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Avalonx1
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Name: Ann
Country: Japan
Gender: Female
Interests: travel, theatre, languages, archery
Expertise: Dealing with the jerks and idiots at the schools I work at. Well, I'm still learning in any case.
Occupation: Supposedly, I'm an "instructor
Industry: Not killing the little !@#$%^&
Message: message me
Member Since:
7/1/2002
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| It's different this time.Two weeks ago I had that yelling match with the JTE about he didn't talk to or communicate with me. Yesterday, we had to teach our first lesson since then. He's been real nice and I think it's totally fake, but that's not the point. We were doing a lesson on time, and he decided to change the time on the clock for class and I had no idea. When the students old me the time was wrong, I thought the clock jumped ahead because the clock was recently replaced, so I got the clock back to the correct time.
When class started, he looked up at the clock and said "Ann-sensei, I think the time is wro... ehh? What happened?" I think he's learned for real that THAT'S what happens when you don't TALK TO the person you need to work with! | | |
| Election DayIt's already November 4th in this part of the world but the polls haven't even opened in the U.S. yet. I voted by absentee ballot, but we all know that a vote from NY is inconsequential when it comes to the big stage.
I don't think I can return next year to a country that the Republicans are running. I'm actually scared to. I'm making more money in yen currently than I would in USD. While that's great, because I'm here, the state of my home country being like that is not. Dumbya screwed the U.S. up and thinks he did a stellar job of running the country even though, not only did you always see him taking a vacation every 3 months, his ratings are completely in the crapper (like the country is currently). I wonder what kind of blinders they put on him.
I have nothing to contribute about the election that isn't already out in the blogosphere world/internet. All I want people to do is exercise their right to vote. It's because people didn't care enough in 2000 that the first mistake was made and when we did care enough, the numbers just weren't there. It's time to change that.
Rock the Vote.
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| games.I don't know why I wrote that much yesterday but I sounded ridiculously self-absorbed. I also can't imagine it being professional for me to list out all the crap that went into that half-mad tirade at the guy. I know I'm right but there was probably a better way to do it than what I did. I probably blind-sided him a bit but he knew I had a problem before that so it wasn't out of the blue.
Still, like I said, I won't see the teacher for a week and I won't be teaching with him in the following week, so what's there left to talk about in the 3 weeks after that? *shrugs*
I feel like it's a game, almost. As if it were a game teenagers play to get back at each other for the horrible things they did to each other to begin with, like lying, cheating, stealing whatever variety of things that you can lie about, cheat on/off, and steal (from). I'm only a pawn, but the game isn't as smart as chess. It's those petty, little mind games that no one benefits from.
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| The type of person who I never want the "pleasure" of working with again. Never is too soon.I'm not nearly as mad as I was two weeks ago or even this afternoon, but I thought I should note this and write it down.
Passive-aggressive JTE and I got into a yelling match. Well, more like me yelling at him and him making excuses for all the crap he's done/put me through.
Tomorrow morning I will still feel that I am right and I will not back down when I see him next time, which will be next week. Hurrah for having elementary school visits the rest of the week and for the long weekend coming! I probably won't speak to him next week either because I don't have any lessons with him, so that will be 2 weeks of no contact. And since the other teacher in this story was told the lesson plan for the 3rd week, I won't be teaching with him in that 3rd week either. The way I see it, I have 5-6 weeks left afterwards at this school, and on top of all the crap the students do sometimes, I don't need a grown man to make it worse.
The first time this man ever met me (at the first school I worked at) he told me he wanted to speak English to me, he wanted his students to learn English by speaking to me, and he wanted us to have a good speaking relationship because he said he liked to speak English.
Cut to a month later when I work at this school (December 2007) and I taught a total of two lessons with the man for the 3rd graders in their last semester. Out of all the grades in the school, I think it would've been most beneficial for the 3rd graders to have contact with the native English speaker, considering they've learned (or should've learned) the most English out of the whole school. TWO lessons!
Cut to the 1st semester of the year, which started in April, and I had way more lessons with him teaching the new 1st graders than I had with the other teachers in a month. I figured it was probably because I had taught some of those students in elementary school so he thought it would be good for them to get familiar with English through me. Except, my role in that classroom was HTR - Human Tape Recorder. I did nothing but read and repeat in his class. "Please repeat after Ann-sensei" is an oft-heard phrase with my ichinenseis. I don't mind it so much, only to say that it gets boring real fast, but I do recognize it as part of my job. I'm really happy when my students don't speak katakana English because I don't speak katakana English. They've started to notice when English is spoken funny.
