2017-01-06

Happy New Year 2017! / あけおめでござる。

Happy new year!—to those of you whose new year begins on January 1. I hope everyone's coming year is full of all sorts of joy and happiness.

明けましておめでとうございます。もうすでに日本では6日の金曜日ですが、皆様良いお年をお迎えできた事をお祈り致します。

For year 2017 I've made all sorts of interesting resolutions. For the first time in, like, 20 years, I'm not resolving to stop swearing (or even swear less). I've found that I just can't fucking do it, and besides, swear words are mere social constructions...

ところで、皆様、今年の初夢は如何でしたか?私の初夢は、今年の抱負にぴったりの、ハチャメチャな夢でした。

In Japan we have what's called a hatsuyume—or, the first dream of the year. It's typically the dream we have on the night of the 1st or the 2nd. Our hatsuyume is supposed to be a form of fortune-telling—if it's a good dream we savor it, and if it's a bad dream we find ways to dispel the bad fortune. For me, my hatsuyume was born out of all the planning I'd done a few days prior to make sure I'd be able to achieve several different goals during the year 2017.


私の初夢は、何故か学校の朝礼が背景となっていました。マジですか、と思いました。朝礼なんて、小四以来です。しかも私は教員としてその朝礼に参加していました。ん〜、まぁ小学生でない事がある意味救いだったのかもしれませんが。

Like last year, one of my resolutions this year is to exercise—more than I did during 2016; I wasn't that bad last year, but I can certainly be more systematic and earnest about it—which means that I'd had my head full of different exercises for different muscles of the body in the days leading up to New Year's Day. Another resolution is to improve my teaching evaluations for Spring and Fall semesters of 2017. It's the stuff of tenure; it's the stuff of life.

と言う訳で、私の頭は運動と教える事でいっぱい、いっぱい。初夢にそれが出てくるのもおかしくありません。でも・・・だからって・・・!夢の中で私はクラスの列の一番前に立っていました。(?普通先生はどっか違うとこに立ってません?)で何故か校長先生か教頭先生が、「では、先生から一言・・・」とか言う感じで、私がスピーチをするハメに。しかも、椅子を使って腕立て伏せをしながら!ですよ。何が面白くて、運動しながら新年の挨拶を全校生徒にしなければならないんだか・・・

So yes, appropriately in my hatsuyume, I had lots of stuff about exercising and teaching. None of it made sense, of course—it's a dream, after all. But after the bit about doing push-ups at the assembly, in my dream I was approached by a student who wanted to know about the weight of different exams and papers, and whether she could choose not to submit them. Although I now forget her reason for asking that, I do remember that I started giving her a very long talk about the value of education and what she wanted to get out of taking a class. In other words, it was a very teachable moment.

いや〜、今年の計画は盛りだくさんですよ。勿論、人生は一日、一日生きて行くモノなのですが、目標があるっていい事ですからね(個人的に)。頑張れば腕立て伏せしながら授業できるくらい体力が付くかもしれません。そうなったら、初夢万歳ですよ、本当に。はい。

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