No, Really, I Am an American

Gosh if I don’t have a lot to catch up on….Let’s see….where to begin….Eto…

The teaching is very different. If there’s anything I think I’ll take with me from this experience it’s the ability to multi-task. I mean, I’ve been able to juggle things about before, but this is a whole new level for me in that I have to keep “focused” on the camera, while listening to the students’ pronunciation of English coupled with the ability to correct them, as well as prepare the next portion of the lesson which may include the writing tablet, the typing pad, or one of the various mpegs and hopefully not accidentally switch off the camera while selecting the next image or tool. There’s also the matter of the microphone, which I keep forgetting to take off mute after the listening activity. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re actually doing it, it’s minorly stressful. Everyone keeps telling us that it gets to be routine after about two weeks. Then it’s tedious, dull, and downright boring.

I can understand that. The lesson plans are set and it’s the same format for every lesson. So far I don’t mind, but then again I’ve only been at it for a week.

The actual teaching itself is nothing like student-teaching in that I’ve never had to really facilitate the actual learning and application of the language. There are a lot of gestures and shortening of the language that I have to learn to use. We can’t be overly polite: “Hitomi, please read the question in yellow and Tsubayashi, please read the answers in white.” Instead it’s: “Hitomi, read the yellow and Tsubayashi, read the white.” It’s a strange thing to be conscious of.

I don’t really have a problem with the rate of speech, I’ve always been able to speak slowly when need be, but other things like the vocabulary I use is another thing I have to tone down. For example, (< — we say this a lot in lessons) they don’t necessarily know the word “pretend”, instead, we use “imagine” — hence the title of this post. “Imagine you are buying…Imaging you are…” They also have a grasp of “=”, so I can write something like “pretend = imagine” and they’ll get it, but the latter word is used more often than not.

The Japanese don’t ask questions too much, either. “Understand?” And everyone will confirm, but then when I ask them to apply the new phrase or sentence, it’s a big fat not so much. I know that this is generally the case with any teaching, I mean, come on, I did teach high schoolers for a spell; but this is a different kind of misunderstanding. My kids at U-High were just plain indifferent and apathetic, these students here are just embarassed to not understand.

I have gotten a few questions here and there, but it’s few and far between.

When speaking about oneself, the Japanese don’t point at their chests as we might in America, but rather their noses. I don’t know if pointing at the chest is a bad thing, but just to be safe, I have to amend how I speak about myself.

I honestly don’t know if any of the students I’ve taught so far have really learned anything from me. I feel like I’m making them dumber, honestly.

On the other hand, I don’t feel as horrible coming out of bad lesson. Like, I do for a time, but by the time I leave work, I’ll have forgotten the crummy lesson. Not really the case while student-teaching. I think the difference is that it’s not my lesson that failed, it may have been my execution of it, but I didn’t put so much of my time and energy into it. Also, there’s a chance I won’t ever see some of these students again in my teaching whereas I had to go back and face the same class again the next day.

I got a little frustrated towards the end because just like student-teaching, the evaluations are based on teaching style variations and preferences. Since I’m still on probation and such, it’s frustrating for me to figure out who to listen to. I’ve been complimented on my use of pauses and of the various tools and how long I keep the text/pictures on screen, but in the very next observation be criticized of it. One chap was actually talking to me and telling me things while I was trying to teach, but since we’re not supposed to look off-camera so obviously, I was at a loss. I couldn’t focus on him, focus on my students, think of how to help them, and implement the tools all at the same time.

Like everything else I’ve experienced in teaching, it all comes down to style and preference. For the time being, I’m jumping through the hoops, but I already have an idea of how I’ll do things.

It’s just different all together.

I made nice with one of the French instructors because I spoke what little French I knew, much to Guillam’s delight; and talked to Alessandro, one of the Italian teachers, about joining his Kendo Dojo. I’m trying to make a few connections, if anything, because I’m going to be working at MM for a year (if I don’t get fired first, which apparently is REALLY hard to do) and while I have resigned myself to being friendless, I ought to make some attempts at socializing.

To celebrate the end of OJT, Braden, Tiara, Helen, and I went out. We ended up meeting in Namba and then traversing Dotonbori. We found a 380 bar, all the food items are 380 Yen (about $3.80), but all other drinks vary in price. We toasted over o-sake and the others, with the exception of Helen and me, had a couple rounds of beers. Tiara’s roommate Adelle came with us, too, so between her, Braden, and Tiara, they must have had at least a dozen beers and four bottles of sake.

Braden’s an odd chap, but a generous one. He paid for the whole lot of it — the bill ended being something in the neighborhood of $100. He’s either generous, he tried paying for various things when we went out for lunch together or when I showed him how to get to the dollar store where I bought a new pair of slippers, or he’s trying to flaunt his money. I’m oddly enough thinking the former rather than the latter. He doesn’t strike me as an ass hole. My roommate is convinced that I like him or he likes me. I don’t think I’ve known him long enough to really make a decision. Oh, and that other potential minor detail…

Helen has become my new BFF. Everyone asked me what I had planned for today. “I have to start my bank account, change some traveler’s checks, and I planned to write.”

“Oh what are you writing?”

I have no qualms about being a loser around these people so I answered honestly. “A fanfic.”

Helen’s eyes brightened, “You write fic? What fandom?”

I turned to her with equal excitment. “You speak fic?” After her nod, I told her about the various fandoms I read and abashadly told her what I write. To make her a thousand times cooler, she is also a Browncoat. She shamefully confessed that she hadn’t seen Serenity yet, but I told her not to worry since I brought it with me. (I’m just trying to get the gorram cable to work still, with which my luck, won’t.)

Also, Hel doesn’t drink much.

Who knows, really. It might all still be forced camaraderie, but the time being, I imagine we’ll all be friends for a bit. If anything, we have a mutual love and devotion to All Things Whedon.

Tomorrow starts my first day of real “work”. I’m a little nervous, though, because for the past couple lessons, we’ve had time to look through the lesson plans before hand. Not so much the case tomorrow, I don’t think. I guess this is the part where I wing it.

“Imagine, I don’t suck as a teacher…”