It's been a while

This picture has nothing to do with the post. Only about four people I know will appreciate this picture, three of them are related to me. Do you know who you are? (Well actually one of them might loathe me for it, but I know she secretly loves this character ;-)

I know everyone, I know. It has been quite a while since I have written on my blog. You know, this thing called life sometimes gets in the way of blogging and the fact that I just haven't had any major stories after Tokyo. So this next post is just my thoughts of Japan so far and a little small story as well.

First of all, besides my high school classes and my parent classes, my favorite classes have to be my Baby classes. I teach two classes where the students are barely even two years old. I know, you are probably wondering, "Jeremy, how in the world can you teach a child another language when they haven't even come close to mastering there own and barely know two words in their own language?" And my answer would be simply, immersion. That's how you learned English correct? You didn't know the difference between Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian or some strange language native to somewhere else you've never been or heard of. You didn't know anything. But what you did know was that when someone pointed at a piece of fruit and said "Apple" you started to understand that that weird looking thing that you have never seen before is indeed called an "apple" and so you start to call it "apple". Although, many of you probably said "mama", "dada" first.

Which leads me to my next story. Usually you have as many moms in the baby class as their are babies, seeing as most moms only have one "baby" at a time. Well, in one of my baby classes I actually have two to one. I have a mom, and her two twins. One of them is a boy, Masayuki (MAH-SAH-YOU-KEE) and one of them is a girl, Fuka (FOO-KAH). They are both wonderful babies, even though sometimes they can throw their little fits and decided they want to be angry or sad, or cry, for seemingly no reason. They might not be re-uping to come back to Amity after the end of the month and my manager was hoping that the last few classes they had with me would be good so that the mother will consider staying on and continue. Well folks, I might have struck gold. A week ago I am having a BLAST with these babies. I'm teaching them "Orange" and "an orange Orange" and I'm teaching them "strong" and "happy" and "angry" and all sorts of stuff. When all of a sudden, after we are having LOADS of fun, Masayuki stands up and screams at me! He screams: あかさん!！！！ Since most of you can't even begin to read what I just wrote, let me tell you in English. He screamed, "MOMMY!!!" (Okasan). At first, I thought I heard him say this, but I wasn't sure if maybe he was just speaking in baby language. So after the third time that he said it, I looked at his mom and said, "What did he say?" and she said, "He said Okasan, mom." And I was just amazed that he SPOKE! Granted, it wasn't in English, but that's ok. We had a tremendous class that class (cause there were very little tears and a lot of smiles from both of the babies). What seemed to me to just be a "good class" actually turned into something I couldnt even have thought would have ever happened.

The mother told my Manager that her son was calling ME mommy. Something I thought was funny, but just silly, nothing meaningful. But, from what I understand, in Japan at least (because I've never come across this, in this situation, in America), if a child that young starts to call another person that they KNOW is not their mother, MOM, then they REALLY like that person. And aparrently he doesn't do that for many other people. Let me repeat, because he called me mom does not mean he THINKS that I'm his mom, but in the Japanese way of undersanding their children, it means they are really comfortable and they really like the person that they are calling "okasan." And let me tell you guys, that touched me. I was pretty happy, I didn't know how to react when I heard that. Here I am, have been here for 3.5 months, from a different culture, country, and upbringing, and I'm connecting with children like I would be connecting with them back in America.

One thing I've learned since being here in Japan is that, kids are kids. And I'm not sure exactly what I'm about to say here, but go with me on this (whether you understand/agree or not). It's very interesting that what makes kids laugh in one culture makes kids laugh in another culture. It's very interesting that the mundane things children do in one culture to keep themselves occupied (such as spinning around, running, jumping, pretending to be their favorite Super hero and so on) is the same thing kids in another culture do. I have felt the same Joy from working with kids in America that I do with working with kids in Japan. For all of you who figure that Japanese children are these robots who say, "Yes, No thank you" and "Sorry" all the time, you need to wake up and realize that kids are kids. I cannot speak these childrens language (yet :-P) but I can understand them. I cannot comprehend everything they are telling me, but yet I an relate to them. I cannot ever and will never be Japanese, and yet emotionally they couldnt tell me apart from any other one of their energetic Japanese teachers. Who I am on the inside, who they are as children, I can relate. I can relate whether it's my wonderful kids at Oakhurst (who I have now let Jenny adopt :-D) or whether it's my kids here at Amity. Kids are kids and no language, cultural, upbringing barrier changes that matter. That's why, from a teaching children perspective, it doesn't feel much different than if I were in America, it's WONDERFUL.

One of the reasons I adore this country so much, is because it seems like everything, from the advertisements, to the dramas on TV, to the video games, cartoons, and movies, they just seem so lively all the time. So full of energy. I know some of you don't understand (and some of you will never understand) my obsession with certain video games and cartoons that originated in Japan. But to put it simply, it's because it always seems so full of energy. I have not felt hardly ANY negativity from these people in Japan. Seriously, NONE. There's been "I wish this would be better" or possibly "I don't understand why this is this way" but as far as the negative feeling of something, I've never gotten that. Whether it's because people are so good at locking it up in public, or maybe it's because I don't speak the langauge; but I have to admit, I am good at reading peoples vibes, I've always had to be since I always had to be aware of who was talking to me for what reason back in the states, and I'm telling you all, the people in Japan that I have met, the ones that I now call my friends, the people that I pass on the street, the people that work at the local convenience store or the mega store down the street, I have not felt a negative "I hate my life" vibe from anyone. I just havent. And I don't mean to say that EVERYONE back in America has a negative vibe, but some of the places I've lived, the people I've met, the people I see just in their everyday life, some of them (obviously not ALL) seem to give off this strange negative pessimistic vibe. I just don't feel it here and that's one of the reasons it's so peaceful.

Please don't mistake what I'm saying. I'm not saying it is easy for everyone to be optimistic ALL the time and I'm not saying that I've never been mad or angry with the world and I definitely don't know everyone's personal life and what they are going through. So I'm not preaching that all people should try to be more optimistic, understanding, or positive, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying I have not felt it out here and that's a huge reason why I feel so comfortable and am cherishing the time I have here.

But yeah, I hope you all are doing well. No pictures this time, but I am going out of town this weekend and I might have some for you then. In the meantime, be cool.

Jeremy aka Am I sure I'm not Japanese? Not even a half a percentage?