Observations in the School and Other Stuff 学校内の観察と他事

One thing kids ask me is why my eyes are blue (or green, depending on the time of the month). Or they ask why Canadians have blue eyes. Granted, this only happens at the schools where they don’t get much in the way of foreign contact. Spiderbridge has two Filipino-Japanese kids in the school, so the younger students actually equate English and foreignness with dark-skinned Asians. Which is sad, really, because the kids are Japanese, yet they are often called Filipino by the others. I do try to correct this when I can but I’m doubtful of my effectiveness. Getting back to the eye issue, I tell the kids that I have blue/green eyes because my ancestors were from Europe, not because I’m Canadian. They also seemed trained by the teachers to ask me whether I can eat natto, which is good with kimchi but I don’t particularly like or dislike. It’s one of my pet ideas in that I’d like to get members of the Ichinoseki community to come in and talk about their native countries. One week have a Filipino, then a Korean, then a Chinese person … but I wouldn’t ask any of the Zainichi Koreans who were born here to come in. They were born in Japan so they are Japanese and that’s that. Japanese citizenship and naturalization laws are quite oppressive. For example, you HAVE to choose a kanji name to gain citizenship. You can’t keep your old name or write it in Roman characters. Nope, gotta be approved Japanese kanji. Contrast this with all the Japanese moms who give their children names like Erika, Arisu (Alice) and a few others I could mention to make them sound more foreign and therefore cool. A bit unfair, wouldn’t you think.

生徒達がよく聞く質問はどうして 僕の目が青い（日によって緑）。それともなんでカナダ人の目が青い。外国の影響があまりない学校でこれが起こりますけだ。蜘蛛橋は二人のフィリピノ日本人 （比日人）の生徒が居るので、若い生徒に英語と外国魅さは暗い皮膚アジア人と一緒だと思っている。この子供達は日本人だけど他人にフィリピノと呼ばれてい るのはちょっと悲しい。できるだけこれを直してみるけど自分の効果的な力を疑問する。目の話題に戻ると、僕はカナダ人だからじゃなくて先祖は欧州から来た ので目が青いと教える。そして僕は納豆が食べられると聞くのはなんか先生にトレーニングされたみたい。キムチと美味しいけど別に好きか好きじゃない事では ない。僕がやりたい事は一関の市民を招待して母国について発表させたい。或る週間はフィリピン人、韓国人、それから中国人を招待する・・・でも在日韓国人 は尋ねない方がいいと思う。日本生まれだから日本人だ。日本の市民権と帰化の法律は特に過酷だ。旧名を保存するとかローマ字で書いてはいけない。賛成人名 漢字しか使えない。外国っぽくて格好良い恵理香とか有巣のような名称を付ける日本人のお母さん達と対照すればどう思うか。ちょっと不公平ではないか。

Japanese schools are quite different than my perspective on them five years ago. I thought that Japan had the best education system possible, and I’ve come to know that’s not true. There are a few points where I’ve arrived at a compromise position, though. Cleaning the school does teach the kids responsibility, and in my own opinion a kid will not dirty the floor if he or she will have to clean it up later. Ontario could consider adopting this, as it would certainly save in janitorial costs. The downside is that since harsh cleaning materials are not used the schools are, unless they are brand new, quite dirty and dusty. Kids can only do so much. But it would really help the cleaners in Canada if the school was mostly clean when they arrived to put the wax on the floors. Another thing that we could consider is constructing shoe boxes at the front entrance so kids’ outside shoes and boots and such don’t dirty up the inside. Imagine, no more slush in the halls in winter. And more exercise.

五年前の日本学校の考え方は全く 違う。その時に日本は世界の一番良い教育制度があると思っていた。でもカナダが使えばいい点もある。学校を掃除するのは子供達に責任を教える、そして自分 の意見で子供が後で掃除をしなくちゃならなかったら最初に床とかを汚れない。掃除員の料金が安くなれるのでオンタリオ州がこの制度を使えばいいと思う。下 降は強い掃除液は使用してないから学校は真新しい場合以外汚くて粉末状だ。子供も限界ある。でもカナダで掃除員に大変助かる事だと思う、もし床に蝋を掛け る時もう大体綺麗なら。他の考える方がいいは靴箱を作る。玄関に在ったら子供の外の靴が校内をあまり汚れないはずだ。冬に廊間でもう雪解けない事を想像し てみて。そしてもっと運動する方がいいね。

I’m at Spiderbridge today, and today is prefecture-wide standardized testing day, which means everyone is pretty busy and looks tired. They’re actually going to Hokkaido for four days, and I can come along next year if I want (yay, I think). So I only had two classes to teach today and there was a very rushed feel to it. Ah well. It’s Friday and I can look forward to a weekend of rest and final recovery. Only one week left until payday …

今日は蜘蛛橋に居る。今日は全県 標準試験日だから皆は忙しいし疲れている。実は来週、北海道に四日間ぐらい行くし、来年は僕も参加できる（やった、かな）。というところで今日は二つの授 業だけを教えたしとても急いでいる感じがあった。まーね、金曜日だから休憩の週末は楽しめられる。後一週間は給料日だ・・・