Otsukaresama deshita. December 14, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Julie Gets Philosophical, Me Time.Tags: fall term, Japan, Japanese, Jyona33, pride, shopping, teachers, the cashier
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The title of today’s post is a phrase that the Japanese typically use to praise each other for a job well done. It’s a set phrase, and so you hear it a lot at the end of the work day or after someone finishes a particularly noteworthy task. If I understand it correctly, then it more or less translates to, “I see you as somebody who must be tired (because of the work that you did).” It’s also a phrase that one typically says to someone that they see (even if only for the moment) as superior to them; there are other phrases for those who you regard as socially below you.
(***A note to people who are searching blogs to find a way to respond when someone says “otsukaresama deshita” to you.***
I typically respond by thanking the person who said this to me. If they were also involved in whatever it was that I just finished, then I will often say it back to them (if they’re my equal or above me socially), or “gokurousama deshita” if they’re below me. I’m not sure if this is 100% what you should do, but it’s always worked for me and I don’t think that my coworkers find it strange.)
I’ve had it said to me before, but because of my social position relative to those around me (which is to say it’s pretty low), I tend to receive those other phrases. Today though, one of the cashiers at my local grocery store said it to me.
This cashier is an interesting individual for me to interact with. Jyona33 met him last summer when we went shopping together, and as since referred to him as “Julie’s Jailbait” in conversation. He says this because the cashier is a young man who has been known to go out of his way to help me while I shop (getting things off of high shelves for me, carrying my bags to my car, and so forth). Ergo, Jyona33 thinks that I’m the fanciful and distanced object of this young man’s affections. To add to the humor (as far as Jyona33 is concerned), the cashier is probably no more than eighteen years old. So, there you go. Jailbait.
I, however, prefer to think of him as simply being polite. I like this interpretation because it means that his treatment of me suggests that he doesn’t see me as being different from the other customers. That’s one thing that I’ve always enjoyed about interacting with him – he has never commented on my ethnicity and has never assumed that I can’t understand what he says to me. This isn’t to say that we chat at length (we don’t), but we do exchange the occasional pleasantry. And, in the act of doing so, it’s always just been that: pleasant. Friendly.
Normal.
Today, when I went to check out at the end of the day, he greeted with me with “Otsukaresama deshita.” The past few weeks have been so hectic and overwhelming, that hearing an acknowledgement of my efforts meant a lot to me.
I know you must be thinking, “Wait, Julie, how was his comment meaningful? He doesn’t know anything about your job, and he certainly hasn’t seen anything that you’ve produced over the last two weeks.” Indeed, you have a good point. How was this not just a meaningless greeting?
My thought process here is a little difficult to explain, but I’m going to try.
When I came to Japan, I think one of the most difficult things I had to deal with were the vast and steadfast stereotypes about my job and those who do it. There are good ALTs and bad ALTs, just as there are good teachers and bad teachers, good doctors and bad doctors, good bankers and bad bankers. Traditionally, though, I think that ALTs tend to be people who are looking to take time off from their regular lives in exchange for adventure and self discovery. I certainly don’t criticize this desire, or the need to fulfill it. It’s part of why I myself came here, afterall.
The difficulty with this, however, is that engaging in that kind of lifestyle isn’t always conducive to becoming a good teacher. (It’s hard to go to school festivals if you leave your town every weekend.) Additionally, this lifestyle creates certain perceptions that Japanese schools have of foreigners - perceptions are very difficult to change, especially if they are neutral to negative in tone. When I first came here, my schools were very polite, and to some degree welcoming, but they didn’t really expect much from me. They wanted me to show up for work, of course, and to fill in the hours productively, but they didn’t have hopes about me going to extra festivals or events, and they certainly didn’t envision me staying past 4:15 on weekdays. This isn’t to speak ill of the ALTs who came before me. My town has always enjoyed working with foreigners and I was welcomed under very positive circumstances.
But, when I started to do these things (like staying late after school), I feel that I was praised to an unnecessary degree. Things that I should have been doing because I felt they were part of my job, were seen as going above and beyond the call of duty by those around me. It was difficult, because all I wanted was to be seen as a part of the workforce – somebody who was here with a purpose, just as the other teachers were. Instead, it seemed as though The Celebrity was getting in the way of that, and my efforts to be a team player were still separating me from the rest of the members.
