This has got to be one of the easiest jobs anyone who is a native speaker of English could have. . . I work Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 4:00 and enjoy the rare times that I am utilized fully at work. I teach at Yochien (Pre-school/ Kindergarten), Elementary School, and Middle School with an adult education class sprinkled in each Monday. Well, each Monday there's not a public holiday going on. . . so many of them seem to fall on a Monday!)
Right now, school has finished for the school year and starts up again in April (April 7th here in Yasuda). Japan has trimesters, starting in April, ending in March, and their vacation time in between is relatively short. This country is full is work-o-holics, which is why I'm a bit confused there is such little to do in my job. . .
On Mondays, I have kindergarten, but only twice a month, so I usually sit at the Culture Center (where I go if I have no classes) and pretend to be immersed in various things all day. The kids there are great, ages 3-5 and very fun and cute. I'm glad the classes are only 20-30 minutes long, though! These kids have an endless energy supply and it's difficult keeping enthusiasm when I'm only teaching them about six words each time.
At times when I have no class, I surf the web a lot. I study Japanese all the damn time, but I don't think my brain can handle much more than what I've got already because nothing more is sinking in lately. Sometimes I blog. Sometimes I upload photos or videos to my various sites. This is pretty much 50-70% of my week. Since classes are over, though, it's about 90-100% of my week. BAGH!
On Tuesday, I teach 5th and 6th grade, one class each, every week. Wednesdays and Thursdays I teach Middle School and that day is usually planned the week before or so by the Japanese English teacher. For some reason, Jr. High schedule changes every day, so I could be teaching one class, I could be teaching four. Either way, those days are spent entirely at the Middle School. Fridays I alternate every other week teaching either first and second grade or third and fourth grade. It's a nice way to end the week, but only two classes. I finish elementary school days at the Culture Center.
It has been a nice opportunity to try to put more time into making things for classes. I enjoy drawing and creating activities to make things more interesting. However, I get kind of stuck and don't feel like trying too hard. These kids are easy to entertain. Junior High is a little different. I have to work with a Japanese English teacher, which is fine, but sometimes feels a bit strange. She's a young woman, unmarried, almost 30 and is often ridiculed about that by the students. She spends a lot of time on things and her classes are pretty boring for the most part. I feel like she is trying too hard to teach them lecture-style and not realizing that they would care a lot more about things if it were actually fun for them. I'm not saying I'm necessarily a better teacher, I just know when they don't care, when they're bored, or when they don't get something. Each class feels a tiny bit like a competition with this teacher, but maybe I just need to be more forward sometimes.
Anyway, easy stuff, right? I really have it easy, but for some reason the stress that comes in trying to adapt my EVERYTHING to Japanese standards and ways adds a bit of stress here! They work and work and pretend to work hard on things that are really quite easy. They are definitely aware of my being foreign, but I think that only gives them something to titter about if I do something "wrong" or the way a "gaijin" would do it. I don't know why nothing is important except work here. Do they know the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?" They really are just so obsessed with themselves. . .
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