So, here I am sitting at my desk at (山﨑中学校）Yamasaki Junior High School, literally minutes after completing my first team teaching experience. So, I’m going to fire away with first impressions.
First of all, this school is tiny. Basically, there is a Japanese law that dictates the distance young Japanese students are allowed to travel from their place of residence to get to compulsory Education. Because of this, small schools spring up in order to meet the proximity requirements. The school I’m at at the moment is a Junior high school, and thus covers a bit of a broader area, but it still only has a little over 50 students. The other Junior High school I’ll be in is about 10 times that size, as it is located right in the center of Miyanojo, so it will be interesting to compare my experiences at the two schools.
Second: My main coworker here is a really fun, relaxed woman named Horiguchi-sensei. So far I feel quite comfortable working with her and think that classes at this school are going to be quite fun. At Miyanojo where I’ll be spending the majority of my time, there are 4 JTE (Japanese English Teachers) so I’ve yet to see what working with them will be like. In general, though, I get the impression that the whole of Kagoshima prefecture is very laid back, so I’m not terribly worried about it. More on that once the time comes!
Third: It seems a bit petty, but after several weeks at the regional board of education, it’s hard not to be aware of the fact that it’s humid and there is no air-conditioning. I think I can deal with it pretty well, especially since visible sweat glistening on ones arm and face are normal parts of life in Kagoshima, so noone blinks twice at it. In fact, it’s rather common for everyone to have a hand towel on hand (draped across the neck in casual settings) to use as, essentially, a sweat rag. I’ve got one myself, so I’m sure I’ll be just fine. I think the lack of climate control will be the topic of another blog come winter, but for now it’s really not that bad. I actually feel like it’s kind of nice, and certainly more environmentally friendly. Although, I wonder if it affects students’ attention spans.
Fourth: The kids are so timid. The class I was just in was 1st year middle school students (the equivalent of a US seventh grade student.) Middle school is when compulsory English classes begin, so these students are very afraid to speak and open up the possibility of making mistakes. Because of this, one of the explicit goals of ALTs in classrooms is to encourage students to use “communicative English.” In other words, if they get their point across, it’s best to be encouraging and get them used to English as a means of communication than shut them down for fear of English gaffs. So, I get to suck up the majority of the r-l mixups and “katakana” English. That is not to say that I can’t work on pronunciation by repeating back student’s questions etc., just that it’s preferable that I be easy on the errors. However, I am in small town Japan, so it’s likely that over time they will get used to me and open up a bit more. They are all quite curious about “Allen-sensei,” so I hope that gets them motivated to do their English homework.
Finally, what I’ve realized is that I probably am going to really enjoy this job. It is totally different from anything I ever thought I would do or plan to do long term, but I think it’s going to be a great experience. Anyway, I’m going to use the rest of my downtime between classes to try to work on a little Japanese study. There is always more to tell so stop by often. Thanks for checking in on me.
