Hindsight

Amber is a fellow Cancerian. This evening was Jon’s birthday so we all met up to wish him the best as he blew out the flame from his own lighter - we had no cake.

Today was rage day, an afternoon where I revealed my more serious side to students who would not give way to the teacher. Actually, this is really common with 3-nensei.

It’s crazy to think that just two months ago the 2nd year students moved onto being 3rd year students with a new seriousness to their lives. Maybe a sudden rush of juku (cram school) or something, I don’t know. They also find themselves comfortable with igoring teachers. This time was the first time in a long time that I had to show them the serious James face ™.

While trying to explain a game to the kids, a few of them talked above me. It got to the point where I couldn’t explain our activity to the rest of the class without raising my voice. Thankfully just walking by them proved helpful. During the activity, all was good. But as the class ended with Morizono-sensei’s usual “Owarimasu!” (class finished), the group again would not stop talking.

“HEY,” I said, loudly. “BE QUIET”.

I revealed to them a very serious face. A very “you kids really need to know your place” glare. The classroom became quiet. The kids turned around and knew that I wasn’t going to have it today. I was tired.

I’m not usually a disciplinarian. But often things get out of hand. Disruptions abound, trying to co-teach a class can be so frustrating. It’s amazing how nice and respectful people are in this country when some of these kids are just unbelievable. It’s like they’ll talk amongst themselves audibly even when trying to teach a lesson. I know for a fact that this happens to ALTs all over the country.

Today I had to do something about it.

After school I met up with Alex for kaitenzushi, and we went on a rant session. Kids seeing the ALT as a person to mess around with, kids turning off their ears when english is spoken in the classrom (i.e., kids will say they don’t understand even though we explained the game three times in ultra-slow english. The list goes on and on.

Even more frustrating is the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) who will not plan. Though it’s only Tuesday, I’ve been asked to “think of anything” for 3-nensei classes with a one or two hour notice in advance. Alex has it worse: sometimes he has no idea until fifteen minutes before class. And we’re supposed to be effective team teachers in this situation? It’s no wonder all we can do is whip up games with a time window like that.

It’s just one bad day that will pass. But I did preach this to Alex and Dion at separate times - we don’t need mid-year conferences about what to teach to kids. We need a serious round table discussion between ALTs and JTEs. Trim the fat: the serious problem is the relationship, lack of communication and planning time between ALT and JTE.

I was going to spend the evening rested after that when Jon called. I told him I already ate.

“I’m gonna have to play my Jewish guilt card on you. You ready?” he asked.
“Oh no… whatcha got.”
“It’s my birthday.”

That explains why I went to Yakyuudori, despite drinking almost a full bottle of Umeshu singlehandedly and having a mild hangover in the morning. This evening was ultra-moderative drinking and chit chat with Amber about my future plans back home. San Francisco is not ruled out either. She was pushing me to go since she’s from the bay area.