Saturday, April 11, 2009

Ethan's Advancement Ceremony

Last Saturday was the Advancement Ceremony at E's school, for all the kids who moved up to new classes this year. Last year E was in the Himawari (sunflower) class, this year he's in Sakura (cherry blossom). Each class has a different color, the kids have a name badge and an outdoor hat (which they wear whenever they're outside: playing, field trips, etc) in their class color; last year E was orange, this year he's pink. I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled his American-macho-man dad is with the pink hat! LOL
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The principal welcoming everyone to a new school year, and congratulating the advancing students
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All the teachers, with the exception of the 3 male teachers who teach the English immersion class. That's E's new teacher Aida sensei, holding the mic
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E's teacher right in the middle. She's so sweet, and Ethan knows her from last year. During the last few weeks of school, the kids spent several hours a day in the classes they would be moving up to, so that it'd be familiar to them when they moved up.
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Ethan in front of the class assignment lists. His class the the top, left list. Reading the Japanese way, from right to left, and top to bottom, the first line, written in blue, says: Sakura kumi, Cherry Blossom class. E's name is the 10th name (or 11th line) from the right. He was able to pick it out all by himself! All the Japanese kids' names are written in hiragana, but the American kids' names are in katakana.
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Ethan's class.
It says sa-ku-ra
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E's name above his hook. This year his icon is a happy face cloud.
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Aida sensei calling roll. I was so proud when she said "Che-soo-na-toe, Ee-san-koon" and he piped up "Hai!" I didn't recognize his name at all when she said it, it comes out so fast, and with the accent and Japanese pronunciation, I had no idea what she was saying, but he definitely did, his hand shot up before she'd even said the whole thing!
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Waiting patiently for his snack; notice the hands out, ready for the snack to be put in them.
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School started on Monday, but for the first two weeks they only go for half a day. That's a bit irritating. I can understand that they want the new kids to have a chance to get used to the new environment and new routine, but two whole weeks? And why do ALL the kids have to have this schedule? Why not just the new ones? I wreaks havoc on my schedule! Luckily the girls had spring break this week, so they could get him off the bus when I was teaching, but for next week, I had to do some major juggling. Anyhoo, the new school year is off to a good start!
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2 comments:

Robin Vistnes said...

That was so awesome! I am so glad that you have him in Japanese school. He is doing great- I loved the pics of the teachers. His sensei could pass for 12! She is so cute.
Why does his name have "koon" at the end?

Bryn said...

All the teachers look ridiculously young, I think most of them are in the early to mid 20's.

-chan and -kun are "honorifics" added to the end of someone's name, usually your friends, and people younger than you. Typically you add -chan to girls' names, like Sorbi-chan, and -kun to the end of boys', Ethan-kun (pronounced *koon*). You add -san as a respect thing, kind of like Mr. or Mrs., Vistnes-san.