stupid, stupid timetabling

i’m surprised that i havent posted anything on school in a while. it’s probably because i’ve been trying to avoid whingeing about the same stuff too often.

for those who have an inkling of how free i am at work – guess what? i’m even more free this term after i got my new timetable. while time has been passing by a little bit quicker now that i’ve put in more effort into finding a job (heh), mondays are still kinda rough and depressing, as that’s when i get my schedule for the week and find out that once again i have nothing to do for the week.

i’m back at my "base school” everyday. besides me, there are 3 other ALTs who rotate being at the school. there are 2 of us on monday, tuesday and thursday, and 3 on wednesday and friday.

unfortunately the timetabling is ridiculous. when i first looked at my timetable, it seemed pretty good cos i had a good number of classes each day. then, i was told that 6 periods worth of classes that are on the timetable do not actually occur this term, as the students are focusing on grammar and other aspects besides english conversation.

okay then. so almost a third of my timetable has been struck off. then i realise that about half of the remainder are normal junior high classes that more often than not do not require my presence. i am therefore left with only 2 classes on monday, tuesday and thursday each, 1 on wednesday and none on friday that will definitely happen. that’s a grand total of 7 definite classes a week, and i’ve pretty much mostly been doing just this little since term began. urgh.

and what i don’t understand is why there are so many classes scheduled for junior high anyway. i looked at the ALTs’ timetables, and discovered that between us we have 18 junior high classes than mostly don’t require us (so far we’ve, in total, gone for about 6 classes in a week or less). 18 periods of class is about what one well-utilised ALT works in a week – with better planning, my school could have done with 1 less ALT who could have then be placed FULL TIME at another school that will better benefit from his or her presence.

moreover, further inspection reveals that each of the 6 junior high classes – we have only 2 in each grade – is scheduled to have an ALT in class THREE times a week. that’s plain ridiculous as they only have english 4 times a week! and most regular junior high schools students get an ALT at most once a week. no wonder we never get a chance to go into class because it’s plain impossible to accommodate an ALT that often. why bother to schedule us in then??

who was the person who did the timetabling? did he or she not consider basic facts? did this person pencil in our schedules for the sake of making it seem like the school is making good use of foreign talent? (my school is a newly set-up integrated junior and senior high school, and it’s apparently quite highly regarded in the city – or at least, the city has grand hopes for it.) how could the many people who have no doubt seen the schedules – given japanese bureaucracy it must have passed through a dozen desks – ever questioned if the school really needs that many ALTs?

it makes me so angry that something like this could occur. urgh.

最後、かも

if i were to name my favourite class, it would be the one with the junior high students in the language course in one of my schools. they have fantastic english, the JTE has excellent lessons, and the kids are generally eager to learn, genki and intelligent. the year 2s are a lot more talkative than their juniors, but hopefully the younger ones will be more willing to speak next year.

today, we had an impromptu speaking test where we asked the kids about what they did last weekend. we pose this question to them every week at the beginning of class, and they’re usually so reticent – the year 1s – that getting them to answer is like pulling teeth.

surprisingly, the test went extraordinarily well. i think i got the better half of the class too, but i was astounded by the comprehensive ability of some of them. for several, i was speaking at near natural speed, and one of the kids – admittedly one of the best in class – even understood what i meant by “signature dish”. these are 12 to 13 year old students, mind you; i know for a fact that their english is better than many of the senior high kids whom i teach. all of them were able to tell me what they did last weekend – in full sentences - and answer follow up questions on the topic, which makes me wonder what’s so difficult for them to just give one word answers when we do the same activity in class.

i’m fairly certain that we’ll still be in this school next term, though we’re still keeping our fingers crossed, but while waiting for their turn to take the test, the students were told to make thank you cards for the brit and i. this is what i love the most – haha – as it’s such a sweet gesture, never mind that the students don’t really have a choice in the matter. and japanese students unleash their creativity when told to make cards, drawings, etc, so the final products are always a joy to view.

for some reason, some of the kids found me funny. i’m not sure why, especially since i’m the fairly strait-laced one while the brit plays the clown. the year 2s especially, are always amused by his antics. plus i don’t recall the year 1 students ever being particularly amused by anything either of us have done in class, so that came as a surprise. one of them had also drawn a cute picture of me, and another kid apparently likes my smile! :D

~~幸せ~~

school, natural light and heat

today i’d like to write about 3 things that I don’t understand.

