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.
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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
The club scene is quite interesting. It's not similar to the states at all; it's more like a concert for DJs to show their skills and for people to dance individually while listening closely to the DJ. The party itself starts at like 10pm, but it’s not really jumping until around midnight. So we learned our lesson from the last one, and meet up with our friend in the city near McDonalds at around midnight, then we head towards the club. It was at a different place from the last one, it’s closer to the main part of the city. So we walk in, and it’s already packed. To the left is the bar and stools and to the right, it splits. To the right is a comfortable looking, decently sized lounge area where you can sit and drink before you dance. The other side is the actual dance floor. So we get some drinks and go to the lounge area. My friend Rie (pink earrings) brought one of her friends, Shouko and I wanted to get to know her better so we chat for a bit. She met Rie because they lived in the same area.
I knew there was going to be trouble when Rie told us that she thought the guy sitting next to her was hot. All of a sudden, me and Shouko share an evil look and at the moment, Japan and New York didn’t even matter; it became two girls that only wanted to see their friend get a boyfriend! So we start talking about different ways to get him to look over here, or even to get him to talk to us. So our idea was for me to ask the guy if he can take a picture of all four of us and chat him up afterwards lol. Keith was like “Haha…no. That doesn’t work with guys,” but what does he know? -.- It was all just harmless fun even though Rie’s friend REALLY did get up and was about to talk to him lol, I was like “naaahh...let’s give Rie a break lol….for now!”
After a couple more minutes of chatting, we decide to go dance. So I have to tell you; dancing hip-hop in Japan is not hip-hop dancing in the states…they all tend to line up at certain spots in the little dance room and sway to the beat. We’ve done this before so it wasn’t that ridiculous looking lol. So Keith and I get dragged to the front of the line-dance thing, and that wouldn’t be a big deal if Keith wasn’t half a foot taller than almost everyone else in there -.-…so clearly we’re sticking out more than we usually do. But even that wore off and once the party really got underway, it didn’t matter where anyone was. Our friend did his DJ thing, he's always quite good! He tends to do old school, early 90s hip-hop and rap. We figure that the music he DJs is the music that made him first get into hip-hop. After him, the guest DJ, DJ Soulja (lol), took it away at like 1am. I was pleasantly surprised! Most of his DJ-ing was old school reggae! It was nice to have my culture represented well, and not just for some fashion crap. It was great!
Unfortunately, the room was getting quite hot because it was a lot smaller than the other one. Also, after repeatedly getting surprised at how much good music our DJ friend knows, then getting even more surprised from the guest DJ’s music selection, some of the dancing from the guys ended up dying down because after a while he only played “girl music,” according to Keith. Then, we got quite tired. Not to mention after about like 2am, it wasn’t really music as much as it was just a lot of bass because we were so close to the speakers lol. So we left like 3 hours later, exhausted, thirsty, slightly deaf but happy. We had to walk home from the club since we don’t want to waste 20 bucks on a cab that we know can take a fast, cheaper way but WILL take the longest way, while pretending to not know where the teacher’s housing is. Whatever. It was about a 45 minute walk back, but it was alright since we had each other to talk to and we’ve done it plenty of times before. I was more concerned with the next one... :)
Normally I wouldn’t do such a small post, but I saw something amazing. Luckily Keith had his camera because I didn't have mine. After work I went to go meet him near the studio and we usually walk to the major city (it’s like 10 minutes on foot from the studio) to eat dinner there and play some arcade games. Normally this is never a big deal but today, wow……
We saw the Raccoon City Police Department S.T.A.R.S Truck!! Now for those of you who don’t know, it’s from a game called Resident Evil. Like an actual real live truck that’s literally straight out of a video game…I COULD NOT believe my eyes! When I first saw it, I was like “Heheh….that van kinda has the same name of the police department of a fictional place in America from the Resident Evil video game series…wouldn’t it be funny if that actually was it? Silly Ameri---WAIT! I’m in Japan! That’s real!” Now, usually I would act the same way everyone else does in public and hold myself in a calm and reserved manner, but when I saw that van, I just lost it! I was staring and pointing at the van and started blabbering in a mix of English and Japanese lol. Other Japanese people probably thought that I was looking at them, but I was looking right through them lol. A lot of them turned to see what I was looking at but they couldn’t find anything spectacular, again this all goes back to their not knowing common things about other subcultures.
I met Keith in the middle of a street and it was like nothing mattered for a couple seconds except for our shared amazement at this van! ….Just know that it’s a big deal lol.
I mean I know that Japan is scared of swine flu and all...but I don't know if it was a good idea to call on the S.T.A.R.S. team.
... Let's just hope they don't call on any pharmaceutical companies that like to mask their genetic engineering and biological weaponry with a cool logo and cosmetic products...
