Cinderella is Japanese!
Yesterday, 15th Feb. 2012, I was teaching 3-2 class with Mrs. Sakurai as the homeroom teacher, a student said that Cinderella was Japanese. After the 5 little monkey story, we had a culture sharing time. During that time, I showed them a picture of Hans Christian Andersen and I told them some stories he wrote and collected. Some children said that the picture was Bach or Mozart. In their music room, there are pictures of old famous world musicians, such as Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Schubert, etc. So they thought that H.C. Andersen as one of those classical composers. Then, I asked them to mention Japanese Folk tales. Some of them could mention the stories correctly, such as Momotaro, Kintaro, Urashimataro, Isshinboshi, Kaguyahime, etc. Some of them mentioned Disney's stories. The kids could not distinguish between the folktales and new made stories such as Disney's and Manga (Japanese comics). One of the students said Cinderella. The homeroom teacher replied that it was not from Japan, but the kid insisted that Cinderella was Japanese.
Today, 16th Feb. 2012, I had another fun time with the 5th grade. This month lessons were about Story book. So, for the 5th graders, we had "The Enormous Turnip." Today was the 3rd week, according to the guidebook, the students should have a performance, a drama, a skit of the story. So, I assigned the students in groups and they should practice in 10 minutes. The main sentences they should say are
1. The man's got a seed.
2. He plans the seed in the garden
3. The seed grows and grows
4. It's big
5. It's a turnip
6. The man's hungry.
7. The man pulls the turnip. Pull....pull...
8. The turnip doesn't move
9. He sees a woman. Come and help.
10.The woman pulls the man, the man pulls the turnip.
etc.
So, the funniest and the most creative one was from class 5-2 with Mr.Kashiwasaki as their homeroom teacher. The group consisted of energetic and creative kids: Takumi and Arai Yuki. They are fun, energetic, smart and have many ideas. So, instead of the man, they said the strong man. Instead of the turnip, they used the earth, but their pronunciation was unclear so I heard that as "ass"
I heard "The man pulls the ass" After finished, I checked it with them, they said it was "chikyuu". Oh, I said I thought it was "ass", in Japanese it was "oshiri". We laughed.
Last week, when I taught them, the same class 5-2, we had a culture sharing time. During that time, I told them about how we washed our clothes in Indonesia. Most people in Indonesia do not have a washing machine. So, we use several buckets and fill them with water. The first bucket, we fill it with water and detergent. We soak the clothes into the detergent water and wait for 10 minutes. After that, we brushed the clothes with cloth brushes. We put those clothes on the washing board with some grids. I drew a picture of the board. Some of the kids said that they knew it and saw it on the books or TV. Some of them commented that it was the old Japan and it was during the world war. Sensou jidai da. They are correct. It was old Japan but it is still like that in Indonesia. After the lesson, the homeroom teacher came to me and asked if I washed my clothes like that when I went home to Indonesia. I said yes. Then, I was thinking about this again, and I feel amused about it. The kids comments were right. In another school, Suka Elementary, the kids had different comments. But I forgot... let me remember it. When I remember, I will continue this writing. Hope I can remember.
When we had a sports topic, at Suka Elementary, the HRT made an obvious and funny mistake. It was the 3rd grade with a funny and kind homeroom teacher. We had a jintori game. It was satsuke's turn. He was holding the fly swatter and he arrived at a certain picture that he could not say, so he asked the HRT to help. The picture was Baseball, but The HRT said Rice ball. Satsuke felt something wrong with it, he knew riceball, but he wanted to be quick in order to save the time, so he just repeated what the HRT said.
Today, 16th Feb. 2012, I had another fun time with the 5th grade. This month lessons were about Story book. So, for the 5th graders, we had "The Enormous Turnip." Today was the 3rd week, according to the guidebook, the students should have a performance, a drama, a skit of the story. So, I assigned the students in groups and they should practice in 10 minutes. The main sentences they should say are
1. The man's got a seed.
2. He plans the seed in the garden
3. The seed grows and grows
4. It's big
5. It's a turnip
6. The man's hungry.
7. The man pulls the turnip. Pull....pull...
8. The turnip doesn't move
9. He sees a woman. Come and help.
10.The woman pulls the man, the man pulls the turnip.
etc.
So, the funniest and the most creative one was from class 5-2 with Mr.Kashiwasaki as their homeroom teacher. The group consisted of energetic and creative kids: Takumi and Arai Yuki. They are fun, energetic, smart and have many ideas. So, instead of the man, they said the strong man. Instead of the turnip, they used the earth, but their pronunciation was unclear so I heard that as "ass"
I heard "The man pulls the ass" After finished, I checked it with them, they said it was "chikyuu". Oh, I said I thought it was "ass", in Japanese it was "oshiri". We laughed.
Last week, when I taught them, the same class 5-2, we had a culture sharing time. During that time, I told them about how we washed our clothes in Indonesia. Most people in Indonesia do not have a washing machine. So, we use several buckets and fill them with water. The first bucket, we fill it with water and detergent. We soak the clothes into the detergent water and wait for 10 minutes. After that, we brushed the clothes with cloth brushes. We put those clothes on the washing board with some grids. I drew a picture of the board. Some of the kids said that they knew it and saw it on the books or TV. Some of them commented that it was the old Japan and it was during the world war. Sensou jidai da. They are correct. It was old Japan but it is still like that in Indonesia. After the lesson, the homeroom teacher came to me and asked if I washed my clothes like that when I went home to Indonesia. I said yes. Then, I was thinking about this again, and I feel amused about it. The kids comments were right. In another school, Suka Elementary, the kids had different comments. But I forgot... let me remember it. When I remember, I will continue this writing. Hope I can remember.
When we had a sports topic, at Suka Elementary, the HRT made an obvious and funny mistake. It was the 3rd grade with a funny and kind homeroom teacher. We had a jintori game. It was satsuke's turn. He was holding the fly swatter and he arrived at a certain picture that he could not say, so he asked the HRT to help. The picture was Baseball, but The HRT said Rice ball. Satsuke felt something wrong with it, he knew riceball, but he wanted to be quick in order to save the time, so he just repeated what the HRT said.
Comments
I'm curious, you mention a 5th grade class but also a 3-2 class. Are these 5th graders in class 3-2 or separate classes?
I actually probably wouldn't know what H. C. Andersen looked like.
On a side note I also study fairy tales in General and there is some evidence that Cinderella does come from the islands off the coast of China, though not from Japan.