 

1. senior high school

i’m sure i’ve blogged before that students here have only half a day of school for the first and last week of each semester. what I don’t think i’ve mentioned is that at the end of the school year, senior high school students have no classes after their exams for that term. in other words, they have about 2.5 weeks off school before school officially closes for spring.

for senior high ALTs, this in turn means that after they’re done with marking of papers, if any*, they’ll have 2 entire weeks of no classes. depending on the policy of the contracting organisation, this could mean going to school as usual everyday with nothing to do except sit around from 8.30am to 4.15pm, while for some others it could mean going into the board of education and helping out – for a while – with administrative matters.

i have no idea what the reason behind this weird system of having the students off school for 2.5 weeks is.. after those weeks off, they have to come back to school for one morning to attend the closing ceremony. why not just close the school immediately after exams, since there’s no purpose in keeping it open anyway?

anyway – whinge whinge – that my school is a junior and senior high combined means that unlike other ALTs who teach senior high, i’m now working for junior high full time. this means going to school for perhaps 2 classes a day (where i’m not really necessary), and lovely, lovely English club after school.

*: i’ve never ever been asked to grade test papers, even though teachers are sometimes swamped with marking. usually it’s just ticking off the alphabetical choices, but i’m not sure why we’re never called upon to help. it would sure put us to better use than sitting around the office reading books or watching videos.

 

2. different sense of heat, or lack thereof

so, now that most other ALTs are more or less off school, and that we have to stay back for English club, we have taken to going into school later than usual, since we’re not needed anyway.

two other JTEs were in the ALT room – which is the english language room – when i came into school today, and the first thing that struck me was how WARM the room was. we usually have the heating on at 21 degrees, but it the teachers had set it to 23 degrees and our small room was like a sauna.

what occurred to me then was this: why are my teachers as comfortable in a 23 degree room as they are along the 10 degree (or less) corridors and classrooms, when i get chilled to my bones unless i throw on a jacket before exiting the ALT room? i’m ALWAYS shivering and hopping about when i make the short dash from the room to the toilet, and even the Brit does feel cold along the corridors and in class sometimes, but our teachers are fine!

what is their secret?

 

3. the dislike of  natural light

the second thing that struck me upon entering the ALT room was that the curtains, that are usually open, were drawn, and in place of the nice natural light that comes flooding in was the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights that we don’t switch on when it’s sunny like it was today.

the Brit first pointed this out to me long ago, but we’ve noticed that the lights in classrooms and along the corridors are always on, regardless of how bright and sunny it might be outside and thus rendering the lights unnecessary. what puzzles us too is how, upon entering a sufficiently lit classroom, teachers will sometimes immediately draw the curtains to block the natural light and THEN turn on the fluorescent lights.

why??

i personally like natural light very much. it’s more comfortable and that i can see the view outside makes me happy. on one particularly depressing afternoon – it was sunny and warm outside but we were stuck in the cold, drafty school – we walked into the classroom with its curtains drawn and all, and promptly went to open them. usually we dont interfere with that the teacher has done to the room, but we really couldnt take the harsh lighting that somehow made the classroom seem dull and lifeless that day.

sunlight is free, and should be utilised as much as possible. エコ, people, eco.

poem

My junior high students were made to write a Valentine’s Day poem for class, and this is my favourite, in its unedited form:

 

I love you more than anybody else

My feelings may change

But until than I love you

 

I love it because the teenage years are the times when you thought that love would last forever, but this kid apparently knows that it isn’t necessarily true. And the english is near perfect too!

The untold story

It’s a really slow day in school today, so I thought I’d put my time to better use by writing this up. Like I mentioned earlier here*, I don’t find my job that great at all. It’s nothing to do with the schools I’m in – the teachers are fantastic and the students I have are in general pretty cool. The main problem with my situation is that i don’t get much (any?) fulfilment from my job.

For starters, I don’t feel like I’m gaining much through my work. the tasks I do are simple – I basically just do what my JTE tells me to. My role is very much that of an assistant indeed. Some JETs plan lessons, draw up activities and essentially come up with the English language programme at their schools, but not in my case. My teachers will come to me with a lesson already planned – and they’re always pretty well drawn up lessons – so all I have to do is whatever’s already laid out in the plan.