Over time, this has changed. Being here for almost four years and showing that I don’t expect praise or extra compensation for my efforts has ultimately given me the social position and lifestyle that I’ve wanted. When I ask to go to extra seminars or meetings, now, they don’t look at me as if I’m doing some kind of ALT-encore. They understand that I just want to learn more about how to be a good teacher. They understand this desire, they accept it, and they’re willing to support it. In the end, I don’t want to be special. I want to be helpful.
So, when the cashier (sorry Jyona33, I refuse to call him “My Jailbait”) greeted me with “Otsukaresame deshita,” it made me happy. I know I’ve been working hard, and so I’m free to say to myself, “Otsukaresama” whenever I want. It’s really not about specific validation. When I hear this phrase from him, I see it as a simple statement of acceptance.
It’s the end of the day, and to him I’m someone who must be tired (because of the work that I did). It’s a set phrase – a signal from him to me that acknowledges that I’m part of the rhythms of the day.
It’s a small way to let me know that he thinks I have a role here.
All my fears just fall away
When you are all I see
Branching out … September 1, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre.Tags: cleaning time, Evil Astroturf, fall term, hard work, Japan, Macho Man, Mary Sunshine, teachers
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To be honest, I had some anxiety about whether or not I would still be able to write these posts once the term started. Today was looking somewhat iffy for awhile; things were really busy at school and I had a lot of work that I had to bring home with me. Still, it looks as though the Muses were on our side tonight, because the work is done and I can now turn my attention to My Little Piece of Cyberspace.
Putting aside the whole “being overburdened with work at the last moment” situation that happened, I thoroughly enjoyed the first day back. From the minute that I got to school and saw The Boss stumble off of the bus and glare at my overly chipper greeting, to the moment that I left to visit my Board of Education, I was just excited to see the hallways full of life again.
I do have something specific that I feel the need to highlight – something that I will never, ever forget – but here are a few other tidbits from the day that are worth recalling:
~ SWINE FLU – my town has it. More specifically, one of my elementary school students has it. The entire school system is in a panic and I spent a significant part of the day listening to the school nurse talk about proper hand washing and the benefits of wearing face masks. In addition to hoping for the student’s swift recovery, I’m just happy I wasn’t the one to bring it into the area.
~ Like most middle schools, ours is having a problem with making the students follow the dress code. One issue is that they all refuse to tuck in their shirts. Another problem is that we keep having to talk to the girls about not rolling up their skirts. (They like short skirts, we like longer ones, and you wouldn’t believe the differences between student and teacher opinion on what qualifies as ”short.”) I saw Macho Man today with his pants sagging and his shirt not tucked in. When I called him on it, however, his response was to give me a salute and say, “No, Julie. I AM shirt.” Then he ran away.
~ I had long, interesting conversations with the following individuals: Mary Sunshine (of course), Sailor Moon, The JTE, The Awesome Vice Principal, and the Two Terrific Teachers. I also spent a few minutes around with The Whistler before cleaning time. (For some reason, we felt the need to follow each other around and mimic the other’s actions. It was quite cute.)
Oh, yes, and about cleaning time.
That’s where today’s main attraction comes from. It isn’t deep, it isn’t meaningful. It was just … well, you’ll see.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not (I don’t think that I have), but in Japan, the students clean their schools. I suppose if one attends an expensive, private institution then they may be excused from this task. As far as the public education system goes, however, janitors do not exist. Instead, everybody is assigned a specific area of the school and at some point in the day everyone takes about 15 to 20 minutes to clean it. This even happens in my elementary schools, with groups of students from each grade level rotating to different locations every day.
I like cleaning time, because it gives me a chance to get up and move around a little. I also like talking to the kids. I think that cleaning time is when I’ve had some of my best conversations with The Savant, seeing as how he HATES cleaning and thus is easily distracted from it.
