Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Music Teacher

Ever since I arrived one of the only teachers who approaches me with ideas to utilize my being here is the music teacher. First she got me to perform some jazz with two other students, she had me give notes to the brass band on how the "Star Spangled Banner" should be performed for the American exchange students, she had me teacher guitar during music class (which was hilarious.) She is also just truly hilarious, she was the one who let the students know that I know Japanese (it was supposed to be a well kept secret... but I was glad to get it out.) She always complains about some students never do what she says so she says "I must..." then puts her fingers on her head to make horns. She says "Devil devil devil." Then she covers her mouth laughing in disbelief that she had just said something so crazy (when in fact, it wasn't that crazy to begin with.)

This week she invited me to give a class on the history of jazz in America. It'd be brief, but it'd likely be the most accurate and most in depth understanding of Jazz/Blues the students would ever have.

I went in and explained pre-jazz music like ragtime, marching band music and so on which became the whole dixieland movement in New Orleans. Eventually I got to describing improvisation and a basic intro to improvisation. I then played this old recording of Earl Hines and Louis Armstrong. The teacher goes, in Japanese, "These men were likely drunk and high on drugs while they were improvising. That's why it's so good."

I swore that I'd misheard her and thought maybe she said "People listening were often drunk" as in "people listened to this music at bars." which we had talked about, how this music was performed at clubs and bars. Then she looked at me and said "Right?" I asked her to repeat. My ears hadn't fooled me. She HAD said that these men were all on drugs and drunk. Now, I may be totally wrong but I was like "no no no no no no no no." The students burst out laughing, the teacher broke out laughing and covered her face, got really serious and turned to the students and said "Never tell anyone I told you that."

After class, she explained that her friend had told her that in order to improvise properly you had to be drunk or on drugs. While there's plenty of cases alcohol and drug use all over jazz's history, it's by no means REQUIRED. I had to explain that that would be on par with running through an obstacle course while drunk or on drugs... while I'm sure some people would have a blast, the result wouldn't be as graceful as the one participating might expect... although I'm sure there are exceptions.

After class she let me play the schools piano for the rest of the day which was wonderful because I hadn't touched a real piano in almost 10 months... she definitely redeemed herself for likely spreading the word around rural Japan that all people who improvise are on intoxicated. Also, she's still one of my favorite teachers at school.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Rye, Barley, Wheat, and Oats

"Rye, Barley, Wheat, and Oats"

No, the title of this is not in reference to an unreleased secret recording of a rare Simon and Garfunkle song... this is what I've been speaking to classes about as of late.

One of the teachers I work with came up to me and kind of was confused about something. He's the teacher that often asks me questions about things he reads. I'm always glad when he does because it means 2 things... 1) I get to communicate with another human (a major departure from my daily schedule) 2) The questions are usually about things that I never really notice about western culture.

Today the question was "In this book, it says 'their diet usually consisted of rye and wheat bread, cabbage soup, and...' Does this mean that the bread was wheat and rye in one bread? or two separate things?"

Of course the answer is two separate things. Then came the interesting part "In Japan we think of wheat, oat, barley, and rye as one group. They are all resembling the same thing, a form of wheat. They are in one group. Do you think this?"

Weird. This explains why when I bought rye bread and wheat bread at the super market, they both tasted like white bread. This resulted in a conversation where the teacher kept saying "heeeeeeeeeeh" the Japanese equivelent of "whooooooaaaaaa." I'd say "Rye bread tastes nothing like wheat bread. Wheat bread tastes nothing like white bread... they are all different, completely different. If you order a sandwich at a store, sometimes they ask you what kind of bread you want. Other times if you order food that comes with toast, they will offer you a choice of wheat, white, or rye. It's THAT different."

His mind was so blown by this concept that he asked me to speak to some of his grammar classes about it. I went in and lay it straight about my grains and breads. Let's just say, I totally flipped their world upside down. I even went so far as to mention that there are different kinds of wheat breads. "We have 7 Grain or 12 Grain bread, dark wheats, wheat breads with nuts and seeds... all sorts of nifty wheat breads" I didn't go into pumpernickel, challah, cinnamon rasin, or other things yet... they aren't read for that.

I might have to find some true wheat, rye, oat, and barley breads to send to this guy just to show him what he's missing. I wonder if he's even emotionally, mentally, and physically prepared to experience these different kinds of breads, I guess that's a risk I'm willing to take though.

-Mike

Monday, May 10, 2010

When communication starts to fail...

I walked into school today and there were no teachers int he office and none of my teaching materials had been copied for me (they usually supply me with copies for each class after I fax them a new lesson plan.)

I wasn't in a mood to be teaching...

I thought "I should either be really really worried about what is going to happen today... or really relieved that maybe there is a small possible chance that maybe there are no classes."

Turns out..

No classes. Score.

-Mike