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.
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I’m helping out another one of my students for the same competition. This one, however, she’s practicing for a different category. I’m not too sure if her category includes awards, though. She was selected by the teachers because she’s so good at English, but she secretly told me that she didn’t want to do the speech she has. I was shocked because…ya know… it’s her speech, so how could she possibly not want to do the one she picked? Oh..right…she didn’t pick it; one of the teachers gave it to her. Sigh. This is exactly why I try and make the students pick their own speeches because I mean based on her attitude, it’s clear that she would rather do a different one. Sigh.
So, it kind of showed when I would give her the same pointers as Kenta-kun (The Rockstar Cicada) and while he absorbed it, internalized it, and show me that he’s listening by using my corrections, Chisaka-san would make the same mistakes over and over again, at the same parts of her speech. Er….okay, but I’m just going to make the same corrections, while just explaining them in different ways. When teachers talk about whether or not a student is good English that usually just means that they do their English homework very well in comparison to other students. You would have never known if you heard her complain about how difficult the speech is, even though Kenta-kun has a much harder one, in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary level. At the same time, I can understand why she is not as excited about it, simply because the speech wasn’t her choice. 
She would constantly ask me how Kenta-kun is progressing and would ask how often he comes and practices she immediately gets all competitive and always goes, “Okay! I’ll do my best!” and work that much harder. I just don’t know why she doesn’t do the speech just for her own benefit lol..but I’m not going to knock her motivation. I can safely say that she’s doing a lot better than when we first started and she’s trying to break out of the “katakana” way of speaking English. Katakana English is just Japanesing English. It essentially used to make English words easier to pronounce for Japanese people, but I mean, they should pronounce it in the way it’s supposed to be pronounced. Every other language requires that you try to sound as natural as possible, not settling for pseudo-English. For example, “I love the view from here,” in Katakana English is, “Ah-ee rabu za byuu furamu hee-ya.” That’s not English!!!
........ I think I’m going to do a class on proper consonant and vowel pronunciation. Yeah, I’ll do that when school starts again. Now, I’m well aware that there are plenty of different ways to speak English, simply because there are so many different languages in the world. HOWEVER, most of those other countries more than likely insist on sounding as natural as possible. I know that most students write words out in katakana so it’d be easier for them to pronounce, but that isn’t how it should be. Why? Well, the Japanese language doesn’t distinguish l’s from r’s and b’s from v’s. Even their way of making the v sound is “bui.” What’s that!!! You know….I’m gonna stop here since this isn’t the main focus of this entry lol.
In any case! After she got tired from using so much English, we usually end up chatting. She’s quite bright and simply adorable (like most students at MY school ☺)! I asked her about her other schoolwork and how she has been doing. She’s always complaining about things being “too difficult” or “troublesome” but she has no choice but to do it. The students here have a lot of homework to do during the break…which would make sense if they didn’t have to come to school during summertime! She and the other students have an outrageous amount of school homework. She has to do about 10 pages of Japanese, 20 pages of English, 10 pages of Biology, and about 15 pages of math problems.…kinda makes your high school summer reading list seem like fun, doesn’t it? lol
I look at all the work she has to do and she tells me, quite honestly, that she hasn’t finished it, nor does she want to….like most high school kids. I sympathized with her, but she’s well aware of the fact that she will be tested on all of those subjects in the first week when she gets back, so she NEEDS to finish that work. Then she says, “Hey sensei! Since we’re speaking Japanese and you know so much kanji (-.-), me and everyone else thought that you must be some sort of a genius. You can LITERALLY do anything right?” I immediately get suspicious, but then I realize that she ACTUALLY thinks that because then she whips out her math homework and asks me to help her!
Wait, wait, wait. My being here is SO completely unrelated to your math homework lol. Not to mention, foreigners speaking Japanese DEFINITELY doesn’t make that foreigner a genius. Also, what does my speaking Japanese have to do with any mathematical knowledge?
So, after laughing, I explain that it’s likely that I have no idea how to do her difficult math proble--- wait! I looked at the problems and realized that, after drudging up what I can remember from high school, I can actually help her! It was only multiplying binomials, quadratic equations, linear equations and multiplying fractions. Phew! I was expecting some outrageous SAT like math, but it wasn’t bad.
Unfortunately, I don’t know much math related Japanese so I had to ask her some questions before I can actually help her. Her main issue though was that she makes little mistakes so while her work is correct, the final answer would be off. Also, she didn’t really seem to understand the fundamentals of multiplication and division. As in, she would know HOW to get to an answer, but couldn’t explain it to me. Like no, 25 over 25 is NOT zero and no you can’t divide anything by zero, a negative minus a negative is still negative, and the best way to do most of those problems is to remember that you’re searching to isolate the x. I also taught her FOIL for the binomials since they don’t use that method here. Why don’t they use that! After I helped her out with math, she tried to push Biology on me and I chuckled before pointing to the door, telling her to leave because it’s 1pm during the summer and she’s at school with her uniform on!!
I tried to break things down easily for her because she refuses to see her math teacher about it. I completely understand lol. He’s a jerk. I told her that she should get a group of her friends together and do math and science in a group. It’s the easiest way to properly do your work if one of your friends knows how to do it, right? She says that she’ll try and get them together, but she doesn’t know if they’d want to meet up just to study. Okay…lol. 
I remind her that it’s summer and how she’s still in her uniform, so she needs to go home, change, and go have fun somewhere. She agreed but she didn’t have any idea of where to go. I mention the giant amusement and games place that Keith and I always go to. It’s 10 minutes by bike from our school. It’s an awesome place to play the newest arcade games or do coin pusher, crane games and pachinko. One floor is completely dedicated to bowling, since apparently it’s gotten quite popular here. It also has a pay section in which you pay 10 dollars for 3 hours of arcade games and sports like rollerblading, golf, badminton, pool, basketball, darts, fishing (!), soccer, tennis, archery and they even have a batting cage with pitching practice at the top floor. They also have a relaxation and spa section where you can change into some slippers and sit down in an expensive massage chair with the other people in that room and just watch tv. There’s also a giant kids section where there are more of those awesome massage chairs for the parents. However… her eyes widen and she quickly shakes her head and freaks out, telling me, “No! No! No! That place is way too dangerous and scary! Tatum-sensei, do you really go there?! Aren’t you bothered by the people there and do scary people come up to you?” You know?.…I’m going to just leave that alone lol.
Well…of course not in a literal sense, but I’m preparing him for a speech contest in September. There are different sections of the speech contest, his is just a recitation, but he still competes with other students in his category. When he first came to me, though, it was quite awkward. Another teacher and I decided his speech. I mean at first the silly teacher was trying to force him to pick something from “An Inconvenient Truth,” and I frowned at her so hard! -.- Like what are you doing? That’s obviously her interest; forcing him to talk fiction about the environment won’t go over well with anybody, especially the JET judges. I tried to explain that his book is only meant to scare people like her by using sensational imagery, but then she misinterprets what I was trying to get at and said, “Yeah! It’s very sensational right? I mean he was able to gather so much information!” ….sigh. Anyway…no. No, I will not let you use one of our students to spread sensational environmental fiction. Just… no.
