Long, rambling and rather pointless post ahead. Just as a warning. Flow of consciousness style stuff here. Seriously, don’t read this.

While I was, rather painfully, trying to explain some of the more painful points of English grammar to a couple of junior high students today (How, exactly, do you explain that you double the last letter of some verbs and adjectives based on the length of the last vowel when they don’t know how to pronounce the words in the first place?) it really got me to thinking about both language in general and my own, rather slow, learning of Japanese.

It’s really an amazing thing, looking back. I studied for two years in America, class four days a week and with four different teachers. When I came to Japan… almost two years ago now, time does fly… I knew basically nothing. Oh, give me enough time with a dictionary and I could throw out a passable sentence, assuming I could figure out the context of the particular word, but that doesn’t really count as knowing a language. It’s more like being able to do a crossword puzzle at best and, being honest, really more like mad libs.

So I arrived in a foreign country where I knew some of the basics of the language, but had no real ability and where 99.9% of the people around me had no real English ability. So I did one of the only two things I could have done: put my head down and worked my ass off until I could at least manage to live. And yes, I’m quite aware that there are tons of foreigners in the city who can’t speak or read a bit of Japanese. That’s not living, it’s surviving.

Anyway, over the last year and change I’ve gone from nothing to being able to hold a decent conversation. It’s not enough, but I’ll get there eventually. My particle usage has gotten exponentially better without my even having to think about it, not to mention my vocabulary and reading ability. I can’t exactly talk about depleted uranium or the stock market, but daily conversation comes just fine. In all honestly I’ll probably get to those levels, but I can live with that. I really need to start working on my grammar again, though.

But back to the learning part. Most of the teachers I had in America were great. The classes were fun, the teachers themselves were interesting, I had some great classmates. But I learned almost nothing. Think about it. If you were studying algebra for two years and only covered x+2=5 would you think you had learned anything? I certainly hadn’t. If I wouldn’t have been able to come here then my degree wouldn’t have been worth the paper it is printed on.

Japanese is a language that, in my opinion, needs at least some time spent studying in the country itself. It’s a simple language, at least on the surface, but it’s not easy by any means. Some people can manage learning a fair amount without ever coming to Japan, but it’s not something I would recommend.

English, though, is a bit of a tricky subject. I know plenty of people, mainly Europeans, who speak near perfect English without having ever set foot in an English speaking country. Japan, though… I don’t know what it is. Well, it’s a combination of several things, none of them easy to fix. It really boils down to how things are taught here, though. There is little to no student-teacher interaction. The teacher lectures. You listen and write, memorize things for a test, then forget then afterwards. English is, typically, taught in Japanese and, more often than not, by someone who has, at best, a tenuous grasp on the language.

Anecdotal example time! I teach two junior high girls. They have a test coming up tomorrow. The material? Although the vocabulary is quite hard, they’ve never covered it in class. They’re expected to teach this material to themselves over winter break, then have a test the first day they go back to school. Two 13 year old girls.

The way they teach in Japan is just broken. It’s worse than America, in my opinion. They don’t learn, just memorize. Then, when the students find out that they can’t actually communicate, they lose confidence and think they can never learn or use English. And so they never try.

It doesn’t help that Japanese is a very flat language to begin with. There isn’t much tongue or mouth movement required, unlike English, so ‘th’ and ‘r’ sounds become very difficult, not to mention the myriad vowel sounds that English has.

Some people try to fix this by going to an English conversation school, and, while I’m grateful for this because it gives me a job, it doesn’t fix anything. They study for an hour a week, maybe two, and expect to be able to hold a conversation on a native level. The students who have some experience overseas do much better, of course. They tend to use the class to brush up their skills or clarify things they weren’t quite sure about before, but for someone at the beginner level true dedication and a lot of time are both required.

What should be done? For starters the way the education system in Japan works needs to be completely revamped and not in the way that Mr. Abe has in mind. It won’t happen, at least not for a long time, but until that is done nothing else can really be helped. It’s really a bad situation, though. Tons of people who want to learn but don’t know how because they weren’t taught the skills to use in the first place. They need more native speakers, qualified native speakers, teaching in the schools rather than picking whichever teacher might be free that hour.

It will never happen, but it’s nice to dream.

