It's hard to say goodbye...

Formality is a big thing in this country, and a junior high school graduation ceremony is no exception. Back in my time, we didn't have graduation ceremonies as such, more like prize-giving ceremonies that celebrated (only) the academically successful. The most preparation we'd do for it was to rehearse the motions of going onstage once or twice before the real thing. The kids in my school here had to practice pretty much the same thing in addition to several rounds of synchronized bowing and standing at attention, which doesn't sound so bad until you find out they have to practice everyday for a full week to get it just right. I took a peek at the plan for the day and was frankly stunned to see every single speech, presentation and song was planned down to the minute. Pomp and circumstance don't come easy, you know.

I'm told that black is the standard for any important event, and that the difference is only in the ties the men wear, white for happy events and black for not so happy ones. Efficient use of wardrobe, I'd say. All you really need is one suit and any number of different coloured ties. How cool is that?

As ceremonies go, this one was quite run of the mill, except with an air of marked restraint and not a little awkwardness. Poor kids. They had to sit though three hours of stuffy suits, long speeches and lots and lots of bowing. Seeing that bowing is required before, during and after each kid gets their certificate, I suppose the whole choreographed, synchronized bowing rehearsal I mentioned in the last post was really the most efficient way to get through 138 graduands as quickly as possible.

Here's the graduating batch singing together for everyone. Choral performances are really popular, and an award ceremony where all the kids sing something together was a first for me. Great idea for keeping otherwise bored students (and parents ^^) awake though it all.

No graduation is complete without a valedictorian, and this year it was the former student council president, who was incidentally one of the students in the English speech contest earlier last year. I reckon it would have been fun for her to try her speech in English, but who am I kidding? The rest of the students would have had loads of trouble understanding her, and I reckon there wouldn't have been so many tears in the audience. And cry they did. On their way out of the hall, nearly all the graduates were sniffling, even the boys, and especially the third year English teacher. Not bad for a people famous for their emotional restraint.

The fun didn't stop once the ceremony was over. The junior classes lined up on both sides of the street leading out from the school to see the graduates off. It was a nice touch to give each graduate a bunch of flowers as a bit of a memento as they walked out of the school to the cheers of their juniors:

Much photo taking, hugs and tears ensued. The students got to go home early, and the teachers all had a nice sushi lunch to celebrate making it through another year. I got to take a look at the graduation album afterwards, with all the photos of the students and all the things they did over 3 years in school. All fun to look at now, but in 20 years they'd probably die of embarrassment. Ah, sweet, innocent memories. XD

It wasn't the last time I saw the kids though. The next day they came back to school to pick up their high school entrance exam results. I was glad to hear that the Chinese transfer student I'd been coaching the last year made it to the specialist high school for returnee kids. Even though some of the other students sorely tested my patience during the year, it was kind of hard to imagine that they won't be in class when the new school year starts. However, it was nice to see that even the rowdiest students were crying in relief that they'd managed to get into the high school they wanted. One can only hope that pride in their own achievements will set them on the right track.