One of my cute students got in trouble a couple of weeks ago. She was sent in to my office since I’m in the guidance counselor office, I see and hear a lot of things. Other teachers don't know because they aren’t in the office, so that automatically means that it’s none of their business. Yeah, I don’t know either. So, the first grader (freshman) sits down at the table with her head down. I’m not really sure what’s going on yet so I just go about my business as usual. She’s kept there all day, having meetings with different teachers and having all of those teachers scold her, sometimes yell. So, I’m like “Oh no, she did something terrible. I hope she wasn't caught hanging around with older guys or caught smoking or something,” but I still didn’t know what happened.
I catch a telephone conversation about a boy freshman from our school who was called to a different office and scolded there. So a little bit is made clear, she was caught doing something with a boy. Oh no. I still don’t have the full picture though, but despite that, after a bunch of hours of that, her mother gets called in and now the same teachers have to speak with her mother and scold the kid again. By this time, she’s crying, I mean she’s a 14 year-old girl; it must be embarrassing to have your mother come in when you’ve been bad.
By this time I’m still not sure what happened but someone finally tells me the whole story. She was caught…hugging a boy, at 11pm, on a bridge that leads to the city. The 50 year-old head of the Agricultural department was out jogging, and he said that he saw them hugging. So……the next day he snitches on the kids. Like, really? So, I say that’s ridiculous. Yes, they should be at home at the time of night but they weren’t even focusing on the fact that it was late! The person who was talking to me told me, “That kind of behavior is inappropriate in Japan.” ……hugging people is inappropriate? Then he goes, “Well, if it was during the day time it wouldn’t be a big deal, but to be seen at night, with your school uniform on is very embarrassing for the school.” Not to mention, it wasn’t even a real hug! They were standing shoulder to shoulder, slightly turned into one another, holding forearms. So…she’s getting all this flack….for that?
But I mean, which is it? Is it the hugging or the fact that it was late? I can understand the time problem, but his main argument of why it was wrong was because of the hug. Whatever. Great job making her resent you guys. I think the main thing is that it’s not even about the students; it’s about how bad the school would look to other people outside. I mean, if it’s at 11pm, I really don’t think people care, not to mention, it’s quite dark out here at night so it would be kind of hard to guess where the student comes from based on the uniform. So this old dude sees them and snitches. Like…does he feel better about himself? Well I mean I shouldn’t even get on him because if it was anybody else, they would do the exact same thing and snitch. It’s a Japanese culture thing. I'll get back to you on how to say "Snitches get stitches" in Japanese lol.
After the parents came in, the teachers that were scolding her seemed even more agitated. Why, you ask? Well, the damn parents KNEW that the kids were out at night! They were well aware of that fact and gave them permission to go out and see each other! So…what the hell is the problem? That should be proof that it totally isn’t about these kids, but about how the school looks from the outside. The teachers even said, “The fact that the parents knew that the kids were out makes this even more problematic….” Why? I don’t know. It’s unjustifiable because of how it was carried out. So, that girl was brought here twice, both days she had long meetings, had her mom come in and started sobbing. I only saw the boy getting scolded ONCE, for 10 minutes, WITHOUT a parent. I brought that up to the same teacher who told me what happened, and he claimed that the boy is in a different room and he’s getting scolded there so they are both receiving the same treatment. Yeah, okay. Either way, they’re both just going to learn how to not get caught. All in all, it was a stupid situation and it seemed like they just created more problems with how they went about “teaching the kids a lesson.” Whatever.
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So….I got sick. I got sick in the first week of November, then two weeks went by before I got the flu. I’ve never gotten sick back to back before so it was a bit of a hassle when it happened not to mention I had Interview Tests to do for my kids so I needed to be there for preparation and the actual interview day. I had a Mid Year Seminar with the company that I got my job from and since this is my second year, I had to do a presentation. I didn’t really want to go, but it’s not optional -.-. So, I worked with a fellow ALT and put together a presentation for the new people here. I hope they learned something, but at the same time I’m not really sure what they needed. I made sure that they asked me questions, simply because after that day I won’t really see them so if I can give them any kind of information then I’ll try my best. I think it went alright…other than the fact that I got the flu from SOMEONE there -.-. I’m alright now though, so don’t worry XD.
Last week Monday was a “Labor Thanksgiving Day,” whatever that means since no one celebrates Thanksgiving, so I had a day off. Tuesday was a substitute holiday for my base school because of the Cultural Festival on Saturday, which I didn’t go to because I got sick. Sigh. I ended up taking one paid leave day on Wednesday because I still wasn’t feeling well enough to stand up for a total of 2 hours and talk without having a coughing fit. That night I got a phone call from the Vice Principal, which is a little weird….to be honest. Since he’s the one in charge of everyone’s paid vacation and such, it felt like I was in trouble or something lol. I mean I don't think the VP makes it a habit of calling teachers, but I guess I was a “special case.” He asked me how I was feeling, and then he just came out and said that I should take two more days off. In Japan if you have the flu, they believe that it takes 7 days for you to feel better and for you to no longer be contagious. It’s a little ridiculous since they count it right down to the first day that I started feeling symptoms, which was Friday night. However, I wasn’t going to argue with the VP, but I told him that I was feeling better and that I should be able to come in to work tomorrow. It was mainly because I didn’t want to have to take my paid vacation days because they think that I should stay home, but I really did think that I’d be alright!
I felt a little groggier than I thought I would, but I still felt well enough to go. So I go into work on Thursday with a mask on (-.-) because the VP told me to wear one. My supervisor comes in, sees me with a mask on, then freaks out lol. I told her that I was alright and not to worry because I told the VP that I was fine. It was like she didn’t even hear me because she told me that she was going to ask the VP if I can get sick leave for the rest of the week….really? Okay! You can ask him lol. Note that I didn’t ask her to go to the VP and request I take sick leave, it was her feeling quite paranoid about my flu because she sits right next to me. She comes back 5 minutes later, says that she got the “O.K.” from the VP and told me to go home. Well…..the last thing I would do is disagree with the VP and my supervisor………see ya! It was great! I still had a slight cough but everything else was fine, so it was a nice surprise even though I came in expecting to work. So I had two free days off because my supervisor didn’t want to get sick. Fine by me!
When I went back into work on Tuesday (remember I have a different school on Monday), I got a lot of the “Are you okay?” questions because I guess it got around that I got the flu. Thanks for asking and caring guys, but I feel fine. I had to meet with the VP and he told me that I have to write down that I took sick leave, everyone has to keep track of their own sick leave and paid leave. Sick leave is quite rare, but I managed to get it without asking for it. So the VP tells me to put me down on sick leave from the 21st to the 27th. I remembered that I took paid leave on the Wednesday of that week, but I guess it didn’t count. Great! It pays off to be a good ALT and rarely miss a day of work because everyone freaks out when something goes wrong. So, I had to play catch up, write two listening tests in one day, then plan for the remaining interview tests, while doing the recording for both listening tests. After the ALT seminar almost two weeks ago, and getting sick last week, it feels like I haven’t seen these people in a while. Ya know….it feels nice to be back.