You haven’t been hearing from me, so you know I’m on the cusp of being found skinny dipping in a rice field. It’s mostly the back-to-school stress of dealing with new teachers. Every year, just when we settle into a routine, teachers are traded between schools.
I’d feel sorry for the new arrivals if I didn’t feel superior. Their presence means I’m no longer the bottom rung, and so I participate in making them feel inadequate by ignoring them. A new guy, whose mother you can still see in his features, can only seem to find self-worth in dashing to answer the phone before it even completes its first ring. The rest of the time he moves like a stray dog, accustomed to being shooed and pelted.
We’ve also got a crazy spit fire wun dat is a retired principal. Her hair is fashionably short and she’s not dyed the white out the curls. Both her mannerisms and voice are loud (very unJapanese qualities). The first day she arrived, her “OHAYO GOZAIMASU!” (GOOD MORNING!) was so loud the entire staffroom looked around. I opened my eyes wide at my supervisor and pouted. However, the students respond to her questions in class. While she does use a lot of Japanese, it’s her energetic and empathetic personality that accomplishes this.
She stumbling around me like an intoxicated bumble bee, so I better go ask why. I teach with her today. Uh hundred an’ one tings she wan do—nutten to do wid de syllabus! Daz my only complaint…but she is de main teacher, so I hope that when the bureaucratic truck lick her down, guts don’t splatter on me.
Self-defeating System of English Teaching
The classes at my base school have been challenging in this self-defeating system. Students hate English because of the generally accepted boot camp standard of drills and tests. They are so defeated after years of this, they won’t try. Those who do, will memorise and answer “Today is Tuesday” when asked “How are you TODAY?”
Then, the text books are full of foreigners talking about how much they love Japan. Marie-Claire’s favourite food is sushi and Sergey will kill his mother to “view” sakura (cherry blossom). Why learn English when all the English speakers favour Japan, where students already speak Japanese?
They also only study English for two years at my technical high school and drop it in the third year—so many students’ goal is to make it through without studying it at all.
Crisis
I’m questioning my criteria for self-assessment. What makes me a good teacher? The effort I put in or the results? And how can results accurately correspond to effort made with these types of students? I need resolution to be able to continue teaching in a way that will convince my coworkers I care (only because, from past experience, this keeps me unfired). Reminding myself to be grateful might be the solution.
Absinthe Bar
I had no idea
When my eyes opened I was at an onsen (hot springs) in another prefecture and the following was saved to my Google maps:
The absinthe might have been served to me at Live Bar Beatles which is close to that link but, there are other absinthe bars. All I remember is loving the ritual of it. The glass was filled with absinthe, an elaborately perforated spoon with a sugar cube placed on top, and water dripped onto it from an absinthe fountain. I believe there was a menu with a selection of absinthes as well…which might explain me losing time and waking in another prefecture.
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