On Time, at Last

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15

Today was the first time I made it to Nishi on time. I walked – like usual – from the train station, but was determined to successfully catch the rapid train, which I did. It was quite crowded and I was crammed in with (and up against) high school boys, which was not the most comfortable of situations. Luckily, they weren't MY students.

At school, there was a teaches' meeting and I was promptly introduced and gave my introduction speech in Japanese. I'm getting good at this thing. The teachers all laughed at the line about how “I like Japan, but it is very hot.” Once again, I was told that I had very clear and easy to understand Japanese pronunciation and once again I would like to thank Olivia for all her help tutoring me this past spring.

It was a busy day, as I taught four classes. Two classes at Nishi are first year students and two are second year homemaking students. I taught all day with the same JTE, who is quite young like me. As I haven't spent that much time at Nishi, I'm still a celebrity. As I walked down any of the hallways to class, all of the students chime “Hello!” and there are murmurs of “Magda....... Magdalene” everywhere I walk. And the occasional “kawaii!” which I still enjoy. I've talked with other JETs and we all enjoy this ego boost.

I can see now why the teachers at koko kept badmouthing Nishi. Nishi students are.. not terribly interested in school. Some of my students were good but the classes were dominated by disruptive students. Many students were late to class, blatantly sleeping in class, chatting with friends (and were completely unabashed when I stared.) My last class was my hardest. Several of the students held full-on conversations across the room while I was talking! And they would NOT be quiet. By the end of the day, I could feel my voice getting hoarse from trying to talk over them. I had tried just stopping and waiting for them to finish, but they never did. At one point, I even walked into the class and stood between the two parties as I continued giving directions. It's going to be a very difficult class and I feel bad for the quiet, well-behaved students on the periphery who might actually want to learn.

After that last class the JTE and I discussed it. He agreed that that is the hardest class and that he, too, has difficulties with them. But he also said that discipline is my job and I just need to smile and keep talking rather than try to do anything about disruptive students. I appreciate that, except that he did nothing. So, we'll have to see how this goes in the future.

The students' English level was very low, despite having studied English for 3-4 years. The America-in-Words game was painful in a class or two because the students couldn't come up with anything. Or they didn't care. It's hard to tell, but here I think they couldn't think of anything. I was practically spoonfeeding answers. “What's that?” “Sesame Street?” “Sesame Street is from America.” There were three or four girls with Sesame Street pencil cases.

They sometimes paid attention to my slide show. I enjoy the way they freak out when I mention that school is closed in Wisconsin if the windchill is below -40 degrees Celsius. I also feel an odd bit of pride, albeit a bit disturbed, too, to see them oogle the pictures of my little brother Francis. Students say he looks very strong. I LOVE mentioning that he's 188 centimeters tall – they're stunned and I am amused.

Bucky got thrown around the classroom.

I felt terrible for the students as I handed out my homework. I had given my JTE the blank self-introduction sheet, the one filled out with my examples, and the blank introduction sheet used by Kogyo with Japanese translations of difficult words written in. My JTE decided to give the students only the blank sheet, meaning that my lowest-level school got the hardest homework of all. Those students – if they do it, which I'm not optimistic about – are going to hate me. This also reinforces for me that I want to do all of my own photocopying in the future. As I was the one who gave them that homework sheet, I am the bad guy.

In between my classes, I worked on my lesson plan for Kogyo's directions class and also got a copy to the staff at Nishi as a proposal for their second lesson. (Having now done it once at Kogyo, I know that I'll have to do some revisions to make it work at Nishi.)

There was a staff meeting in the afternoon, but I wasn't expected to attend. I continued to work in the locked staff room while all of the other teachers filed out to somewhere else. I had originally been instructed to hand a piece of paper with a phrase in Japanese to the office staff to let the know to lock the teachers' room door when I left, but it turns out another teacher was staying to meet with students so I didn't have to do that.

I left at 4:30 and walked back in a drizzle that, thankfully lightened. I enjoy walking along the castle's moat. I also discovered that I walk past a Catholic church on my way home by sounding out some katakana (I don't know katakana but it turns out that I know all the characters required in that word.)

At the station, I bumped into Jane who was coming back from Nishi Junior High. Andrew was no where to be seen. We got to the platform JUST as the rapid was pulling away and had to wait another twenty minutes for the next train. It was nice to chat with her, though. We have a lot of similar experiences (celebrity status, etc.) and it's interesting to share what's happening to me with someone else in the same situation. She talked about showing up to school one morning and being told to teach a two hour lesson without any warning, preparation time, or idea what the students hitherto had been studying. This is a nightmare experience that seems all too common among ALTs. I told her about Nishi's homework and she commented that that's how you make students hate English. I can't disagree.

Back at home, I took a nap then cooked up some tofu and rice with a spicy peanut butter sauce. It was mediocre. I really need a good, simple recipe for rice and tofu, if anyone has one. I also used up the end of my white rice. While I'm excited to try brown rice, the 12 hour prep time to make it is quite long and I don't plan that well in advance. So I'll have to get some white rice as well, so I can have an instant (30 minutes) rice option, too.

Went to bed to the sounds of rain down-pouring outside my window and hoped it would stop by morning.