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[Squire22]

Dear all,

As eslcafe was - still is - so helpful to me before I left for my first teaching experience abroad, I thought I`d post something on my time so far here in Japan.

Before I left the UK, I had a 120 Hour TESOL Certificate and summer school teaching experience only - I also have a degree. As it very, very late notice, I arrived speaking two words of Japanese, konnichiwa, and sayonara.

I work for a dispatch company as an ALT in a junior high school, and will be doing a few week long stints here and there at a couple of elementary schools in the area. So far, it`s been a blast! The company i work for has really taken care of me, sorted me out with my apartment, car, phonelines, post office account etc. Gave me some awesome orientation training and my supervisor is a great guy and his first question is always "Do you need anything, anything at all?". Since my arrival, I could not fault them for anything. I realise that this is not always the case and that others` experiences have varied.

I love working at the junior high where I`m placed, I generally team teach(We do work as a team) an average of 4 lessons a day, across all three grades. There`s a lot of textbook work which means I am a human tape recorder a fair amount of time, but i get to spend a lot of time going round talking to the kids individually which I find immensely satisfying. I get to plan activities for target language in the textbook and generally help out the JTE with ideas that they have, I have a weekly meeting with each of the three English teachers. One thing I wasn`t expecting was to be teaching what they call the "Slow learners class" twice a week. It`s a class of just 5 students, 3 third years and 2 first years, and they`re great kids, but lessons can be really difficult to plan and to execute, they take a lot of thought as they have to be very simple words and include lots and lots of activities that they can enjoy and get a thrill out of.

In the afternoons I join one of the sports clubs, whichever I feel like, always asking the teacher first and then the head students running the activity. The kids are really friendly and are generally always excited when I go and play sports with them. Although i can leave at 4pm, i generally stay until somewhere between 5.30 and 6.15pm and say goodbye to all the kids at the end of the day with the other teachers.

Up until recently I have found it difficult at times with my language inability, communication with staff has been pretty tough which for me has been really frustrating because i want to talk to these people so much but i just don`t know the words! But recently things have started to pick up in spurts, i`ve been studying hard and learning words and slowly the teachers are coming round and helping me out, this is mostly due to me trying - badly i might add - to start conversations with them. Just learning a simple question in japanese and asking every teacher e.g. what are you going to do this weekend? even though i`ve understood almost nothing, they`ve been friendly and patient. I`m aware that this isn`t always the case, as i mentioned above, different experiences an all. It has been a case of being bold though and really making the effort.

I join in the cleaning with the kids every day, I tend to go to different classrooms and parts of the school to help different kids each day.
There are no sports on Wednesdays, so I started the schools first English club, i get three or four kids every week, which although isn`t many in a school of 400 students, it`s easily good enough for me and allows me to try out lots of new things and get to know those three or four kids a lot better.

Lunch is always an experience, never having really eaten "Japanese" food before in England - I used to ask what it was I was eating, now I don`t bother, i just eat, this works well because sometimes I`d rather not know what they`re feeding me!

I`ve got awesome neighbours who have helped with little things like collecting things from the post office, translating some mail/bills. I`ve been incredibly lucky.

At the moment, i wouldn`t want to be anywhere else, doing anything else. I love where i live, far enough away from the big cities, but close enough to commute, a couple hours away from Tokyo with a great view of Fuji - on a clear day . The japanese people I work with are really friendly and helpful, the students are engaged for the most part and really like to have fun and laugh - I couldn`t ask for better.

Hope this is of some, if any, help, more than willing to answer PMs from anyone who has questions, if any...

[moot point]

Good for you! Really. A word of warning, however, is that you tend to be on a road to burnout. But you are obviously young, with few friends in Japan, and enjoying your current situation. This is good.

As time goes by, however, I think you'll find your time to be more valuable and will be more reluctant to stay at the school for such a long time. I am at that point now, as I have a family with two kids and also want to enjoy my own interests. The people I work with completely understand this, especially when you think that the Japanese full-time teacher is making at least double that of an ALT through a dispatch company.

Sorry if I come off negative, but you are definitely a prime example of a "good gaijin teacher" in Japan. Keep it up, but also suggest that what you are doing (i.e. club activities, etc.) is an extra and if you need a day off they should not complain.

[tedkarma]

I can see both sides of the fence here. I've always tried to be a "value-added" employee - to always provide more than what was asked for. But I also agree that it is important to create a good space for a decent personal (and private) life.

Immersion in the initial stages of a career though - is probably a good idea.

Culture shock issues do start to show up around the fourth month or so and euphoria can shift to less comfortable feelings - but it all self-corrects after a while.

Congratulations on a good positive transition to Japan!

[denise]

Cogratulations, and thank you for such a positive post! All too often, we only talk about the negative things...

d

[Squire22]

Cheers guys,

Yeah I know that I`m kind of throwing myself into, which I think is to be expected as I`m still new to all of this. I have had a few days where I just didn`t feel like doing sports so i just wandered around watching for about a half hour and left early at 4.30pm which is great because as mentioned above, burnout can be a problem.

I enjoy my personal space/free time, I joined a local Aikido group about 4/5 weeks ago and they`re a really friendly bunch, not great at English but just awesome communicators and fun people. I enjoy going up to the next town with my neighbour and generally just relaxing, reading and studying. It`s all good fun and at the moment i don`t ever feel pressured for time, like the weekend was too short or the weeks too long.

I`m still waiting on the whole culture shock thing though, so far, no issues or problems, and the little things that keep coming up I just think are cool. There`s only another 5 weeks of term left and then it`s the summer vacation, I already have a couple of things planned, a short trip to Tokyo etc. Nothing too far out of my way because there`s lots of cool places to go visit in the area where I`m living, there`s a couple of local festivals going on which should be good fun. I`m really hoping to spend most of the time studying as best I can so that when i return to school after the break I can really hit the students and teachers with some Japanese! We all need things to aspire to

I have no doubt at all though that my thoughts and feelings will change over time, it`s only natural, maybe I`ll remember to post something 6 months down the line about how it is then, but for now, my Japan is a good place.

Many thanks

[Glenski]

Squire,
Nice post. Thanks.

Two things.

Heads up on culture shock (as others have noted).

Please consider posting this in the Japan forum.