Job Discussion Forums

[Sweetsee]

Well, I did mention it in this thread. Really funny today though, kocho-sensei at one point rips off my nametag and pounding on the desk, he starts on about the baloney which transpired last year and how this is my "second strike", or "2 redo kado" as he put it, couldn't even get that right. He's pointing at me and giving me that really gutterall, from the diaphragm type of bollicking that J-people use when they get really heated.

So, I hadn't done anything wrong and this is the way the principal treats me, one would have to think there is a heavy undercurrent of hate there, no surprise, seems to not be in short supply here.

Ah yes, the joys of teaching English in Japan!

[Brooks]

at my school, of all the exchange students, the French ones have had the toughest time. They come two at a time and they prefer just to be together.
The last two were interested in Japan, knew some Japanese and tried talking to my students in one class I had. Some of my students didn`t want to speak to one of the girls so it became kind of difficult.
To come all the way from Paris and to get blown off really pissed me off.

I think they got in trouble for smoking. The German student we have currently also got in trouble for smoking. At what age can Germans and French smoke? I think it is 18 in Japan. I think the German is 18 but as a high school student he isn`t allowed to.

[Sweetsee]

Hi Brooks,

When it comes to smoking my school must lead the list in hypocrisy. As you enter the main hall the stench is overwhelming in the morning as second-hand smoke billows from the principal's office and further down the hall the teacher's smoking room. Do whatever you want at school to disrupt lessons, but you are in big trouble if you are caught smoking. I think we have one teacher who can't make it through a lesson without a trip to the smoking room, always coughing and carrying on, as well.


Enjoy,
s

[canuck]

Change your job.

I think you overstepped your boundary. No reason to even think about inviting a student to your house. No reason to give your phone number out etc. Don't try and be the student's best friend, save the world for the student type stuff.

I assume both you and the student are both female.

I'm trying to imagine how long a male teacher giving a female student his phone number, email address, invitations for dinner would last at the school.

Hard to chalk it up to you being the "foreigner" and miscommunication. You overstepped your boundaries. In the future, try to stay on the conservative side, teach the best lesson you can for your students instead of treading on the Mother Thereasa/goody two-shoes side of things.

[Sweetsee]

Thanks for the advice.

I think...
I assume...
I can't imagine...

Try to imagine being wrong, and save the morality for people you know well enough to dislike.

[canuck]

[konyoku]

I agree with Canuck totally.

Sounds like you've got an agenda and are trying to prove something, when all you've got is a job you should be grateful for still having.

[stillnosheep]

Sounds like the French student was having difficulties and approached sweetsee - possibly as the only person at the school that she could easily communicate with in French or English - for advice.

It seems that the principal's concern was that the host-mother has made a complaint.

I don't know whether the host mother had genuine concerns or was trying to protect her back (if the exchange student is unhappy) by attempting to cast sweetsee as a trouble-maker. Perhaps she got the wrong end of the stick about the i-pod, the student mentioning that sweetsee might obtain one for her (more cheaply) in Canada and the mother thinking that sweetsee had offered to get it as a gift. Who knows.

Either way, for the principal to ask a teacher to host foreign exchange student that the school is having problems placing with a homestay and then to bawl the same teacher out for giving out a phone number to another exchange student who is unhappy and has asked for advice seems totally inconsistent.

When I was at highschool I regularly baby-sat for one of my teachers, staying overnight as I lived miles out in the sticks whilst I would often visit another teacher at home to borrow and return books.

None of this is to deny the importance of making sure that one is also SEEN always to be behaving in a proper and professional manner, only that a knee-jerk 'change your job' response is not helpful.

[canuck]

[Glenski]

Sweetsee,
If you and your school are serious about taking on exchange students, there must be a formal exchange program. That means someone must be dedicated to teaching all foreign kids the Japanese language in intensive classes, and someone must be a focal point for their culture shock issues, as well as for anything related to housing and homestay family concerns.

Without these things, taking on exchange students at random is doomed to fail. Sounds like your school doesn't really have anything organized, so any problems you encounter are no surprise to me.

At my school, we have a formal committee for such things (I'm on it), and we have a Japanese teacher teaching Japanese language several times a week to each student. That same teacher is also the focal point for homestays and personal issues, and we have a backup Japanese teacher, too. The language teacher and I conduct interviews with each exchange student twice during their stay to assess how they are doing. If there are problems, of course, someone deals with it specifically.