We have a monthly rotation at the middle school, and since today was the first day of the month the students were all given new areas to clean. I spent a lot of time walking around and trying to find a place where I could be helpful.*
I eventually wandered into my school’s courtyard, which is really nothing more than a block of concrete with Astroturf in the middle. The task of the students in this area was to sweep up the leaves that had accumulated over the summer. Here, let me give you a visual:
(Okay, so working with computer paint programs is not my forte. Humor me.)
So, the green is the Evil Astroturf, the grey is the concrete, and the red are the leaves. They were scattered all over the courtyard – many in small, shattered pieces.
I could see that the kids had a job on their hands and so I decided to try to help them out. So, no problem, right? All I had to do was get a broom and go to it.
Well, perhaps normally this would not have been a problem. However, for some reason unknown to me, my school has chosen to use these brooms for cleaning the courtyard:
I don’t have the faintest idea WHY.You see that? An honest-to-God WITCH’S BROOM. Witch’s Broom. As in, I can see why all of the old stories and legends started up about these things being used for flying; there is no way on earth that they could POSSIBLY clean anything. Not only are the bristles scratchy and prone to snagging on delicate artifacts (like air), but they also BREAK. One spends almost as much time sweeping up broken bristle as one does sweeping up trying to sweep up dead leaves.
Now, if this isn’t bad enough, add in the aforementioned Evil Astroturf. Think of Velcro With Teeth. One doesn’t sweep leaves off of this material. No, one arranges for a diplomatic party to approach it bearing gifts and promises of plastic flowers in the spring time. If one proceeds through lengthy negotiations, four marriages between warring Astroturf mats in neighboring territories and a highly successful Cultural Exhibition where previous anti-Astroturf propaganda is burned upon a ceremonial pyre, then I think the Turf Authorities might be willing to free the leaf hostages. Maybe.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have my diplomatic team with me today. I just had the broom. Rolling up my sleeves, I went to it.
I believe this picture accurately captures my progress after fifteen minutes of sweeping:
Yes! I’d managed to break up even more leaves and scatter those parts around the Turf. The small pile in the corner was collected by scooping leaves off of some benches.
With five minutes left to go, I let my temper get the best of me and really put some muscle into it. I was not about to be beaten by dead foliage. This was the result of those efforts:
Yessir. Me, lying prostrate on the ground as the school decided to run an earthquake drill.
Julie: 0 Mother Nature: 2
Tomorrow, I do believe that I will be offering my cleaning services to the library.
*And that had students that I actually wanted to talk to.
“Call me insane, and I am proud to be.”
A farewell to summer… August 31, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Top Ten.Tags: baseball, beach, Characters, enkai, ice cream, Japan, Jyona33, last, Mary Sunshine, PoEM, Rocko, running, summer, table tennis, teachers, The Awesome Vice Principal, The Savant, Two Terrific Teachers
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Aaand, we’ve hit a benchmark in this blog. My first missed post!
Admittedly, when I started out writing this blog, I didn’t expect to be able to post every single day, but I did hope to come close. Unfortunately, illness happens, and I was curled up in bed on Sunday night, hoping for those oh, so sweet arms of Morpheus. Morpheus though, is a jealous companion, and he doesn’t like me blogging when he comes to visit. I tried to catch up this morning (when it was still technically Sunday in the United States), but my Muses are fickle and they prefer coming out to play in the evening.
So, Jealous Morpheus + Moody Muses = No 土日曜日 Recap.
And yet, because I didn’t go into work today, the sense of weekend has continued. I could go ahead and write about Saturday-Monday’s poignant memories, but I think I want to do something a little different. This is the last “last day of summer vacation” that I’m going to have in Japan, and I feel that this merits a special post.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you:
Julie’s Top 10 Moments of the Summer
10) Dinner with teachers from the Old Middle School
From the August 9th post.
This really was a spectacular dinner. I was sad that we didn’t have a chance to go out for karaoke, but it was still amazing. I miss working with these teachers, and having a chance to catch up with them, remember old times, talk about new developments, and listen to The PoEM is a special memory from this summer.
