Chased by a dog

This past week was probably the worst of my stay in Japan.

I walked into school on Monday not fully prepared for first period and the class bombed. I confused some poor kid when I tried to get him to do an activity and didn't explain it well. It was at that point that my JTE said to me, "You're weird. You're confusing them."

I was a bit upset that instead of trying to help, he decided to criticize. But in the end, it was my fault for not preparing enough for the class.

The rest of the week at school only improved slightly. The classes ended up being mediocre. I started to question my role in the school and whether or not it's actually making a difference. Maybe it's just homesickness kicking in, but I'm not sure.

The highlight of the week ended up being the grand opening of a supermarket 5 minutes walking distance from my house named Super Big. Ahh...the comforts of food. Nothing can beat that.

Saturday ended up being like another typical weekend with some interesting revelations, but to officially finish off an entire bad week, I was chased by a dog when I was wandering around a quiet neighborhood close to the supermarket. At first, I thought the dog was tied up and ignored the barks. Then 2 seconds later, I saw the dog charging at me at full speed. Being the intelligent person, I ran- fast! I haven't ran that fast in a long time. Getting chased by a dog is always a good way to end the week, right?


*Sigh*, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this coming week will be better.

My Future

I just had a lengthy coversation with two fellow English teachers about what it's like to travel to Vietnam. This conversation included a brief Vietnamese lesson (which I failed miserably at) and a few warnings about how you should cross the street and bargain with vendors. My friend will be spending two weeks there during winter break and his tales of Vietnam reminded me so much of China.

Everyday for the past month, I have been having these internal battles with myself about my plans for the next year. JET has already distributed the recontracting paperwork for us, but they're not due until the beginning of February. Therefore, my plan is to think about it and not decide until the last second possible, in true Louise fashion.

Just the other day, I realized that although I loved my former job, this current one is offering me many opportunities in life experiences and in cultural exchanges that were not available before.
Life in Japan is good, but it's also safe. It makes me happy, but not exactly enthused. I think I should just take the leap like many former students and head to China.

A fine, fine line

There's a fine line between being helpful and falling into stereotypes.

In the staffroom of every school in Japan, there is a designated "Tea Lady." Her main job, in appearance, is to serve tea to everyone in the staffroom and to all visiting guests. One of her other duties include serving school lunch to the staff.

She seems to be the person who is in charge of fairly menial tasks, but I also heard from other teachers that this person controls a lot more than meets the eye. I have yet to figure out what else she does, but I believe them.

Our tea lady, Hitomi-san, is a funny and clever lady. She talks to our principal like he's an old pal of hers...something that few people can do.

So, for the past week and a half, Hitomi-san has been away on vacation for her honeymoon. All of a sudden, all the female teachers in the staffroom are expected to fill in her duties. The English teacher, the special edu teacher and even the school nurse were asked to serve tea in the morning! On top of that, I was asked to help the janitor serve school lunch!!

I have no problem serving school lunch, but it bothered me slightly that while I helped serve school lunch, all the male teachers sat there waiting for lunch to be served and brought to their desks.
I thought that my "gaijin" (foreignor) status would give me an excuse to not be stuck in these situations or even help people realize (what I would consider) the sexist nature of all this...but perhaps not. Zannen!

Anything for a laugh

Ever since my arrival in Japan, I've been debating whether or not I actually like teaching.
I think I've always been afraid of letting others be in control my emotions...and teaching is exactly that.

The highs and lows of my days are determined by the students I teach. When they understand the lesson or enjoy an activity, I am rewarded by smiling faces. Other days, no matter how much or little preparation I've gone through, the lesson bombs and I'm left with blank faces or students falling asleep in class.

I understand that there are many factors that affect how a student responds in class, but it's just scary to realize that they have so much power over me.

Today, in my second grade class, I gave a weather report with a paper TV around my head. I realized that I'd do anything for a laugh. How sad. =)

My First International Visitor

My brother is coming to visit in November! Yaaaaay!!
When are you coming?

On Being Popular

As you probably know, I've never been the coolest kid in school...which is why it's a bit weird for me to be liked by all the popular kids in school right now. I feel like I'm part of the in crowd where even the leader of the 3rd grade class is vying for my attention.

I'm not sure if I truly feel comfortable in this situation. A part of me is happy that any student is willing to test their English on me. Another part of me feels as though that if I hang out or give most of my attention to these popular kids, I'm reinforcing or recreating this vicious cycle of cool kids getting everything.

I'm babbling, I know. I just see so much potential in some of the students even though they may be really quiet, somewhat socially awkward, or not as "cool" as others would like. Perhaps they remind me of me.

Lessons

I realized that many of my assignments at work is teaching me more about what I thought I knew. I shall explain.

Two days ago, the second grade social studies teacher came up to me and asked me if I could write about my favorite book during junior high school for some of the students. Of course I agreed. I spend a couple of minutes racking my brain trying to figure out what books we actually read aside from the Houghton Mifflin reader or R.L. Stine in my own spare time.

Then, it came to my mind. The horrible images of the Holocaust documentaries, Schindler's List, and the Diary of Anne Frank came rushing in.

I decided to write about The Diary of Anne Frank as the most memorable book during junior high school. I had two objectives. One, I wanted to teach the students a little bit about world history (though I have no idea what they already know) and two, I guess I wanted to see what kind of reaction I will get from the school for writing about such a sensitive subject.

However, as I attempted to explain the complicated history of the Holocaust in simple English, I realized that there's still a lot that I do not know.

Despite all the documentaries and visiting numerous museums dedicated to the Holocaust in Europe, I really don't know why the Jews were singled out. I know that other groups were persecuted too, but what made the Jews so distinct that millions of people were executed.

I am looking online to find the answers, but the cruelty of it all still leaves certain questions unanswered.

History of Chocolate

How was I to know that a KitKat bar can carry so much weight?

Last week, with the 3-3 class, I did an activity where I needed two volunteers. At the end of the activity, each of the volunteers were given a KitKat bar each.

News spread quickly and soon enough, the students from the other classes were expecting candy bars. By the second time, I was kindly warned that other teachers at school might not appreciate me passing out candy to the students. Of course, I stopped after that.

All that meant certain students did not get any chocolate from me after helping out. I think one in particular was slightly disappointed.

When I saw him during passing period, he said, "Give me chocolate." What I thought was a cry for sweets turned out to be something much more loaded.

My JTE started cracking up before she explained the reason. She told me that after WWII, a lot of American soldiers were in Japan and many of them passed out chocolate to kids. Therefore, "Give me chocolate." was one of the first English phrases that the kids in Japan learned.

I felt horrible after that mostly because that one action of giving out chocolate broke certain school rules and it reminded certain others of the fragile relationship and complicated history between Japan and America.

It's pretty crazy. I don't think I'll look at a KitKat bar the same way again.