that very noticeably awkward gaijin moment...

Today was a long, weird day. First thing's first, I broke a big, heavy, full-length mirror this morning. Not intentionally of course. It already had a forward-slanted lean going on. It sort of just suddenly fell forward and smashed into a million pieces...right before I had to leave for my first of many monthly kindergarten classes....

After some frustration and panic at the thought of spending the next seven years plagued with bad luck, and a mad rush of sweeping and vacuuming, I headed out to class. When I arrived a good 15 minutes early in order to get oriented, I was greated by a bustle of excited students "Sunny-sensei!!! Hello!!!" Then it happened, my first awkward gaijin moment, and probably not my last. A few of the friendly Japanese teachers approached me and tried to explain to me that I would not be teaching in the gymnasium (my regular classroom at the kindergarten) but that I would be teaching the students in their respective classrooms. Wakarimasendeshita... (I didn't understand). After a bit of awkward back in forth squabble, me in my most straightforward english and broken Japanese, and she in her polite, yet to me still unrecognizable Japanese, I finally came straight out with it "Sumimasen...nihongo ga wakarimasen." The phrase I hate to say, yet ironically I can now say it quite well... Long story short: She ended up calling my school director who then relayed the message that I would indeed be teaching students in their respective classrooms and not in the gymnasium.  This is not to say I haven't experienced any awkwardness or made some ignorant, culturally sensitive mistakes during my short time here. It was however the first time that I felt I caused a great deal of curfuffle over something so small and trivial. Thus, it happened. My first truely awkward gaijin moment.

On the bright side, there is a solution to this problem and it is surely preventable in the future. The answer: learn Japanese. Yes, for the most part I have been able to get by in these situations with what little Japanese I already know. Aside from studying text books and phrases, I had my first Japanese class last Monday and I'm already looking forward to the next :)