So then whenever I asked him what he wants to speak about, he’d just cock his head to the side with his head down so I won’t be able to see his face…..okay. Wtf do you want to speak about? lol It was so frustrating for me because HE’S the one that's going to be standing there in front of all those people when that day comes, so I don’t want to force a speech on him if he doesn’t want to do it. I’m not okay with picking something that I would think he likes. I want to know what he likes. He mentions Harry Potter and how he has most of those books in English so I said great! Then I tell him to pick his favorite section of any book, take a 3 minute passage from it then bring it in. Seems easy enough right?
Next day, he comes in with a sad face and lets me know that he couldn’t find something because he gets tired when he has to read all that English. lol…what? Well I can understand what he means because I get tired of reading Japanese newspapers. So he indirectly left it up to me and the other teacher. It just felt inherently wrong that another teacher and myself made this kind of decision for him, but he didn’t say anything! Sigh. It was clear that we had no choice in the matter, so we looked for something for him to do.
Some English books here have little passages in which you’re supposed to guess what or who the speaker is based on the speech. As I was flipping through the books, I found a story of cicada that’s a flirtatious rock star. It’s simply one of the cutest things I have ever read. It’s done so perfectly well! The cicada rock star brags about how he did the underground scene for a bunch of years, how he is in an intense competition with the other chump cicadas because they have the nerve to think they are rock stars, how he’s hot and that no one sings like he can. Of course you’ve noticed this by now, my student is nothing like that rock star cicada, but that’s what is so funny about it! 
He said it was too difficult, but then I pointed out that since he’s smart, there’ll be no trouble and that I’ll help him. When he first read it out loud to me, I realized that I had to turn him into a rock star cicada for a month and a half. I didn’t know if he even wanted to go that far, but then he told me that he really wants to win. So, I taught him “rock star” hand gestures and natural movements that coincide with his speech because I warned him that just standing there and reciting what he practiced isn’t going to win the judges over. I also helped him with his confidence and helping him give off the idea that he’s the best cicada on the planet. I explained that this rock star cicada is arrogant as hell, like most human ones, and he’d need to aggressively get that point across when the day comes.
Somehow we got into a conversation about music, then I started talking about Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and how he has the typical attitude of an arrogant rock star (without having any real talent), while the ACTUAL lead singer, Patrick Stumph, doesn’t embody a rock star at all. I mentioned it in passing, but then the next day he tells me that he really likes Fall Out Boy (!!) and he would like to hear more bands of the same genre that they are in. What the hell lol. Okay! Sweet! I think stuff like this is necessary though, to help him get into the mindset of a rock star cicada since the whole passage is written the first person view so clearly the speaker is the cicada. 
Then he asked me about accents and how singers with accents sound. I had him listen to The Klaxons and some of Corrine Bailey Rae because of how you can hear their accents when they sing. He wasn't able to pick up on it so I helped him out by pronouncing the differences in some of the words. He caught on quickly after that!
So, before I realized it, my cute student walked off with burned albums of Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco and My Chemical Romance while I’m sitting there wondering if I came on a bit too strong with the whole music thing. lol But it’s okay! He told me that it’s his favorite genre of music and it’d be “amazing” to hear it in English and it’d be good English practice for him. Oh…okay then. lol
He’s been progressing so well! It’s so obvious that he really enjoys what we’re doing and likes pretending to be a rock star cicada because he reads his lines with such confident arrogance! Lol I told him as long as he keeps his new found arrogance for the cicada, then he’ll be fine. The main problem that I’ve been helping him with is how to put emotion in his words since English isn’t spoken in a monotone, especially with a rock star cicada as well as how to pronounce certain words. I’m so glad that he’s taking this seriously; well then again of course he is because he signed up for it. 
It just makes me nervous because I know he really wants to win but we are an agricultural high school. There are a lot of academic high schools in where English is treated as serious business because most of the students in those schools are heading for college, and English knowledge is necessary for college entrance exams. So, there are students who already sound like native speakers and will have no trouble with consonants and vowels, but we can’t be pessimistic.
If he wins in his category, he gets to be in the news and that is the main reason for his hard work… just to be recognized. Well then damnit, if that’s what you want, I’ll try and make you as natural as I can! Stick with me kid, and I’ll make you into the most arrogant cicada rock star that the contest has ever seen! lol
Today was quite alright. The final exam is coming in a couple of weeks and it’s my job to do the listening section of the exam. Not a problem. I only had one team teaching class today, but if I have only one class that means that I’m sitting around for the rest of the day. I wouldn’t mind doing that, if I didn’t feel so guilty -.-. Some people like getting paid to do nothing, but it makes me feel like a fraud, not to mention I really don’t mind going to a class and being an assistant for 50 minutes. All I have to do is stand there and look foreign while helping out with pronunciation and telling them small differences about Japan and America.
A strange class that I have this year is the 1L class. The L classes are all girls. 1L, 2L and 3L are all girls because L stands for our equivalent of home and careers. I think the L stands for life…probably. So yeah, normally the L classes have the smartest and most energetic students in the school. However, this class is a little bit different. They’re just as smart as they’re expected to be, but…..they’re so….quiet. Now if you’ve been at a Japanese school, you’ll realize that Japanese girls are just like any other kind of girl; loud and borderline out of control when it comes to their noise making. I always look forward to L classes simply because I know it’s going to be a fun and engaging class where translation from the teacher is rarely even necessary because some students can translate for everyone else. This year’s 1L class clearly understand everything I’m saying, but….they’re unbelievably hesitant to say anything. Huh. Why the hell….
I think I figured it out though, seeing as how they’re just as…quiet…with every other teacher. The female JTE told me that she thinks that they’re all under a lot of pressure and they think that they have to be serious with every class, including English. That’s…actually quite great that they’re taking it seriously. However, they’re taking it to the point in where they don’t really practice speaking English because they’re afraid of making a mistake. Okay…that’s not too great but I see where they’re coming from. They still need to speak English…for ya know…. communication. So, we have to do something to get them just as energetic as any other class. That’s usually why if I don’t have any team teaching classes, I’ll go to the 1L class and assist in hope that they’ll be more inclined to use English if they see me at times where I don’t have to be there. So far it seems to be working and it’s gotten to the point where they’ll actually yell my name out and tell everyone that I’m coming, or I’ll get “Oooooooo….” If they see me walk in lol. Ah….it’s an adventure everyday.
Today starts my students’ Interview Test preparation. I’m completely in charge of it in how I make the questions, I create the grading system, I hold the interview test, then I grade the worksheets I make for them. It’s a nice little break from thinking of something to do for team teaching. Even after that, there’s another break since this test is followed by the final exam, so summer break is coming up. Well, next month anyway, but I see school in terms of two weeks so summer break is right around the corner. Why two weeks you ask? Well, since I have so many classes, I do one lesson plan for two weeks. So, I do a class once every two weeks in a rotation. Any given week, I’ll visit about 11 classes, so I’d have about 22 classes every two weeks. It’s quite the good set up.
