Journal for 2005-5-31 Tue.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
I finished translating the legend of the Banryu Gorge, "The Tree of Hanging Hair," into English today. I made a web page for it, too. Using JWPce makes translating easy. JWPce is a word processor, but it has a built-in Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary in it. That means that if you have a word you don't know that you want to look up all you have to do is highlight it and press a button. And best of all JWPce is free!
Journal for 2005-5-27 Fri.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
Today was busy but fun. The 8th and 9th graders finished their midterms. Ms. Mishima corrected the 7th grade tests so I went and made a bell curve of the test results in Excel. The results of the bell curve showed that there are a lot of good students and there are a lot of low level students, but there aren't very many average and slightly below average students in the class. This weekend I went to Banryu Gorge to go camping and swimming with my friends. It was a blast!
＜2005-5-30＞ Today was a relaxing day. Nothing special happened. In class all we were doing was correcting the midterm tests. The rest of the time I spent translating things. Since we went to the Banryu Gorge last weekend I decided to start translating the Banryu Gorge Legend, "Kamikake no Matsu" or "The Tree of Hanging Hair." The tragic story is full of jealousy and violent death. It is hard to believe that such a horrible thing could happen in such a beautiful place, but nonetheless "The Tree of Hanging Hair" is an interesting old tale.
Journal for 2005-5-26 Thu.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
The 7th grade midterms were today. Ms. Mishima and I proctored the exam. Most of the 7th graders did well, but as to be expected it seems like a small number of them didn't study at all before the test. The 8th and 9th grade midterms are tomorrow, so I hope they try hard. In the afternoon I went to Iinan High School. I taught the mid-level English class with the always interesting Mr. Mochida.
Journal for 2005-5-25 Wed.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
Today was Challenge Day. That means that all the people in town are supposed to exercise or do some sports for more than 15 minutes anytime from midnight to 9 pm today. Iinan is competing against 2 other towns in Japan. We lost last year, so we will do our best this year! The Jr. High School students had a long rope jumping contest. There were 4 teams, the 7th graders, the 8th grade boys, the 8th grade girls, and the 9th graders. With 60 jumps, the 8th grade girls took the cake!
Journal for 2005-5-24 Tue.. Weather: Cloudy Plan: Akagi JHS
I took the final test in the Advanced Level Self Study JET Programme Japanese course today. I think I passed the course. So, now I have to find another way to study Japanese. My current project uses Japanese, so that is good, but perhaps I should have one more project to help my Japanese along. I think I'll continue translating the online novel I was reading!
Journal for 2005-5-23 Mon.. Weather: Cloudy Plan: Akagi JHS
My muscles ached today, because I worked out a lot when we were camping. On top of that I had 4 classes to teach today as well. I am a tad tired. This evening I had a planning meeting about my CATV English Conversation Class. Starting in June, Ms. Kawashima and I will continue doing our CATV conversation classes together again. I am also starting to teach at elementary schools again starting next week as well. My schedule is finally getitng back to normal.
Journal for 2005-5-20 Fri.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
This weekend I went hiking at Mt. Kotobiki in Iinan. Matt, the ALT from Kakeya, Rebecca, the ALT from Kisuki, and I camped out at the top. Our tent was heavy, but it was really useful at the top. Even though it was raining outside, it was warm inside the tent. On Saturday night we all went to this really scarry cave. The cave was narrow, but very long. I want to go camping next weekend, too! (I'll upload the photos soon.)
Journal for 2005-5-19 Thu.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
I taught at Iinan High School for the first time in a long time today. I taught the 10th graders with Mr. Mochida. They all look so grown up. The kids were shy, but since I will start coming to Iinan High once a week from now on, I hope that they will warm up to me. I've only been going to the Jr. High lately, so it was nice to mix things up a bit today. :)
Journal for 2005-5-18 Wed.. Weather: Rainy Plan: Akagi JHS
I was feeling a bit better on Friday. It was because all my classes were fun, and the people around me (the students and teachers) were all upbeat. I took an online personality test. My personality type is either INFJ or ISFJ. I think INFJ is better, but I am slowly becoming an ISFJ. ISFJs are said to be good teachers. Perhaps my personality is being influenced by my work. In any case I'll work hard with work and studying!
Today was good. On Mon. and Tue. Signe and I were doing set-up and staffing of the 2005 Changing Perspectives Art Exhibition. The exhibition will be going on this week until Sunday displaying works of art from foreigners living in Shimane Prefecture. I will be staffing it on Sat. and Sun. as well. It is a volenteer activity. I like staffing big events, so I often volenteer to help out with things like this, but I'm glad to be back!
