In the Wink of an Eye
...written on 2000-11-30, @ 23:12:42
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Wed November 29, 2000
I only had one class tonight. This is the only class that I have seen more than once, in fact, this was my third time with them.
They are in the second grade of junior high (which means 8th grade I think, to Americans). Last week they had their big test and they were ready for some fun, or so I thought.
I went in and greeted them and pointed to the two choices I had written for them on the board:
1) Study
2) Play games
I asked them who wanted to study. Can you believe no one raised their hand? Ha! So I began to explain the card game "Killer" to them.
I went over the sentences I wanted them to use in the game and I explained the vocabulary. I told them what the word "wink" meant and I showed them as well. Then, I asked them to wink. They would not do it. There were 24 students and not one of them would wink. Uh oh, I thought, where's my plan B?
Ok, I said, if you won't wink, we can't play, so we will study. I started to get out my study materials, but thought I'd try again. "Ok, wink", I said as I pointed to one young man. The boy turned his face all the way to the wall so his classmates couldn't see him and winked. Shoot, this wasn't working. I knew they just needed to warm up a little. Luckily I had another game up my sleeve and we played "Heads Up, Seven Up".
In this game, seven people are chosen to be "it". After their classmates put their heads down on their desks, the "chosen seven" go around and each tap only one person on the shoulder. That person then, still without looking, raises their hand and waits for the signal to raise their head. The signal is "Heads Up, Seven Up!" The students that were tapped stand up and then try to guess who picked them. If they guess right, the tapper and the tapped switch places. Even this game had its minor problems. The girls would only tap the girls and the boys the boys, until I demonstrated that I could actually touch a boy without melting. That intertapping of the sexes spiced up the game quite a bit as a matter of fact.
After a few rounds of that, I asked Manami to help me explain "Killer". I had a feeling that they would like the game if we could ever get started. I knew the girls and boys would never wink at each other, so I divided them into three groups, two groups of boys and one of girls. There were about 10 girls in one group, 6 boys in one, and about 8 boys in the other. Manami sat with the girls and supervised their game while I ran between the two groups of boys.
In "Killer", each player gets one card from a deck of playing cards. The "killer" is the one who gets the card that you have designated as the "killer" card, usually the Ace of Spades, but since we had three groups we used an ace in each of them as the "killer" card. It is the killer's job to kill everyone in the group before they can find out who he/she is. The killer "kills" by winking. When the killer winks at you, you are dead and must say "I am dead" and turn your card over for everyone to see and cannot participate further. If you think you know who the killer is, you can accuse them of being the killer, but you must have someone willing to back you up. When they agree to help you, both the suspected killer and the person helping the accuser, turn their cards over. This is so the killer can also accuse people of being the killer and kill two birds with one stone without having to wink, because since they are the actual accuser, they don't have to turn their card over. If the killer gets accused and someone backs up the accuser, the killer and the helper must turn their cards over and the game ends once the identity of the killer is known.
Well, there I was in one group of boys, waiting for the killer to wink. And waiting, and waiting, until finally I pointed to someone and said " I think he is the killer, will you help me?" Someone said yes, and I was wrong, but those two people were out of the game and I was still in so I could prompt them some more. Finally, I got the killer card and actually winked at people to kill them and then the idea sunk in. Once they got the gist, they dealt hand after hand. It was even time to clean up and leave, but they kept saying "one more, one more", so I let them play some more. Finally I took my deck of cards and the students found blank sheets of paper and scribbled an "x" on one and continued playing in the hallway. It was good to hear them using such useful English phrases like " I think Masahiro is the killer, will you help me?" and "I am dead". Well, we all had fun anyway and that was the point.
Tomorrow I'm going to Godo. I have Friday off, so I may do something after work with the branch boss, Johnny. Some of you might remember I cornered him by the drink machine the other day in my journal entry, Japanese Affectations .
"Come now Watson, the game is afoot!"