Working with the teachers for the Interview Test tends to be a smooth venture. They know that they have to do a lot of explanation in Japanese alongside my English, so it’s almost always an easy class. The new guy, however, decides that he doesn’t want to do the Interview Test the same way I’ve been doing it since last year, with other teachers. Well, I mean, even in general, the guy doesn’t do anything; he just walks to the back, sits down (or lays back), and barely even gives Japanese translation. When he first got here, he said “In the class, I’m going to be student, too.” No. I’m sure some people are used to that, but it was a completely new experience to me. A teacher who doesn’t know what team teaching is about? Clearly he knows about it and has does it before because he’s an English teacher in Japan. I’ve been told from other teachers that it’s quite common for Academic School teachers to be lazy and not want to do much work and when they’re transferred to a new school where they HAVE to do work (mine, for instance). They don’t really like it and would rather sit in the back until class is over. Okay.
That’s quite stupid. You would think those that come from an academic school would be one of the best teachers, but if the kids are smart, you don’t have to do much work to begin with. In any case, I got that kind of guy this year. He did only a little bit of translation for the class… I hope he used enough for the kids because if they don’t do well, it’s his fault. The Interview Test works great with EVERY OTHER TEACHER because they understand the kids and how they need Japanese, unlike his other school, I’m sure. It’s just mind-boggling how he doesn't want to do work…which honestly for the classes, it is only translation because I’m the teacher and the teachers become the assistants. At first I didn't like that, but I know that the other teachers have my back so if it’s hard to explain something, they can take care of it, and I’m comfortable enough with the kids to do most of the talking, since most of it is about western culture anyway.
So, it all came to a head yesterday where he didn't do translation again, so I was like screw it, I taught in all Japanese. I know it’s a cop out, but if the kids don’t know what I’m saying, despite trying to explain in a bunch of different ways, and the degree-carrying JTE doesn’t want to do his job, I have to do his job for him. It worked out alright; I would honestly just rather use English, since that’s what I’m getting paid for.
Later in the day, he wanted to talk to me about the lesson. He said that he wants me to just go right into doing the activity and not explain anything because he will explain in Japanese. That’s great…that’ll make my life easier… why the hell didn’t he do that when I asked him before? Then I explain that I would like less of just “me” time and more “us” time. I meant I want him to stop going to the back of the classroom and just watching the class like some spectator. He’s a teacher. I explained that students could tell if the JTE and ALT are meshing well together. If they see that they are, I think they’ll be more inclined to listen, ESPECIALLY when the JTE can get off his ass and be kind enough to repeatedly ask questions to constantly check for understanding. It keeps them on their toes. If they get bombarded with English and no breaks in between, they’ll give up because there’s no way they can understand.
In any case, he also explains that he doesn't want to team teach; he wants me to just follow along with his plans when we go into the classroom. Fine by me. It takes a bit of load off of my shoulders that way, but it’s clear that was what he wanted from the beginning and he was being a jerk by passive aggressively sitting in the back and not giving translation. Then he had the nerve to apologize for not being able to do much (?) in the class. Um….how can you apologize to me for how you sat down and did nothing? Why didn’t you do anything? Well, whatever, it’s not a big deal anymore. At least he decided to finally be an adult about it so could we were able to clear some things up.
So we came to a pacifying agreement; he’ll teach and I’ll be the assistant. Hey! That doesn't sound too bad….lol
I love my students. Everyone sees them as terrible 15-18 year old monsters with no respect for adults and parents alike. I don’t see that. I see cute little faces that smile wide and run to me whenever they see me. Most of these kids are good kids, some of them are just misguided simply because some of these teachers don't know how to teach. That’s not alright. If I can’t be there for them in terms of education, I can be there for them in terms of chatting to them about video games (like FFVII, Tekken, Lost Odyssey and etc), or about arcade games that they should play but never have because of no time or club activity, or even something like what I’m going to order from McDonalds. The worst class in terms of behavior, had an interview test (that I always make) and when it was just me in the classroom by myself (!)…they were the cutest little angels. Even the worst of the bad kids! I mention how they’re so quiet as I’m standing there, and I get cute, awkward smiles and nods. Okay…lol
But then, when the Japanese teacher walks in, all of a sudden everyone starts acting foolish again. What the hell? I narrow my eyes and tell the teacher to leave again since they were being so good when she wasn’t there. She laughs but is clearly grateful because they treat her the worst, and didn’t need to be told twice. Clearly it’s some kind of psychological reaction to seeing a Japanese teacher; that their mouths just start running. When it’s just me however, that mechanism turns off and they become attentive, curious students. They always ask about my tongue ring and always want to see it. I show them with a serious disclaimer of “YOU CANNOT DO THIS, NOR DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS…RIGHT?” I get the nervous nods and show them, then it’s awkward catcalls from guys, and “whoa! Amazing!!” from girls. I always explain which direction the long needle went and do a hand motion of the long needle going through my tongue and even these “tough” guys, the kids with the worst behavior at the school, they all cringe so hard and go, “Uwwaaaaaa!!! Iyyaaaa! Noooo” lol. Weaklings.
Just walking by a classroom has my students going crazy and they wave and I even manage to wake the sleeping ones up. I’m so glad that I got good students; even the bad ones are quite good when they’re not in the school. When I mean bad, I mean bad as in Japanese standard. Those kids are not bad at all lol, just extra yapping in class, but that gets Japanese teachers angry. Compared to the states though, even the bad kids would be the good ones. Japanese marine high schools though…no no no, they’re definitely on par with American students in terms of behavior lol.
In any case, it’s true that I don’t see what the Japanese teachers see and how those students are downright terrible and verbally abusive, especially to the female teachers. It’s because it’s never happened to me, and if one student tries to test the water and pick on me, even if he’s joking, all of his friends hit him or call him names; they put him in line. Not me. 
In any case, I had classes today. I taught a group of 42 girls by myself. Sometimes I can’t believe that I did either, but I’ve taught by myself before. Now, normally you’re not supposed to, but I don’t mind because I like my kids. I’m able to teach by myself because of my knowledge of Japanese. If I didn’t know Japanese, then it would be impossible for me to communicate with them and help with translating the English, so the class would be a bit pointless. In any case, I went there, talked about the prom since it’s May, explained to them that a 16 year old girl and a 23 year old guy is illegal in New York (!) and made them sing that prom song by Hellogoodbye. I know what you’re focused on…it’s a big thing here. I’ll touch on that in another post.
I’ve heard plenty of stories of ALTs teaching classes by themselves and it ends up being a disaster. I was by myself and yet they weren’t rude, they were attentive and focused, something that I’m sure some of the other teachers don’t see. Of course there’s the extra chatty girl who will talk while I’m talking, and the only thing I have to do is just stop talking and look away. They get the picture quickly and tell the people talking “urusai,” which literally means annoying, but in this context they’re saying, “shut up,” so I don’t have to say it. Thanks guys!
