A little geography lesson, Tokyo is one of the 47 prefectures in Japan. So it's kind of seen as an entire "state" in Japan, as well as a smaller more defined city. I currently live in Tokyo "state" Katsushika "county" just across the Arakawa River on the NE side of the main Tokyo city limits....
That's not confusing at all is it?
That's not confusing at all is it?
This map is of all the locations I had to go to in my first two weeks of work. X.X
My first day of actual work was in another state entirely, called Chiba. (Red Line)
(It was a total of seven locations within 14 days!!)
I was pretty freaked out for a lot of reasons: crappy training, a really long trip, first day of actual work. etc... I was sweating bullets the entire hour and a half trip (got an express) there. They were kind enough to pick me up by car b/c once I arrived at the station due to the school being a winding 20 minute walk. As I understood, it was a one time courtesy; therefore from the very first moments of contact with the secretary I made every attempt to make sure that my "shuttle service" continued. I can only handle so much stress, and just the thought of possibly getting lost on top of everything else was just too much at the time. Perhaps I might have felt more secure if I could have Google walked to the school virtually first-- but GEOS doesn't have their school locations posted online. There are times when pride gets in the way, so for that time I didn't mind playing up the "helpless American girl" act.
I had arrived almost two hours early so I could figure everything out-- it felt like 10 minuets. I had hoped against hope that there might be another teacher there to help.... but that didn't happen. So instead I spent those first two hours desperately trying to figure out what book went with each class-- reading over the LMPs (Lesson Management Plans) trying to figure out the wall of CDs which one when, what songs, where are the singalong track lists!? Oh #$@*( where's the modified lesson track lists!?! and on and on....till the time was up. I had to face the music...
AKA screaming children. My first class was two IL kids. (Infant low) Both four years old. My "noobness" must have been obvious because from the moment they entered the class room it was sheer chaos. Climbing on the table, jumping off the table, trying to jump off the table and onto the cubical wall,... I finally got the intro song started "A,B,C,D..." but instead of touching the laminated alphabet picture cards on the wall, the kids scattered to the four corners of the room pulling out letters from the alphabet foam floor. %$*@$! Many, many times I cursed under my breath the person who had the "bright idea" to install those tiles. After the first 5 times I finally learned-- don't put the letter back in until after class. Keeping them inside the classroom was also problematic as half the time they would dash outside to hide their new found foam pieces. *ding dong~ The forty minutes finally ended.
After class the parents gather round and you explain the lesson points of the day and what you did with the children, which is then translated into Japanese. An interesting idea-- although my translator could barely understand me any better then the kids-- so she just would say whatever she thought the parents would want to hear. I took a deep sigh and went back to my classroom-- which was already populated by the next class of four five year olds. I quickly learned that the ten minute breaks in between classes at GEOS are completely fictional.
The next class went better, the kids were actually singing the songs and paying at least a little attention the games. That was until one of the girls just busted out crying. O.O ........ for a moment I just stared, in fact so did the other kids. There was a sudden silence that overtook the room, broken only by the ever increasing sobs of the little girl. As we looked on in utter bewilderment of the sudden outburst my mind was racing-- "What do I do??? This is exactly what I meant by poor training!" I attempted to calm her down-- with tone and body language being the only thing she could understand. I felt a little helpless as I tried to cheer her up..... then I saw it, and understood. Please, if your going to drop off your kid in a classroom they can't communicate in, please take them to the toilet first!
This was my first time encountering the barrier of expectations-- I could've understood her if she had spoken to me even in Japanese. I've come across this a few times since, but by and far I have to deal with the reverse. "NO TALKING IN JAPANESE! OK?" -- "はいい~" X( Seriously?? Why can't I be more 厳しい/strict with them?
GEOS schedules starts out with the youngest class and ends with the oldest. So as the day progressed into the older classes I started feeling... inadequate? weird? uncomfortable? I'm used to the older classes now, and in fact much prefer them to the younger classes, but when I first started it felt too much like actually teaching. Drills, phonics, grammar rules and all the other things that go with a normal English school, I wanted nothing to do with them! I'm a business major, not an English buff. It's my worst subject; I disliked all my English classes, and in some cases I had to really struggled to get decent grades. Ironic right? I came to Japan to teach something that I have no confidence in.
---Side Note--- Ahh... maybe that's why its so hard to keep up this blog. I know lots of people in the family really enjoy writing, the art of prose and type. Typically the only time I want to write is when I want to vent and can't do so with another person. I just like story telling. To capture a moment, an emotion, and live it together with your audience. Writing also brings out my perfectionist side; coupled with the fact I get bored of my story quickly means that the writing, re-writing, scraping, and procrastinating seriously impede any real progress. I've been toying with the idea of a Vlog-- but I'm not sure if it would help at all; I'd probably spend all my time editing the video. XP
--Side Note End--
If the younger kids could get a feeling of my Noobness, the older kids knew it as a fact. I would always miss some critical part of the class routine and the kids would look up at me with those "Are you incompetent, or just plain stupid?" expressions. The fear of a coup or rebellion that first day was pretty real even if it sounds ridiculous. I had one kid who crawled under the table and literally fell asleep. I spent three solid minutes of doing nothing else but trying to get him in a chair and paying attention, but he would slip right back under the table as soon as I got him in the chair. Not to mention the eyes of eight other children watching every movement "What are you gonna do now?" I had no idea what to do... Again I screamed in my head "面倒くさい!! Why on earth did we NOT go over classroom management!?!?"
It was a brutal learning curve, everyday was a battle to perform a task I honestly had no idea how to do. But I'd like to think that I learned well from this harsh experience and that perhaps I did it better than most Nova teachers could have pulled it off >) ... there goes my pride again.... Anyway, on my last day there I got invited to what I later found out was a farewell party for the previous teacher. That final experience at Soga was an eye opener and made me grateful for one of the current stickler rules we have at Nova which many teachers have a high disdain for: the non-fraternization clause!
But that has more to do with my next post: "I work at a host club."
