(Written May 13) OK, so my job is not always easy. A lot of time being an English teacher in Japan can be stressful due to a huge lack of communication (I am the only non-Japanese person in the school), lack of discipline (Japanese students can't be held back, flunked, kicked out of class, given detention, etc), and just general craziness (the whole kid factor being thrown in). But every once in awhile there comes a day like today when my only responsibility is to show up.
Today was a sports tournament day and so we didn't have classes. Since club is mandatory (as far as I can tell although there might be a few kids who get out of it) all of the kids belong to something and so it is possible to have a day devoted purely to club. This is arranged with the other schools so that all of the sports teams in the local area can get in a couple of games in the day. Our school offers badminton, soccer, baseball, volleyball, table tennis, and track for sports. The other clubs are brass band, art, home ec, and computer/shop/robotics club. The sports teams all go to a designated school and the non-sports clubs stay in the building and do special projects/practice.
Now in America, this would be nice because this would mean that then evenings would be free for students to study, have family time, pursue other hobbies, etc AKA By having the game during the day it wouldn't interrupt with other family/church/community stuff going on. But in Japan where students have to go to club every night, every weekend, and often on holidays anyway, it doesn't make much sense for them to miss class to go to a sports tournament. That whole idea that Japanese kids go to school a lot more than western kids is junk. They go to the actual school, but they aren't always necessarily studying.
But let's forget about the negatives and focus on the positives. Having no class today rocked because...
1) I majorly overslept today which on a normal day would result in a total break-down for me. I think it has something to do with my family always being on the go when I was younger, but the one thing I can't handle is not having time to get ready. In high school I often got up at 5am in order to be ready to be at school at 7. I don't wear make-up and I am not too concerned with fashion, but I do need to air dry my hair and I do like to take my time showering, brushing my teeth, making my lunch, watching the news, etc. This means that I am usually up by 6:45 in order to leave the house by 7:50. Today I woke up at 7:36 and freaked out- until I realized that I didn't have any classes today. Which in turn meant that a) only the janitorial staff/principal/other random staff members see my hair so it didn't matter, b) I didn't have to make my lunch because we wouldn't be eating with students and I could take a break to go to the local bento (lunch box) shop to buy something, and c) I could leave the house later than usual since I didn't need to prep for the day's lessons.
2) I was free to catch up on all of the blogs I read, all of the emails I have been putting off, all of the news in America (which seems to be getting crazier and crazier not that Japan has ANY room to talk), the book I am currently reading (The Power of One- sounds like a silly self-help novel but it is actually about a boy growing up in South Africa in the 1930s-40s), etc. This in addition to doing things like leisurely plan my next week's demo lesson for training, my upcoming elementary lessons, etc Seriously, this is one of the reasons I took this job. Some teachers get frustrated about having to come to work despite there being no work, but for me it gives me a structured environment to get shit done. If I had been given the day off I would have no doubt spent it watching TV or shopping.
3) I was able to study/do my Japanese homework seriously and slowly rather than skimming through it like I usually do. This is a major bonus because tonight I am going to sit down and formally meet with my Japanese teacher + Motoaki at the Kumon (tutoring school) I go to discuss my current track and future plans. More on that later, but it would have been embarrassing if I had showed up with nothing finished or a bunch of sloppily done work.
4) Probably the best thing, though, was that, since there were no classes, the cooking club had the whole day to plan and prepare a surprise meal for the staff that were in the office today (as I said, janitors, secretaries, librarians, me). So not only did I not have to make my lunch, but I didn't even have to but it after all! And they actually made stuff that I like and you can't really go wrong with. (As much as I support the students and their efforts, the home ec club has come up with some SHADY variations on tried and true recipes). Yeah, it is definitely days like today that I thank the Shinto Gods that I chose being an ALT (assistant language teacher) over being a private school teacher.
No comments:
Post a Comment