When they see me on the street, they’re usually so excited to see me and I ask them how their day is going and what are they up to. They answer, get shocked when they see Keith, call him “hella cool” then walk (or run) away giggling. Then the next day at school, regardless of how tough they are, it’s always the same,”UUUWOO! Tatum! I saw you! You were..with boyfriend! Right? He’s cool!” I get that without fail lol. I’m happy that they feel so comfortable like that, but I don’t know how they are in other prefectures, but mine are great.
I'm doing a lesson plan on the prom for all of my students, so I showed everyone pictures of myself and Keith and my senior portrait (everyone freaked out, even teachers lol), and so I had my laptop open and a student gasps and points out my desktop background she yells out, "Final Fantasy!!!" lol I thought that was cute since most students don't know anything about video games...being into agriculture and all..so I understood. I was like "..clloooooooose...it's Kaim from Lost Odyssey..do you know Lost Odyssey?" It was close since the company that made Lost Odyssey, which is Mistwalker, has all the awesome folk from Squaresoft before the Enix merger and joined up with Microsoft to make that sick game. She shook her head, but even then I was pleasantly surprised that she knew about Final Fantasy. We start talking about Final Fantasy and she starts bragging about how she loves Kadaj from FFVII Advent Children lol. I'm impressed that she knows him. I, of course, call Kadaj a chump and declare that Sephiroth is way better. Then she scoffs at me and we get into a silly fangirl argument lol. She was like, "Eewww! Why Sephiroth?! He's creepy!" I feign irritation and tell her, "Whaaaaaaaat! Kadaj is lamer than lame! Sephiroth is way cooler and his hair is way nicer than all three of those wannabes!" Then we start giggling while everyone stares because they don't know what we're talking about. In Japan there's not much in terms of common knowledge things in terms of subcultures; if you don't follow it, then you don't know about it. She explains that she never saw FFVII Advent Children and I'm like "Whaaaat! You need to see that! Shall I make a DVD for you?" She starts jumping around like a normal fangirl, but then she starts bowing -.-, and I'm like "Alright, alright, settle down..." but I mean you get used to it lol. So I tell her to remember to get it from me on Tuesday.
So, I saw her on Tuesday and she came earlier than she was supposed to. I was pleasantly surprised but I had the movie for her. I explained to her about how to play it, and to just drag and drop since it's a data DVD. Then she asks me some more questions and I answer them, show her how to drag and drop again, since apparently she has a computer at home (which is rare in these parts....), so I told her there should be no problem with the movie. Then I told her that it's a bit illegal to be distributing the DVD (ya know..gotta set an example) and that she can take her time in watching it as many times as she likes, but she eventually has to return it. She bows a bunch of times, humbly accepts the DVD then like..hops out of the room or something. She seems happy lol.
For me it's just a regular day bonding with students, but the English teacher looks at me oddly and after asking about the illegal thing, pointed out how happy she is to see me talking to that girl. She explained that she's actually quite shy and never speaks without being spoken to and it's a very good thing that she so readily came up to me and had a nice chat with me. Well, that's cool. I didn't know that, but I mean, we had a common interest so I helped her out with something I knew about.
If I cannot stand the obnoxious teachers or get extremely homesick, all I have to do is just look into a classroom or look down a hallway to see the reason why I’m here in this school…and it makes me smile every time.
Most native speaking English teachers know that there is a serious problem with the way English is taught here. It doesn’t take that much time to realize it, especially when you’re in class and you say, “Hi guys!” to 2nd year high school students (that I have taught for a year by now) and they stare at you blankly to know that there is a problem. However, the problem isn’t with the students; it’s with the teachers. How are the some teachers, who don’t even seem to have interest in English themselves, are supposed to teach students a language that even they themselves don’t understand? I suppose it makes sense, since I hear all the time from my school’s Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs from now on) that either they “should have done something more interesting” or “yeah…it was either teaching English for a career or doing History as a career, haha!” and it’s this kind of attitude that doesn’t make it surprising that the kids are just as apathetic about as English as some teachers.
To them, unfortunately, English is just seen as another subject in school since English is mandatory in the country. So the people that are truly interested aren’t really allowed to shine amongst other students who don’t have an interest because for them (using something that most of us can relate to), it’d seem like the nerd who was a genius at Math and couldn’t wait to show off their skills. In Japan, that’s quite insulting and that person would be ostracized and mocked for seeming to do better than everyone else, so everyone kind of pretends to know less than they actually do, for fear of being isolated. This doesn’t really happen in my school though. Maybe for other subjects, but in English my students are always pleasantly surprised when one of their classmates can answer one of my questions and they always get some kind of praise or an applause.
Some other kids, however, simply do not have an interest in English and see no need for English because they will never leave Japan. Then there’s the other group that like English and the native speaker of English in the class, but don't understand 80% of what’s going on because of holes in their education. Those holes are glaringly apparent when they don’t know simple words that they should have learned in middle school. This is more my school.
Today for example, I played a game called Sentence Auction with a younger teacher. Sentence auction is when teams buy correct and incorrect sentences and of course go to the highest bidder if they believe the sentence to be true. Once the game got underway, they were quite bright and a lot of them were quite thrifty in dealing with their finances and most of them knew the correct sentences. Before that however, we had to do an explanation of course. The explanation took 20 minutes in a 50 minute class. The kids took about 5 minutes to break up into groups; so ONE part took 15 minutes. What part might that be you ask? It was the simple fact that NO STUDENT knew what the word “sentence” meant in Japanese. WHAT?! Second year students in high school who took 4 years of English before this, didn’t know what the word “sentence” meant? Coupled with this, the JTEs thought that using Japanese during our team teaching class was a waste and how the students won’t be able to listen to my English, so we should try and use ALL English in the class. That's a very noble, lofty, but ultimately naïve dream. However, reality dictates that my just speaking English to them won’t make something click in their brains, and all of a sudden they can absorb everything I’m saying. Proper PRIOR teaching is necessary for them to be able to grasp meanings.
Not to mention, I went to a JTE’s English class just to see how they teach… it’s ridiculous. She barely touched on grammar and during the class she would just say English words in a rapid pace while the students quickly repeated it. Then she had me just say the words fast and I felt like the biggest dunce ever, mainly because the kids just stopped repeating the words so it ended up me just saying random English words because it’s fun. This is the extent of the English “teaching” that goes on here? That wasn’t all. Afterwards, the Japanese teacher said a Japanese word and then I would say the English definition in a rapid pace again, then the students would repeat the English. That would have been alright…if there wasn’t 50 words including long phrases, like “the meeting begins at 10:35am,” or other words that are completely unrelated to each other. So then I stand there and I just think to myself that of course they’re not learning anything. Not to mention the whole lesson was taught in Japanese. That’s understandable, but then you can’t go around and do ALL English for a class that they’re constantly unprepared for. It just makes them dislike English, or slowly start to dislike English all the more. 
