I have a nice month and a half vacation, not that I’ll be spending it at home where I can do more with my time, but I’ll be at the office. Now, there are plenty of perks of being here in a wonderfully air-conditioned room with (luckily) pretty cool people. What’s good about the school’s teachers in general is that they’re expecting me to study Japanese when I’m not doing any work. I know of some places where they get angry if you do anything except something relating to team teaching, those unlucky folks would just have to pretend for hours everyday. That sucks.
The good thing for me is that simply because they’re expecting me to study Japanese, I have about 20 Japanese language experts at my disposal…for free! I most definitely take advantage of this because some people don’t have that kind of opportunity, ya know?
I’m studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, level 2. If I buckle down and study as if I’ll never get the opportunity to study Japanese again, I can skip 2 and possibly clear level 1. It’s quite a reach (I get lazy every now and again)… but I think it’d be best if I did as much Japanese studying as possible while in Japan before I go home.
If you are trying to learn Japanese I can tell you what I’ve done and you can see if it might help you. However we all learn differently, so what I say might not even work for you, and I think if you already have a method of studying Japanese then don’t follow mine because finding something that works for you is the best way to go about it. I will make a separate post for it.
I focused on Japanese language study simply because it’s my interest. It took my first two years of college and a lot of frustration to realize that my major in Japanese was inevitable. I tried the sciences for two years because I remember asking myself what could I possibly do with a Japanese major when I was in my senior year of high school. I had an interest in science so I figured that I would try that route. Even going so far as to researching Med schools in my freshman year of college lol. Yes, I know….I was quite green. 
As I took both science and Japanese courses…I stubbornly refused to admit, but was being forced to notice that I was getting very high grades in Japanese, and so-so grades in science, and I’m a firm believer in making a career out of doing something you like. It was hard for me to see that when I had pressure from my father in how I had to “ make as much money as possible” as well as family on my father’s side going “you can be the first doctor in the family!” but I’m sure that’s common.
So, halfway in my four-year college stay, I was tired of this terrible feeling of being a failure, feeling like no matter how hard I studied, I can’t do as well. I also feared the risk of messing up my GPA because my pride, and pressure from my family, but I stubbornly didn't want to give up something that CLEARLY wasn’t working... however, it had to be done. I threw away the whole science thing, focused my attention on an Asian Studies major with a Japanese specialization, completed an Africana Studies minor and never looked back... well maybe a couple of glances lol.
After I dropped my science class, I couldn’t help but notice the weight that was lifted off of my shoulders. I remember the exact point where I was sitting in my Chemistry lab and I had this sudden feeling of “Wow…..I don’t want to be here anymore,” and once I got back to my dorm, I dropped the class and took up a Japanese history class that just happened to be at the same time and days of the week as my Chemistry lecture. I would never forget the horrible feeling of dread and fatigue (all those weekends at the library wasted!) when it came to Chemistry at Binghamton and the sheer excitement and enthusiasm when it came to Japanese. I finally had that feeling I had in high school of excelling at things that I love, and doing science for two years really set the point home that it would be impossible for me to have a career in something that I don’t like.
It took me a day or so to call home and let them know that I changed my plans. It felt as though everyone was counting on me to succeed at something I told everyone so much about. So I waited not because I thought they would be angry with me…but because I felt like I let everyone down. My mother, siblings, father, everybody. However, everyone had to know. I told my mother first but I thought she would be disappointed…but the crazy amount of encouragement and understanding about such a sensitive subject got me so emotional. We’re a very tight knit family so it was great to feel that bond for something like this. I realized that it didn’t matter what I did; Japanese, science, whatever, they would always support me. That’s a good feeling. I told my father and he declared that I “make up my mind.” Whatever. I know where he’s coming from since he, my mother and grandmother brought us to America from Jamaica for a better life so I know he means well in how he just wants me to be successful before it’s too late, but I was 19 when I made that decision so I think I have plenty of time left lol. 
So, I filled out some forms, met with some people and officially changed my major. About a week later, I went to the Career Development Center on campus because I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do next. I mean most science majors have a good idea of where they are going to go after they graduate because science seems more tangible so it wouldn’t have been hard to figure out a game plan. However, like I asked myself before, what the hell could I do with a Japanese major?!
In rare instances, I’m not too proud to ask for help. So I scheduled a meeting and awkwardly enough, the “career advisor” was just as stumped as I was about what to do with a Japanese major. -.-…like, seriously? He suggested I become a teacher and I’m like..yeah but that doesn’t really solve my current problem now, does it? Then he suggested the United Nations and then we look up information together about the United Nations and he’s like, “well….they don’t seem to have anything for Japanese speakers…” Wow. Thanks for nothing! It’s like…why the hell did I sign up to talk to you? So, I leave even more confused than when I started, so a few days later I go to one of the awesome Japanese teachers and I’m like, “Hey I changed my major..but I don’t know what the hell to do with it!” So, she suggests Translation/Interpretation, but then I scoffed because I didn’t think I can do that, I mean sure it sounds fun, but I have Chem Lab, some Chemistry work with a serious deadline coming up soon and --- wait wait wait! I’m no longer a science major! I have time to do things I like! Wow…so after that hit me, I decide to look into it. I do tons and tons research on it, and I find out that I think I would love to be a Translator/Interpreter for Japanese/English. Sweet.
