Cheers

It’s nice to know that what you do on a day-to-day basis means something to someone.  Recently, I’ve had a series of interactions with my kids that truly make me feel like I make an impact in their lives.  I thought I’d share and maybe this can serve as a bit of a pick me up from my rather disheartening introspection entry.

It all began with cleaning time at the middle school last Friday.  I chose to help class 2-A and was very surprised when one of the girls, Kyoka, said, “Eric-sensei, I’m going to play a volleyball game tomorrow.”  I was shocked not only because she told me this completely unprompted but because it was really good English.  I asked her where and when her tournament was.  Turns out it was at the school starting at 9, though I had to ask the volleyball coach about the time and the schedule.  The schedule said it was a tournament for girls age 14 or younger, so only first and second grade students would be playing.  I decided rather quickly that I would go.  It was clear that Kyoka was excited and I had a feeling she may have told me because she wanted me to come.

Going to the tournament was a lot of fun and a really great experience for me.  It gave me the opportunity to see my kids outside of class and even meet their parents, though I was a bit too nervous to say anything to them.  Sadly, neither of my schools two teams managed to win a set and I had to stand by awkwardly as Sayuri cried after the first game, not knowing what I could do to console her.  Fortunately, Kyoka managed to stay positive and cheer her up a bit.  I got a lot of great pictures including a group shot of one of the teams that has quickly become one of my favorites.

The first two games ended around noon and there was a timeslot where neither of the teams was playing, so I excused myself to go and get Amanda so she could watch the last game with me.  We arrived with plenty of time and Amanda introduced herself to my kids.  This was the first time she had ever been at my school and naturally she was a big hit with my kids.  I think they felt really special to be the first ones to meet her.  We sat with my kids and clapped our hands along with their cheers.  I even attempted to join in at the few parts I knew to the delight of Shoko, who was sitting next to me.  After the game, the students all gathered outside to eat their bentos (box lunches) and Amanda and I excused ourselves and said our goodbyes.  Honestly, at the time I didn’t think our appearance at the tournament had made that big of an impression, but I would soon discover how wrong I was.

Monday rolled around and for the first time in a while I was at the middle school for the whole day (curse you driving test!)  In the afternoon, I was asked to help my JTE enter grades into journals for each student in her class, 2-A.  We talked about the volleyball tournament and I asked some questions about the girls.  I learned about a few of the disagreements between them, but learned a lot of nice things too, like the fact that Shoko is incredibly bright and wants to be a doctor. I mentioned it would be nice to have a doctor who could speak English well. 

After we were finished, I went with my JTE to her homeroom class.  I had been debating whether or not to talk to one of my students about the cheers they had done during the game.  I decided that Shoko was probably my best bet, as she seemed the most comfortable speaking and listening to English.  After class, I talked to her, and tried to explain that I had felt a little left out on Saturday during the cheers and that I wanted to learn them.  I didn’t have anything to write on at the time, but she tried to explain one to me, writing letters on her desk with her finger as she talked.  I was surprised to find the cheer was in English and wrote it down after class.

Tuesday was filled with even more surprises for me.  I arrived, as I always do, at cleaning time and headed up to 2-A again.  Normally I would try to spread out my appearances in the same classroom, but I really wanted to talk to Shoko and ask her if I had written the cheer correctly.  While I wasn’t able to talk to her at that time, I did run into a number of the volleyball girls, who gathered around me with big smiles on their faces.  Riru and Reimi tried to say what they were all thinking, “Eric-sensei…last Saturday…fiancee Amanda…volleyball look.”  I nodded and gently corrected their English.  Riru continued, “Amanda is beautiful.”  It was really sweet.  I told them that Amanda had said I had adorable children.  They all repeated “Adorable, adorable,” trying to figure out what it could mean, so I took out my phone, which has an English to Japanese dictionary and showed them.  They all nodded and said thank you.  It was a really great moment.

Turns out our little appearance at the tournament was the topic of conversation for a number of the students, several of them writing about it in their daily journals.  I also learned that Shoko had written about teaching me cheers, in English no less.  These girls could have written about anything they wanted and they chose to write about my involvement in their lives.  Knowing this made me feel really happy.  I was able to talk to Shoko briefly after school and confirm that I had written the cheer correctly.  Her smile upon seeing that I had it written in my notebook was priceless.  It’s a moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget.  For those who are interested:

A-R-I-A-K-E
Go, go
Let’s go, Ari-chu