Christmas Day in Japan. Just another working day. Not too bad for me, though, as I only had one class from 10am, just down the tram line from where I live. Nice and easy!
This class takes place in a public community centre, or "kouminkan" - 公民館 - in Japanese. I enjoy kouminkan classes as they are usually conversation classes in which the students come prepared to talk about various topics, and are also keen to hear whatever old sensei talks about.
I used to go with prepared topics, but these days I simply riff off whatever crops up or ad lib about something that happened to me in the last few days, or what I've been reading, or talk about something topical.
As you might imagine, those who attend kouminkan English classes are mainly from the older age groups and I have had students well into their nineties. The people who attend kouminkan classes are typically positive-minded, curious about life and keen to laugh and learn together.
In short, community centre classes are great fun, and I was very happy to hang out with my students on Christmas morning!
Today's Class Content
The students were delighted to see Santa arrive even if without a beard or a sackful of presents. One student asked where the presents were, and so the improvised lesson began!
I "explained" that as there's no chimney Santa had parked the sleigh on the roof and left the presents there. Most of the students knew the word "chimney" but some checked their electronic dictionaries. "Chimney" is "entotsu" - 煙突 - in Japanese, by the way.
Then I asked the students if Santa had brought them any presents at their houses and as the answer was a universal "No!" I asked each student,
"Does your house have a chimney?"
That led to a conversation about whether any of them had ever lived in a house with a chimney. Someone said that in the old days they had a fire indoors and a straw roof with a hole in it for the smoke to escape. I said it sounded like an Anglo-Saxon hut, and we talked a bit about old-style Japanese houses with thick straw roofs such as the ones you can visit in Shirakawa, in Gifu Prefecture, not too far from where I'll be spending the New Year in a few days' time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirakawa,Gifu(village)
Then I talked about my memories of open fires from my childhood in England. I told the class about how, by the time I was eight years old, I had lived in eight different houses, including a house in Cyprus, two flats in Gibraltar, and five different houses in England. I told them that there every house I lived in in England had a fireplace and chimney and that we used to roast chestnuts on the fire.
Moving Houses - Wartime Memories
Then I asked the students how many houses they lived in when they were children. Most had only lived in one or two houses, but one lady counted four houses. I said that perhaps she had a lot of childhood memories because I have a lot of childhood memories especially when I compare my memories to those of people who only lived in one place who, in my experience at least, tend to have fewer memories.
The lady replied that she did have memories but that they were not so pleasant as mine because they were memories of moving to different places to escape from the danger of being bombed in the war. Yes, she is of my students who is well into her eighties.
I asked if her family had moved based on rumours of which city would be targeted (based on my father's stories about his mother's wartime moves during the Blitz). She didn't answer that question directly, but told us that her family moved to Fukuoka, and then had to make an emergency evacuation during the night, and that they moved to HIROSHIMA to escape the "American bombers"...
Coal Fires 🪨##
The gentleman in the class then asked what fuel we used to burn in our open fires in England - it turned out he had prepared a spiel about global warming which he delivered towards the end of the class.
I replied that we mainly burnt coal, and then I told them how my mother only bought the more expensive, high quality smokeless coal - and I even remembered the type of coal after all these years - anthracite! She ordered my long-suffering father to get a second coal bunker. (I told the students what a coal bunker was and how the coalman would tip the coal into a hatch in the top, and we'd shovel the coal out of a hatch in the bottom). Then my mother would buy anthracite during the summer months when it was in less demand and therefore cheaper, and fill up both bunkers so that there would be a good supply during the winter, when demand - and prices - went up.
I told them about how my father would get up early in the morning and the first thing he had to do during the winter was to clear the cinders and ash from the fireplace, light the fire, and fill up the coal scuttle. (I explained what a coal scuttle was and what it looked like.) One of my jobs was to fill up the coal scuttle when I came back from school. Nowadays, all I do is point a remote control at the air conditioner and push a button to warm up the room.
I had not planned to talk about any of that when I got to the class yesterday morning, but it is a good example of how I riff off students' comments to develop a random topic in my kouminkan classes.
7 Glasses - or Grasses??
Later, the same lady who told us about her wartime moves talked about how she follows Japanese customs for her own pleasure. She mentioned the custom on January 7th of eating "seven glasses of porridge." I'd never heard of that custom before, so I asked her for more information as consuming seven glasses of porridge didn't sound particularly pleasant or appetizing...
It turned out that she had meant to say "seven GRASSES with porridge" which still sounds a bit odd. What she was talking about was a tradition of eating seven types of plant - herbs, grasses and root vegetables (she mentioned white radish and turnip) - on the seventh of January. They are mixed into or added on top of ONE bowl of some sort of porridge.
There arose a debate as to what the plants were, whether they were herbs or grasses or the devil only knows what, at which point we moved on to the next student's topic!
I don't know how many times I've been confused by Japanese students saying gLasses when they meant to say gRasses or gRasses when they meant to say gLasses! ROR! 🤣
Well, I don't know about you, but I had a jolly entertaining Christmas morning, and came away a few thousand yen better off too!
Merry Christmas! 🎅🏻