[Sweetsee]

Hi SNS,

I wish I were able to write what you said because it is exactly what happened. Thank you and what you wrote was very eloquent.

Hi Glenski,

Couldn't agree with you more about the school not meeting the demands of foreign students, last year the Canadian student was scheduled for intensive English classes, until she told me about it and I informed the cheif of the deprtment who just so happens to be Mr. I. M. Cowardly, from last year and more recently the host mother fiasco.

Anyway, it's neither here nor there and the point is I am here to help out and will continue to be. Although, coming into work today I felt like someone who has been publicly humiliated, still shaking off the effects of a cyber bad-mouthing.


Hi Canuck, Sour Grape and Casual,

Thanks for commenting and thanks Sour Grape for pointing out a mistake I made by posting the nonsense about a colleague's behavior that I attributed to being a 'Japanese thing'. It was a ridiculus thing to post let alone think.

As for greetings, I make a point to use my student's names when greeting them and expect the same. It helps me to remember their name's and I try to stress to them the importance of repeating a listener's name throughout conversation, and always beginning with, "Excuse me, (name)?"

Students not in my classes presently tend to avert their eyes when passing, nothing new and that's totally cool with me, many students in my classes do the same thing. I remember years ago arriving to school on my bicycle from the opposite direction of the students, like droves of them, and not a single one would make eye contact. I fully understand this, and again this is cool with me.

There are plenty of students that are very gracious in their greetings to me. These are the students that are out-going, open-minded, pay attention and are interested in communication. Unfortunately there are only a small number in a class, sometimes none at all, some more than others, no biggy. It sometimes takes a student 1/2 their high school life to come around to being open to communicating, every one at their own speed, some never.

As for greeting fellow staff, case by case of course is the rule. Some folks you get on better with than others, some you chat with, others never. Some are seated directly opposite you all year but due to their quiet nature, consideration for others, or personality, you share scarcely a word.

I get along fabulously with many teachers, although I have been told that one is to maintain a severe demeanor in the staff room, no whistling, smiling or general jolliness is acceptable, that's how some folks carry themselves. This follows in the same vein as the ban on smiling in official photographs. Take a look at a yearbook and see how many smiles you can find. Yeah, the more I think about it the better my position is because just like in all facets of Japanese life there is social and work protocol, cliques and what not, but me I can maneuvre in and out of these places and enjoy great friendships with a variety of teachers.

Let me give you all a break now and me I'm going to join a couple of eager beavers for lunch.


Have a great week,
s

[mrjohndub]

That's interesting. I was asked why by my supervisor just a few days ago why I did not smile enthusiastically for a photograph taken for use in an identity badge for a new office location.

I just gave an average, confident-without-any-real-expression look with good posture. I thought that was what was desirable. That's also what the other staff all did. Maybe she had anticipated a smile from me because I smile frequently. She made it sound like I looked menacing or something!

[JimDunlop2]

The ONE time I was grilled on my refusal to smile for the staff and yearbook photos at the school where I worked, I replied quite simply (in Japanese), that I didn't want to look like some jolly gaijin-monkey that stands out from the rest of the crowd, when everyone else looked professional and serious... And that I was not sent by the board of ed for their general amusement... If they started smiling first and stopped wearing black suits for these formal occasions, I would be more than happy to follow suit.

Haven't been asked since...

[mrjohndub]

I guess we're expected to do something out of the ordinary, and ordinarily do unexpected things in many of their eyes. When we do what everybody else does, it certainly does throw a wrench in some people's worldview.

I also find it amusing (genuinely) that people are so surprised that I have some pre-existing exposure to their culture.

[Sweetsee]

Hi Jim,

Can just see you laying that out in perfect Japanese and your listener nodding with a vacant look, sort of half grinning half smiling trying to figure out what you are saying. Hilarious was your post, thanks.

By the way, how did you all make out at the expo?



Hi Mr. Dub,

Enjoyed that, very nice indeed. You manage to say in so few words a feeling that I often have but have never been able to sum up.

I sometimes think that I will work on gradually changing my persona until I am behaving just like the people around me until one day no one will notice that I'm not there and I can just kick back at home.



Enjoy yourselves,
s