Very incredibly formal and regimented.
Long story short, the gym was filled with all the students, parents, the PTA and all the staff.
They introduced the first year students to the school name by name one by one. No clapping.
Long story short, the gym was filled with all the students, parents, the PTA and all the staff.
They introduced the first year students to the school name by name one by one. No clapping.
Then also the new teachers.
Then followed by a bunch of other very polite acknowledgements and speeches.
There were multiple school-based songs sung and performed by the band throughout. Everyone sings along obediently including parents & teachers but no one claps.
Anyone who walks up to give a speech or anything had a specific path to walk:
To the front 3 paces from flag. bow. step back. turn left 90%. stop. bow. turn right 90% to flag again. pause. turn right 90% bow to teachers. turn to flag. pause. turn to principal. bow. turn to flag. pause. continue on walking path to microphone. (And reverse when finishing speech)
Anyone who walks up to give a speech or anything had a specific path to walk:
To the front 3 paces from flag. bow. step back. turn left 90%. stop. bow. turn right 90% to flag again. pause. turn right 90% bow to teachers. turn to flag. pause. turn to principal. bow. turn to flag. pause. continue on walking path to microphone. (And reverse when finishing speech)
The students standing up and sitting down to bow on command was incredible. The discipline was amazing. You know if you ask a bunch of teenagers to stand up in Australia, it might take about 7 -10 seconds as people slide their chairs & get up & might start talking a little bit. These kids did it instantly. 1 second. up. silent. Then bowing on command in unison. It was surreal.
~part 2: Waving to the students~
After that, the students went to their homerooms to name new books & go home early. I wandered past & just waved into the classes. Lots of excited double glances and "Oh! Wow! Look new alt!" and the inevitable practice of "herro!" and "Nice to meet you!" followed by excited giggling and laughing. Was really quite fun feeling like a celebrity without having to do anything.
The idea of an ALT is quite a good one - it really makes a language a tiny bit more fun to learn.
The rest of the day I didn't have anything to do so just pretended to be busy in the teachers room til the end of the day. Bit boring really.
~part 3: Party~
After work all teachers met at a huge famous chinese restaurant (high quality) to give more speeches and drink pouring and sharing and a chance to relax and meet everyone a bit more informally. More singing and some quizzes. Seems like a good bunch of teachers. English level is quite moderate and it forces me to use my Japanese. I'm surprising myself at how easy it is to get by with broken english combined with broken japanese. Good fun and I was careful not to drink too much.
In Japan it's common to switch schools quite frequently as a teacher. So the new teachers and a bunch of others continued onto a Karaoke bar where some hillarious singing and dancing proceeded. I was forced to sing a song dammit.
