk and says goodbye to the teachers who have had their lives unnecessarily uprooted by the archaic and useless Japanese tradition of shuffling teachers around to different schools every couple of years.
It was at a French Provence themed wedding chapel, complete with fake plastic vines on the walls and completely irrelevant music like Aqua and Celine Dion on the sound system. Very autentic indeed...in a plastic, completely off the mark, Japanese kind of way.
There are a couple of speeches and the leaving teachers get flowers and then everyone gets drunk and mingles around the room talking to each other. I usually can't accomplish the latter until I have had a significant amount of Asahi Dry poured down my gullet and feel confident to berate my collegues with my shitty Japanese. They are the same way and wait until they get VERY VERY drunk to come test out their English on me.
Conversational snippets - Sayonara Enkai 2005
The differences between the male and female minds....never the twain shall meet.
Tokumoto sensei (female P.E teacher in her 30's) - Do you exercise?
me: ya, I jog and go to kendo club
T: Hmmmm, you are getting fat
m: thank you
Iiike sensei (male, single, 30 something and very drunk) - "Joe san, honto ni shitsurei shimasu"...which means please excuse me for what I am about to say.
J: sock it to me old boy...
I: You face is very slim, you have become skinny, beautiful! followed by wink wink, nudge nudge
J: thank you.
(this is the second person in the last week who has told me my face has gotten skinny...wierd. Unfortunately, I think all the fat has headed south to my ass)
Sugawa sensei (middle aged science teacher) Ahhh Joe-san! hey, do you know Annika from Scotland?
Me: Uh no (she was an ALT in Kameyama like 4 years before I showed up...)
S: Ahhh, I see. Me and her and Ushio sensei taught a very interesting lesson together. She talked about recycling in Scotland and the students made English posters.
M: Uhh, that was me, I talked about recycling in Canada....
S: Honto ni! (seriously?!?) hmmmmmm.... Kampai! (cheers)
M: thank you....
Last night was my end of the year enkai (staff party). Everyone gets drunk and says goodbye to the teachers who have had their lives unnecessarily uprooted by the archaic and useless Japanese tradition of shuffling teachers around to different schools every couple of years.
It was at a French Provence themed wedding chapel, complete with fake plastic vines on the walls and completely irrelevant music like Aqua and Celine Dion on the sound system. Very autentic indeed...in a plastic, completely off the mark, Japanese kind of way.
There are a couple of speeches and the leaving teachers get flowers and then everyone gets drunk and mingles around the room talking to each other. I usually can't accomplish the latter until I have had a significant amount of Asahi Dry poured down my gullet and feel confident to berate my collegues with my shitty Japanese. They are the same way and wait until they get VERY VERY drunk to come test out their English on me.
Conversational snippets - Sayonara Enkai 2005
The differences between the male and female minds....never the twain shall meet.
Tokumoto sensei (female P.E teacher in her 30's) - Do you exercise?
me: ya, I jog and go to kendo club
T: Hmmmm, you are getting fat
m: thank you
Iiike sensei (male, single, 30 something and very drunk) - "Joe san, honto ni shitsurei shimasu"...which means please excuse me for what I am about to say.
J: sock it to me old boy...
I: You face is very slim, you have become skinny, beautiful! followed by wink wink, nudge nudge
J: thank you.
(this is the second person in the last week who has told me my face has gotten skinny...wierd. Unfortunately, I think all the fat has headed south to my ass)
Sugawa sensei (middle aged science teacher) Ahhh Joe-san! hey, do you know Annika from Scotland?
Me: Uh no (she was an ALT in Kameyama like 4 years before I showed up...)
S: Ahhh, I see. Me and her and Ushio sensei taught a very interesting lesson together. She talked about recycling in Scotland and the students made English posters.
M: Uhh, that was me, I talked about recycling in Canada....
S: Honto ni! (seriously?!?) hmmmmmm.... Kampai! (cheers)
M: thank you....
1 Comments:
Oh my lord, that sounds awful...
I also dislike how they shuffle staff around so much. Four new faces in the office this morning...
Kat
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