Today is Tuesday and like most other Tuesdays I visited Rokkasho High School to teach a lesson to first graders. Today after the lesson I was invited to join the students to learn sign language. The teacher was this deaf 66 year old photographer from the town who also teaches sign language on the side. The lesson was kind of long, but interesting and luckily my 24 year old JTE Shusaku Honda sensei (or Shu-chan as the students call him) was there to translate. At one point in the lesson, the guy started to show us how to make signs for lots of countries like America (flag waving), Spain (matador cape wave) and Mexico (sombrero). One country he failed to teach us a sign for was my homeland of Canada. At the end of the lesson, students were given the chance to write down questions on big pieces of paper. Some of my loyal students asked what I had been wondering, that is "How do you make the sign for Canada?". The guy made all sorts of motions, none of which seemed very Canadian looking. Another group of students not satisfied with that answer asked him again. I don't understand sign language, let along Japanese sign language, but even I could tell he was being vague with his answer. I leaned over to Shu-chan and asked him what was going on. He softly whispered in my ear "He doesn't know the answer". I guess in the 50 or so years this guy's been deaf, he's never had to use the word "Canada" before. Either that, or Canada doesn't have its own sign. Just goes to show how insignificant Canada truly is.