I think the JTEs believe that I only want Japanese in the class so I can do less work, but they’re so stupid because they continue to forget that it’s NOT ABOUT ME. It’s about the students that look at me like little lost kittens and puppies whom so desperately need Japanese, while I’m left to stand there awkwardly because it is NOT my job to give Japanese translation and the JTE look at me and seem to like watching me sink because they don’t provide Japanese translation. So all of this crap gets put on the shoulders of the powerless foreigner regardless of whose fault it truly is. The problem is maybe the teachers think that the lesson went well if we use all English but they’re so frustratingly oblivious to students quickly losing interest without Japanese because they DON’T UNDERSTAND and just end up chatting to the people next to them or start doing something else. So I get pissed off for the students because of these stupid teachers who are so focused on which language is being spoken, that they completely forget the students and that the main focus should be whether or not the students know what’s going on. It’s naïve to think that students won’t need Japanese all the time, especially if agricultural schools are known for having low-level English. Why is it so hard for JTEs, who also went through the same classes to figure that out?
Eventually though, when my simple English doesn’t do the trick, the JTEs would “take the reigns” decide to repeat what I said in English, as if it’s going to suddenly click for them (I’ve been saying the same thing for 10 minutes, if they didn’t get it 5 minutes ago, maybe you should try a different method). Then, they get to go through the same slight frustration of having students not understand you in the slightest. They’re completely unwilling to speak Japanese in the class, but you don't need the foreigner to tell you that it’s necessary since that’s been the same way they’ve been learning English since they started. During the lesson he asked them over and over again, “What is sentence in Japanese? Sentence. Sentence. Sentence. Seeeenn-teeeence,” as he points to the 10 sentences on the worksheet he goes, “THESE are sentences. What are they? Sentence. Sentence,” while he’s repeating that, I feel a sense of retribution in that I hope he understands that bringing in the native speaker once a week won’t suddenly make the students geniuses at English and it’s best to just do what you have been doing, and what you will continue to do when we’re not team teaching, which is…USE JAPANESE.
After a while, I saw him breakdown and saw clear frustration on his face, then he decided, after 15 minutes of precious time, to write the meaning of the word “sentence” in kanji. I mean, even I’d say that kanji wasn’t necessary; he could have just said it, but I think he was that frustrated that he didn’t even want to say anything. Oh well. He should have said it 15 minutes ago so we could have just moved on with the lesson, but if he wanted to learn the hard way, I was more than happy with letting him experience that and realize how impossible using English cold turkey is. JTEs simply have the most important job when it comes to team teaching since they are supposed to be the bridge of understanding between students and the foreign teacher. If only more of them felt that responsibility and weight and didn’t use English as a means to escape a “greater evil.” 
What’s even more frustrating about this is that he was the exact same guy who told me, ”Yeah...a lot of these kids are too stupid to realize simple things. A lot of them are slow. I have to speak slowly, even in Japanese, and sometimes even then they don't understand, haha! It’s sad,” despite this guy who said that he lived in the Washington D.C area for a year during study abroad, and yet still can’t understand simple English at regular speeds. Stfu. It’s a lot easier to blame the students and the foreign English teacher for your own pathetic shortcomings…maybe teaching the students the word “sentence” could be a nice start?
Well...it's been a whole day since I've switched to this room and I must tell you... I LOVE IT! It's such a huge difference in comparison with the other room I was at for 8 months. Everyone is younger, so everyone isn't so high strung, and some of them know a tiny bit of English and always try and speak it, and when they don't understand what I'm saying they'll come out and say, "Uh..sorry..I don't understand...." and just the overall atmosphere is a complete 180 degrees. I had assumed that every office is like that because I never stayed at any other office, but now I see that it's so unbelievably different! Everytime other teachers come into the office, they always tell me that it's such an oppressive atmosphere and they don't like coming into the office unless they have to get their mail and talk to the vice principal about something. I was in that office, but at least I was an okay distance from the vice principal, the ALT before me was actually at the desk closest to the v.p. so I'm so sure that he hated that desk.
In a previous post when I was talking about atmospheres, I mentioned that it was a slow day so the time just crawls by. In this office, time passes by so quickly! It's because I can actually have light-hearted conversations and joke around without feeling intense pressure from the vice principal. Another younger teacher that was in the office with me, ended up being moved to the same office I was and even he commented that he likes this office so much better. Other people even noticed our change from our switch and commented that "we look happier," I was a bit embarrassed because I didn't know I was so transparent, but then again it was the female Japanese teacher of English and she knows more than other people because I tell her. I actually look forward to going to my desk now, it's so great.
Also, the teacher that I used to sit next to, I saw him when I came back from lunch with teachers from my new office and we spoke for a bit. I asked him if he ate already and where his office is. He said yes and that his office is right next to mine and I should come visit. I said okay, goodbye and WALKED AWAY. You have no idea how good that feels! To be sitting next to a person, who puts pressure on you because the vice principal is watching, and having to be forced to listen to his close-minded drivel, it was great to be able to walk away, return to my desk and not have to see him OR the vice principal. I can regulate how often I see him until classes start, and that's great. I mean, he's serious about teaching English and we work well together when we're in class, but there's just too much of an age and culture barrier that makes communication a bit difficult sometimes.
In any case, class doesn't start for another week, and I don't think I'm going to be team teaching until after that week, so I have plenty of time to prepare for lessons, and I'm going to look forward to thinking of new ideas for students because of the support I get from the office.
I feel such a giant weight lifted from my shoulders once I walk into the office in the morning, and I'm going to try and make damn sure that I don't mess up this almost perfect arrangement.
Well...April 1st. The big day of yearly change. The day before, I found out that the teacher that I've been sitting next to for a year is getting his desk changed, and he's going to be the new homeroom teacher of a class. I gave him a clap and congratulated him and he shook his head and was like,"No, no, no. That's a bad thing. It's too much work being a homeroom teacher," then I chuckle a bit and point out that at least he'll be out of the stifling vice principal's office. He agreed, but he said it wasn't worth having extra loads of work and responsibility. He's right though, being a homeroom teacher means that you've essentially become the parent of 40 students. They have to make sure that they're eating right, they're not getting in fights, they're studying, etc. If they do a bad job and the student does something bad, the first person they're going to blame is the homeroom teacher, NOT the parents. That's why teachers always have to find out bad things first before parents. The homeroom teacher's responsibility was a bit exaggerated, but has it down in a drama and anime called "Gokusen," you should watch it.
So, I won't be around that guy anymore, which I'm quite happy about and won't miss. I mean, he had a bit of interesting things to say, but the fact that he believes such dumb things about Americans (as if Americans are only one ethnicity) despite meeting a bunch, doesn't make me want to talk to him now that we don't have to sit next to each other anymore. That's all well and good to me, because even he would put pressure on me because I was in the vice principal's office, so I'd get double of that on any given day. That's not the way I want to spend my time here in Japan, so I'm unbelievably happy for that change. So, I'll stick with my original desk, and wait for a new guy to come, and hope that he and the vice principal are nice guys. Then he randomly says to me, "Oh by the way...you might be moved to a new office," like what? oh thanks for the tip...will I or won't I? He said that he didn't know, but whatever. I'll find out eventually, like most things.
