Specifically, Ba.D. and I were discussing the question when I said, “You know, my answer to that question can be summed up in a single photograph.” I rummaged through my photo albums for the picture I had in mind, but I wasn’t able to find it quickly; when I do find it, I’ll post it here.
What I did find were a bunch of worksheets I made during my ALT (“Assistant Language Teacher”) days. Casting melancholy aside, I freed myself to giggle and remember all the joy I felt in class with my genki students. The first such worksheet was this:
The real question is, when is Josh NOT fishing?
One of the junior high’s English lessons was about the question, “What’s the matter?” My role as ALT was to “bring the fun in” (a la Buffy). In this case, I used the doodles from my worksheet at the elementary school. You’ll probably recall that I taught my elementary school students eight different ways to respond to the question, “How are you?” After the fifth and sixth grade classes mastered those eight responses, I taught a slightly more complete conversation using my cards from the junior high:
Student 1: How are you?
Student 2: I’m sick!
Student 1: What’s the matter?
Student 1: I have a _____!
Behold my fabulous stick figure artistry! (The kids, of course, didn’t care how artsy anything I drew was. As long as my hand-puppet “Mr. Shark” helped to present the content, they were happy.)
Further down, I found another worksheet for my junior high elective class, which might or might not have been altered to protect the innocent:
My brother’s sole response to this worksheet:
“I do not like tacos, Deb.”
These worksheets are so much more powerful than words or even pictures to evoke the memory of who I was in Japan. Each of these scanned pages recalls so many moments I spent hunched over my desk, giggling while I chatted with my coworkers and daydreamed. I’ll never be Deborah-sensei in rural Japan again, but these silly worksheets remind me that a piece of my heart belongs to Japan still.
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