Accents, Handwriting, and Other Misunderstandings

I never considered myself to have a particularly strong accent, and most of the time fellow native speakers can understand me easily.  But I realized during one of my third-year middle school classes that several vowel sounds that should be separate all sound the same to me.  We were going over the different vowel sounds and symbols that appear in dictionaries so that you know how to properly say a given word and so I was saying examples of the sounds off of a worksheet.  The sheet claimed that the vowel sounds in dog, soft, and wash are different from those in ball, daughter, and walk which are also different from arm, father, and heart; but I couldn't hear any difference between them!  After school I looked it up and learned that many Americans pronounce the vowels in the first two groups the same and that many New Englanders pronounce the latter two groups the same as well.  The example given online compared the words "caught" and "cot" (which are homophones for me).  Strangely, if I imagine my mom saying "caught" and "cot" then I can see how they are different since the former has more of a "w" sound in it (my mom has a bit of a New York accent though so that may be the reason).  Anyway, I guess I should be glad that I don't have more of an accent (or a strong Boston accent) since that could make communication more difficult.  I think we're safe at least until I start telling stories by the water bubbler about wicked pahking spots near Fenway Pahk or how my cah got stuck in the breakdown lane after going through a rotary... haha.

Anyway, is it just me or are there numerous "correct" ways to write block letters in English?  Two textbooks told me two different ways to write capital "I" and when I asked my roommate she wrote it one way while I wrote it the other.  I asked my brother about it and he wrote it the same as me but his friend wrote it with the same stroke order but in the opposite direction (with each stroke right to left, probably because he's left handed).  It's a bit frustrating since stroke-order is so important in Japan when writing kanji so some kids are very focused on it for English class as well.  And have you seen the "correct" way to write "M"?  It's ridiculous and time-consuming.  I see now why my third grade teacher always told me that script is faster than block; if you're doing block letters correctly it takes forever! 

I caught (cot?) one of the English teachers telling the students that there were no earthquakes in America (he said it in Japanese but I knew enough to understand) so I was quick to point out that they do occur in the US (like in California).  Of course they aren't nearly as common as they are in Japan, but whatever.  Meanwhile in one of the first-year classes they were learning the grammar pattern "Are you from ~ ?" --> "Yes, I am."/"No, I'm not." so I was quizzing them before class.  I decided to throw a new word in so I asked, "Are you from Asia?"  One girl said that she wasn't but seemed unsure so the other teacher told them what "Asia" was in Japanese.  All the students looked really confused, finally another student gave the only other possible answer, "Yes, I am?" and the whole class was surprised to learn that he was right.  The other teacher said that indeed Japan is in Asia and about half the students were flabbergasted...  But really, what other continent would make sense?

In kanji news, I was excited to discover that the characters for "ankle" (足首) combine the kanji for foot 足 and neck 首... isn't that awesome!  Similarly the kanji for "wrist" (手首) combines hand 手 and neck 首.  I love it when things make sense!

I had a pretty epic misunderstanding a couple of Fridays ago.  On the way into the school building I saw a long row of shiny new shovels, picks, hoes, and other gardening/construction-type supplies.  Later I saw on the schedule that the last two periods of the day had been marked off with some kanji that I couldn't read so I asked the new English teacher about it before class.
"Oh, how do I explain it in English..." she said.
"Does it have to do with gardening?" I asked (thinking of the shovels).
"Not really, but it does have to do with food..."
But then the bell rang and we had to go to class.  I didn't get another chance to ask so by the time 5th period rolled around I still had no idea what was going on.  Was I supposed to go somewhere or do something during that time?  One of the teachers saw me sitting at my desk looking confused so she told me to go with her to where the third year students were.  They were outside the dojo/gymnasium listening to an older gentleman explain something to them but I arrived just as the speech was ending.  Behind the third year students (on the paved road under the overhang of the gymnasium) were the gardening supplies from earlier and a small dump-truck which had previously dumped a long swath of dirt along a chalked section of the pavement that was about as wide as a car.  There were also some kanji written with the chalk but they were partially obscured by the dirt and I probably couldn't read them anyway.  Once I saw the dirt I was sure that there was going to be some gardening or planting.  I thought it was strange that the dirt had been left on the pavement though.
Anyway, once the speech ended the students split into a couple of smaller groups and headed for the supplies.  About half of the students grabbed shovels and headed for the dirt.  Paradoxically, they started shoveling the dirt back into the dump-truck.  I was very confused.  Why would they put it back into the truck?  Was it delivered to the wrong area?  I thought that the dirt looked pretty rocky as well... maybe it wasn't going to be used for gardening at all?  I saw a nearby teacher and attempted to ask her why the students were shoveling the dirt.  She gave me an explanation in Japanese and I couldn't get most of it but I heard the words for food and road.  The conclusion that I drew was that the road we were on was the one used by the food-vehicles to get lunches to the school and that the truck had mistakenly delivered the dirt there so it had to be moved.
I said, "So, it was a mistake?"
The teacher laughed good-naturedly and said something else.  Suddenly it all came together (for real).  I realized that earlier the teacher had said something about food, roads,... and earthquakes.  The chalk-road represented a road in an area that had been hit by a big earthquake such that a lot of debris (the dirt) was blocking the road.  The students were practicing moving debris off of roads so that food vehicles (and other emergency vehicles) could make it through.
After figuring it out I felt proud (but also a little embarrassed).  Some of the other groups were lighting fires using sticks and digging holes.  I helped out with digging the holes (which were about a foot in diameter and a foot and a half deep) so I felt sure that they would be used for planting trees or bushes.  But once time was up, the instructor gave the word and all the students filled in their holes... I found out later that they really had planted a tree earlier but I guess since there was only one everyone else just practiced digging holes for planting trees...

And now for some lunchtime Q & A:

Q1: Is your hair blonde?
A1: ...No, it's brown.
Comment: A teacher asked me that actually.  Just for the record: Not all foreigners have blonde hair!

Q2: How many boyfriends do you have?
A2: Ummm, you mean right now?  One... sort of.
Comment: I hope he meant, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Q3: Do you have 'Mario' in America?
A3: Yes, we do!
Comment: You can imagine the subsequent questions about Luigi, Peach, Kirby, etc.

Q4: What games do kids play outside?
A4: Hide and seek and tag are popular.
Comment: I had to act out the games a bit but the kids understood.  There are equivalents to both games in Japan.

Q5: Do you want to play dodgeball with us during recess?
A5: Yes!
Comment: Japanese-style dodgeball is crazy.

And, just because I can, here's a view from nearby Tatsugane Mountain:

That's all for now!