Cut to this semester, when a new (Japanese) assistant English teacher arrived and I was told I would teach with her sometimes too. We hit it off from the beginning and, I swear, if she wasn't there today, I would be that much more angry and unhappy. Oddly enough, she sort of contributed to the problem but through no fault of her own.
Ever since she arrived, this man has relayed every single lesson through her. He refused to speak to me even more than before. Any time we had a class together, I had to approach him. I almost started to feel like he was doing it on purpose - making me unprepared for class, and hell, I'm not a student!
Then she came to the school and when we had lessons, he just told her what the lesson was even though I was the one who asked the questions. When I gave him an idea he said no outright, but when she suggested it (at my prompting, no less), he said it was a great idea. Whatever - whatever gets the lesson done. When the students get rough in class and I have to defend myself physically, this man will do nothing to stop it. Usually he'll yell at a student for acting up.
I have a really good relationship with the new teacher. She's my age, we talk about any and every thing, and we make really good lessons together. The guy has nothing to say to improve our lesson plans because the students like it so much. I've only had that happen a few times with the other JTEs since I've been here. It was rare before, but now, we strike gold each time.
Last week, we had a presentation lesson for all the English teachers in my town. Two weeks before that, he didn't speak to me even though I had lessons with him. All of a sudden, he started speaking to me again. Because his ass was on the line. Too naive to realize that, I just made nice and went with it. We agreed how bad the lesson in the book was even though we had no choice but to teach it because it was what the BoE people came to see. And we made a semi-decent lesson. We even joked around in class. I was surprised - the man had a sense of humor!
How the leaves change. (In the correct season too!)
I almost can't believe the following was the straw that broke the camel's back. As me and the new teacher were going upstairs for the next lesson we had together, I realized we needed the key to the classroom. I walked over to him to ask for the key and he decides to call out to the other teacher, who is already out the door, to give it to her. I may not understand Japanese all the time, but I understand actions well enough to know when I'm being dissed. I was less than 5 feet from the man and she was out the door already. It was rude.
I went to class mad but put it off long enough to get the class going and it went well. I was so grateful it was the best class of the 1st grade because I think any trouble would've ticked me off. I confronted him after class when the students left, and I almost wish I had that yelling match in the classroom but it would've gotten unwanted attention from the students next door
So instead, it ended up being in the staff room. With other teachers around and looking. And the kyoto-sensei looking straight across the room to the desks we were at. And the kocho-sensei coming out of his office to see what the hell was going on. So smooth on my part, really... *shakes head*
All of what I just typed above went into that yelling conversation, which was more like me yelling only and the man scrambling for words. It wasn't even the first time I had called him out on not talking to me about lessons either. I felt foolish but I didn't back down. I don't care that he can't find time to talk to me like a regular person but for me to ask about EVERY lesson we have together is retarded. I couldn't care less that it takes him less time to speak Japanese than it does for him to speak English. It takes me forever and a half to come out with Japanese sometimes. But to completely ignore me and disregard the fact I might understand just a little is severely underestimating who I am, not to mention my capabilities. It pissed me off even more when he said, "Please understand, it is very difficult to speak a foreign language," and "English is very difficult for me."
I basically responded along the lines of he can't say that. For one thing, he's an ENGLISH teacher, so he can't play that card. Secondly, his English is fine. It takes him a while to say stuff sometimes but it honestly is fine. I've heard much worse by other teachers. (The stupidest part was when he said "Thank you" because it wasn't meant as a compliment. It's his job so... you get the idea.) Third, he doesn't get to tell me a foreign language is hard. He doesn't get to pull that card because I speak 3 languages and I'm learning another and I KNOW how difficult it is. If he wanted to talk about how bad someone's ability with a foreign language was, he can't cite himself with me in the room. Hell, he can't cite himself with half the teachers in the room because they were also taught English at some point in their student careers!
His excuse for not giving me the key was that he had to check on the bathrooms on the east side of the building because students have taken to smoking in the bathrooms there.
Yes, and a monkey on LSD could still open the classroom door. Your point is... ?
He said I should try to be understanding, and I really was. I still am, in a sense. I even told him I'm a random person being stuck into his classes so I get it - it's a little weird to HAVE TO teach with another person in the room, but to treat me like I'm not worth talking to and to pretend I don't even exist even when I'm standing 5 feet from him is more than I should take.
So I didn't...