The problem with that office is that it's filled with old men who are stuck in their ways and think everyone is below them, Japanese women and younger Japanese men included. However, my desk and the decently sized cabinet behind me is filled with years old ALT crap, that it'd just be too much of a hassle to move. In any case, I wait for lunch time, like I usually do on days that nothing is going on, and as I'm about to leave for lunch the guy next to me finally says, "Oh...yeah you're going to be moved to a new office where two other teachers of English are." So, I was a bit shocked, and a little annoyed, not because I didn't want to move, but because I'd have to move all that crap by myself by the end of the day. So, I smile, nod and say okay, then leave for lunch. I come back and just sit around for a bit. Then I decide to move all that crap. I started at like 2:30, and as 3:30 hits, I realize that I might not be able to move this all in time. It wouldn't have been too much of a hassle, but I wasn't feeling well at all, so I was getting more and more annoyed about more of the crap I uncovered that was left from past ALTs.
Even while I'm packing up and stuff, one of the guys that I knew from last year (old guy of course) was talking to me and was explaining that it was nothing personal....but once the guy next to me leaves, no one else will be able to speak English...so he thought this was best and how I should come visit every now and again. I mean, it was obvious that it was ultimately his say in my switch because he's the head of the office when the vice principal isn't there, so I'm guessing he was feeling guilty. I didn't give a damn. Also, like yeah...being interrogated and talked down upon is my definition of fun...stfu. I was just concerned about getting all this crap moved in before I give up because of how I was feeling.
So while I'm standing there, glaring at all this crap, one of the new teachers come to me and offers to help. The first time I didn't take it (since you're not supposed to at first), but then he insisted so I pretended to reluctantly give in; it's a strange dance of insisting and denial, then finally accepting the help I wanted from the start...that's just how things work here. So I finally get help, with my very small basket, a long thin basket, and 10+ years worth of ALT crap. So I pack everything in the baskets and give him the heaviest things of course, and pretend to be amazed about how strong he is. I mean I appreciated the help and I thought he was just being nice...until I find out that he was helping me along BECAUSE he's taking my seat, lol that prick...but whatever, I ended up finishing my move by 3:50 and had enough time to sit around before I was able to go home.
Before that however, when I was still getting a bit more stuff together, the guy that I no longer sit next to is still there chatting away with the other old men, then he puts out a giant collection of English games and books, and he happily points out that those belong to me because they're for the ESL club and how I need to get those out. I calmly state that I have no space in my cabinets for anything else so he needs to do something about them, then I leave it at that. Then like 10 minutes later when I came back to take the last remaining stuff, while making sure everything is cleared out, the guy who decided that I was moving and get his reason why, finds MORE ALT related crap in a big cabinet on the other side of the office. Then the guy that I no longer sit next to, looks me and goes "Oh look, there's more things for you here to take with you," by now I'm still feeling really bad from running back and forth everywhere, and how it seems like every movement makes me feel even more terrible until I stop, and even up to that point they still talk down to me and say things in ways that they I won't understand, I understand perfectly and curtly reply,"...Didn't know about it, didn't know it was even there, never used it, not my problem," it gets chuckles out of the younger teachers that were there talking to the vice principal because they thought I was joking, but just like that giant collection of games, I left that shit right where it sat. Well, I got my new desk, in my new office, let's see how things work out.
Slow day today. I have no classes today and the Vice Principal isn't here, yay! I mean it's not only fun and exciting for me though. When the VP is here, the atmosphere is always quite stifling so I'm always leaving the room and doing something, whether it'd be talking to students or just dropping in random classes. It helps me out because I get to talk to students and I'm not in the room, and it wakes the students up because they get all excited when they see me coming. I remember the first time that the VP wasn't in the office, it was like two months ago...
Whenever you walk in to a room, you have to greet. Whether it's morning, afternoon, whatever, it brings attention to yourself so everyone knows you're here. The person who enters the room is the one who must greet everyone first, then wait for a response back, since that person is the one who's intruding...well okay maybe not intruding, but some people make it feel that way. Some people, after giving a greeting, are ignored. It has nothing to do with that teacher as a person, just if people in the office are too busy, or aren't paying attention, the person entering won't receive a greeting back. I mean the culture insists that you must say some kind of greeting when you walk in, so it sucks to not get a response back, according to Japanese people. There are about 8 regular teachers that are in my office (including the VP), but only like 4 or 5 would be in the office at one time, because of classes and stuff. So when I walk in and greet, only like 2 or so would say anything, and that's okay! As long as one person greets back, then it's acknowledged. When the VP is in the office, that's the norm. Only rarely have I gotten no response, but it doesn't really "hurt" as much as Japanese people describe when it happens to them. Sometimes I would walk in, and the VP wouldn't be at his desk, but there would be books open on his desk that shows that he was there, so that just means he's not in the office and he'll be back soon. So, imagine MY surprise when I walk in, VP's not there, no books out showing that he's there, and when I say my greeting, I get 7 voices at different sound levels greeting me back. So I'm like, okay, what the hell is going on and what's this strange atmosphere of relaxation and amiability? Only to find out that yes, the VP was on a business trip and won't be here for the rest of the day (Wednesday). I'm like, "Oh....(YES!!)," and just the way the teachers were when the VP wasn't there shows that they too feel this weight lifted off of them for 9 hours. This happens two more times in a row and those three days were three of the most relaxing days I've had at the job. The VP is important because he takes care of vacation days, so all teachers have to go to him, ask if it's okay if they can take nenkyuu, then withstand his stupid and unnecessary questions. I mean, it's not only me that thinks that! The Japanese teachers of English and even other teachers tell me all that time, "...he asks questions that make no sense and expect me to answer them," or "he complained that my kanji is too big," and other stuff like that. I mean he did that to me once.
I was getting Golloyds set up (you can send money from your Japanese account, to your home country's account, good stuff), and I needed to photocopy my passport. Most foreigners in Japan know that you have to carry your passport with you at all times, in case you're harassed by a police officer. If you're caught without a passport, the officers will chuckle and put you in jail. After living here for more than a month, you need to get a foreigner ID card and after you get that, you don't have to take your passport with you everywhere, because(of course) you CANNOT lose your passport. So, I had no classes, and it was quite the relaxed day so I wanted to hurry and finish the application. Although I don't think I had to ask him, I was told that I should ask him if I can go back to my apartment and pick up my passport. I don't feel as though I had to, simply because I wanted to do it during lunch time and whatever I do during lunchtime is my business. But anyway, I was told that I should, and I did. I go, "Hi. (while showing him the forms that are in Japanese) I need to complete this form to send money home (which is mad obvious because it's in Japanese, but you have to be specific), and my passport is in my apartment so may I please go get it?" This moron, "Why?" I go, "????....to send money home to my family....here it is on the application that I'm filling out right now that says that I need a copy of my passport." This guy, "Yes, I see that...but why?" I'm like, "???????????" I don't know what the hell he's talking about, it's quite simple really. Then he talks to one of the JTE's in Japanese about me, and obviously I understand him, he indirectly asked me why is my passport in my apartment. I indirectly answered that I don't have to bring my passport everywhere after I get my foreign ID card, if I lose my passport then I can't leave. You would think though, that someone who has dealt with other ALT's and must have for years would f***ing know that. Whatever. I still think I didn't have to ask him.