So, here I am, after all of that and after being a year in Japan, I am still just as excited then as I am now to know as much as I possibly can about the language. I might not be able to become the first doctor of the family, but I’m headed towards the first Japanese/English translator of the family and I think that’s just as spectacular damnit! lol
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Nothing too crazy has been going on recently. Pretty much everyone is waiting for summer vacation. Our summer break is this coming Friday, so my lesson plan has been a game and the winners get candy. They don’t really have to learn something with EVERY lesson plan I think. In any case, the teacher and I can relax in class while making it fun for students. Everyone wins.
I’m pretty excited for summer vacation. That means that I get to….go to work everyday and not have to do anything. “What the hell kind of summer vacation is that?” you ask? It’s a Japanese summer vacation! Even though there won’t be any classes, seeing as how it’s summer vacation, I still have to go into work. I, as well as every other teacher still have to go. You wouldn’t believe all the complaints I’ve heard from other teachers about that, and how it’s unfair and such. The idiot English teacher (the one that spoke about Korea’s snow) told me, “Well..we used to be able to go home when the students left, but now…the economy is getting worse…so now we’re forced to go into work.” What? That’s such stupid “logic.” Most people would say that going into work would be WORSE for the economy because working includes wasting more paper, ink, electricity, water, etc. Whoever “they” are, government or whatever, it’s clear that they’re making people go into work during summer vacation, simply because no one is going to riot, or cause trouble; they’re going to complain to other people in the same boat, while not really doing anything.
While it should be obvious that we have the those weeks off, however, it would be no different from any other day in which people run around, look busy and give everyone else the illusion of doing work. I see it everyday; I’ve seen it since last October. Yes, even during normal days, most teachers aren’t doing work, but they’ll pretend for the sake of surface compliments. 
How did I find that out, you ask? Well, about 5 different teachers have told me in the past 7 months. It would come unexpectedly simply because when I first got here, everyone seemed busy. Then I asked my former supervisor what’s he doing, then I got a, “Walking around and pretending to be busy.” What? Was he joking? Well….he doesn’t really have the best sense of humor so it’s a definite no. At first I thought, well, he’s only one person, it’s not like everyone else does no work. However, I noticed that if someone runs past me, after I wave and greet them; they would stop, and chat me up for like an hour! After a while, I’m like wait…wait…wait….if they’re so busy, how they can just stop whatever they're doing and talk me to for a full on hour about nothing? That’s odd. Doing that after a couple more times, and living here for more than 6 months, you quickly begin to realize that most people do that. Of course there are people who really do work and are tired after work and all, but the majority don’t feel actual exhaustion due to work.
You have to wonder: why is everyone pretending when everyone else MUST know that nobody is doing work? Clearly this happens all of the time, so there has to be a point where nobody is fooled by anyone’s antics. You would never hear it out loud though, mainly because no one wants to be the person who blows that whistle, out of fear of being ostracized. I won’t get into that; just know that it’s a big deal. 
They could just take a lot of vacation days during the summer vacation, right? No. Japanese teachers (I’m not sure about other professions) get 40 days of paid holiday and are supposed to use at least 20 days or lose them. Year after year, according to Japanese teachers here, most Japanese teachers don’t take more than like 8 days a year. So, they continue to let all of those vacation days go to waste. Why, you ask? Well, if they take too much vacation time, the other teachers will jealously gossip about that person and call them lazy and whatnot. That’s also the point of omiyage; the practice of giving a gift to the people that you left high and dry when you were on a business trip (hanging out) in Okinawa/Tokyo/Osaka, so you have to give a gift that apologizes to everyone else who had to take up the (non-existent) slack that you so heartlessly left to everyone else in your absence. It’s kind of like an apology and to let people know that you were thinking about them. Even that though, it’s a cultural norm and if you don’t give something, then you’re a despicable Japanese person. However, everyone else must already know that you HAVE to give a gift, even if you hate everyone in your office. So, where’s the genuine apology in that? I don’t know.
That teacher who takes all of that paid vacation will eventually be confronted by one of the teachers who “heard from other teachers” that he/she is taking too much vacation time.” It’s a bit ridiculous because it isn’t as though the people that are still at the school are even doing any work. Even going on actual Vice Principal sanctioned business trips still require you to give gifts, even though it probably wasn’t your choice to go where you went.
So it’s everyone being forced to go to work for some reason, not really doing work, but pretending very well and being envious of people who decide to use their vacation days so they can do something better with their time. Yeah…I don’t know either.