The little letters dance across the page,
Flaunt and retire, and trick the tired eyes;
Sick of the strain, the glaring light, I rise
Yawning and stretching, full of empty rage
At the dull maunderings of a long dead sage,
Fling up the windows, fling aside his lies;
Choosing to breathe, not stifle and be wise,
And let the air pour in upon my cage.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

I’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming later, but there are some things I’ve been wanting to write about and now I actually have a little bit of free time to do so.

It’s almost been a month since Japan’s new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe took office. I have to admit that I really liked Koizumi, and not just because he had great hair. While he made several questionable decisions, Yasukuni not being the least among them, in LDP terms he was quite progressive. And he had great hair.

Abe, however, is carrying on that legacy of questionable decisions without the progressiveness or the hair. Honestly, I wasn’t sure of what to make of Abe at first. He’s the youngest PM ever elected as well as the first PM to be born after the war. Despite his previous hawkishness I was hoping that he would be a bit more liberal. It seems that some things are just not to be. The next is in no particular order, just when it comes to mind or search.

Japan’s post-war constitution has a wonderful idea in Article Nine. If you don’t know, it’s the renunciation of war. It was forced on Japan after WW2, of course, but a large portion of the Japanese populace supports it even now. Unfortunately, that portion does not include Mr. Abe. In a move that’s sure to throw China and Korea up in arms more than a thousand visits to Yasukuni ever could, Abe wants to redraft the Japanese constitution. Before that can go into effect he is also looking into reinterpreting certain policies. A few choice quotes from Abe’s interview with the Financial times:

“The current constitution was written before Japan became independent after the war,” Mr Abe says, speaking in his stark but beautiful official residence in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo’s equivalent of Capitol Hill. “With 60 years past, there are provisions within the constitution that no longer befit the reality of the day.”

Mr Abe said article nine needed to “be revised from the viewpoint of defending Japan” and to comply with growing expectations that the world’s second biggest economic power should contribute to international security.

The next problem that Abe is facing is school bullying. While bullying is a problem in many countries it seems especially severe in Japan. School children here are pushed rather hard to succeed. From the last year of elementary school many children go to cram schools so that they can pass exams to get into good middle schools, and then they do the same to get into good high schools and colleges. If I might give an anecdotal example, I teach an elementary school student. She’s a bright girl, but every day after school she has some sort of lessons. One day is science, the next is math, the next is Japanese, English, piano, tennis, etc. When her lessons are over she goes home and studies until she has to go to bed. This isn’t unusual.

Lately there have been a rash of suicides by children here because of the bullying. There have also been a number of letters sent to the Education Ministry threatening suicide. Of course, the Education Ministry’s response has been outstanding.

Ibuki said that students should feel guilty about suicide.

“Your lives are not just your own,” the minister told a news conference. “You are not alone. Suicide doesn’t solve anything.”

“We are setting up committees at each school to catch the students and help them, but it’s really hard to find the signs,” said Ibuki, who has urged suicidal children to stop writing to him.

Yep, your feelings don’t matter! Now, stop bothering me! Such a sympathetic figure. Of course, this really isn’t surprising at all considering that, until recently, the Ministry had said that there were no suicides because of bullying.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry has decided to revise its figures for student suicides related to bullying between academic year 1999 and 2005–currently standing at zero–after 16 cases came to light indicating the deaths may have been bullying-related.

This stance was despite the fact that many students had left behind suicide notes clearly stating that bullying was the primary cause. It isn’t overly surprising that Ministry would hold that position as this is a serious loss of face for them, but it is still quite disappointing. Of course, that hasn’t been the only problem the Education Ministry has faced lately, only the most important. In realted news:

And Kyodo News reported last week that the ministry knew four years ago that some 16 percent of incoming college students had not taken world history, which is part of the required curriculum, in high school. The ministry responded simply by telling teachers to follow curriculum guidelines. No sanctions were given.

This whole matter has been quite an egg on the face of the Abe administration even though it’s something that has been happening since at least the Koizumi cabinet. Honestly, he hasn’t been given enough time to adequately deal with the situation yet, but he did just have a new education bill passed. The education law has been unchanged since 1947 when it was put into effect by the US Occupation. To be fair there is quite a bit of public support for educational reforms, but somehow I have a feeling that what Mr. Abe wants isn’t quite the reform that most people had in mind.

The passage brings Prime Minister Shinzo Abe one step closer to achieving his goal of getting schools to instill a sense of newly defined patriotism in their students.

