Life is slowly getting back to a more normal feeling here; the lines at the gas stations are getting much shorter, and it's becoming easier to find milk and bread at grocery stores again. On a personal level, a different kind of transition occurred last week; after two years, I finished the ALT position in elementary schools. I decided not to renew my contract, so I am now doing private teaching exclusively. More on that another time.
I received some kind of gift or recognition at all the schools where I taught including official goodbye ceremonies, flowers, and a bilingual origami instruction book. The most fun gifts were the creations of students. The three portraits of me I'm including were all done by 2nd graders. I thought it was funny to be depicted with BRIGHT blue eyes and blond hair, and after the immediate humorous reaction, I was again struck by how our cultural background influences our thinking. And it was fun to be drawn as a manga character too! All the pictures are captioned with "Robert teacher", and in the picture where I've become manga, it also says phonetically in katakana, "ah-ee-mu-ha-n-gu-ree" (I'm hungry). Amusing, and a nice encouragement that they remembered some English!
I received some kind of gift or recognition at all the schools where I taught including official goodbye ceremonies, flowers, and a bilingual origami instruction book. The most fun gifts were the creations of students. The three portraits of me I'm including were all done by 2nd graders. I thought it was funny to be depicted with BRIGHT blue eyes and blond hair, and after the immediate humorous reaction, I was again struck by how our cultural background influences our thinking. And it was fun to be drawn as a manga character too! All the pictures are captioned with "Robert teacher", and in the picture where I've become manga, it also says phonetically in katakana, "ah-ee-mu-ha-n-gu-ree" (I'm hungry). Amusing, and a nice encouragement that they remembered some English!
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