Journal for 2005-5-12 Thu.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
Today was OK, but I am still feeling depressed for no reason. Cocentrating on one thing is difficult. I think I'm using the Internet too much. I'm always looking at interesting things on the Internet, but I am never DOING interesting things myself. Anyway, one interesting thing happened today. I taught the 9th grade elective English class all by myself, since Ms. Mishima was away on a (fake :P) business trip. The students did great!
Journal for 2005-5-11 Wed.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
I felt a little under the weather today. I didn't have any problems when I was teaching class, but I think there might be another problem. I haven't been feeling motivated lately. I want to study Japanese, work on game programming, I want to do a lot of things, but I'm not doing anything. I think I might be depressed, but I don't know why. Oh well. As the Japanese say, "I will perserve."
(this question was posed in the sdf.lonestar.org BBOARD, and this was my reply) I used to BBS in the LA area as a kid. We had a 1200 baud modem and a Leading Edge 8088 with the monitor upgraded to CGA and I got some BBS numbers from my friends. The most popular BBS at the time was called Baud Town. That is where I first got a taste of chatting, door games, and posting. As I got into it more I started going to more obscure BBSes, where you had to have 3 friends recommend you, etc. That is when I got into ASCII and ANSI art, and pirating games (which were more often than not, shareware games anyway, like One Must Fall, Commander Keen, and Solar Winds). I still remember one, Wizardry, the number was (818) 222-4444.
Later on we got a 386 and a 9600 baud modem and I found out about this REALLY BIG BBS, it was called Kaiwan, but you had to pay monthly for it. I did and soon discovered things like elm (what is this email thing?), rn (usenet? this is a HUGE BBS!), and other things UNIXy, but I had no idea it was a UNIX box, or even what a UNIX box was, until years later in college where I encountered something called "the Internet" and I never went back.
trv (Feel free to post your BBS experiences, too!)
Journal for 2005-5-10 Tue.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
Ms. Mishima and I had our first 9th grade elective English class today. This is my favorite class to teach. There are only four students and they are all high level, so we can do a lot of real communication! The 7th graders were better than yesterday, but I think they still need to get serious. Let's work hard together!
Journal for 2005-5-9 Mon.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
It was a good day. I taught 3 classes. The 9th graders weren't energetic at all, the 8th graders were the same as ever, and the 7th graders were way too hyper. It was only Ms. Mishima and I teaching the class. The boys were especially noisy. We had the same problem last year. I am a little worried, but I know that we can have a serious, yet fun, English class yet!
Hello everyone and welcome once again to your monthly doze of all things Trev. Wherein you can read about the stuff I have been doing in the last month or so. And now, onto the report!
Trev's Lovelife
---------------
Signe and I have been doing a lot of stuff together recently. In fact we just got back from the Tottori Sand Dunes (http://www.east.tottori.tottori.jp/e/see/place/e_sakyu.htm), which are the only sand dunes in all of Japan.
We have been doing many other things as well. It seems that we are out and about every weekend seeing the local sights. A few weekends ago we went to see some beautiful flower orchards and Signe bought some lavender flowers for her garden in the backyard. We don't have an excess of spending cash at the moment, so we are finding lots of fun things to do that don't cost a lot of money!
Trev's Work
-----------
Now that class is back in session, work is starting to pick up. That is to say, I have more classes to teach. The great thing about the JET Programme is that the work isn't hard at all, and even on busy days, there is a fair amount of free time to do whatever you want. At least in my situation this holds true. I have heard that high school assistant language teachers and coordinators of international relations have more work to do on a regular basis.
I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about what I want to do after my term in the JET Programme is over (which will be July 31, 2006), and I have decided the following course of action. I will get a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate (http://www.onlinetefl.com/) and look for another English teaching job within Japan, for example, with Interac (http://www.interac.co.jp/recruit/). Concurrently, I will study for the Foreign Service Written Exam (FSWE, http://careers.state.gov/officer/join/examguide.html) in order to get a job with the US State Department as a Foreign Service Officer (http://careers.state.gov/officer/). If I fail to pass the exam, I will try again the next year until I eventually am able to secure a position for myself in the Foreign Service. Signe, of course, will be trying to get into the Foreign Service as well.
In any case, that is the plan. As plans tend to do, I am sure it will change over time, but I feel good about this one, and will give it my all.
Trev's Computers
----------------
I am always writing little web applications to suit my needs here and there. For example, I recently wrote a web app in Perl (http://www.perl.org/) that produces a remind (http://www.43folders.com/2005/02/guest_mike_harr.html) file with my weekly schedule on it so I can have it emailed to me everyday (http://www.trevreport.org/soft/weekly.shtml <-- makes the remind file, http://trevreport.org/soft/showthisweek.cgi <-- the Perl script that sends my schedule to my email everyday).
