Life

I just wrote a paragraph on things to complain about but I deleted it. I'm sure there's something more annoying than listening to people whine but I can't quite put my finger on it. How annoying. SO! Instead I'm going to answer a question sent to me by my pal Brendan. I like the idea of an online talkshow so I'll try to answer this to the best of my ability. He asks;

What's it really like being a teacher in Japan, and how did you cope with the fact of not initially knowing the language?

When I first arrived in Japan I thought I would try to brush up on the Japanese I learned in highschool. Turns out I didn't really remember a whole lot but I saw it as groundwork at least. I had some education in this language so at least I wasn't approaching this from ground zero. That is to say, I knew a little bit of the grammar and at least had a mind-set for the language. A girl I know came over to Japan the same time I did but with no knowledge of the language and she still hasn't picked it up very well. So I had a phrase book and a dictionary and I did my best. Trouble was/is - I teach English, I have many English speaking friends and I know enough Japanese to go shopping, order food, carry small conversations and so on. Which means sometimes I lack the motivation to learn more. I went to a Japanese language class last week though and it was good! It's free and it's on a Wednesday night so it's not like it's interfering with anything. What annoys me though is that Japanese people aren't as used to talking to foreigners as we are (obviously a gross over-generalisation there) but often I'll be trying to talk to Japanese people but they don't slow down or use simple language and it's hard for me! I should point out that I live right next door to my company's conversation school and so the Japanese people inside there speak English too. Which means if I have a bill, or a problem or something I don't understand then they can help me. They helped me get a phone and a bank account etc. So I do owe a lot of my happy living to them.

To answer the other question, what is teaching like in Japan... well it's nice! The pro's are that it's a lot of fun to interact with the students. I'm only considered an 'Assistant Language Teacher' so there's no pressure and I'm getting paid to have this interesting experience in two junior highschools that I love. The teachers are all friendly (if unwilling to try to speak English) and it's interesting for me to watch the students slowly become able to speak more English even though they don't particularly want to.

The con's are that often I'll have nothing to do at work. Indeed some would not think that this is a problem but it is. I can have entire days without classes if the students are having tests, and I only have this computer at one school which means if I'm at the other with no classes I get SO BORED! Usually I have around 4-5 classes a day which is fine for me as I can use the other time to correct work and think about making some stuff for future classes. Most days it's fine but some days like today (1 class) it can get a little tiresome. Also, as my Japanese ability isn't amazing it is sometimes difficult to communicate with the other teachers and although they're all lovely and respond when I speak to them in Japanese they're too nervous to start talking to me. I do believe that the conversation channels have opened significantly more than when I first arrived but there's still quite an obvious language barrier there. The English teachers are very kind though and they help me if I don't quite understand anyone but it's awkward to have to use them as a conduit to carry out conversations.

But on the flipside, if I was good at Japanese I would probably have been sent to an elementary school and I'm not really such a massive fan of children. So maybe I would be able to communicate with the teachers more but not be having as much fun at school. I'm happy with the situation as it is but I will try to work on improving my Japanese and talking to the teachers more as I think that is really my only con.

To REALLY answer the question; the hardest part about being a teacher is thinking of games for the students to play. Japanese students are quite reserved and don't respond well to games that Australians might. Getting them to stand up and do something generally doesn't go down well so instead things like group activities (trivia, drawing pictures etc) work the best. But there's only so many times I can do these sorts of things, so often I struggle to think of things to do. The job itself is generally pretty easy so the actual teaching component is quite easy. The other week the 2nd year English teacher was sick so I taught some lessons by myself and they went fine! I played some games (this time it was hangman and something else I don't remember), I made a worksheet and I explained it all in English. I couldn't explain it in Japanese but if they repeated back in Japanese what I said in English then I was able to say whether it was right or not. If that makes sense? It's like I wasn't able to properly form the sentences but I knew most of the words so if they said it back then I could confirm whether it was what I wanted to say or not.

In anycase, it went well I think.

So if anyone else has question then feel free to send them in. It's a stimulus to write blogs which I am needing now that things have really settled down. So until next time I suppose! Perhaps I can explain the story of the annoying car that I get stuck behind at least twice a week on the way to work. I hate that car.

kris.