Archive for the ‘school’ Category
Pros and Cons of Working for OWLS
Posted on: March 18, 2008
Tonight I just got the details about my new contract. Here it is verbatim:
Your schools are Kato JHS, Kato ES and Genkai ES. You can walk to Kato JHS and ES from Akama station. To get to Genkai ES you can take bus from Togo station.
232,000 yen per month is provided except for August. So is transportation expenses up to 15,000 yen per month.
We will show you the actual contract at the meeting on 24th.
If you have some questions, please contact me.”
A Journey to afar
Posted on: February 28, 2008
- In: fukuoka | humor | Japan | japanese | jokes | kids | nihongo | school | Uncategorized
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So I’m out in the wilderness known to some as Japan. It’s a cold an arid place this time of year. My day was an absolute adventure today. I awoke to hear the sound of the native cocka-doodle-do bird. The natives say they are quite tastey with a bit of salt or a local sauce called terry-yakke. But I digress, I quickly shaved and gave my teeth a good polishing. Then I prepared for my journey. I hopped upon my two-wheeled foot powered vehicle and made way for the train station. Upon arrive I secured my transportation at a nearby securing station. You can never be too careful. Theft is one of the most frequent crimes in this land.
Once I secured my two-wheeled foot powered vehicle I made my way through the masses to get to my train. The train came roaring in right on schedule. Occassionally it is late because some lost soul found their way onto the tracks whilst a train was on its way and… you can fill in the gore-ish details. I deftly manuevered and aquired a seat near the front of the train. I had a long journey ahead of me. The train sped on and made a few stops along the way. There was the usual trouble making rabble on the train – the native women of this land have a perpencity to speak for extend periods at a unusually high volume when they reach the age of about 14; and then there are The Infectious. The natives of this land consider it a great sin to rest when one is ill. So they drudge on all the while spreading their illnesses to others. There are tell-tale signs of The Infections: they usually are dressed a in uniform of sorts that might consists of a jacket, a tie, slacks, a leather bag of some kind, and a white mask. Be warey of them for prolonged exposure to them can cause bad humors to rise in the blood.
After I reached my station I made way to a local eatery. I dinned upon a food called a dough-nut. It was positively delicatable. I forged on ahead toward my desitination. On the way I met one of my pupils. I tried to make intelligent conversation with the lad, but alas he like many locals are not very familiar with the American speak. So I challenged the young fellow to a race to raise his spirits over his inablility to communicate with me. It was a mad-dash to the gate. I could have won, but I could tell that the lad was giving a half-hearted effort, so I gave him some encouragement and he moved ahead speedily.
I was greeted by the headmaster and his subordinates. They were pleased with my display of athletic prowis. I made my way through the halls of the learning establishment to find my seat amongst the educators. It was to be a long and grueling day for them. I however was given the assignment of school mascot. As mascot I sit at my desk and try to look interesting. I sat for most of the day studying the pictorial writings of several manuscripts. In the local language they call it “Man-ga”. At about mid-day I parted company with my fellow educators and made the long trek home.
The sun is setting again on this mysterious land of boisterous young ladies, The Infectious, and cocka-doodle-do birds yet again. So I must make haste to find provisions for the night. Fair thee well. I shall write again when I have good news to report.
Meetings
Posted on: January 23, 2008
- In: fukuoka | Japan | jobs | meetings | school | teaching | Uncategorized
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Today I went to my company’s regular meeting. The first thing we got was our pay report for last month, so we’ll know what we’re going to get at the end of this month. After that the meeting started. They talked about the Christmas party. It sounded like a complete and utter nightmare. First of all the Christmas party is not for the staff. The party was to promote the company so basically all teacher had to put in a 14-hour day or more. They had to put in 8 hours at their schools and then 6 or more hours playing host/waiter to the guests. And they weren’t monetarily compensated for the extra work. Fortunately I was smart enough avoid it all together. I had to catch a plane to America for Christmas. The teachers we treated poorly and the event was badly planned. We discussed the good points and bad points of the party, and I think everyone put in some really good info. For example changing the date so people can attend their schools closing ceremony parties. That’s really the most important part.
