charlie's journal

It's midterm test time at the school I'm teaching at now. For my freshman high school test I do a speaking test, because the students are smart enough to get perfect tests on written or listening tests, but they still can't speak English with confidence.

However there are 35 students in each section, and I only see them once a week. So I have a review day one week, test the first 17ish students one day, and the last 17ish students the next week.

One of my supervising teachers commented that this test is unfair because some students have only one week to study while other have two weeks to study. I know this, and I go in reverse order for the final test to try and counter balance this unfairness. He said still the test is unfair. But in reality, high school students don't study anyway, and the few students who do study are already ready on the first day, and the rest of them will never study anyway.

I reminded him that I have been doing tests this way for a year now, and the teacher in my position did them the same way before me.

This year there are some new government regulations about English speaking classes for freshmen.

1. freshman should be taught English Speaking from a government recommended text (before this law I was teaching without a textbook)

2. freshman should be taught English Speaking at least twice a week (for budget reasons, the school is currently ignoring this law)

3. English Speaking should be a separate course, not combined with Reading or Writing.

Last year the grade for "English I" was a combined percentage of Reading, Writing and Speaking - my percentage was 20%, Reading and Writing were both 40%. However this year there are three separate courses with three separate grades.

My supervising teacher said, "Oh, last year it didn't matter because you were only 20% of the grade. But this year you are 100% of the students' grades."

So it didn't matter that my tests last year were unfair because my grade didn't matter anyway?!?! So now I don't matter. I wasn't really a teacher last year. I mean my title is "ASSISTANT Language Teacher", but really I've been doing all the planning, all the talking, and you sit in the corner in case I fuck up (which hasn't happened yet), and then you have the nerve to tell me my class didn't matter?!?! F* off!

...That's what I wish I could have said to my supervisior.

Can you get cancer from kissing a smoker? My new girlfriend is a smoker, and after I make out with her, I defiantly have some sort of heavy smell or something on my teeth.

...but everything else is going great. She's really energetic and nice. Really understanding about foreigners (that's rare out here in the boonies of Japan). The only other hitch is that we have this eternal cloud of "we're gonna break up someday because we're from different countries" following us.

Anyway, it's late. Yes netalive, I am still alive. I just got internet at home (after spending one YEAR without). Later!

Being a foreigner makes you really moody. All the culture shock does weird things to your emotions. But for about the last month I've been thinking about my job, and it's turning more negative.

Don't get me wrong. I love being the only native teacher at this school and having complete creative control. And everyone here is really nice and generally understanding. And aside from about five out of my 210 students, they're all great kids.

But with complete control comes complete responsibility. So I've bit into the Japanese work ethic, I think I work 50+ hours a week. But I quit counting a long time ago. Now is grading/finals season and only now am I starting to realize just how many things I am responsible for. And how many important things absolutely NO ONE bothered to tell me!

I talk to all the other foreign teachers in town, and out of all of them, I still think I have the best job with the best students. But this month I've been thinking about how many things make this job hard.

1. I teach different classes in all three years of high school, plus two years of junior high

2. I make my own materials for all my lessons except junior high

3. I translate the "What's happening today at school?" web page into English once a week (with a little help from Google language tools).

4. I'm involved in all English and Religion Department activities and meetings, even though I rarely understand what goes on at the meetings

So what I'm thinking right now is: A) look for a better job in Japan (I'm still checking Ohayosensei.com, thanks r_pendragon!). I even thought about taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test to help me get a job (Needless to say Orchid, I don't think the JPLT exactly useless anymore. When I started working here, I learned really fast how incomplete my Japanese is). or B) Go back to the states and find a large community of Japanese people - like in LA, Seattle or Chicago - or just generally work in ESL. But I have no idea where to start looking for jobs in those places - especially from overseas.

I've still got a year and a half left here, and I'm pluggin' away here. I like it. But I don't think I'm going to stay here forever.

But I still love Japanese people and Japanese culture. So if anyone knows anything about finding a job in Seattle, LA, Chicago, Sao Paulo, Madrid, or other cities with major Japanese populations, I'd love some information.

Thanks for reading.

A few days ago one of the other English teachers asked me if I wanted to go out for dinner after work with him and the gym teacher. When you`re newly a foreigner, you never turn down an invitation. So of course I went.

As it turned out, we went to a snack bar. We sat down, were given some snacks, then each of us was given a companion. A beautiful woman in a small black dress with a long slit. We also paid for their drinks, smokes and snacks. As it turns out mine spoke English and in fact she had been a student at our school 5 years proir. She and I are the same age. Besides serving us food and alcohol, we also sang karaoke.

At first I tried the stealthy moving closer hand approach and the slowly up arm behind back approach. But my companion took no advances. So at about this time I started watching my co-workers and realized that they were being complete gentleman - besides the fact that they did not avert their gaze. At the end of the night, they accompanied us to the door, and then took the next waiting customers.

So really, we went to a restaurant where the establishment supplies the dates. As odd as it sounds culturally, I think this would be a great thing for other countries to implement.

Imagine all the lonely men (and women, they also have these establishments for women customers although that is rarer) who cannot seem to get a date and hence have poor self esteem. But they have plenty of money. This could be a great way to improve people`s view of themselves. And it isn`t prostitution, I think.

Two nights ago my students had a band concert, and they wanted me to come. I did not really have time, but i went anyway - btw they were great. Students in japan can only be in one club, band, choir, cooking, baseball, volleyball, etc. So when they do something, they do it really well

the shift key isnt really working here at this internet cafe.

so after the concert i went to what i thought was a ramen shop. Turns out it was a sushi and soba shop. I was hoping for fast service but since it was sushi - which takes a long time to prepare - service was slow. But i had already had a hot towel so i stayed. Since i was by myself i was seated at the bar.

An older man and his wife were noticably talking about me to the sushi cook - american in japanese is amerikajin, and they did not say it softly. They were guessing about if i could read the menu, and what i could eat

there was a poster behind them on the wall, and i knew it said apple something, so i asked what the something was. They said it was apple sake. I asked if it was good, the man unconvinceinly said yes. And then he bought me a small bottle - exclamation point.

I knew i couldnt drink the whole thing myself so i tried to get him to stay. He had a shot and left me the rest saying something about needing to get going. By this time its 9 pm and i havent had anything to eat besides this meal since noon.

So i had three shots and they hit me harder than usual. I still had lesson plans to make, and thursdays lesson hadnt gone well - i got a lot of blank stares,　i dont think the kids had fun and they only kind of understood. So now its ten, im a little drunk and i make two and a half hours worth of lessons in a hour

the next day, friday, i come to school with my intoxicated lesson plans, the kids had fun, they learned well, and everything went great.

This is the kind of place japan is, a random man who seems to be rude, buys you a drink, and it makes your day - exclamation point

Wondering how I'm doing?