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Tuesday, April 20, 2004
on the job
Some interesting facts:
1. By this Friday, I will have done my self-introduction 34 times, to about 800 students, in 8 different schools
2. Including this term, I will have worked with only 5…or 6… well 5.5 (yajima counts as half hahah) teachers who are actual JTEs. The rest have been homeroom teachers who usually tell me when I first meet them that they don`t speak any English.. It goes without saying that my Japanese skills have definitely been tested when I have to try and explain a lesson plan in Japanese. Spontaneity be damned. Yabai.
3. my shortest commute has been 35 minutes (shikitsu) by public transportation, the longest, 1 hour and 5 minutes (nanko).
4. I notice that when I do my self-introduction in Japanese, the response I get from the teachers is really different than when I do it in English. Take this morning for example. I popped out of the principal`s office, and then launched into my “tottemo kantan” self-intro in English. Everyone was standing very straight, and expressionless… then I said it in Japanese. People`s shoulders actually slumped in relief (!?!!!) and faces grew considerably more animated. I seriously wonder what it would be like if I spoke NO Japanese. How worried do Japanese people get around “real” foreigners?
5. When I teach 1-nenseis (grade 1s), I am about 18 years older than them
6. My largest school is Tokiwa (800 students, and they actually use two separate buildings!!). My smallest school was Shikitsu (100 students. They have lots and lots of empty rooms =>).
7. Considering the country, I have actually taught a lot of foreign/mixed kids. At Tokiwa, there`s a white girl in 6-4!!! Bikkurishita! I think she has blue eyes… oooooooh =) At Joyo, I taught Arjana, who is Middle Eastern. At Nishi-Kujo, in 3-1 there was Nin, who is Chinese. Also, when I was eating lunch with 3-2, one girl asked me what my “type” was. =) So I said someone who was really nice. Immediately, she pointed to this cute and quiet boy across the room and exclaimed he was perfect for me because he was soo nice AND he was half Japanese just like me!!! But darn the luck, he is like 8 years old ahahahha =). After class at Nishi-Kujo I would sometimes go to Matsushita sensei`s class for foreign kids which was attended by Dante from Brooklyn, Anna-Paula who is Brazilian, and a cute Korean boy. On the first day at Shikitsu, there was a light-skinned Egyptian girl, but she went back to Egypt the next day. Shikitsu itself is an exceptional case. Out of the 100 kids there, 20 are either foreigners or have one non-Japanese parent.
Some interesting facts:
1. By this Friday, I will have done my self-introduction 34 times, to about 800 students, in 8 different schools
2. Including this term, I will have worked with only 5…or 6… well 5.5 (yajima counts as half hahah) teachers who are actual JTEs. The rest have been homeroom teachers who usually tell me when I first meet them that they don`t speak any English.. It goes without saying that my Japanese skills have definitely been tested when I have to try and explain a lesson plan in Japanese. Spontaneity be damned. Yabai.
3. my shortest commute has been 35 minutes (shikitsu) by public transportation, the longest, 1 hour and 5 minutes (nanko).
4. I notice that when I do my self-introduction in Japanese, the response I get from the teachers is really different than when I do it in English. Take this morning for example. I popped out of the principal`s office, and then launched into my “tottemo kantan” self-intro in English. Everyone was standing very straight, and expressionless… then I said it in Japanese. People`s shoulders actually slumped in relief (!?!!!) and faces grew considerably more animated. I seriously wonder what it would be like if I spoke NO Japanese. How worried do Japanese people get around “real” foreigners?
5. When I teach 1-nenseis (grade 1s), I am about 18 years older than them
6. My largest school is Tokiwa (800 students, and they actually use two separate buildings!!). My smallest school was Shikitsu (100 students. They have lots and lots of empty rooms =>).
7. Considering the country, I have actually taught a lot of foreign/mixed kids. At Tokiwa, there`s a white girl in 6-4!!! Bikkurishita! I think she has blue eyes… oooooooh =) At Joyo, I taught Arjana, who is Middle Eastern. At Nishi-Kujo, in 3-1 there was Nin, who is Chinese. Also, when I was eating lunch with 3-2, one girl asked me what my “type” was. =) So I said someone who was really nice. Immediately, she pointed to this cute and quiet boy across the room and exclaimed he was perfect for me because he was soo nice AND he was half Japanese just like me!!! But darn the luck, he is like 8 years old ahahahha =). After class at Nishi-Kujo I would sometimes go to Matsushita sensei`s class for foreign kids which was attended by Dante from Brooklyn, Anna-Paula who is Brazilian, and a cute Korean boy. On the first day at Shikitsu, there was a light-skinned Egyptian girl, but she went back to Egypt the next day. Shikitsu itself is an exceptional case. Out of the 100 kids there, 20 are either foreigners or have one non-Japanese parent.
// posted by naomi @ 12:27 a.m. 
