I spent this first of Obama's presidency teaching my kids "Telephone Conversation" with Super Mario Bros. puppets. In my free periods, I translated articles about Obama from the 毎日小学生新聞, the primary school kids' daily newspaper. At recess, we played the "flying pigs game", where I spin them around in circles until I get dizzy. The second grade girls sing a song I made up, in my scrappy Japanese, to the tune of Frere Jacque that goes "Tobu buta, tobu buta, toberu! toberu! Tobu tobu buta tobu tobu buta, dekiru, dekiru!", meaning, roughly, "We're flying pigs, we're flying pigs, we can fly, yes we can!"
Obama made the front page every day this week- manga of Obama, rather- in the lead-up and aftermath of his inaugural address. I photocopied all the pages and keep them in my kanji notebook. On Obama's first day in office, December 22 in Japan, I bought the adult Yomiuri newspaper from the convenience store on my way home from school, to keep the front page photo of his family, and translate the article later. In the photo on the cover of another daily, the Asahi Shinbun, Michelle is looking at Barack as he puts his hand on the Bible to take the oath, with this proud look that says: my husband is the hottest man in the world.
I laminated pictures of all my favorite video game characters with magnets on the backs- Yoshi, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Donkey Kong, Toad, along with cartoon telephones. Toad the toadstool, I learned, is called "Kinopiyo" in Japanese, a diminutive of the word for mushroom that sounds like "Pinochio". Lots of the kids mix up and call him "Pinokyo".
Last week, the kids learned how to have a simple phone conversation, scheduling a play date with a friend. They'd come up in pairs, and play the roles of their favorite Mario characters, complete with video-game voices:
"Hello, it's Mario!"
"Hello, it's Kupa. Let's play! (or, Let's fight!)"
"Ok. Where?"
"Let's go to the park."
"Ok. See you!"
This week, though, I started my lesson by showing the kids the front page of their newspaper, and telling them how Obama became president of America this week. The kids all recognize Obama, and many of them know his slogans in English: "CHANGE!" they'll call out. Or, as the caption of one newspaper article said in both English and the Japanese syllabary, "Yes We Can!"
I showed the kids a cute cartoon inside the paper, titled "ホワイトハウス小学校入学": White House Elementary School Enrollment: Shiny-new First Graders!" Obama and Hilary are shown as Japanese first graders holding hands, dressed in the elementary-school uniform and the standard red- or black- "randoseru" Japanese knapsacks. Joe Lieberman is opening Obama's backpack to load it with textbooks on "Finance", "Iraq/ Afghanistan", "Terrorism", and "Energy", saying "There's a lot to study!" (勉強することがいっぱいあります！) In the background is the Capitol building, with Lincoln floating on a cloud, wearing an angel's halo and waving to baby Obama. Off to one side is an embarrassed looking Bush, getting hit by a shoe. And behind him, a mother bald eagle in her nest standing over a newly-hatched chick, saying "自由の新たなる誕生", jiyuu no arata naru tanjyou": "Birth of liberty anew!"
The article published today is headed "Q: What did Obama call for in his inaugural address? A: Hope and Unity". The cartoon shows Obama being offered the Bible, with an image of Lincoln hovering behind his pointing hand. The final paragraph is about discrimination. It says: "From this point forward everyday, children all over the world will see a black president of America. "Discrimination" (差別, sabetsu)-- when a person can not make certain choices because of the country where he was born, the color of his skin, or the job his parents have; when strangers say mean things to him for no reason; when he is excluded from groups. Such discrimination is dying out from the world now. It's wonderful, don't you think?"
I asked each class if they know why Obama is a special president. Typically, one student would raise her hand and say "Hajimete no kokujin no daitouryou da kara.": Because he's the first black president. Good! I'd say. Then I'd show them a cartoon of Lincoln and ask if they knew who he was, what he did. Typically they wouldn't, but their teacher would help me explain how in olden times in America, black people had to work for white people for no money, but Lincoln freed the slaves. I told them how Obama was sworn in on the same Bible that Lincoln had touched- the first black president swearing on a book from the president who gave American blacks freedom.
I also explained how Obama's mother, after she had him, got divorced from his African father, and married an Indonesian, an Asian man. Obama's half-sister is not black, but Asian, and she's married to a Chinese man from Canada. So, in America's White House family now, there are people from Asia, Africa, and America-- blood from Kenya, Kansas, Canada, China, and Jakarta. "So," I said in Japanese. "there is an international first family of the United States. America is changing!" "CHANGE!" all the kids called out happily. "Hopefully now America and other countries can start to become friends." "And there will be no war, right?" One third grader asked me. "I hope not," I said.
We played a special "Inauguration Day" version of the Mario Telephone game. Yoshi wanted to fly to Washington DC to see Obama's Inauguration Ceremony, so he called his friend Sonic the Hedgehog to invite him along (Or Mario called Peach to invite her, as a date). I used a flashcard I have of "America", showing a big bald eagle's head, over the Blue Ridge mountains, a river, the Statue of Liberty, and Mt. Rushmore; a map of the U.S. showing Virginia highlighted in orange, with DC as a star; and a photo of the Jefferson Memorial in April, with the Japanese sakura blossoms in bloom all around it. The script was changed a little too:
"Hi Peach, it's Mario! Let's go to [Washington DC] for [Obama}!"
"Yes we can! What time?"
"__ o'clock."
"Ok. See you! YES WE CAN!"
I asked a series of questions in Japanese to the whole class afterwards. They caught on fast.
"Gaikokujin to hanasukoto ga dekimasu ka?" Can you speak to foreigners?
"YES WE CAN!"
"America to hokano kuni wa tomodachi ni narukoto ga dekimasu ka?" Can America and other countries become friends?
"YES WE CAN!"
"Can we end violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East?"
"YES WE CAN!"
"Can you come visit Te-i-ra sensei in Virginia?"
"YES WE CAN!"
By the time I left the fourth grade class at Oda, everybody was jumping up and down and shouting and clapping. "Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can! Watashi-tachi wa dekiru da yo!" "CHANGE!"
I learned the kanji for "Hope" and "Unity" today from Obama's shyuuin enzetsu, his inaugural address: 希望, kibou, and 団結, danketsu. I hope Obama doesn't disappoint the hopes of these Japanese kids, and mine.
