Some interesting tidbits popped up during the Interactive English class students' self-introduction speeches this week. Often, they don't say such interesting things, telling about the names of music artists they like or sports etc., without any details, but sometimes they let us know something interesting. For example...
In my Chemistry majors class, one boy, a quiet a little nerdy a little cute boy with short black hair, mentioned that his brother is also a Fukuoka University student, but of course didn't tell us his age, his major, his personality, and so on. So after three students had asked him some questions, I asked him how old his brother is, and instead of answering in words, the boy raised both his hands in front of him, palms flat, to signify, I gathered, that they were the SAME age, that they were, in fact, twins. Why he didn't tell us that his brother is his twin from the first point, i have no idea. Anyway, he was pretty funny, and we laughed a lot for him. Then, later, a boy with long styled hair dyed blond, gave a speech in which he told us that he has twin younger brothers, and when I asked him if his brothers are identical twins, he, perhaps thinking of the earlier boy's gesture indicating that he and his brother were the same age, did the same gesture but then raised one of his outstretched palm down hands above the other, to indicate, I gathered, that one brother is taller than the other. So we laughed again. Other interesting things. In my Commerce majors class, one boy said he'd quit his part time job in an apparel shop because his manager had make him work eleven straight hours alone without any breaks, so he wanted advice from his classmates on a better part time job. Another boy said he had ten pairs of Nike shoes because he likes their style, and removed one of his shoes and displayed it to the class, a bright lime green color that did, indeed, look pretty cool. A girl said she had an eight-year-old dog called Niko, a black chihuahua-dachsund mix weighing three kilograms, a pooch who hates walking so they always have to carry her everywhere. Anyway, I had a fun week at work, actually, back after a weekend trip to Nagoya for my mother-in-law's funeral. Thursday and Friday went OK, too. I do really like my American culture class!
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So last week was the first full week with four days of classes, cause the week before had a holiday on Friday. So last Friday was the first Friday class day for fall semester. It was fine.
I had period 2 Reading and Writing for (I think) Science-Electronics majors (nineteen boys and one girl!), and we'll be reading Charlotte's Web in the class. One boy had bought the book from amazon instead of from the campus bookstore, and he got a British publisher version with 249 pages, when the version everyone else (and I) will be using has the standard American 184 pages. Thus the Guide and Homework Handout I made from the book will have different pages for things than his edition, and it will be impossible for him to follow us in class when we go to different pages in the book for the lecture etc. I sent him an email advising him to return the book to amazon and buy the appropriate one from our school bookstore, but haven't heard back from him. Apart from that, the class seems OK, with the lads seeming lively enough (apart from one who fell asleep when I was explaining the syllabus). Though, being third-year students majoring in science, I suspect that many of the students will have low English levels... Then I had my graduate school class with one of my two MA students, both of whom are working on their theses this year. I see them in alternating weeks. Both have been making progress and have drafts of about two of their three main chapters done by now. So they should be OK... Finally, I had my American culture class for third and fourth year English majors, which is always a pleasure. There are fifty in the class, and the room is suitable for up to two hundred, I think, so of course they all sat in the back with four full empty rows of desks in front of them, so I'll make them move forward next time. I mostly introduced the coming midterm elections... And when ending the class, I could say "TGIF!" with them and hear it said back to me, which was very nice. On that last Friday, I took the above photo of one of our classroom buildings, the one where I have all my university classes this semester, Building A, which looks lovely and golden in the late afternoon sunlight, but is really inconvenient in many ways, like not having enough elevators for the number of people who go to and leave classes each period and having windows that only open a few centimeters and air conditioning vents only in the rear of the rooms, etc. etc. At least it looks good near sunset! |
Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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