In Search of Sunrise

Yesterday, the finalists from each gun in Kumamoto traveled to Kumamoto City for the All Kumamoto-ken English Recitation Contest Finals. Kawaura Junior High School’s second-grade contestant, her parents, Yasuda-Sensei, and I traveled to the finals, which was a three hour drive. Maya went with her parents, but I went with Ms. Yasuda. We had a lot of time to talk in the car, it being one long ass drive and all. Over the course, I got to know her a little bit better, of course, and she had some comments about me, most of the comments were centered around my personality, i.e.: “You are very unique. Translation: “You are weird.” I’m okay with that.

I don’t know if any of you keep up with Japanese news, but during our drive, we also discussed the subject of bullying, which has been getting progressively worse. Mostly because in Japan, students who bully others cannot be punished. From what I understand, it is written in Japanese law that all students have the right to learn; therefore, suspending a student for any reason would be depriving the student of their right to learn. To make matters worse, there is no recourse for the students who are bullied. Japan has no school counselors, and the best the teachers can seem to do is tell them to “ganbare!” Not the most effective method, if you ask me. Ms. Yasuda told me that in a neighboring town, a student used some scissors to cut up her friend’s (obviously, not a very close friend) clothes and then wrote, “Shi-ne!” (Die!) all over them. When one of the teachers asked for a parent-teacher meeting with the bully, the bully’s parents blamed the teachers for not catching their daughter sooner. Bascially, it was the teacher’s fault for not recognizing their daughter’s actions sooner. She became a bully because the teachers failed to recognize the “warning signs.”

This has occured within the wake of a wave of student suicides across the country. Students who have been bullied have been committing suicide, which is not surprising since the teachers have no way of stopping bullies, so such people are literally allowed to “extort money,” beat up, and steal or break the possessions of other students without any fear of punishment.

However, I feel that I am digressing from this entry’s topic.

Before we arrived at the Women’s Center (the place where the contest was held), we stopped and ate at a Chinese restaurant. Maya’s parents treated to a wonderful lunch. This place does Chinese food really well!

Afterwards, we drive to the Women’s Center, and Maya practiced her speech a couple of times more. I saw many other ALTs there, but I didn’t have anything to do with them, so I did not talk to anybody while I was there, though I did see the other ALTs from Amakusa whose students also placed in the finals: Hondo, Ushibuka, and Oyano. They are all quite friendly with one another, but for the most part I never see them; it’s probably because I don’t drink, I think.

The first grade to go was the second-year students; Maya had to go third. It was both relieving and nerve-racking.

When the contest began, I found that I was almost as nervous for Maya as if I was participating myself (not really). She performed marvelously, however. No mistakes, and perfect pronounciation on every word.

Again, I recorded Maya’s speech as well as the results, which I will post at a later date.

And how did Maya fare when the judges announced the results? Stay tuned…

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