And what’s in the lesson plan isn’t much either. It usually doesn’t go beyond me explaining things in simple English – which the JTE then will translate – or the JTE and I having an example conversation and having the students try to figure out what is going on. As I said, I’m very much an assistant, while the JTE takes the lead in most classes. It’s partly because the teacher’s whom I’ve worked with have really good English and don’t need much help in that aspect, and also because they have their own ideas as to what the want to do in a lesson or how they wish to carry it out. Sometimes I’ll be asked for ideas on games and activities, but it’s not that hard nor does it take up that much time.

One reason why some other JETs are able to be the main teacher in the class is also because they work at only 1 school and more or less teach English to all levels. Except for the first 2 terms, I’ve been working in more than 1 school per term, and my senior high classes aren’t just the general English classes – I’m in writing classes, English communication classes and so on. So the focus of the classes is different and the Japanese teachers themselves only teach 1 particular class. In that sense, it’s impossible for me to be the main teacher even if I were at my senior high school full time.

My work then is pretty much a no-brainer; things are easy and not much input nor effort is required of me. Some other ALTs get satisfaction from chatting with their students and so on, but I don’t see my kids that often – my school is big compared to other schools, or I’m in that school only 1 day a week and have classes back to back, so no chance to hang around to chat. Even if I saw them more often, I think I’m not enough of a novelty to inspire students to come and talk to me – being city kids, they’ve pretty much had ALTs throughout much of their school life and are used to us. I don’t even think they’re that eager to talk in English to begin with – even the Brit whom they’re always excited to see (tall, male, white and so on) doesn’t get anyone wanting to talk to him.

Club activities after school are a personal no-no; it’s already such a chore to be sitting in school with nothing work-related to occupy my time that i’m quite eager to head out every day. So I’m definitely not one of those ‘super JETs’.

Hence, I can’t find any scope to develop professionally in my job, as my capabilities aren’t stretched because so little is required of me, and the challenge I face is mainly to try to keep myself entertained and engaged during and outside of class. I am quite underworked in terms of the number of classes I teach too, mainly because lots of classes that I have scheduled never happen because the teacher needs to focus on teaching the syllabus and cant always accommodate ALT presence in the classes. Other permanent classes sometimes also don’t occur for some reason or another – 2 of my classes (4 periods in total as there’re 2 batches of students per class) only occur about 14 times in 2 terms, which is something like every other week? And I’m not even the least worked ALT among us; some of the others at my school – I think it’s my school in particular that’s slack – have less classes than I do, and another JET I know of elsewhere has even less classes than anyone else. But I am, indeed, very free timetable-wise.

It is possible to derive job fulfilment through others, for example, to feel a sense of achievement when you see your students mature and grow and improve at English. Unfortunately, that avenue isn’t available to me either! As mentioned above, I either see them too infrequently that don’t even quite have the chance to have a good gauge of their English abilities, or that they don’t have English classes often enough and hence cant improve. As we all know, languages need to be constantly reinforced for absorption; one 50 minute oral communication class once a week would achieve little, much less at the (in)frequency mine have their lessons.

I don’t feel like there’s enough time dedicated to English here. I don’t teach at an English-intensive high school where the students ‘major’ in English and have loads of English classes everyday and are super motivated to learn English. In some of those schools, the students spend about 1 to 2 periods each morning having everyday conversations with their ALT, and naturally are more comfortable using English and actually build up the ability to communicate in English too – just compare that to what my students get!

It doesn’t help either that English language education at high school level in Japan isn’t great. There’s lots written about teaching English in Japan around on the web and elsewhere, and the main criticisms are the emphasis on rote learning and reading rather than writing and speaking, having teachers with poor English teach students English, a focus towards university entrance examinations rather than acquiring the actual skill to use the language and so on.

All those are true, but I feel that English at junior high school level is a lot more effective than English at senior high school level. At least at junior high school, there’re set textbooks teaching a set level of English for a specific purpose – and students that graduate from junior high school generally attain a certain level of basic English understanding.

I feel however that things go downhill from there. I haven’t been involved much in the general English classes, as those I teach are the elective, additional classes taken by the students who are supposed to have a greater focus on language than others who focus on art or design and so on (goodness knows that’s not quite true, but never mind). I have seen, though, the books that are used for general English class, and the difficulty of the English used in them is astounding. It’s at a level way higher than the students’ actual level, as the aim is to make them pass their university entrance examinations, which are at a very high level of English too. So understanding those texts is basically achieved through having the teacher translate everything for them, and they copying the English text and Japanese translation into their notebooks.

