Last week I FINALLY had my last classes of the semester, on Thursday. It is bittersweet. I will miss the young ones! But they were sometimes disappointing. My Eikaiwa students tend to use Japanese way too often and too easily, no matter how many times I tell them to use only English. When I am visiting one of their groups, they of course speak in good enough English for the most part, but then all the other groups will be talking in Japanese. It's playing Whack-a-Mole... The alternative would be for me to stand in the center of the room revolving slowly around like the guard in a panopticon, with my hands holding my ears out to catch more sound, straining to hear Japanese and then penalize the culprits. But that's no fun! I like to join in their group discussions here and there, moving around like a butterfly or a bee among the flowers... Sigh.
Anyway! Last week before the last Thursday classes, my wife and I went to China, to Shanghai and two nearby cities, and had a great experience. We were struck by the vast contrasts in China or in Shanghai anyway, between very old (and broken down, shabby, dirty, poor etc.) houses and tall, shining, glassy skyscrapers; between old women begging on the sidewalks and young men driving Mercedes and BMWs etc.; between traditional Chinese buildings or clothes etc. and contemporary western versions... We visited some interesting temples, museums, old districts, and parks and were subjected to a few sales experiences (a silk shop/factory, a pearl shop/factory, an embroidery shop/factory, a latex pillow and mattress shop/factory, etc.). One of the high points was when we visited the Shanghai museum dedicated to the famous 20th century writer Lu Xun, whose stories I started reading before the trip and have been so impressed by. He wrote only short stories, but each one is a perfect creation, opening a vivid window into early 20th century Chinese culture and into the universal human soul. Another high point was when we attended a "circus" in Shanghai, in which the performers used their bodies in ways that human bodies were not meant to be used in, showcasing intense and extreme flexibility, strength, agility, balance, concentration, and so on. Our palms got sweaty watching them do often too dangerous things... And the food was delicious and varied and not unhealthy. The sky, though, was nearly always opaque, a kind of pale gray with brownish tints... winter? smog? both, our local guide said. I'll put some pictures here later... Right--now to get ready for examinations and last grading!
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Yesterday I had my last Friday classes of the school year.
Which means I had to say good-bye to the first-year students in Introduction to American Culture and Literature (America Bunka Bungaku Gairon). The class was held period 1 on Fridays, beginning at 9:00, and although in the first semester (spring), most of the students were mostly on time and in class, in the second semester (fall), too many of them started coming late or missing classes, and that plus the usual half dozen or so who'd regularly fall asleep, and the handful who'd regularly chatter to each other while I was lecturing, made me lose my temper a little too often. That's a pity, because most of the students did come to class on time and stayed rather alert for the 90 minutes of my almost only English lectures. And a fair number were among the best students I've met at Fukuoka University. And so far about 60 of the 120 students have posted comments on our class blog (where I post a summary of that day's lecture and a picture or two relating to its subject etc.), and many of their comments have been insightful and engaged. All this is to say that I will really miss them! For the last lecture, I covered the usual four benefits of studying American culture and literature: 1) it improves your English expression and understanding and motivation etc.; 2) it deepens your understanding of how American people think, feel, and live; 3) it entertains and excites and moves and pleases you; 4) it helps you become more human. To illustrate the last point, I told them about when my super colleague Dr. John Hatcher (my senpai, friend, big brother, etc.) said to me, Literature is about how to be human in the world." I then told them about how one our top students from about 2008 appeared in the University Guide, in which each faculty and department has their own PR pages, and said that she'd decided to study American culture and literature because one of her teachers had told her that literature was about how to be human. That teacher was me! (I was careful to then remind the class that I'd taken that great idea from John Hatcher!). And while I was showing a picture of John on the screen during all this, I also happened to mention that he was retiring after this year, and that this would be his last year teaching at Fukudai, and that I would miss him very much, and suddenly I couldn't continue speaking for a few minutes as the enormity of my/our loss hit me and as I focused on how vital he has been for me to work happily and healthily at our university in our English department. Later John and I had another delicious Indian lunch and talked about many things (health, politics, culture, and Patrick O'Brian's age of sail historical novels about two good friends, the naval Captain Jack Aubrey, and the naturalist/doctor/spy Stephen Maturin. Luckily even after John retires, he and I will be able to continue having those lunches. And then yesterday I had my last Friday class with my super graduate student Shiori, talking with her about her 75 or so page thesis comparing Virgil's The Aeneid with Le Guin's Lavinia in terms of gender, which she has to revise to submit next week. Yes, I'll also miss Shiori, who also happened to be my super TA for the American Culture and Literature class... Luckily, Shiori got a job working in our universities administration from the new school year, so we'll be able to keep in touch. Next week: the last classes of the school year! On January 1st we went out walking around the nearby river and saw a thin gold crescent moon with Venus shining so bright white just above it. Here's hoping that the new year (2017 already!) will be clean and lovely much of the time, like tonight's heavenly bodies. With Donald Trump taking over as President of the USA, I find it hard to believe the new year will be lovely...
Anyway, Over the weekend I did some reading (finished The Monk and Dust of Dreams) and some reviewing (posted my Jungle Books review) and some class preparing (started making syllabi for 2017) and some cleaning (cleaned windows and dried futons and washed clothes and mopped floors) and movie watching (watched the three Hobbit movies back to back and was not impressed by all the stuff added to the book to make three movies when one would have sufficed), and so on. It will be weird to go back to school and have more classes for Thursday (twice more) and Friday (once more), and then finally examinations, etc. The idea of continuing the old school year into the new world year is unpleasant. But I am looking forward to seeing the kids again before saying goodbye to this school year. And looking back over the last year, I think overall it was a good one for me, with lots of intereting travel (thanks to my wife) and lots of good classes and interesting students and neat colleagues and relatively few health issues (no serious ones, I think). Oh--during this last year my wife and I celebrated our 30th anniversary, which is a feat when looked at from a certain perspective but for us is natural as breathing. Anyway--see you again in 2017! |
Jefferson Peters (JP)
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December 2023
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