Work and Such (Part III)

I work at two junior high schools and four elementary schools. This time, I'll talk about the junior highs.

Katayama Junior High School
At Katayama, I work with the school's two English teachers, Ms. Himemiya and Ms. Yamada. They are both quite nice, but distinct. Ms. Himemiya is more of the classic school marm type. She is very motherly with the students, fairly conservative, but seems to have a certain strength about her. She's warm and good-natured, but doesn't quite get my sense of humor. Ms. Yamada is a next generation sort of teacher. She is more fluid and less strict with the students. She often jokes around with the troublemakers and has an easy laugh. However, she does seem fragile or occasionally overwhelm. She also always wears gloves when she writes on the board, whereas Ms. Himemiya (like me) even erases with her bare hands.
The principle at Katayama is older and looks like he has the early stages of Parkinsons. He occasionally talks to me, but he is incredibly difficult to understand. He has a deep and low voice and talks as though he has cotton or marbles in his mouth (or maybe cottony marbles). Plus, he speaks in Hiroshima dialect, which is more abrupt and tough-sounding than the soft tones of standard Tokyo dialect. The teacher who talks to me the most is Mr. Hirai, the PE teacher. He also speaks Hiroshima dialect, but without the cottony marble problem. He always asks me what I'm making for dinner and tells me about his various travels.
The students at Katayama are an interesting bunch. The seventh graders (ichinensei) are quite genki and akarui - which roughly translates in this case to spunky and lively, though it literally means healthy and colorful. Their English level is poor, at best, but they are more than willing to try and use whatever they know. This usually results in a particularly genki student running up to me and asking in a near-shout "Do you like baseBALL???" When I reply affirmatively, they look at me with a look that says, "That's all I know." and then run off. The ninth graders (sannensei) are well-behaved and hard-working, but very very quiet. It's a miracle if I can get a sannensei to speak to me. The eighth graders (ninensei) are in the middle of both the outgoingness and English level scale. They are however the most unruly lot of disenchanted miscreants that I have ever taught. They are often loud and obnoxious, but somehow fun.

Miyahara Junior High School
Or Miyachu for short. This school is a stone's throw from my old host family's house. The English teachers there are Ms. Nakano and Ms. Hiramoto. They are both rather soft spoken but very kind and accomodating. Ms. Nakano is probably the friendliest to me out of the four and has spent the most time talking to me. Ms. Hiramoto, who I sit next to, helps me with my Japanese, but her English is the most limited of among the four. They handle the lesson planning and give me less to do than at Katayama. Still, they seem open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.
The principal has barely talked to me at all. The vice-principal is nice and is quite taken with my Japanese ability, as are many of the non-English teachers. I have been able to chat with many of them, but none as much as Mr. Kamayama. He is the social studies teacher and also the coach of the soft tennis club. He speaks decent English, though it is spotty at times. Very similar to my Japanese. The other teachers giggle when we communicate in our mutually broken second langauges. I often play tennis with the soft tennis club (soft tennis is played with rubber balls on hard-packed gravel, in case you were wondering). It is quite a joy to be soundly defeated by a 14 year old girl.
The students at Miyahara are similar to the students at Katayama, but on a smaller scale. The seventh graders are slightly less genki, the ninth graders slightly more quiet, and the eighth graders ... well, they are still pretty unruly, though not quite so much. The students at both schools will always say "hello" and sometimes "how are you?" when they see me, but rarely does the conversation, in either English or Japanese, go much deeper than that. I'm trying to build more of a relationship with them, but it is pretty slow going. I guess nothing is going to compare to last year.