Oh my word, I have a job?

The fun thing about teaching overseas is usually the funny things my students write on their papers.

Things like “My father, who likes cheese, makes me happy”. For a while, I kept track of every silly and hilarious non sequitur I came across but I soon realized that I would spend more time logging them than actually instructing.

I enjoy my job, although sometimes the slow months wear too slowly and I find myself frustrated at “the system”. It’s particularly tough because there is absolutely nothing I can do to change it or influence it.

However, as I’m sure anyone in the teaching profession will tell you, the students are what make the days of tedious grading, planning, and desk warming worth it. 

The current fad for school kids is to take photos like this, recreating an attack from the popular anime "Dragon Ball"

 I teach at 3 senior high schools in Saitama Prefecture. One is within walking distance from my apartment in Iwatsuki which is great for the snow days we had this spring. It focuses on International Culture, so there is a 3 year course dedicated to furthering internationalization. Additionally, there are more foreign-born and mixed raced students at this school.

My second school is a Commercial High School located a few stops down my train line. When the weather is nice I usually bike the 25 minutes or so to that school. Most of the students enter the workfield straight after graduation, so English isn’t necessarily a priority for them. They are all excellently behaved and the staff is quite laid back at that school. Plus, there is a friendly calico kitty that hangs out around the houses across the street from the school. Seeing her before or after class always cheers me up.

My third school is a standard, run of the mil high school. Most students don’t go on to university, but they don’t enter white collar jobs either. It’s the farthest away with a 20 minute train ride and then a 10 minute bicycle ride from the station. There isn’t much else except rice fields, a convenience store, and a few fast food joints around. This is the school I’ve had the most problems with during my time on JET; I am expected to come up with games and lesson plans without the aid of a computer or internet, some of the staff blatantly take advantage of having me in the classroom and don’t lift a finger to help or participate, and the communication so poor that I often have no idea what I’m walking in to.

This spring, the staff at the school shocked me by acting incredibly friendly and outgoing towards me. There is a new principal who likes to chat occasionally in English, and the art teacher and I have become friends. In fact, he encouraged me to come to the art club after school! So, for the first time in a long time, I am painting again. It’s so wonderful. I wish I was there more often!

Ladies and gentlemen, how we get to school. We fly.

Next up, Golden Week shenanigans! Or should I say Shanainigans…?