9) Stalking Supporting my middle school’s baseball team
I don’t think that I really wrote specifically about this (some of it happened before I started the blog), but I spent a lot of time this summer watching my middle school guys’ baseball practices, practice games, and real games. They lost the district championships early on in the season (I felt really bad for The Savant because he was the team captain and took it really hard), but the first and second years trained really hard for the rest of the summer. I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop as a team – especially after they get new members next spring!
8) Running
I actually started running around February of 2007, but I was only able to keep it up through last October. After that, the days got really short, my schedule got hectic, and I got shin splints. This summer, however, I really started to miss it, and after buying the proper footwear, I hit the pavement again. I’m glad I did – I think I function better with my daily dose of Zen.
7) Fish festival!
From the August 23rd post.
This was just fun. I mean, the fish was delicious, my elementary students were cute, the families were nice, the onigiri was fresh, and the ice cream was divine. I got to be a team player and enjoy a picnic. Really, what more could one ask for?
6) Eating that stupid fish eye
From the August 18th post.
I can’t in good conscience put this in my Top 5, because it was gross. To date, I still have not eaten the following: grapes, blueberries, olives, or corn. Still, it’s a badge of honor that I will proudly wear. (EWWWW.)
5) The Trip to Toba (aside from eating the fish eye)
This trip happened before the blog, but I did write about it in the August 18thpost. I appreciated the isolated-third-worldish-we-actually-WAIT-THREE-HOURS-for-a-boat feeling. I liked walking around the island with the Two Terrific Teachers, and I especially enjoyed the dessert that The Awesome Vice Principal got for me. Actually, I loved anything having to do with my middle school teachers this summer. We had a great time together.
4) Hiking the Kumano Kodo with Rocko
Described in the 土日曜日 Recap from August 16th/17th.
I like Rocko, and I like the Kumano Kodo, so this was pretty much solid win all around. Discussing philosophy and 90’s television shows while wandering around an ancient forest road to the top of a mountain is a great way to spend one’s morning. This was then followed by The Beach, and we all know how I feel about that.
3) Spending time with Mary Sunshine prior to the All Country Table Tennis Tournament
Anything involving Mary Sunshine has to make my Top 3. She is The Favorite after all. I think that we had some great conversations this summer, and I liked being able to share even a small part of her training and anticipation. She didn’t place very high at the nationals, but she told me that she learned a lot and that she’s even more determined to keep it up. She has some tournaments scheduled for the fall, and I can’t wait to see how she does.
2) The Beach!!
From the August 8th, August 9th, August 12th, August … you get the idea.
Sun, sand, water, an iPod, and delicious Japanese food. It’s no wonder that I went, like, fifteen times.
1) A visit from Jyona33
This was something else that happened before I started writing this blog. It also involves a character that you have not yet met. I give you:
Jyona33
This was an ALT in a nearby town a couple of years ago. We met when he was a second year ALT and I was just in my first year. Although our initial exchanges were awkward, our friendship soon bloomed and now he is one of The Best Friends.* He’s back in the States now, but we talk often and he schools me on All Things Japanese and the General Direction My Life Should Take. He’s a funny person.
Anyway, Jyona33 has been out of the country for awhile, and he came back to visit for about two weeks in mid-July. He stayed with me for the better part of a week and we had a rather fantastic time exploring our towns and just talking. I got to meet some new people, see some new places, and just enjoy the frequent use of the English language outside of the telephone conversations I have with people back home. I think that his visit really marked the beginning of the summer for me, and it set the tone for the rest of it.
So there we have it. 6 weeks. 10 memories. As far as I know, my last summer in Japan is at an end. I’m a little sad – it’s bittersweet, after all. Still, there are a lot of things on the horizon and I’m looking forward to seeing where this is all going to go.
*I would go further and refer to him as the wind beneath my wings, but that would embarrass him. Assuming he ever actually reads this blog as he’s been promising to do for weeks.
“Mysteria – the spirit arising
Eldritch cries from the hill
Mysteria – the fires are blazing”
Doctor, doctor, give me the news August 26, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre.Tags: Japan, medical stuff, summer, teachers
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First, some more sharing of Japanese culture:
I’m going to warn you ahead of time that this video is not for everyone. It’s a game show where contestants have to sit in a library and suffer in silence while they do (frequently) embarrassing and (usually) physically uncomfortable things to each other. (Think of it as Jackass taking place inside of a library.)