What really gets to me though, is that there isn’t really a proper syllabus or path progression laid out for senior high school English. Lessons aren’t designed such that they build upon and reinforce knowledge already gained, but instead there seems to either be a huge gap between senior and junior high, or that they simply continue learning the same things over and over again. For example, I’ve done classes on giving directions to students in all 3 grades of high school. So they’re not really learning anything new.

Although you might argue that since my 3rd year students don’t seem much better at giving directions than my first year students, then perhaps the class is worth doing again. But you see, that shouldn’t be the case! Topics and classes that have been covered before should NOT have to be covered again, as the students are meant to have already acquired the vocabulary and expressions relevant to that lesson. For some reason, however, quite a lot of them are never quite able to distinguish between the question words – how what why where when – or things like “how long does it take” and so on in conversation, and I attribute that to not having enough practice. It’s fine if you’re teaching more advanced expressions and vocab in classes on the same topic, but we’re always starting from scratch almost.

Moving back however to there not being a proper syllabus or path progression for senior high, is that teachers teaching the same general English lesson to students in the same year can have completely different lesson plans. Back in the beginning when I first arrived, I taught in general English classes with 2 different teachers to 2nd year students, and they did completely different things. One more or less had a proper plan whereas the other did not, and basically went from one week to the next trying to think of some not-very-meaningful/useful game or activity to occupy class time. And I have no idea why the difference exists, or why they didn’t just pool resources.

Japan’s school system is also interesting in that students don’t really have to put in much effort in their senior high school life so long as they do enough to graduate – which is very little – and pass their university entrance examinations. So moving from 2nd year to 3rd year saw a stark difference in my students. Their English teachers changed from a really good one whom they liked to others whom they didn’t like as much (and perhaps weren’t so effective), and while their interest waned their English level dropped, as there was a lot less reinforcement occurring in class. They also started paying more attention to passing their university exams, and since the actual classes they attend are essentially unnecessary for graduation and university, not long after the beginning of their 3rd year already saw them sitting listlessly in class, sleeping, chatting with their friends, reading manga, playing with their phones or listening to music. And such are Japanese schools that such behaviour is allowed and not sternly reprimanded – I’ve been told that one of the reasons is because senior high school isn’t compulsory, so students have the right to be in class regardless of what they do and you cant chase them out or send them for disciplining.

the long and short of it is that my students arent getting any better in their english either, which is frustrating. they make the same grammatical and spelling mistakes over and over again in their writing, miss their articles all the time and even in their final year of senior high might still fail to begin a sentence with a capital letter or capitalise the beginning of names and places. gargh. junior high textbooks teach students that it’s ok to begin a sentence with “because”, and teach them uniquely Japanese expressions, like “My friends are my treasures” and “I enjoy TV” without the verb attached. In a way, my english too has been dumbed down somewhat, and i use the word “enjoy” a lot more, mainly because all of us here as ALTs hear it being bandied about all the time.

so… this has become more of a rant than anything else, but the good news is that i’m done now, i think. hurray.

 

*: thanks very much for all the comments and encouragement! I really appreciate those comments; it makes me feel like there’s some worth in me having my blog. Haha.

a week in the life of an ALT

i think i’ve broken my personal record this week by having only just ONE day of school.

to be fair, i work at the BOE every monday and tomorrow is our mid-year seminar, but still. my teacher for today’s school informed me late last night that classes have been cancelled because of swine flu*. friday is sports day for the senior high kids and excursion to nara for the junior high students, so it’s back at the BOE again.

i was checking through the journal forms of the other ALTs today, where we note down the classes we teach and other things we do for the school, like english club, lesson preparation, marking, etc. not surprisingly, the 4 of us at my main school are the least worked ALTs of all.

 

*: swine flu, by the way, is spreading again due to the colder weather. just last week the 2nd year junior high students had their classes cancelled because of it, and so many kids are wearing masks.

wednesdays are rubbish

it’s only my 3rd wednesday having to go to my other school, and already i’m starting to really hate the mornings.

firstly, i have to get up earlier than usual cos this school is much further away.

then, i have to make my way to the osaka loop line, which is always PACKED in the mornings. it’s really gross, cos you have to squeeze with other people early in the morning, and never fails to make me start the morning stressed.

as if that isnt enough, i also have to change trains at one of the major stations, so the platforms are full of people too.

and at the station where i get off, there’s only one staircase leading to the exit, which means there’s a bottleneck and it takes forever to get from platform to ticket gates.

after that, i go to school, where i’m the only ALT there and no one talks to me. that’s still ok, except that i also often end up being a human tape recorder in class, which makes for a very inspiring day indeed.

