November 9, 2006 - No more my school. This is the main gate of the Shida Annex Campus, with the main library on the left and the language school behind it. Can't say I miss anything about it. The Shida Mandarin Training Center classrooms are mostly on the 8th and 9th floors, and the elevator situation trying to go up or down between classes was a nightmare, contributing to my daily hostility. So much so that I opted to take the stairs.
People trying to go down the elevators during these times got smart and would hop on the elevators going up. Sure you have to go up several floors before going down, but you save time because if you wait for the down elevator, all of them (4) would always be full. And slow going it was, because all the down buttons have already been pushed so you stop at every floor anyway.
November 17, 2006 - And here we are inside my previous classroom on the 8th floor. Those are two of my Japanese classmates. I liked them well enough, this was our second semester in a class together. This was after our teacher had left for vacation for the semester. She informed us less than a week before she left that she was going on vacation. It was head shakingly lame. I mean, how does a teacher get approval for that anyway?
She goes to the administration and tells them she's going on vacation for the last week and a half. The administration says, "What about your students? Won't this disrupt their education? They are, after all, paying students, and to force them to adjust to a new teacher at the end of the semester isn't really fair."
"That's OK, I'll tell the substitute at the last minute so she won't be able to prepare anything. The students will at least be happy they won't have any more tests or a final exam."
"Aren't tests a good thing that forces students to review the material and gain competent knowledge of it?"
"Those glazy-eyed slackers?! I have nightmares about those hollow, vacant stares. They don't say anything in class, I end up speaking almost the whole time! They're so slow I end up having to complete most of their sentences for them!"
"Very well, off you go!"
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Love Struck Baby (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
2. A.B.C. (The Jackson Five)
3. Priere de "Bon Augure" (Monks of the Gyuto Monastery)
4. Up the Hill Backwards (David Bowie)
5. Bleed (Echobelly)
6. The Body Electric (Rush)
7. Floors (Rainer Maria)
8. Symphony No. 5, IV. Allegro (Beethoven)
9. Winter (David Byrne - "Music for the Knee Plays")
10. You Can Always Count On Me ("City of Angels")
2 comments:
LOL...you're hilarious!
that's what your classroom looks like? so you all just sit around a big table? very interesting...
That's what it was like there. Our classroom was a bit cramped with two tables to accommodate 8-10 students, which I think is too many for a school specializing in language. Other classrooms were a decent size, but all had this configuration.
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