And that's how the yelling began. I even said "fuck/fucking/freaking" or some variation thereof, but not to him, just about the ridiculousness of the situation. I told him I don't say it unless I'm supremely angry. For example,"I was 5 freaking feet from you!" or "It's been 10 fucking months since I've been at this school and the only conversation we exchange is in class." or "I teach fuck all in your classes!" I *can* say I did not curse him out. There was no need to and my students do that on a daily basis. I definitely didn't need to do that.
I suppose on the bright side, somewhere in that little yelling conversation of ours (which lasted 20 minutes) was the fact that he recognized how well I teach with the other teacher and that he likes the lessons we put together. There's a reason for that - because we talk to each other. You know, that thing called communication? But it was said at an irrelevant time, so it was an excuse because he couldn't apologize for doing any of the above. He did eventually, but it was weak. And he had 10 minutes left to eat his lunch.
After that, when I was eating lunch, one guy (who has his own story later) *did* try to say I should make time to make team-teaching lessons with the guy. If only he understood the whole conversation... If me and the JTE actually made lessons together in the first place, I wouldn't have busted out a tear wasting my time with him to begin with.
All I can say is, by the end of the day, I had gotten several packs of cookies from people because I was the one crying. But I'm all good now.
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| ijime... suru?The school was good for almost a week (5 days or so!) - no fights or arguments, and then today happened.
It's Open School for three days this week and, of course, the kids don't act up until the parents are around! Idiots.
The brother duo decided to place a design into their hair to celebrate at the local matsuri (festival) and they came to school with it yesterday. They were told off by the teachers, as well as their father, it seems. So they went to get a haircut after the festival and they came back today... with mullets! Really bad ones. They just shaved off the designs and they look like stupid lion cubs trying to grow in tufts of uneven hair. And the worst/funniest part must have been when I saw the two of them after school with their friends because the 5 of them had the same awful haircut.
Tomorrow's the bunkasai (Cultural Festival) at school and the teachers were working ALL DAY to get the kids to shave their entire heads or at least come back to school with something less foolish-looking. It also looks bad for the school because it looks like they "allow" this behavior to go on, which sends a bad message to the PARENTS coming in tomorrow for the festival. I'm pretty sure the teachers didn't make any progress with the kids
Then, later, during Open School hours, the older brother decided to pick a fight with another kid for no reason. I really wish it was the "hi-light" of the day, but it wasn't.
There's a pond in the courtyard of the school. It's filled with really dirty water, from the rain and the plants growing in it. The 3rd years like to mess around and jump from one side of it to the other during lunchtime. The pond is about a foot deep and is held in by stone. Usually, it's the bad 3rd years (the ones in my facebook pics) who jump around, but today I saw something I couldn't believe was happening.
As I watched from the second floor window of the staff room, one kid was stripping down from his uniform to his gym clothes, and I could already tell that the "cool" (read: asinine) kids were bullying him/daring him to jump across the pond. As he does this, I was already seeing visions of bloody legs and bruised knees.
I did the only thing I could as the teacher with no real power and bad J-go skills - I told a teacher, "Ijime." He looked at me in disbelief and then looked out the window before confirming it. Another teacher heard me and yelled out the window to tell them to stop playing near the pond. They didn't and one kid jumped across to show off. Then the teacher I told started yelling out the window too, but I think because he doesn't teach their grade, they didn't even bother to look up. (By this point, I was standing behind the blinds because I knew the kids saw me say something.) Then it happened. The kid being bullied stepped up to the side of the pond, took the jump...
... and didn't make it across.
He got soaked - socks, shoes, everything (I'm kind of glad he didn't have his uniform on) - and he hobbled out of the pond because he smacked his knees into the pond wall. As I'm cursing under my breath, I ran out of the staff room, down the hall, down the stairs and to the other side of the building, wishing I had some medical supplies with me to wipe off the blood, tape him up, help him dry off, etc.
When I got there, all the kids had left him sitting on the side of the sumo ring. (The pond is next to the sumo tent.) No one bothered to help him. No one asked if he was okay. No one was there. Those kids went back inside the school and watched me as I got there. And it really doesn't help that I *do* care but have a teacher "status" because it's not cool if the teacher asks if you're fine. You look worse for it, but hey, someone's gotta care. Some other 3rd years did finally come outside, but they asked if he was okay in an obligatory way because by this point the other teacher joined me in the courtyard. He had a nasty, bloody cut across his knee.
I hate bullies/bullying and I really wish I knew enough Japanese to say "If someone tells you to do something you don't want to do, don't do it." This was peer pressure at some of its worst and was also the pressure to not look "chicken" when dared to do something. But not looking "chicken" todaycame with the price of looking extremely foolish and getting hurt. I really wish I knew how to say that.
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