Instilling patriotism in the classroom. If that isn’t echoes of pre-WW2 Japan I don’t know what is. Of course they say that they want to instill a sense of respect for all countries in the children, but Mr. Abe clarifies:

But Abe took a different tack, saying students’ attitudes and eagerness to learn Japanese culture and traditions should be taken into account in evaluating their performance.

Yes, that’s just what children need. I’m sure being forced to compete to demonstrate their patriotism will do wonders to help the country. Of course Abe’s popularity has been falling lately. But, considering everything, I’m not overly shocked.

Japanese politics have always been fairly right wing. Even compared to America it’s a conservative country in many ways. Younger people, like many places, are becoming more liberal, but they, too, are comparatively somewhat conservative. But, like most places, younger people have little interest in politics.

Where does this leave Abe? Sadly, it seems that he’s going to keep the conservative base happy while not really doing much that’s progressive. He does seem somewhat interested in keeping China happy, but if Article 9 is changed his ambiguity about Yasukuni won’t really matter. He’s showing himself to be as Hawkish as was expected but also to be a hard right winger. He has many problems to deal with, both from previous administrations and what troubles the country now, but I’m starting to get very nervous about how he will deal with them in the future.

To start with, I’m an unabashed social liberal. And I’m gloating. If you don’t like that you don’t have to read on.

It was with much trepidation that I woke up this morning to follow the election results back in the US. I knew the Dems were supposed to take a bit of a lead, but I learned in 2004 not to trust polls and projections too much. Seeing as I don’t get any American channels here I fired up the CNN website and a rather active political forum to see where things were standing. Things looked decent at first, but then more and more results kept rolling in… And we have it.

Several Senate races are still up in the air, of course, but the House.. I never could have imagined how well things could have gone there. To go from being 30 seats in the hole to having a commanding majority is more than I ever could have hoped for. And there’s still a chance that the Senate could change hands… Not to mention all the gubernatorial races as well… Suffice to say, I think that America, as a whole, has said what it thinks about the current administration and those that support it.

If I could take a moment, though, and deliver a message to the Dems. Don’t rest on this. Things can change just as easily the next time around, only in the other way. Don’t stay defensive; go all out and show that you have a backbone. Fix what you can and don’t take anything you don’t have have to. The Repubs are masters of disinformation and double-speak, and they will turn anything they can against you next time. Investigate all the injustices that have been done and show the country who was running things. And if, by any chance, a Dem happens to be embroiled in an ethics or sex scandal hang them out to dry. Show that it won’t be tolerated and bring at least a little decorum back to what used to be a proud institution.

Of course, having said that, they will do just the opposite and screw things up for next time. But I’ll bask in the glow while it lasts. Earlier would have been preferable, but better late than never.

YEEHAW

Back in cloudy, rainly, icy Sapporo and loving it. For the most part. The complete lack of money is cramping my style a bit at the moment, but what can be done? Since all my classes are morning classes today, I have a bit of free time this afternoon to wax poetic. Or rant poetic, as the case may be.

I do have to admit, being able to take care of myself all in a foreign language does feel rather nice. I don`t know if my skills have improved since I left, if I have more confidence or if I just don`t care if and when I sound like an idiot, but it`s getting progressively easier to go through everyday life and only relying on myself.

School started here for me on Monday, registering for classes and filling out forms. It was a marked change from last year where everyone was very careful to use English. This time there was very, very little use of English, and that usually wasn`t directed at me. If anything they`d use me to translate which, again, was somewhat of a nice feeling.

However, that afternoon, `Since you were here last year, why don`t you go ahead and get your foreigner card and register for the national insurance when you have the spare time. Oh, and you can do it for Heath too.` As one might expect, it sounded more than a little overwhelming at the time. I mean, I did this a grand total of once, about a year ago and with more help than I really care to admit. So it was with some trepidation that I went to the ward office and told them what I wanted to do. And, much to my surprise, it worked.

From that point forward I`ve more or less been in charge of translating, guiding and making sure things get done for us. It strikes me as extrordinarily lazy on the part of the student affairs office, after all this is their job, but I don`t seem to have run into a problem as of yet. The student affairs lady did say, `I`m a little worried about you doing this on your own…,` but when I told her that I would feel a bit more comfortable if she at least came along to see if I screwed anything up, `Oh, I`m sure you`ll be fine.` There have been several times this week where maintaining politeness has been, to say the least, a rather trying task.