He's the annoying father figure of EVERYONE, even people slightly older, or the same age as he. It's due to his position of course, but he watches over everyone and jumps on their case if it seems like they're not doing work. He's the one that scolds students AND teachers, so teachers feel an extreme amount of pressure to do well and not be scolded, so I can only imagine how the teachers that are in this room feel. It's quite the position of power, perhaps TOO MUCH power.
So most people at the office have long since mastered the ability of looking busy without actually being busy. It's quite the thick veil, I mean I'm always fooled until I ask one question, and I end up getting speeches and history lessons, all the while thinking, "Yes...this is your fault...you shouldn't have asked about tangerines and Korean snow...." and just patiently wait until it's over before I smile, give a slight "thank you" nod and go back to doing something else. So when the VP comes back, it's back to that stifling atmosphere.
Today though, it's quite relaxed...people are laughing lol...like so. I can't sit in the office all day, despite that, so I'm going to go the crazy kid class since they're going to watch a movie..."You've Got Mail," ugh...I know, but the lady JTE here LOVES Meg Ryan...for whatever reason.
I've been here for 8 months now...it really doesn't feel like it though. The ALT position arranges it so new ALTs end up coming in during the 2nd semester of Japanese high schools, which is a little silly, but I think that convinces me that JET prefers recent college graduates. I arrived here in late July, early August after graduating from college in May. The new school year in Japan starts in April, there are 3 semesters and seniors graduate in March. So I got here during the 2nd semester, during the month long summer break that the students had. I'm not sure if it's ACTUALLY a summer break because there were still plenty of students coming because of their club activities.
The graduation date for high schools, Japan-wide, is March 1st. I've only known the seniors for about 7 months, but I've gotten to know all of them because this is such a small school. Of course they had their annoying moments; the "cool" ones who decide English isn't worth knowing so just sit there or just talk to their friends. Strangely enough though, it seems like the ones who are "bad" kids tend to be the ones who know more about Jamaica and reggae than just Bob Marley :-\.....
There were the girls that didn't really give a damn and would fall asleep, despite sitting in the front row...yeah...that's MAD rude lol, but it's okay; a giant book accidentally falling near their ears tend to clear that up quite easily. Even those girls though, would be incredibly chatty outside of class, in Japanese of course. One time, I ran into them at the arcade and those girls were dressed in very....I guess you can say provocative clothes, tight short dress, tights and thigh high boots with more than enough make-up. I'd look at them and go "Aahh! Where are the rest of your clothes??" in Japanese, of course, and I'd get, "Haha, sensei is soooo cute! Picture! Picture!!!" (No that's not me, it's a friend).
However, there were some students that were genuinely interested in learning English and would try and use it outside of class. Those tended to be the ones that wouldn't need Japanese translation and would translate for everybody else in class. At times I would speak Japanese to them outside of class and I'd get the not-oft heard "ENGLISH PLEASE" demand. Then I'd have to go "Okay okay.....if you want!" There's this one girl who is literally one of the cutest girls ever. She is sooo shy! She's only like 5 years younger than me since she graduated, but still! She participated in an English debate contest, in which those results REALLY pissed me the hell off.
A little about the debate contest: For whatever reason, the judges seemed to give points to high energy, not the difficulty of the piece that students choose. They also decide to give EVERYBODY praise and not give any actual constructive criticism, so the students would be left to wonder they received comments like, "Good energry! Wonderful speech!"... only to be in last place. The judges were other ALTs from different parts of Miyazaki. Also, you'd have some cheery girl who memorized the easiest English fairy tale ever (which was actually a Japanese story just translated into English), against two of MY students who actually picked substantial material. My male student picked one of Obama's speeches, and the cute girl picked an excerpt from Charlie and Chocolate Factory. They both struggled with some pronounciation, which is natural since it's a little difficult to get the English intonation while trying to pronounce "religion." In any case, the pieces didn't seem to matter, so I was quite bitter. I was and so was another ALT from Miyakonojo. She had her best student (all of her students have a higher level of English than my students because of the type of high school she has) memorize and act out a college level piece, and she didn't even place either, but whatever! That's how the (faulty) grading system works.
Also, in Japan, if you have a Japanese parent and a non-Japanese parent, you're called a "half." Yes, that's quite offensive since of course it's not supposed to be honoring the pairing. There were some kids who competed that had a non-Japanese parent, but it's a toss up. Some parents decide to not teach their children the language of the non-Japanese parent, while some do. However, the ones who do teach their children the language of the non-Japanese parent, whether it be English or not (I will talk about non-Japanese, English speaking people because of the English debate contest), clearly have an advantage over the students who don't hear and speak English at home. At the same time, there are some children who know zero English and struggle with consonant and vowel pronounciation like any other Japanese child there. So, is it unfair that those children, who are taught English at home, are allowed to compete and are almost guaranteed to win? I don't know. It can be said though, because some Japanese people are completely intolerant of a bi-racial child (When I say that, I'm referring to one parent being Japanese), being fluent in another language and knowing about another culture might be the only advantages they have when living here (unless they become a famous entertainer, singing, dancing, dramas, whatever).
Getting back to the topic at hand:
There were ups and downs, once time was drawing closer and they had their post high school plans figured out (out of 168, most of them are going straight to work, about 17 of them are going to college), most of them had some serious senoritis. Even the good ones that understood most of my English would just kind of...hang around...stare blankly at everything. Most of the teachers were shocked and angry at how the students acted, so I had to explain that this is quite common... worldwide, I'm sure.
So, you know, if the good kids had senioritis, the bad kids DEFINITELY had it and made my life slightly more difficult for 50 minutes. It was all in good fun though, I would call on them for answers and chuckle about how they didn't know anything. Fun stuff...
So fastforward to March 1st, typical long, drawn out speeches from random people, which had like, half of the people in the audience (kids, parents and teachers) knocked. Everyone must know by now that long speeches put people to sleep, but everyone does it...without fail. Even though the graduation felt unbelievably long, it was actually only like 1 and a half, 2 hours. It started at 10am. That's not TOO bad, but that was only because there are technically two graduation days. It's March 1st, and the day before. However the official graduation day, where parents come and people dress up, is March 1st. I CANNOT imagine what would happen if graduation happened only one day. ;-\
Once everyone woke up to sing some songs (one of the Japanese graduation songs is actually that "Auld Lang Syne" song that everyone sings for New Year's..I don't know either), it was the students' turn. The way this graduation goes is, they call out one student at a time, the student says, "Hai!" and stands up. Then one representative from that class goes up on stage and formally accepts a graduation certificate for the whole class, then everyone bows together and sits down. After 4 of those, during the last one, there was one student who was chosen for the WHOLE graduation class to go up on stage make a speech to everyone. That someone...was my cute, serious student from the English debate and from class. She goes up there, and her voice is so shaky when she talks because she's so nervous. It was a very nice speech about the good memories that she had being here...then as she was thanking parents and teachers and saying goodbye to her high school friends, her voice broke and she started crying as she was talking. I could not tell you, how that made me feel. Everyone in the room felt the emotion and sadness as she was talking, and some students were crying because she started as well. Once she returned back to her seat, the formal exit of the students started. While the students leave by class letter, you have to clap for about 10 minutes until it's over. I had to be one of the strong ones for students, but then I saw so many students and teachers, especially my best students crying and even some of the male teachers and students crying (one of them was my Obama speech guy), there was nothing I could do. Quite a few tears escaped, even though I didn't want them to. After that emotional scene, me and plenty of the other students were on the verge of tears for the whole day. Afterwards though, it was just joking around in a relaxed setting until the eventual parting.