I was skeptical when I first heard about this show, but it’s strangely captivating. I don’t think that the actual torture-esque tasks are all that funny, but I find that watching the players as they try not to laugh is hilarious. The game show is from way back but my students were talking about it today and were all super nostalgic about it. Ergo, the link.
Oh, Japan.
And speaking of the Body Crack (if you made it that far in the video), today’s memory comes from this morning’s medical checkup!
In Japan, teachers are encouraged to have a yearly physical. The summer is usually a good time to do this, and my town arranges to have medical personnel gather at our convention hall for a day so that we can all go and have basic stuff checked out (chest x-ray, blood work, eyesight check, hearing check, etc.). I didn’t go my first two years, but last year My Japanese Sister went with me and I found it helpful. So, when I heard that they would be doing it again this year, I decided to sign up.
This year I was feeling more independent, so I left school at around ten and went to the hall on my own. I managed to get there when things were quiet, so I didn’t have to worry about my co-workers hearing my answers to questions about heart disease and colon cancer. Oh, yes, medical procedures in Japan are quite public.
I discovered this fact not long after I first arrived. I guess I’d been in the country for about two weeks when I developed a really bad ear infection. I talked to my Board of Education about it and they arranged for a doctor in a nearby town to take a look. It turns out that I’d scratched the inside of my ear with a Q-tip and the wound had become infected. After chastising me about improperly cleaning my ears (which was surprisingly effective despite me not being able to understand most of what he was saying), he sent me back into the waiting room while the receptionist drew up my bill. About a minute later he came back out, dragging a teenage girl behind him. It turns out that she had the same problem that I did, and he chose to sit both of us down together and give us a lecture on proper ear hygiene.
These are the kinds of stories that would make HIPPA cry. As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as HIPPA in Japan.
So, taking this into consideration, I wasn’t surprised last year when I first saw the examination setup in the convention hall. The layout of the main room is such that there are tables where the examiners sit, chairs in front of the tables for those being examined, and then chairs in the middle of the room for those waiting their turn. Yes, that’s right – everybody gets to watch everybody else get their height and weight measured, their eyes checked, their hearing checked, and their blood taken. Nice.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that you come into the room carrying a paper cup of your own urine (which is more than slightly awkward if, say, your school’s principal is watching you).
After you finish with these basic examinations, then you get to scoot on over to another room, where they do an EKG and listen to your heart. Luckily, all of that takes place behind curtains so at least you’re not visual entertainment for the other examinees. All of the conversation is quite audible, though, so don’t think they’ve forgotten the “Let’s ask and let everybody bear witness” policy. -_-;;;
The checkup ends with a short trip to a bus outside of the hall where they do a chest x-ray. I’m not sure exactly what they’re looking for, but tuberculosis is part of it.
Today’s medical examination went pretty much the way that I described it above, but there was a noteworthy fifteen minutes that I know will stay with me. It was lighthearted and fun – not the kind of thing one expects during a public medical evaluation.
Because I did the examination last year, the form that I was using this year had last year’s information on it. As such, when I went and had my weight checked, the nurse immediately noticed and joyfully informed me that I’d lost about 6kg. Since I was the only one in the room (and, well, I am a celebrity), everybody heard this news and began to applaud.
I am not joking.
CLAPPING AND CHEERING.
My Embarrassment Levels were quite high, but the room wasn’t done with me yet. Now we were really interested. Everyone wanted to know: How did I do it? Was I exercising more? How much sleep did I get? What was my diet like? Was this a consequence of moving to Japan? Can I find clothes in Japan? What is American food like anyway?
Yessir. My medical exam turned into a personal interview. I felt like Jennifer Aniston on the cover of People, and resisted the urge to say something ridiculous like: “I’ve lost weight because I’ve been doing the leek and kumquat omelet diet! All leek and kumquat omelets all day! No rice – just leeks and kumquats!”
