One of the local primary schools has a tradition of inviting the AETs to attemd nyuugakushiki. Nyuugakushiki is a ceremony to welcome the new year 1 students into the school, and also to celebrate the beginning of their school careers (the Japanese school year is starting now).
So this morning we suited up, put on our "important foreigner" faces, and biked over to the school. Once there, we were ushered into special "teacher" seats, and sat down to watch a procession of apprehensive looking littlies being ushered to their seats at the front of the gym. All the boys were done up in little suits with shorts and long socks. The girls had a bit more variety, some were in dresses, some were in a semi-businesslike skirt and blazer. One little girl had lots of flowers in her hair, and more attached to her dress. They were all very gorgeous, and I took a few photos, but of course, I can't post them.
There were a few speaches, pretty short and sweet, mostly tailored to be age-appropriate for the new students, and then the Yr 2 students did a short performance for the Yr 1 students, including the "Hello" song, sung in English.
One of us will be teaching at that school, we don't yet know who.
I vote that you and Hunt put up a video of you both singing the "Hello" song for kicks. :P
ReplyDeleteDid you manage to understand the speeches?
There'll have to be an incentive before video like that surfaces...
ReplyDeleteAs for the speeches, I was able to understand maybe 30% - enough to keep me trying.