After the graduation, you would think that they would leave since they've graduated right? Nope. The students had to return to class with parents and all the students were given individual official certificates of graduation and had to say a few words. Homeroom teachers are with the students for the whole year and they are regarded almost as parents to the students because the students are in school for so long. So it was understandable that the teachers getting extra emotional were the homeroom teachers. I went into all of the classes and took pictures, I didn't want to say anything because I was still near tears by then, so I just cracked some jokes during picture taking and went along to the next class.
I told the students who were in the English club (the 5 who were quite helpful during class and knew more English than most students) to find me so I can take pictures, and they pointed out that they wanted me to sign their yearbook. I didn't mind. The rest of the day though...was quite hectic. My camera died during picture taking so I had to bike back to my apartment during lunch time to get my charger, order some food along the way, and make sure to get back before they leave. They were going to leave at like 130, and lunch time started at like 12, so I didn't have that much time left. It was quite an exhausting day, to make the rest of it short though: I picked up the wrong USB charger, so I had to run all over the school to find the teacher who was in charge of the school digi camera. The "bad" kids kept on following me around because their "bad friends" wanted to meet me since they told them that I'm Jamaican. They followed me around just so they can say "BOB MARLEY!" but whatever. I got the food but I wasn't able to eat it for another 2 hours since I had to take all those pictures of the students and chat with their parents who were very adamant about meeting me and touching my hair. I already had food, but one of the parents "honorably offered" that I take her giant bento box. Some of you don't think that's a bad thing, BUT those of you that are here realize that it's a just another freakin' thing that I'm gonna have to properly recycle.
It was all worth it however, as I was walking down a hallway after I returned the camera, I ran into the girl from before who I told to find me. She was like "Hey! There you are! We're all waiting for you in your office!" I was like "Ooh crap", so then I had to run back to find that damn teacher again to get back the digi cam then run up to my office. There were a lot of students there, more than those that were in English Club of course because they all wanted me to sign my their books in English, I didn't mind. After I translated it for them, the ones from the English Club gave me hugs and wished me luck in the future. One of the last girls, her voice broke as she was saying goodbye to me and I was like "No, no no! Don't cry! If you cry, I'll cry! Don't do it!" as my voice was getting all shaky. Yeah, we both failed that... but overall, all of them, including the "bad" kids, were good kids and I hope they do well in the future.
All that happened before 2pm, so after the students finally went home, I found some of the other students, 2nd graders and 1st graders still hanging around for club activities. There's this 2nd grader duo, one plays the guitar and sings back up while the other sings. They performed for the cultural festival and decided to do an impromptu concert for the chicks. They attracted a giant group of adults and students. They're quite good! One girl started crying while they were singing..... yeah, I dunno either...I mean it's not like she won't see them like...tomorrow lol. Most of the 3rd graders who were still there stuck around just for the impromptu concert and everyone sat around until the singer was like "Alright....I'm done singing..." I left school normal time, around 4:15. The graduation was on Saturday and Sunday, I had a day off on Friday and had another one on Monday. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I saw my futon....sweet, sweet futon. :-)
It's interesting seeing the new students, and getting the "Omg it's a black girl!!!" stare, but I'll just do what I did when I first got here. That was a sad day, but then life moved on and in come the new wave of students. I have a feeling though, that this is going to be a good year.
I'm at an agricultural school in southern Kyushu. There are plenty of different kinds of Japanese schools. There's academic, which means that these kids are hard workers and going to go to college, so learning English is important for them because of standardized tests. There's agricultural which means the complete opposite. A very good majority of the students are not going to go to college and upon graduation from high school, they're eventually going to be taking over their parents' farms and other agricultural stuff. So with that logic, that means that some of them don't want to learn English, they don't feel as though they need to because they know that they're never going to leave Japan. However, compared to the students at the academic schools, they're a lot more..er...energetic, but I like that because it means that even if they get the question wrong, it's clear that they're listening to what I'm saying and I'm not getting frustrating blank stares. At the same time, there are plenty of good students at the agricultural high school that I'm sure are going to go to college and although they're a little shy, I still get responses from them.
At the sports festival, we had some visitors. First off, seeing as how I'm supposed to be fast, they had me run in the festival against the students. It was quite awkward at first, but I guess now in retrospect, I'm kind of glad I did it. Doing random things go a really long way here.
About those visitors though, they were agricultural school dropouts...think about that for a second. Drop outs of a school that for only a small percentage lead to college. They decided to come back during the festival and show off how "cool" they are. With their George Michael single hanging earring, to their freakin bright orange hair held back by a sparkly tiara headband. Not to mention sparkly hair clips and Hello Kitty paraphernalia (headbands, earrings, hair clips, etc). Yes they are male and no I am not making that up. They're making quite a uh...bold statement... but it's mainly because they're trying to stick it to the Japanese man by looking like the exact opposite of what's expected, in terms of hair color, having their eyebrows shaved off, manicures etc. But since they already dropped out, by that time it doesn't even matter anymore, does it?
I'm doing my first round as an ALT. Basically, I create lessons that are used for two weeks, and after the two weeks are up, I create a new lesson for the next two week cycle. So since Monday, I've been just doing the same self-introduction with slight changes to the lesson. After the introduction, I go up to each student individually and ask them their names and shake their hands. Before that, they're usually nervous and shy, but afterwards they seem to be more comfortable around me. In one class that I went to on Monday, I have all boys, and they're VERY...er.. energetic. It's quite strange to be receiving so many loud and awkward love confessions, or having random guys yell out "Bob Marley!" everytime they do something and I'm in the area. It's also quite strange when they see me, they automatically try to speak English, even if it makes no sense. It's quite easy to tell if they don't know what they're saying because the intonation is a little off. For example, if I were to walk by the classes with all boys, I tend to get greetings like, "Oh Yes! Oh Yes!" However, it's nice because some of the students who I thought weren't going to do any work, were interested in learning some English words. I also tend to get a bunch of girls telling me that I'm "kawaii" and how I should "keep smiling." It's really cute!
I think that most of the students would prefer someone that they can relate to, and when I talk to them about popular Japanese people and songs, they feel a connection and they'll be more likely to pay attention the class. So far, I have really good relationships with all the people in the office and with most of the students, the others, I haven't met yet.