Job Discussion Forums

abufletcher · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 4:59 am Post subject:

Sounds like you have the best of both worlds: bonuses but no meetings! Do you know what our official job title is in Japanese? If it's "gaikokugokyoshi" that's almost certainly a contract position and what the terms are for renewal is up to the individual university. Gondon is on a revolving contract. There's another teacher he works with that has been there for over 10 years. This seems to be rare at Japanese universities.

Out of curiousity, what have they got you teaching? Is it the usual set of General Ed EFL classes?

On the topic of free time. One of the perks of oveseas living has always been (for me at least) a lot more time for myself. Back home, one's life is quickly filled with all the stuff that you feel you're supposed to be doing "for fun." It's almost like your life is being lived for you.

Once you head overseas you start to notice that if you don't do anything nothing happens. In the Gulf there was also fewer commercial distractions. I found myself getting deeply into photography -- deeply enough that you could easily count it as a "sport" and even a part-time profession. I'd go running with a 10lbs tripod over my shoulder to be "in shape" for assignments. It'd get up at 3am to be at the beach for the dawn launch of a kayak race. I'd carry 25lbs of camera gear up a mountain to get that ONE perfect shot.

I never, I repeat NEVER, would have gotten into photography to that extent had I been in the US. And the photography (which sprang up from the travel I had been doing) led to doing some magazine writing, and the magazine writing gave way to writing articles for EFL journals, and that eventually led me to completing a Ph.D. And my knowledge of photographic technique was a vital part of producing my dissertation.

Moral, it doesn't matter what you get into and you'll never know where any particular thing will take you.

tumdurgal · Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 10

If your really bored internet games (provided you have access to the internet) being stuck in the country as I am leaves me little to do that doesn't involve hours sitting on a train. www.ogame.org is the game I play in down time, involves little thought but does take up the dull hours. Often I have a 3 or 4 hour mind numbing gap between lessons.

abufletcher · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 2:52 pm Post subject:

Like a Rolling Stone · Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 872

abufletcher · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:07 pm Post subject:

I was more than half expecting that. Confused

I do spend a fair amount of time reading, thinking about, and composing thoughtful replies to posts to this forum and others. This form of entertainment has helped me to formulate opinions and express them consicely in writing. It's taught me to understand the flow of online exchanges and the strengths and weaknesses of this form of communication.

I'll take that over an equal number of hours of online pac-mac or Doom anyday!

cameron.mayo · Joined: 13 Mar 2006 Posts: 81

Sid: Its great you're in touch with your female side, me too. But why not have both! Give the physical side time, after all your body needs to learn this as well. Don't go too hard to early, I would say 20 minutes a day is enough for the first month to build muscle memory then slowly increase. Then see where you are after a couple of months.
People say I'm very masculine but I never feel this, I guess my body is masculine but my mental view of myself hasn't caught up to where my body's at now.