Because this post is so serious, I figured I'd give you a funny photo
This is me pretending I found out I have a 2 year old daughter in Japan
Not one of my students, girl's daughter of whom I met a couple of weeks ago
The greatest aspect about starting a new adventure is that it is simply new. The worst thing about starting a new adventure is, at some point and time it is going to change. New relationships become stronger ties, meeting new people becomes easier, but at some point and time people must say goodbye.
Yesterday I had two amazing little children. Not because they are smart, not because they are the cutest, but for some reason, I love them and I understand them. I taught them last year during one of my baby classes for a couple of months, but because it was one mom with two children (twins) she was getting a bit tired every week because she was also bringing her four year old daughter to Amity as well. Did I mention she is about 27 and smaller than my mom? I swear, the woman looks like she could be my age or younger and she is toting around twins and a four year old, and you know what, she loves it. So ever since I met these two children I've always loved them, because I see how much their mom loves them. Quick side note, to all of you people who don't ever want to be parents, I pity you. Trust me, I get where you are coming from now, there's no way I want to be a dad, but that's at this MOMENT...when I get married and have kids, man, that's going to be something. Cause if I feel this way about kids that arent biologically mine, how much more am I going to love my own children. I seem to recall saying this about a year ago for a certain group of youngsters in the states to. Understanding goes a long way toward building relationships, no matter the age.
Yesterday was my second class teaching the twins. They had me last week and the girl cried the entire 40 minutes, the boy on the other hand only cried for about five and then chilled out. This week I had higher expectations, or I expected them to flip with the boy crying the whole time and the girl being calm, hey, they are twins, yin and yang I thought.
What happened yesterday has never happened to me before. I felt a bond with these children. I was there teacher but I felt like their parent. After they calmed down, especially the girl, bless her heart, they were very attentive and they did something that none of my students ever did: they asked questions the entire class. Granted, it was in Japanese, but I was answering them in English. We were learning colors so they kept asking what this Disney characters name was, if this "emotion" face went with this character (I have baby Mario and Luigi faces to demonstrate "I'm happy" ect... and I put them on my actual Mario and Luigi characters, it works like a charm). I sat them down next to me and the entire class we just went through,
"Yes Fuka (FOO-KAH) this is honey (Pooh), and his shirt is red. ""
"Red?"
"Yes red."
"Zoo desu (ZOH-OH DEH-SU)?"
" Yes Fuka, but it's "elephant" in English"
"Eferant"
"Yes good job."
To go from wanting mommy and screaming in my ear to being genuinely interested in everything I was saying, guys, it was an epiphany, I love kids and I love hard. I know I have another couple of months, but they are taking my class next school year (which starts in April) and just thinking of handing them over to another teacher when we connected so much yesterday, part of me doesn't want to.
That realization got confirmed today when I had my triplets. Yes, triplets. Although, instead of the mom darting out immediately to try to get them comfortable with the class on their own (which I totally prefer this and crying to the mother staying and them being ok, sometimes trial by fire is what these children need, at least for 40 minutes, especially since they'll be starting with me soon), she stayed, along with their older sister (whom I also taught last year a couple of times, she's 7, and she's a sweetheart).
There were two girls and one boy and they are also 3. One girl, in Japanese kept saying, "I don't want to be here he's scary!" and the other two were holding their family close. I backed as far away as I could, put on my smile, sat Japanese style (look it up on the internet, I dont feel like explaining it) and slowly brought out Mario and Luigi, along with their "happy, sad, angry etc..." faces. One girl was still hiding and the other two were just as wary even though they weren't crying. I knew not to get close, not to touch them, let them come to me. Suddenly they heard a sound strangely familiar "HEY! HELLLOOO!" and I looked around and said,
"What? Who said that?"
"HEYYYY GUYS! HELLO!"
"Huh, who is that? Who's that?"
"HELLO!"
All of a sudden the voice of Mario and Luigi brought them from out of their shells, just a little bit. They were intrigued, yet, full of pause. They were curious and yet cautious, there was no way they were going to drop their guard for a second, not with this big 6'2 man in the room who probably wanted to take them away from their mother forever. Slowly, I go through and say:
"How are you?" in my Mario voice (for those of you who haven't realized it yet, it was me doing my baby Mario and Luigi voices).
"I'm happy!" said Mario.
Out of the corner of my eye I see the girl who said I was scary smile through her tears and quickly hide behind her mother. Got her...
I went through all of the feelings then I took a chance; I pushed the faces closer to the triplets and said, "touch happy" The boy stepped forward and then thought, "to heck with it" and hit happy, the middle sister followed suit, and finally, the younger sister came out from behind her mothers legs while peeking her nose around her outer thy and inched forward. I said,
"Come on, you can do it, I promise you'll be ok."
*BAM*
SUCCESS!!!
From that point on it got better and better to the point where the mom was able to leave out of the room and I taught the kids the "OK" sign while asking them in English, "Are you ok? It's ok." They nodded their heads in approval. We blew bubbles, played with a squeeky hammer, and learned our colors. We played hide and seek with the color cards and just laughed and laughed and laughed. It got to the point where I said, "Ok it's time to say goodbye" and the boy in Japanese asked me, "Why?!" And I was like "Because it's been 40 minutes we have to go." The girl who was most scared of me spoke the most, they were all smiles and the boy even called me Sensei (teacher).
I am looking forward to starting my new class with all 5 of these children next month, but I am terribly saddened that one day I am going to have to say goodbye.
-Jeremy