urgh.

bunkasai (school culture festival)

those who watch high school anime will know that there’s this thing called culture festival in japanese high schools, which forms the highlight of their school life. basically, it’s like a carnival day where students put up performances and  have interclass singing/dancing/etc competitions. there will also be food stalls, and the first years and second years will have class displays, such as games, haunted house and so on.

students usually put in a lot of effort into their bunkasai, although there didnt seem to be as much atmosphere this year as there was last year.

check out the pictures here on my facebook profile.

today

was a most eventful day. for some reason so many teachers wanted to discuss lessons, and me having to cycle all the way from school to the bank and back took a fair bit of time too.

i’m going home in dec/jan, and the SGD is so low now! or perhaps the yen is strong, but whatever.

much time was spent too, on recording my answers for the CLAIR translation and interpretation course. seriously, who these days still records to cassette tape? it’s such a huge hassle, and i had to go around the school finding a tape recorder that actually could do that well. and when i found one which another teacher had used before, i sat there for quite a while fiddling with the controls so that my recording could actually be heard, not to mention the time taken to rewind and playback to check the recording.

somehow, 2 drivers today also tried to knock me down by turning – dangerously! – when the ‘green man’ was on. that has to be one of the things that annoys me A LOT about japan, because all these idiots assume that just because the first batch of pedestrians have crossed, no other people would be using the crossing. i mean, cant you at least look both ways before driving?

ah ha, another thing that has been bugging me – classrooms with windows and doors wide open, yet with the aircon turned on. just about all the classrooms on the 4th floor in my school are like this, which is such a huge, huge waste of resources. and you have students complaining that they’re cold when the aircon is on, or students grumbling that they’re hot and stand up to lower the temperature while they’re in 3 layers of clothes in summer. or classrooms with the aircon set at 27, when simply opening the windows and doors would give you a nice, cool breeze that’s less than 27 degrees.

yet japanese keep talking about being “eco”, or environmentally friendly. pish pash.

* * *

on a happier note, the weather has cooled down – the nights are really cool and require a cardigan of some sort, and that basically applies when there’s no sun!

anyway, here are some pictures from outside my front door on a beautiful summer’s day. i’m glad the heat’s gone, but i know i’ll be miserable when winter arrives:

 

 

summer camp 2009

so most of the last 2 weeks were spent at english summer camps for the english-intensive high schools, and im kinda glad they’re over!

the thing about camps – or perhaps just the ones that i was at – are that they just go on forever. imagine your day starting at 7.30 in the morning and ending at 9.30pm, with the student’s hour-long bath time around 5pm as your only proper break throughout the day. it doesnt really matter that the things you do arent actually that taxing – in fact, it’s precisely because it’s so untaxing and mind-numbing that it’s difficult to get through it – it’s just that the day drags on!

the first camp i had was in nara, and the students had to interview me and make a poster on me. they are excellent artists, and of course what’s written down there has to be taken with a pinch (or two, or several) of salt:

this is a really good likeness, isnt it?:

on the last day, the students had some time in nara, where they were meant to act as tour guides. but in this case, they didnt, and were more focused on enjoying themselves. in fact, i’ve been to nara more times than any of my students – only 1 out of 10 of them had ever been to nara!

i like the deer in nara

the deer eat paper – pamphlets, magazines, etc – too, so watch out!:

and once they latch on, they dont let go.

we found this one in a ditch beside the main road:

and another that has a very weird left antler which curves forwards and out, rather than straight up – just compare the right and left ones!

the second camp was in kyoto, and we stayed at the Honnoji Kaikan opposite the Kyoto City Hall (or was it the prefectural hall?). In any case, the hotel had amazing food and service! they gave us a kyoto sweet for every night that we stayed over, with a hot water flask and packets of sencha and houjicha. the futons were laid out for us at night too, and the rooms are spacious. and futons comfortable! i think they paid 8000yen for 1 night and 2 meals, which is very reasonable.

especially when your dinners look like that:

how sumptuous! sashimi, tofu, fish, tempura, some seaweed thing, chawamushi, soup and some yam thingy that was exquisitely prepared. this is the tempura – its batter was amazing:

breakfasts were simpler, but still appeared in that form. they always came with some form of egg (omelette or onsen tamago, which is delicious japanese-style soft boiled egg), fish, tofu – that will be heated in its pot using a solid fuel tablet, seaweed, soup, rice, pickles. yum yum.