Still, this was an opportunity to have one of those Good Celebrity days, so I had a lot of fun with them. I told the nurses that I was addicted to chocolate and that over the last year I’d managed to get control of the problem. This was something that they could all empathize with, and we laughed about it while I went through my tests. Before I left, one of the nurses perfectly summed up our conversation with the following:
“A woman’s love for chocolate has nothing to do with culture – it’s simply universal.”
Wow.I went for a medical checkup and found celebrity and universal truth.
Not bad, Japan. Not bad at all.
“I got that experience
No one could steal away.”
Learning what I don’t know August 25, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Japanese GET.Tags: Japan, Japanese, pride, Stevie Wonder, summer, teachers, The Japanese Best Friend, The Mentor, Two Terrific Teachers
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Boys and girls, today’s post is brought to you by the emotion: humility.
For that was the theme of the day. Or, at least, that’s the theme that ran rampant through what has declared itself to be today’s memory. I think that it’s good to remember the challenges along with the triumphs and the amusements, though, so here we go.
Today, I only had one goal as far as my job was concerned: research and create a fantastic slide show based on the Life and Achievements of Stevie Wonder. You might remember from an earlier post that the third years are currently studying him in English class. (Macho Man was particularly interested in We Are the World.) So, to supplement the textbook (and perhaps inspired by a slide show that I showed the second years showcasing the exciting and scintillating side of England), The JTE has asked that I make one about Stevie Wonder as well.
So, that was the goal – slide show.
I actually managed to make significant progress this morning, but while I was eating lunch, my day got completely hijacked.
You see, on Thursday, all of the teachers in my district are going to get together for a meeting. There will be a general lecture that all of the teachers will attend, and then they’ll split up into smaller groups and have subject-related discussions (English teachers with English teachers, science teachers with science teachers, etc.).* This is not the kind of thing that ALTs have to go to. In fact, I would wager that fewer than 50 ALTs ever have expressed interest in attending such a thing. When she was my JTE, The Japanese Best Friend always encouraged me to escape and embrace my freedom whenever these sorts of events came up. Her words were something to the effect of, “For God sake, go shopping. At least one of us can.”
But, I have to be honest – I want to go to the meeting. Not only is it interesting (I like hearing about the Japanese philosophy of teaching – at least the parts of it that I can understand), but it’s also helpful to my job because I can hear about what the other language teachers are concerned about. This helps me to plan better middle school activities and gives me some things to think about as far as the elementary schools go. Also, I just think that as a future educator myself (upon my return to the United States and completion of graduate school…), it’s good for me to get as much exposure to instructional theory as possible.
So, yesterday I broached the subject with The JTE. She was really surprised that I wanted to go and it took several minutes to convince her that I was actually serious. Lucky for me, my middle school is used to my eccentricities, and all I have to do is say the magical phrase, “This helps me with elementary school lessons,” and they’ll pretty much agree to anything. (My middle school knows how much the elementary schools take out of me.) After a few awkward yet productive phone calls, it was all set up. On Thursday I, too, will get to go and get schooled on, uh, school.
So, back to lunchtime today. I was sitting at my computer, trying to figure out if there was any way to include Eddie Murphy’s standup routine on Stevie Wonder in my presentation** when one of the Two Terrific Teachers came by with a folder for me. Inside was a stack of reports.
“For your Japanese studies,” he told me with a smile. I could barely nod – all of my attention was taken up by the prospect of going through the reports. Gingerly pulling them out of the folder, I saw that there were about thirteen different reports, each from one of the higher ranking English teachers at each school in my district. This was particularly interesting for me because elementary schools were included. Flipping through the reports, I found one that The Mentor had written regarding the English program at the Thursday elementary school.
Why, faith and begorrah! I chanced upon feedback and opinions.
In my position, it’s always not easy to know what my supervisors or coworkers think of me. I’ve been here long enough so that I can … usually … tell if they’re happy with me, but the Japanese are very good at hiding their emotions and I’ve been blindsided with criticism more than once. The elementary schools are particularly difficult for me to judge, and so seeing this report was literally like discovering Gatorade in the desert. I say Gatorade because it’s not quite what I would like to find if I were lost in a desert (I’d prefer water because I just like it more). This is to say that I would prefer direct communication from my coworkers (especially The Mentor). But, beggars can’t be choosers and I’m willing to take what I can get.