I`m lucky that I still have my bank account from last time, and I`ll be damned if I`m going to try setting one up in any way. She can do that little bit, at the least. It does seem that I`m going to have to get a cell phone on my own, though, and I`m working with someone now to try and make sense of the ten million rate plans that are described completely and totally in Japanese. Listening and speaking are no problem. Reading, still somewhat difficult. I need to get my butt back on the kanji ASAP. I have a general idea of what most of it means, but being mistaken might mean the difference between 40 and 400 dollars a month. Let`s not risk things here.

After that I should be more or less set as for what needs to be done here, at least for a little while. The many layers of Japanese bureaucracy is getting in the way of me getting a job. Won`t be able to do that until the middle of May, it seems, which, again, is more than a little annoying. Never again will I complain about the DMV. Filling out form after form after form here, all asking for basically the same information, American red tape is starting to look a little pink.

It does feel, though, to a very large extent that I am on my own here, at least with regards to the things that need to happen to make sure I can stay in the country. There is someone more than willing to help, but the hours she works tends to make that more than a little impossible, so… sink or swim, I suppose.

On another note, it seems that people here have been talking to me. A couple of the other exchange students said that they`ve heard a lot about me, which made me more than a little nervous, but it seems that people here at school have been talking about how I came to Japan basically being able to understand a little, read a little but, overall, really sucking. Then, when I left, I was able to get by in daily conversation without a problem. One of them came up to me and asked for advice on how to get better. Maybe I should become a guru….

This weekend we went out on the town and saw a Gorie exhibit. It was… interesting. Basically think the Japanese version of Rue Paul in a cheerleader outfit. Not much else to report, really. I mean, after that, what can you do?

This week should be nothing special. Can`t really do much of anything at this point. There`s some sort of welcome party today where I`ll get to introduce myself in front of several hundred people. Next week Wednesday I`m headed down to Tokyo, which should be a blast. Then after I get back… I`ll have money! For a little while, at least. I should be starting work soon after that too, so things will start to fall into place around then. Maybe. I`m not gonna take it for granted.

I have pictures, but no way to get them here. It looks like I`ll have net access on the 11th, though, which will be nice, I suppose. 100mbit for $40/month? Yes, this is the sound of me laughing at all of you. Anyway, I`m sure I`ll have more pictures from Tokyo and all that jazz.

Terry Schiavo is finally, thankfully, out of what little half-life she might have still been living. I haven’t commented on the whole mess because, frankly, I was sick of hearing about it and the media circus surrounding it. This, however, is just so deliciously amusing on so many levels I had to post it. Apparently Schiavo’s parents are selling a list of all the people who donated to help their fight to direct marketers. Just their last little way of saying thanks (read: exploit a bit more attention and money) to all those people. I can’t exactly say I feel sorry for the people this is happening to, but perhaps it will open their eyes a bit to the scum they were supporting. Or I could be deluding myself. I’ll bet on the latter.

So we had an ice storm come through this week and knock out the power to about 85,000 people. Quite fun, as you can probably imagine. I was without for roughly 36 hours and ended up having to stay in a (rather unpleasant) motel last night. It beat freezing for another night, I suppose. Wednesday night almost looked like the 4th of July with all the transformers going up. I’ve never understood why places like this don’t bury their powerlines. They know the winter weather’s gonna be crappy every year, it just seems like common sense to me. They were buried in the last town I lived in and I never had a problem with my power there. Ah well, that’s life I suppose. They’re saying it could be up to a week before everyone gets power back. Ouch, I really feel for those people.

Close to a 24 hour downtime. Yay. The first major problem I’ve had with the host, but still more than a bit annoying. I’ll save the rant, I’m sure everyone can imagine. Somehow my directory was chmod’ed as well, so the last few posts didn’t take. Thank my obsessive backups that you can see them again, albeit in a somewhat different order.

Also it seems that someone who has my email address is virus laden. I keep getting NetSky sent to an address that maybe 6 or 7 people have. My personal favorite, so far, was from abuse@gov.us.

Subject: ISP Abuse
You have visited illegal websites. I have a big list of the websites you surfed.

With a zipped attachment that I suppose they expected me to open. It would be funny if I didn’t know people still fall for it daily.