学校が始まりました

やっと九月になりましたね。夏休みも終わり、生徒も皆学校に戻りましたので、今週でＣＩＲとしての学校訪問も始まりました。火曜日には本山小学校、木曜日には吉野小学校、そして金曜日には嶺北中学校に行きました。　今月は全校が体育祭あるため、練習がたくさんあることで僕のスケジュールはまだ確認されてなのでとてもフリーな訪問でした。　火曜日は本山小で小学一年生と二年生の水泳大会に参加して子ども達とプールで遊びました。カナダでも子供と接触する経験がなかったので、ちょっと心配していましたけど、とても楽しんでくれたようなのでとても嬉しかったです。吉野小は本山小と違い、全学年で３５人の生徒がいないので生徒たちとはもっとパーソナルな触れ合いが出来たと思っています。　日本の人は西洋の人に比べるともっとシャイだとよく聞きますが、僕の個人的な意見ではカナダの子供のほうがシャイだと思います。特に体の触れ合いとかに関しては日本の子供はカナダに比べるとあまり躊躇ないと実感しました。　小学生の低学年はそうでしたけどやはり年のほうが上になるとどんどんシャイになることも分かりました。まあ、今週は初対面だったので僕は皆がシャイであることは当たり前だと思っていますから、数週間後に皆と馴染む時を楽しみにしてます。
後、週末には沖ノ島にキャンプする予定です。海と景色がとてもきれいな所だと聞いているので、楽しみに待っています。　
しかしまだ暑いですね、一週間前他のＪＥＴたちに「来週は涼しくなるから」と、知った風に断言しましたけど、涼しくなるどころかもっと暑くなっています！

Finally, it’s September. Summer break is over in Japan, and the students are back at their respective schools, which, of course means that student visits have begun for me as well. On Tuesday I went to Motoyama Elementary, on Thursday Yoshino Elementary, and on Friday I visited Reihoku Middle School. There is actually a Sports Festival Day for every school this month, requiring students to take time off classes to practice. Since the class schedules are changed, my own schedule within the school isn’t set up concretely yet. I was told that my first `English class` will be on the 28th of September. Tuesday at Motoyama Elementary I participated in the first and second grader’s swimming competition. That is to say that I played with them during their `free swim` time. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t know how to deal with little kids, since I’ve never had experience with that in my life, but they seemed to be having a blast which was good! Yoshino Elementary was a lot different than ME due to the fact that where ME has about 20-25 students per grade, Yoshino Elementary had 35 students in total. I felt that I was able to connect with the students at YE on a more personal level. It’s a common opinion that Japanese people are more introverted than their western counterparts. I found from my first week however, that kids in Japan (grades 1-4), are a lot more friendly and less hesitant to make physical contact with strangers. Of course, the older the kids were, the shier they seemed but I thought it was natural considering that it was essentially the first time they have ever seen me. I’m looking forward to getting to the point where the students feel totally comfortable with me.
On another note, I’m going camping at Okino Island southwest of Kochi this weekend with a bunch of people from work. They say that it’s a great place with a great view with crystal clear beaches so I’m looking forward to it very much.
And on another note, it is still very hot here in Motoyama. I feel that I need to apologize to my JET friends who I assured that it would get `a lot cooler` in September, when in reality its actually gotten HOTTER.