dinner on the second day was sukiyaki, which was amazing:

the picture is blur cos of the steam, but man it was sooooo good. i love sukiyaki because the broth is tasty, and the egg that you dip the meat and vegetables in enhances the flavour. we had extra stuff to cook too, so i ate way too much. in fact, i ate too much throughout that camp!:

those were huge plates of stuff – to be shared between 4 pple, but in my case, it was shared between 3. and there was also some katsuo salad, with 5 pieces of katsuo. so yummy – that stuif wasnt cheap either!

at least the food at that camp was really good, because that, and hanging out with the guys chatting in their room over drinky drinks (ie alcohol) at night were the two things that made it endurable.

oh, and on the last day, the school hired other private ALTs so that the students could break into even smaller groups to act as tour guides of kyoto, and oh my. those private ALTs reminded me of how i was last year, and made me realise how jaded i’ve been!

last year, i was really excited, extremely happy-sounding, and really made the effort to appear energetic, positive and interested. i tried so hard to engage the students in conversation and was really into learning about the job and all that, whereas this year i was happy to sit and eat my food without talking too much to anyone while listening in on the student’s (japanese) conversation.

it’s interesting too, that few of the other JETs in the city find what we do unchallenging. im not sure if i’ve ever mentioned this here before, but to put things very simply, life as an ALT is, in my opinion, very unchallenging. i have very little actual hours of work, and basically my job is to do as i’m told by the JTE. of course there’s room for input and suggestions, but that doesnt take too much either.

in essence, it’s very easy work and doesnt require much of you. some of the rest find communication difficult as their JTEs do not have that good a command of english and they cant always communicate with the students, but i dont really have that problem. but even then, the fact that we all that sheer amount of free time at work is what really gets to me and is difficult to deal with. i suppose it doesnt help that i feel underutilised, and that im not really developing in any way professionally, nor is my potential being stretched at all..

oh well. ganbarimasu this next year, and in the mean time i’ll develop myself in other ways!

just cause

there’s nothing really much going on lately – seems to be a perpetual state for me! – but here’s a post just cause i can..

i discovered last friday that that day was definitely my last day at the school as they dont have ALTs in the 2nd and 3rd term, when all the while i was under the impression that even though everyone was behaving as if it were really my last day, i’d most likely be back there next term too.

it was a good thing that i had prepared a small souvenir from singapore (merlion keychains, what else?) for the vice principal and my JTE.. i honestly had no clue that this school would only be for term 1, as the teachers in my other 2 schools all hope that i’ll be there again next term.

i’m quite glad that i wont be teaching at that school next semester actually. it’s not that it’s a bad school or anything of that sort. the situation is rather pleasant enough, just that things are rather boring and most of the time i serve as a human tape recorder reading out conversation, new words and new phrases and having the students repeat after me.

what’s more, the teacher also uses the actual tape recording, which happens to be the most awful recording ever. i have no idea who they got to record, but they sound extremely unnatural and exaggerated, and have the most annoying voices ever. even some of the students find the voices very odd and make fun of them!

i’ve been teaching quite a lot of junior high this term, and i’ve been finding it rather boring mainly cos of the nature of english at this level.. i’ve expressed my interest to teach at an english-intensive school, and while chances are low due to me being liason, at least with the fact that i wont be at this school next term, the possibility is a bit higher i hope?

snippets of school

my friday school is next to a park, and seems to be in a rather windy area as there's always a wind or draft of some sort in the corridors and classrooms. the windows of classrooms are also always open, and it was in the 3rd period today that i looked out of the window overlooking the park and was overcome by this sudden sense of calm. the students were doing their work and it was all quiet without; green and tranquil.

it was a similar sort of calm that i experienced yesterday, cycling along a side street from the supermarket in the early afternoon. for some reason, there was none of the buzz of children and their mothers or of office workers, and it was very peaceful.

* * * *

people in japan often form neat, long lines to board trains, and i always bring up this phenomenon whenever someone asks me what i found surprising about japan. as far as i know; of all the countries that i've been to and from talking to all the various JETs here - some of whom are very well travelled - japan is the only country where this occurs, but any japanese you mention this to will be extremely surprised that foreigners (might) find this surprising, as this is what's natural for them.

my teacher feels that this is something to be proud of, and asked what i thought about queuing to board trains in class. frankly, i do see its merits, but i certainly miss the mess of just standing around a train door; the 'strategising' of where's the best spot to place yourself so you can get through the doors first; the tingle of excitement when you've got your eyes on a seat, and the sense of satisfaction when you've actually got one*.

everything in japan is so orderly - at least on the surface, that is - and everyone so superficially polite that i cant remember when was the last time i tried rushing for a seat. i dont even bother to do so anyhow, since when you're in a line its pretty obvious that any of that would be a waste of time anyway.

maybe its the kiasu singaporean in me trying to assert itself, but writers to the forum pages always like to compare us to so-called 'more civilised societies' like the UK, and i have it on good authority that people push to enter trains in the UK too. the bottom line is, there's something about NOT queuing to board a train, and i dont really think that queuing is necessarily something to be proud of.