Besides my endless web and UNIX tweaking, I have also gotten a bit interested in GameBoy Advance programming and am currently studying some tutorials (http://www.loirak.com/gameboy/gbatutor.php) on the subject. I don't know if anything will come of it, but I have been getting the programming itch for a while now, and this seems like a good way to scratch it.
Trev's Japanese
---------------
My Japanese study comes along as slow and steady as ever. I am on the 6th and final book of my JET Programme Self-Study Course. After I finish it, I think I will start to tackle some translation projects I have been thinking about doing. Anything to keep up my skills will be helpful, in my opinion. And, of course, I will continue to write in my journal (http://www.trevreport.org/blog) as often as I can.
Trev's Art Committee
--------------------
The JAGS (http://www.shimaneart.com/) exhibition will be coming up this month and things are stating to get pulled together with the committee work. We are a bit short on money, but I have a feeling that we will make it through the opening, etc. Wish us luck!
Trev's Anime, Sci-Fi, and Games
-------------------------------
I haven't been doing too much in this category lately. Signe and I have been watching Lost (http://www.4815162342.com/) as it comes out, and I really am liking it. We have also been following 24. We recently finished season 3 and are watching season 4 now. I'm not the biggest fan of the show (I think it is misogynistic, http://www.teevee.org/archive/2004/06/14/, among other complaints), but nonetheless I enjoy watching it.
Emily (http://modernemily.blogspot.com/) taught us a fun game to play with UNO. It's called "bartalk," and the rules are simple. You just play UNO and then the winner of the first game gets to make up a new rule for the game, and you play again. The second time the next winner makes up another rule, and the third game you play with both new rules, etc. It is really fun.
Trev's One-Point Japanese Lesson
--------------------------------
So you want to learn Japanese, huh? That's great! How about looking into some adjectives!
There are two types of adjectives in Japanese. "i-adjectives" and "na-adjectives," or Nounal Adjectives. Let's look at the first type.
i-adjectives are called that because they all end in "i." For example:
utsukushi-i - beautiful
tanoshi-i - fun
ooki-i - big
omoshiro-i - interesting
To conjugate these i-adjectives into past tense is really easy! All you have to do is change the "i" into "katta:"
utsukushi-katta - was beautiful
tanoshi-katta - was fun
ooki-katta - was big
Can you guess what the past tense of omoshiro-i is?
Until next time, keep studying and work hard!
Well, that's about it for this edition of the Trev Report. I hope you are all doing well and having a great time in life. Feel free to drop me a line, I always like hearing from you!
Journal for 2005-5-6 Fri.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
I went to the Tottori Sand Dunes with Signe last weekend. We stayed at a friend's place on Friday and a youth hostel in Hawai Town, Tottori the next day. There are a lot of Hawaii-themed resturants in Hawai Town, and we ate at one called "Luau." Our waiteress had really black manga eyes! We finally got to the sand dunes on Sunday. We played in the sand and the sea all day. I got a little sunburned, but it was really fun.
Journal for 2005-5-2 Mon.. Weather: Sunny Plan: Akagi JHS
I didn't have any work to do today because the students had tests all day. I got a lot of studying done, though. I finished two lessons in my Japanese self-study course. I also continued to study GameBoy Advance programming, Game programming seems interesting. In college we had to learn a lot of mathematics, but when you are doing application programming, you really don't use any of that, but in game programming you get to use a lot of computer theory!
Which is better, living in the country or living in the city? I imagine if you live in Iinan you must think that country living is better, but there are good and bad things about both lifestyles. I grew up in a big city, Los Angeles. The big city is good for many reasons. There is always something to do, like going to the movies, hanging out at the mall, going to coffee shops and arcades, etc. When I was a kid, I couldn't imagine anything better than living in a big city. But there are downsides as well. I didn't know my neighbors growing up, I lived far from my school and my friends, I often felt very alone. There was no sense of community where I was, despite all the conveniences of big city living. Now, I live in a small town in the country. I can't go out late at night, the closest movie theater is one and a half hours away, and the coffee shops close at five pm. But despite all that, I like it here. I know my neighbors, I live in a beautiful green forest, and I am surrounded by good people that do their best to make me feel anything but alone. As for which is better, I don't know, but I do know that I like where I live, and I feel lucky to be here.
I feel lucky to live here. アイ フィール ラッキー トゥ リーブ ヒアー。 私はここに住んでいるのがラッキーと思います。 Which is better, the country or the city? ウェッチ イズ ベータ、 ザ カントリー オア ザ シーチ？ 田舎か都会、どちのほうがいいですか。