Then there were a few presentations by 3 or so teachers. It all went fairly quickly. Which was good, because at previous meetings they went on for quite a while. Then we wrapped up with a very basic Japanese lesson. But there are still many teachers that don’t know Japanese, so I won’t knock it. It’s easy for me, but for others it’s like doing calculus with an abicus. I was once where they were about 7 years ago when I hardly knew any Japanese. So it was also announced that I will give a presentation at next month’s meeting and I have to decide the topic. It’s not hard, I’ll just give a 5-10 minute presentation on something that will help the other teachers.
Most importantly of all we heard that we won’t know if we have jobs until come April 1st. Basically it all depends on the whims of the board of education as to which company gets the contracts. We are competing with at least 2 other companies and so far I hear it can change without much notice. So I hope I have a job come April. But I’ll be putting in my application with the competition just to be safe. They’d snatch me up just to have somebody who is already trained as an ALT. It saves them money on training and it’s usually pretty easy to be put in the same school you had (from what I heard through the grapevine). I’ll probably put in a direct application with the Board of Education too if I can. Direct hires get paid double, but they have more responsibility. As a direct hire you are the English teacher and it’s not team teaching. If possible I’d like to get that kind of position, but I need to find out more. My Japanese is good enough to get the job or it will be soon enough.
Meaningful
Posted on: January 11, 2008
- In: fukuoka | Japan | kids | neighbors | school | Uncategorized
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I made it to work today just after they closed the front gate. I wasn’t late, I was right on time, which if I was a Japanese person would make me late. Sometimes double standards are a good thing. My first class of the day was fun. We did another lesson that the Japanese teacher had never done before. As a group I made the whole class write a story. I started it off with “A long time ago…” Then the kids had to take turns completing the sentences until we had a full story. It started off pretty normal, but it gets dark towards the end. It went something like this:
“A long time ago a grandmother went to a field to harvest potatoes. Her grandchild helped her gather the potatoes. Grandfather made potato chips. The potato chips were thrown all over the floor by a baby. The grandmother’s daughter Yoshiko stepped on the potato chips. The baby cried. The baby’s father left home. A dog ate the baby. The father’s brother Kenta was surprised. Yoshiko became ill from the shock. She died.”
My next class I taught kids conversation for calling a store to see if they have a video game and asking for the price. This went over really well. I was really surprised at how well they learned the language. If I had closed my eyes, I would have thought it was American kids speaking. It’s days like these when I really love my job. Also the Japanese English teacher told me that the kids really enjoyed the game we played yesterday. I bought the home edition of “Family Feud” on DVD and we played that. They were really engrossed in it. I had their full attention that day.
My last class was a ton of laughs. I had to teach the Special Education kids by myself. It’s the 1st time I had to do that. Both the Special Ed. teacher and the Japanese English teacher had to go out for a meeting of some sort. I didn’t get the details, but it wasn’t a problem for me. I’ve taught hundreds of classes by myself before I came to work for this company I’m at now. The kids are sweet as can be to me, but they beat the crap out of each other. The other teachers let them do it, but when it’s just me I nip the stuff in the bud as soon as I see it. Most of it is horseplay, but they get too rough. I’ve seen them grab one of their classmates lift his arms and knee him in the back. Anyway, I prepared an easy lesson for them. In hindsight a little too easy, but it was OK they still learned something new. I had about 15-20 minutes left over, but I filled it by answering their questions about me and America. The really wanted to arm wrestle me so I gave them all a turn. It was great fun. I let the weakest kid beat me the first time and they got upset so I had to rematch him.
I just got back from my next door neighbor’s house. I wasn’t expecting to have fun, but I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. That old lady is KA-ray-Z funny! She talks a lot, but she is really interesting. She still doesn’t have much tact, but it’s ok. She’s an eccentric to say the least. She talks about wanting to ride in a fighter jet, riding Harley’s when she was younger, and all kinds of things you never expect from an elderly lady. She’s smarter than I thought too. She likes to read. She introduced me to her chiropractor. He’s 32 or 34. He’s an interesting guy too. He’s pretty laid back. He speaks English very well, but like most Japanese is humble about their ability. He lived in Australia for 3 months. I find that the Japanese people who can truly speak English well are the ones that lived in an English country for at least a few months in their youth. There are a few exceptions, but that’s generally the case from what I’ve seen. I don’t think he wants to take English lessons from me, he just wants to learn by having conversation. That’s cool, language exchange is fun. It truly has been a meaningful day.
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