* * * *

chalk is a scourge that gets on everything, and students are surprisingly incapable of copying words from a blackboard accurately. 

* * * *

there's this teacher in my school who assists students with special needs, and she's this cute, petite lady. so it was somewhat surprising to see her today in a cardigan with prints of beetles, bees and cockroaches all over. wearing something like that probably indicates that she has an edge to her cuteness, which is nice, cos it makes her appear to have character, unlike quite a lot of her peers.

* * * *

my teacher also seems to be a rather interesting man. i suspect that he might be very funny in japanese, spewing dry one-liners, if the things he says to me in english are anything to go by. just today, i offered him some snacks which he declined, saying that he makes it a rule not to snack. when asked why, he gave me this:

"Your hobby is eating. My hobby is drinking. So I'm not interested in food."

what a gem :)

 

*: and the smugness when you've got one in a crowded train!

all in a day's work

my students were made to write a letter to me in class the other day, and one of the girls - whom i think easily has the best english in the level - wrote this which made me howl with laughter for a fair bit of time:

i'm actually very proud that she can use advanced grammar, like "i have heard". her english is excellent, and she's also the one who had a hand in this gem that made me lose it in class.

on an unrelated note, here's a picture of this amazing-looking dog i saw on the way back from work on wednesday:

its fur was so awesomely fluffy! :)

changes

so i just came back from a beautiful, relaxing, enjoyable week in okinawa last night, and went to the principals' meeting this morning.

its the first day of work in the new school year, and what happens at the principals' meeting is that all the osaka city JETs are given their school postings for the new term (and likely for the rest of the year; apparently there are few changes after this in the next 2 terms) and get to meet the teachers in charge at the schools they will be working in.

i dont think i've mentioned this before, but the JETs in the city are living in 3 different apartment complexes, and each apartment complex has a liason that 'looks after' the JETs in that complex. basically, those 3 liasons act as the go-between for the board of education and the JETs, help out with paperwork and admin duties at the BOE on mondays, chair the monday meeting and so on.

i've been elected liason for my apartment, which is nice because i get a variation in my responsibilities and job, but the unfortunate thing is that my schedule has changed! the brit is still at our school full-time, and i'm quite sure that it'd be the same if i werent liason. but since i'm liason, i'm only working there on tuesdays and thursdays, and have work at 2 different junior high schools on wednesdays and fridays each.

was quite disappointed when i found out about these changes actually. i really like working at my school and have developed a sort of relationship with the students i think, plus the fact that its so comfortable working there! our own private ALT room, being able to cycle to and fro from school, having nice teachers and being able to leave my stuff in school throughout the term, being able to wake up a bit later than the rest... one of the new schools i'm at is pretty far too! and i'm the only ALT at those 2 junior high schools, which means that while i had the brit to talk to in the past, now i have no one! it can be a wonderful opportunity to chat with the other teachers and get to know more japanese people, or can be an awful experience where i dont really talk to anyone in those 2 places at all.

sigh. i think i just dont handle change very well, and the cushy life i've had for the past 2 school terms didnt help i suppose. i think it means that this is the time i have to really put in effort at breaking out and interacting more with japanese people which is the aim of JET anyway and what almost every other JET has to deal with, rather than living in this little comfortable gaijin-bubble that being an osaka city JET has resulted in. at the moment i'm sort of afraid of what working in those 2 new schools would be. going to be teaching 3rd year junior high students in both schools; at least 3 classes in 1 school and 4 classes in the other. in fact, i'm really rather apprehensive of what's to come next week onwards!!!!!!!!!!!

:S :S :S

i need to be positive, and i need to be strong, and at the very worst i'll be whining A LOT. friends, beware!

Japanese Graduation Ceremonies

The students in the two schools that merged to form the current school that I work in seem to have wanted separate graduation ceremonies very much, which resulted in me sitting through 2 ceremonies today.

