いいあんばい！！ II Anbai--> Good Feeling...

II anbai, is hougen (local dialect) for a good feeling...

Today, instead of a typical ohayou gozaimasu, I was greeted with an open armed, running start, gigantic hug from my third year student, Misato. It was great. Hugs are a rarely practiced in Japanese society. It is such a good feeling to have an effect on someone in such a way that they are willing to step outside social norms, and venture into an area of thought or action different from others. It is moments like these that make me so happy I am here, teaching in Japan. I have learned so much from my students, and in the simple instance of a hug, I can tell my students have learned as much from me.

Today is graduation.

Everyone is working in natural hectic fashion. Preparations for this Junior High School graduation are intense. There were four days of shortened lessons last week to prepare, and one day dedicated to just cleaning the school and graduation and singing practice. It really is a big deal, and after three years of hard work and having to prepare for other classes to graduate, the third year students really deserve this day to go smoothly, even if as a few of us sit here sipping our coffees, the rest of the school appear to be running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

I must tell you. It is a great feeling to see these students graduate. But I am really, really, really sad to see them go. I love my third year students. Now they can be a pain in the ass sometimes, I mean they are at that age, 15. Some of course are just too cool for school. I totally relate to these kids, I was there once, so I have a good time with that attitude. Now that I have been teaching for a while, I honestly think back to what a little tyrant I was when I was 14. Especially to foreign language teachers, of which I have now determined to be one of the most difficult subjects to teach. A lot of the time you have no clue what is going on, and if you, as a student, fall behind at all, you are so doomed. And on top of that, who can understand the practicality of learning a language at the age of 12?? Not many students; other than those who want to be politicians, writers, or rock stars--> but many of my students are destined to take over the family land and be farmers or baby makers in this little corner of Niigata. Other than the immediate desire to talk to me, or to understand something they have seen written or heard, my students have very little reason in their mind to need to learn English. And as many reasons as I can come up with; travel, meeting people, film, music...there are those students who honestly aren't interested in leaving this area. There are actually people who never care to leave thier little corner of the world. This has always amazed me, but you find people of this nature in most countries. I remember one time I called home and a lot of my extended family were gathered at my house. Other than my close family (immediate and grandparents), the rest of my family has spent most of thier lives in very rural America. I do come from Kentucky, which is a rural state in and of itself . It was interesting to me though, because when I called home, one of my relatives mentioned to me, "Wow, I have never talked to someone on the phone in another country. "

What different lives my relative and I lead. I have very little desire to stay in one place for a long time. I find that I get stir crazy quite easy, and am always looking for the next adventure. And here my relative is content and happy on staying close to home, barely even ever venturing to cross the river into Indiana. To be honest, in some ways I admire these people, and their ability to be so content doing the same thing day in and day out. They never do seem to be bored. They go day by day saturated with the simplicities. I try my best to enjoy the simplest pleasures of life, the first bits of sun in the morning, the sound of rain, a good surprise snowball attack, the comfortable silence while with loved ones. It is life's simplest pleasures that bring us the greatest joy, ne? But, I see that in my life, as shy as I am, I yearn to meet many people, and nurture my passion I have for learning and sharing. I think I have now found an answer to the question everyone here seems to ask, Why did you come to Japan? "I came here to learn from everyone I meet."

And these students, as they leave here today, may have no idea how much they have enriched my experience teaching here. They are the ones who make my day.... Misato's hug, the whole student body's excitement, and the way they go out of thier way to share with me their feelings and happiness, there is no better feeling than that.

II anbai!!

いいあんばい！！