The rest of the afternoon (read: four and a half hours) was then dedicated to reading this report. It’s only two pages long, and if I casually peruse it than I can get the gist of what The Mentor is saying. Since relocating to this country, however, I often have found that the Written Word is a Foreigner’s Friend. You can take as much time as you want trying to figure out the meaning of the words, nobody expects an immediate answer from you, and the grammatical patterns used tend to be more formal. Additionally, since the foreign language we happen to be working with here is Japanese, reading also gives me a chance to practice kanji. Thus, it was in my best interests that I thoroughly examine the report.
This is where the humility comes in. Four and a half hours for two pages, and I’m still not finished with it. Part of this is because I insisted on writing my own translation of the document and that’s hard enough to do when I’m trying to convert Sloppy English into Intelligent English – much less Japanese into English. It’s also taking a long time because The Mentor is ever-so-slightly over educated and so he used a lot of kanji that I don’t know and that’s extremely difficult to look up.
Oh, yes, and it’s also taking awhile because my Japanese needs work.
The difficulty with my Japanese is that when I got here, my job wasn’t particularly demanding. Free time + total ignorance + ardent desire to banish ignorance = Rapid and Enviable Progress.
By the time that my second year began, though, I’d learned more than enough to get through the day to day Japanese life. Also, my job became extremely busy and I no longer had the time or energy to complete all of my duties at school and then come home and hit the books for two hours (especially when class preparations keep me up until eleven or twelve at night, which they sometimes do). Not surprisingly, my Rate of Acquisition declined.
Since then, although I’ve certainly been learning and assimilating more of the language, I haven’t been moving as quickly as I am able. Yet, recently, I’d been starting to think that my abilities weren’t so terrible; I’ve been able to understand a lot more and some people have told me that my speaking has improved.
Thanks to The Mentor’s report, I got a valuable Heads Up from My Environment: Don’t get cocky, Julie. Not about English, not about Japanese. Just because you speak English it doesn’t mean that you know how to teach it. Just because this is your fourth year in Japan it doesn’t guarantee that you’ve become even remotely fluent.
Both tasks – teaching English and becoming proficient in Japanese – require discipline and effort. It’s good that I keep this in mind since the temptation is always there to stop striving and just enjoy the comfort of my present circumstances. From what I can gather from The Mentor’s report, the state of English in elementary schools is very poor indeed. Although he seems to be happy with my performance, he goes to great lengths to point out how flawed the system is and what needs to be done to fix it. I agree with him. There were even parts of the report that I could tell came from conversations that he and I have had. So, although it may take awhile, I’m expecting more changes on the horizon.
I think that to get through these changes – to help out my coworkers and support the students while planning successful English lessons – I’m going to have to push aside that finicky Dragon Pride and accept that everybody in this situation is learning. This includes me. I’m going to have to check my ego and keep pushing myself to learn as much about Japanese and Japan as I can.
And what better way to start than by finishing that report?
*At least, I think this is the plan. But, who knows? As usual, I will be going into this with only a vague idea as to what will be happening.
**There isn’t. He swears so much and with such clear pronunciation that I guarantee my students would absorb all of the profanity and toss it back at me in the form of profoundly disturbing phrases for the next eight months.
“Majestic and wild, we stand and we fight
Soon your blackened pride will be fading away.”
Let the games begin … August 4, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Lessons Learned.Tags: Kyoto, summer, teachers
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Here we are – only three hundred and sixty-five days to go! Actually, since I’m writing this at 9:20 in the evening, I suppose it’s more like three hundred and sixty-four days, 15 hours and about ten minutes.
Still, the First Official Day has arrived!
Today, I went on a small trip to Kyoto with about 27 of my town’s teachers. The day started out with getting on a bus at 7:40 this morning, not entirely sure as to where we were going or what we would be seeing. I had a schedule of the day’s activities, but my grasp of the details was tenuous at best. This is not unusual for me. In fact, I would venture to say that 45% of my time in Japan is spent with me only vaguely aware of where I’m going or what I’ll be doing when I get there. As it turns out, we visited a museum to hear about discrimination issues in Japan and then we visited a temple in the afternoon.