I'd always thought that Japanese graduation ceremonies are very formal and rather funeral in terms of the colours worn by the attendees. One of the JETs was sort of told off for wearing a pink tie to his school's graduation ceremony, so I was rather surprised to see male teachers wearing bright coloured ties. Even more surprising were the attire of some female teachers*: not only were some of them in suits that were not black (beige, blue, non-matching jacket and skirt/pants), quite a few of them werent wearing formal shirts or blouses inside their jackets (like polo-tees) or were even in collarless tops.

Apart from that, the ceremonies were rather formal indeed. The graduating batch filed into the hall after their entrance was announced by the emcee, and the national anthem was sung. Then, the homeroom teachers read out the names of all the students in their class, and students had to stand up when their names were called. This is only possible in Japan where schools are small - 2 classes and 4 classes of about 30-39 students for my 2 schools - as I cant imagine them doing the same thing back in my junior college where were about.. 20 classes at least? A representative from each class was given some certificate after that, although I didnt manage to find out what that was all about.

Next came the principal's address, after which the big shot guests were introduced, such as people from the PTA, ward representatives, board of directors, etc. A representative from the immediate batch of juniors then gave a speech addressed to the graduating seniors, followed by a speech from the representative of the graduating class that's addressed to the principal and school on stage. One of the schools sang a song after that - it apparently was a song of thanks to the teachers - but in both cases the school song followed, and then the ceremony came to an end.

It was actually rather short despite the speeches: probably about an hour or so? But oh my.. the first graduation ceremony was for the smaller school, and I think their small size mattered a lot to them, as both students who gave a speech brought up the fact that graduating means that there will be less people wearing the school uniform out on the streets, which made them really sad.

They also seemed to miss the old school building very much. I didnt manage to catch a lot of what the graduating student said in her speech, but I could make out enough to understand that a lot of it was her looking back on memories in the old school, and I think she spent some time taking the audience on a tour of her mental journey through the school building and all the time she spent there.

Both speeches by the students were very emotional; the graduating student was sniffling throughout her 15min speech, which made it somewhat difficult to concentrate! It was rather affecting to see them moved to tears by their speeches and touching too, to see the principal wiping away his tears when they spoke (the principal's speech was quite good too; and he sniffled a bit during his own speech).

That ceremony was somewhat depressing though, and I quite prefered the second ceremony, which happened to also be for the school whose students I teach. I dont know if the fact that this time, it was boys who made the speeches, but the students seemed more forward looking and optimistic about graduating and graduation. It was nice :)

I happened to meet a few of my students on the way home, and they're surprisingly not sad at all about graduating. I suppose it's reflected in how different their ceremony was from the other school - a lot of the graduating students were crying during the speeches - but I didnt expect them to have no sad feelings at all! I think they're really looking forward to post-high school life. One is going to be a hip-hop dancer, another is going for teacher training and the last is going to be a zookeeper. Some interesting fields there!

:)

*: The female teachers who are homeroom teachers of the graduating classes wore hakamas, which is a type of kimono that is usually worn by priestesses in shrines and looks like the korean hanbok.

school

thanks for the comments people! i fully emphatise with all the HY folks cos i was there once, but try to enjoy HY! it's the last time u'll ever have a class and u'll miss it when it's gone .... :(

and for the record, i have way too many clothes! evidence is here, and there're lots more pictures of me on facebook - taken by other people - where i'm not wearing paul frank.. haha. meanwhile, i will try to wear that tshirt even less often than i already do, and try to take more pictures when i'm not in that top.. heh.

anyhow, today was a slow day in school. i only had 1 lesson and The Brit was at the BOE, so i was ALL ALONE in our office. i actually survived surprisingly well, and it was pretty fruitful except for the bout of boredom which led to these pictures:

the view from my office window.. i have no idea what goes on in the building opposite, although i do see people entering that building and even going to the roof:

my office.. that's my desk you see on the left, with the TV and the door to one of the computer rooms in the background. The Brit's desk is on the left of mine..

we're in the english resource room, so it has lots of textbooks and stuff, as evident from the bookshelves here. in the background is the door to another of the computer rooms, and if you have sharp eyes you might spot our kettle and radio too.

i discovered that my handphone's camera has some functions that my fuji camera doesnt even have...

 

it also allows you to take pictures in aqua and green tones.. and here's the computer that we sit at to surf and read the news..

and it's always about time crawling slowly by when you're at work........................................................... dont get me wrong though. i do like my school!