Christmas in Shibetsu

Saturday the 17th of December, I went to Shibetsu to help Colin with a Christmas party. Shibetsu is about ninety minutes away in good weather. The school he is working for has him do “English weekends” every so often. Kids from the ten elementary schools sign up to come and they do a variety of activities all weekend. Being Christmas time, he was asked to do a Christmas party, of course. Since there are usually between 30 and 40 kids, he gets two other teachers to help him, and we get paid a bit by the school district. When he emailed me to help, I was excited to have a chance to see what other people do when teaching English. He warned me, though, that we would have to dress as Santa (all of us) and hand out presents at the end.

I left Nishiokoppe bright and early around 7 a.m. so I would have plenty of time to make the drive. We gathered at Colin’s place and then he drove the three of us to the community center where we would spend the say. The other teacher was a fellow from Canada who has been here in Japan for several years, like Colin.

We did some introductions, and then broke up into three groups for an hour of English instruction. The plan was for us to work on the phrases, “what’s your name?” and “My name is…” teach numbers 1 to 20, then work on “How old are you?” It was a challenge for me, because I have gotten spoiled by working with student who I know very well. Many of the kids also didn’t know each other, and my group was particularly shy. I admit, the hour really dragged on for me, but it was a good learning experience and I just kept pulling out new tricks and games that I have learned in my four months here. We then got back together, played a group game, and did an art project for an hour. Lunch was also done as a group and followed by more arts and crafts. At two, we divided up again for the last hour of teaching. This was a bit better, as the kids were more comfortable by now. After the lesson, we officially began the “party” portion and played a variety of games, such as bingo and musical chairs. Finally, the three of us traipsed back into another room to dress up. I brought the Santa suit we bought for Aaron (which is a whole other story for later) and gave it to Colin to wear. He isn’t a small guy and their Santa suit was way too small for him. Shane and I put on the other suits, but without the beards. We actually looked pretty good, like Santa and his helpers. We passed out the gifts, threw a bunch of candy into the air, and had a great time, in general.

The final part of the “show” was singing Christmas carols by candlelight. This might be a good time for me to point out that the person responsible for planning this party is Australian. Christmas comes in the summer in Australia. They put beer out for Santa instead of milk and cookies (“It’s hot, you know?” said Colin). So, we sang Jingle Bells and We Wish you a Merry Christmas while the kids sat in a circle holding candles. It was hysterical. We ran out of time to teach the kids the words, so we (the teachers) just played the music and sang along. It was an impressive ending I have to admit.

Here are a few photos from the event:
Playing Bingo. The hats you see the kids wearing were one of the craft projects we did.
Still playing Bingo
Santa (Colin) and his Elf (Shane) passing out gifts
Kids holding candles
My little craft-project table partner. He wanted to see how many hats he could wear at once.