I arrived at this familiar guesthouse in Ho Chi Minh on the afternoon of Thursday. On Friday afternoon, I went to a familiar coffee shop (“Bobby Brewers”) to connect my PC to the Internet and do some work. I found three Japanese men checking the movement of the Tokyo stock market. One of them was reading the latest “Shiki-ho.” Unfamiliar sight. My work went rather smoothly.
Yesterday, I stayed at the guesthouse, believing that I would need no net connection to proceed with my work. Then, I realized that working on bed while handling two keyboards was quite a task that required versatility and I regretted not going out.
*
For the past three nights, I slept badly with nightmares. My first night was disturbed by a group of Imperial Army soldiers. I’m not sure where they were but the place seems somewhere in China. The soldiers including my father were inspecting a disaster area. A wooden panel beside a heavy-looking wooden gate said “First Report from Affected Areas (被災地第一報).”The gate was opened and in front of the soldiers was an island connected with a narrow strip of land. The island was actually a mountain and at the top there was a round lake. “Where are we?” One soldier said, “It’s Hokkaido!”
The shape of the sea created the surrounding lands looked like a fattened Hokkaido, but of course it was not Hokkaido.
The scene changed to myself turning pages of a photo album. There were yellowed photos of soldiers and more recent ones of them. Also in the album were baseball records neatly typed by… perhaps my father. I was trying to figure out who is who.
*
Yesterday morning, it was the turn of my high school days. A school band was playing at a concert hall. The music sounded familiar to me but I don’t know which piece. Apparently, I was not playing with them and I don’t know why I was there. However, a man of the same year was accusing me of having not contacted any of them and our teacher even when one of our friends died.I with younger members of the band was riding a Keihan (京阪) train. I have no idea why, but inside the train was a mess because of what we had done. I don’t think the mess was left because we wanted to do so. Rather we were trying to fix something. Anyway, as a result of our act, we had to cheat on train fares. Train personnel knew all about it. At every station, I was stopped and told that I was a repeat fare cheater.
There were scenes where I was riding a bicycle along the train line. It was a well-tended road and on both sides were trees with colorful, but mostly fresh green, leaves.
As we don’t know much about driving a train, we missed a few branches. The train men were warning us about our way of driving and ordering us to clean the mess we had left behind.
There was a big crowd. It seems they gathered to see some Japanese singers and actors doing a TV program. We were somehow avoiding them and trying to sneak ahead without being noticed by any of them. We succeeded in reaching a building standing behind them. One of the singers was a female “boss” singer of the Japanese entertainment world.
In another scene, the boss singer was holding a discount sale of her handicrafts at a makeshift tent. The shop was along the road I was bicycling. I greeted her as we were old friends.
When the train managed to arrive at our “home” station, we were still cleaning the train. At the station, there was a group of parents who were waiting for the band members. It seemed we had become a news piece and the concerned parents were all there.
*
This morning, I shouted at least twice in Japanese. The first time I probably shouted, “Don’t you understand? You!! (わからんのか、おまえ！),” though what sort of dream it was was not at all clear now.*
おととい、「うちのパパが言うことには」を終えた。女性的な文章かと思えば、「だぜ」も出てくる。文体としては、慣れないうちに終わってしまった。しかし、犯罪の主役が低年齢化するにつれて、いつ「加害者の親」あるいは「被害者の親」になるかもしれないという不安は切実だし、お役所が考えそうな問題解決の理想論の空々しさへの情けなさには共感する。*
My trip to HCM City of this time would not have been necessary if my student pass application had been processed as quickly as I wished. When I breached the topic of student pass application, it turned out that the school was not an MOE-approved institution, because it didn’t have to be. Even after it was approved eventually, it took far too long until the time came to allow me to apply to a pass. As time went, I’ve finished my work. Now, I’m waiting for the certificates to arrive.*
And a lesson I’ve learned is that my own ideas are not as good or foresighted as I thought. Some were even short-sighted. It was beyond my rushed idea-creation effort to realize that this trip could have been avoided if I had submitted an EP application earlier. My preoccupied thinking was that I had to leave by such and such date. It never occurred to me that there would be ways to continue to stay. My experience with the immigration office was such that it made me think there would be absolutely no way to avoid another trip. I should have asked for advices much earlier.*
Back to the TESOL result, I received an E-mail today from the course director. Attached was grading comments from the UK. They contained many remarks on points to be desired about my work. However, remarks like the following are undoubtedly encouraging and reinforce my sense of achievement:“He did an excellent job on this module. I was particularly impressed with his choice of adjective (impecunious) on question one of task two. For task three, he should note that an imperative generally ends with an exclamation point. Otherwise, he did outstanding work.”
“He did excellent work on this module. All the questions were answered very well. His work on task two showed an exceptional level of depth and detail.”
“For task one, his flashcards were among the best I have ever seen from any student. I wouldn’t change one thing. The use of the national flag combine with a common name was great. As for later in the module, I thought his use of the stuffed dog to aid in the pictures for the kids was cute. I think they would love a lesson like this. I was also very pleased with his lesson plan.”
“His answer for task one was particularly good. I liked seeing how he applied his own personal experience to the course material. His work on task three seemed to be a bit rushed. Adding both depth and detail would have been better.”
“His work on module one was excellent. It was very detailed in addition to being well thought through. As for task one of module two, he doesn’t seem to like conducting group work very much. He should give additional thought as to the advantages of group work. His work on task two was fine. I can see a lesson plan of that type being used in an intermediate class. Overall, he did an excellent job. He has a solid understanding of the material. I am pleased with how he puts his knowledge into practice. I’m sure he will make an excellent addition to any school or university.” (The italic emphasis is original.)
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