So, what about this day is worth immortalizing?
Or, at least, when I look back on this day in the future, what is it that I want to remember?
This is actually a lot harder to answer than I thought it would be. To be honest, today’s trip was stressful. Kyoto isn’t exactly close to my town, so I spent about seven hours of the day sitting on a bus. I also spent about two hours walking around and listening to various Japanese tour guides. (Luckily, as far as the bus goes, I had Neil Gaiman’s American Gods to keep me company. Or, maybe, unluckily. That book has really had its way with my brain.)
Aside from the hours (and hours) of sitting, I didn’t have a lot of people to talk to on the trip. Both The JTE and My Buddy were present, but neither of the Two Terrific Teachers was able to come. Unfortunately, The JTE didn’t feel the need to talk to me the entire day (she didn’t talk to anybody, actually…), and so I spent a lot of my time in deep, personal contemplation. Well, until we got to the temple. Then I spent my time hiding from the insane number of American high school students that were being Forced To Enjoy Japanese Culture At An Old Temple. Unfortunately for me, playing “One of those things is not like the other” with my tour group was more entertaining for them than the 450 year old rock garden. -_-;;
So, I don’t exactly have a Moments of Contentment Tree here, full of ripe and juicy Experiences from which to pick and choose.
~ But ~
There was one moment that stands out in my mind. It involves someone that I haven’t introduced yet, so let me do so now:
The Hippie
This woman is the one of the teachers at Thursday’s elementary school. She is … kind of out there. She’s incredibly sweet and very willing to work with me in class, but her general manner calls forth images of flowing garb, multi-colored vans with hot pink carpeting, and more than a few illegal substances. She’s always fascinated by the English that I bring into the classroom and turns every lesson into some kind of philosophy of language course (even when all we’re working with is vocabulary). I like to watch her discipline the students during my class because we always get to talk about our feelings – in English!
I was walking by this really gorgeous lake at the temple when she came to talk to me. At the time, I was feeling very tired and frustrated. I hadn’t really been talking to any of the teachers during the day, and I’d just had a bit of an unpleasant exchange with another elementary school teacher who had felt the need to comment: ”Julie! You must be so happy to see all these other foreigners here. Now you have somebody you can talk to!”
~*Julie’s Inside Voice*~
“First of all, just because somebody speaks English doesn’t mean that I automatically want to talk to them.
Second of all, I speak Japanese. I could talk to you, too, you know. If you would approach me more often, that is.”
~~**Julie’s sense of propriety influences her Outside Voice**~~
“Ah, yes, that’s true.” (Shy nod.) (Awkward head tilt.)
So, yes. When The Hippie walked up to me, I was starting to Brood. But, she really surprised me, and it turned my afternoon around. She started out by saying how impressed she was with how I was able to understand what all of our tour guides had been saying throughout the day, and then she asked me how my summer was going. I answered her questions, we talked about some of the religious imagery in the garden, discussed summer plans, and then we finished the tour.
That was it.
The exchange was so simple, but that’s what makes it so wonderful. She genuinely wanted to know how I was doing and to share part of the day with me. Furthermore, although she acknowledged my foreignness, she didn’t use it as a means to isolate me from the group. Instead, it was a way to compliment me and to bring me closer to the other teachers. This isn’t something that everybody here is able to do and it meant a lot to me. Perhaps to her it wasn’t anything more than a brief chat, but it meant everything to me in light of how isolated I had been feeling.
It also made me appreciate my Junior High school even more, because it’s one of the few places in Japan where I don’t walk in and think, “Wow. I’m foreign.” I just walk in and think, “Wow. I’m Julie. Now I’m at work.” Today’s trip and being out with so many people who don’t know me reminded me to be thankful for the progress that I’ve made in the places that I frequent. It also showed me that even if the some schools are still not completely comfortable with me, there are teachers that see me for who I am and who will approach me as a person and not simply as an American.
So, when I look back on this day, I want to remember how I found comfort from an unexpected source. I am certainly guilty of misjudging people, and I don’t think that I’ve been giving her enough credit.
“Just a little affection on this winding road.”
