Today the 3rd graders started a farewell project. Next year, they will be off to high school. In Japan, this is a big deal. When I was in junior high, almost everyone just continued on to the same high school. Not in Japan. Here, the kids take entrance exams that determine if they will go to the "good" schools and have a long fruitful life of prosperity, or the "bad" schools, where they will learn how to drive taxis and spend all their income gambling on pachinko machines. No pressure on the 13 year old kids.
So the farewell project, today they had to write a simple message. I showed them examples and let them have at it. Here's some of them:
- I'll remember you all.
- Good luck.
- I will miss you all
- Everyday is a big treasure.
- 3B (the class) was snug. He used a dictionary.
- I decided not to forget about 3B forever.
- I enjoyed talking with my friends. Junior high summed up into one sentence.
- I'm going to Computer Club in high school. Dream big kid!
- I enjoyed destroying Masashi's eraser. It's true, he totally ruined that dude's eraser.
- I cheer Registance. Registance made this school a good society location. But they shall die by the teachers in this school. I'm sorry that they don't have right and they are not respected by everyone. I wish they could change this school.
I'm open for explanations on this one. The boy is really shy. I thought at first it might be a quote from some manga he's reading, one where a band of rebel school children take on a corrupt system. Actually, I'm sure I've seen that theme in a few different manga books. I noticed he was reading some French book, maybe it was a Hugo novel and he was just being impressed by that. Either way... WTF?
2 comments:
High School isn't mandatory in Japan also, right? Can't remember.
Those are some great farewell messages. I like the "snug" term. Let's start using that, like "man that shit was snug!"
Did you have to write any messages for the yearbook? I was reading last year's message from the ALT I replaced and it was nothing but how the English lessons didn't teach anything and how things didn't go his way, it was a pretty bad sob story. Probably one of the worst farewell messages I have ever read actually.
Post a Comment