August 1 was the one year anniversary of working for the JET Program in Japan. I realize that this post is a bit late but I have been traveling for summer vacation. This has been one of the most event-filled years of my live. It has been my first year of marriage, my first year out of college, my first full-time job, and my longest stretch of time outside of America. To make a long story short this year has been great. There have been highs and lows but overall this year was one of the best ever.
The first year of marriage does not perfectly go along with our time in Japan but close enough. There have been times that we have argued and had trouble getting used to living with each other. Those time have been fairly rare and I'm sure I love Samantha more now then ever. She is a great wife and I hope that I'm always the kind of husband she deserves. I think that living in Japan has taught us a lot about relying on each other. We have to work together to solve the problems that come up. Even the winter will be something that many years from now we can look back on and laugh about. Many many years from now.
Teaching has been great too. At first I was very nervous but I think (hope) that I am more coming into my own as a teacher especially at the Elementary level. This is mostly because at the Elementary schools I have a lot more freedom in the classroom to be what I want. I have the main teacher there to back me up but mostly just for help with order and explanations. There is only vaguest of curriculum for K-4 so those are mostly just vocabulary building and games. In 5th and 6th there starts to be a text book. A text book that I truly hate. They dont want to call it English so it just Foreign Language and at time wants me to say words in French, Chinese, Italian, Korean, Arabic, and Russian. They dont have any English pronunciation guide for them so if you cant read the Japanese one you are out of luck. They also dont have an English teaching guide so it can become pointing and read this to the kids. Even the chapter names are different in English and Japanese. For example the English is I like Red and the Japanese is lets do self introductions. This can cause no end to the confusion between the ALT and the other teacher.
The first year of marriage does not perfectly go along with our time in Japan but close enough. There have been times that we have argued and had trouble getting used to living with each other. Those time have been fairly rare and I'm sure I love Samantha more now then ever. She is a great wife and I hope that I'm always the kind of husband she deserves. I think that living in Japan has taught us a lot about relying on each other. We have to work together to solve the problems that come up. Even the winter will be something that many years from now we can look back on and laugh about. Many many years from now.
Teaching has been great too. At first I was very nervous but I think (hope) that I am more coming into my own as a teacher especially at the Elementary level. This is mostly because at the Elementary schools I have a lot more freedom in the classroom to be what I want. I have the main teacher there to back me up but mostly just for help with order and explanations. There is only vaguest of curriculum for K-4 so those are mostly just vocabulary building and games. In 5th and 6th there starts to be a text book. A text book that I truly hate. They dont want to call it English so it just Foreign Language and at time wants me to say words in French, Chinese, Italian, Korean, Arabic, and Russian. They dont have any English pronunciation guide for them so if you cant read the Japanese one you are out of luck. They also dont have an English teaching guide so it can become pointing and read this to the kids. Even the chapter names are different in English and Japanese. For example the English is I like Red and the Japanese is lets do self introductions. This can cause no end to the confusion between the ALT and the other teacher.
Middle school, or Junior High School as they call it here, is very different. I'm much more of an assistant to the regular teacher. Part of that is because of the the fact that I'm only there every other week. The main reason is my teachers personalities. Most are determined to get through every page of the text book in the year which means that you have to set a decent pace. This means that my main tasks are games and English pronunciation. Also, I correct the teachers and students grammar mistakes. There is a bit of an art to correcting the teacher is class so as not to hurt anyone's feelings. I usually will change it myself while the teacher is not looking if its just something tiny. If it is a big mistake I will tell them about it during a pause in the lesson. I'm just glad my teacher want corrected at all so they dont teach kids the wrong things.
People ask me if teaching is my life's calling fairly frequently now. I have to say in all honesty yes and no. I love teaching and want to find something that would allow me to keep at it. However, I want to teach older students who are self motivated. At least one every two months I hear someone say, "I dont need English. I live in Ichinohe." I always try to tell them that they might not want to always live in Ichinohe and that learning English will open all kinds of doors for them. The students who say that they cant imagine not living in Japan at least and in Japan they can go through life without using a foreign language or talking to a foreigner. I want students who want to learn, not students that have to be tricked or convinced into it. I'm sure every teacher has said that at some point.
Being out of college has been, frankly, a bit strange. I still try and study everyday but now its just Japanese. I still have tests but just twice a year. The next being in December. I'm hoping to pass the level 2 Japanese Language Proficiency Test this year. That would qualify my for many jobs back home and even college here if we decided to stay. There is a lot I miss about college and a lot I dont. I miss being able to take a class in something that interested me. I really miss debate team. I dont miss professors and I dont miss general education requirements. Having a full time job, even an easy full time job like mine, was not that big an adjustment. The hardest of the adjustments to having a full time job was the jobs location in Iwate. In college you had the occasional snow day for 3 inches of snow. Here all winter there is at least a foot and not one snow day.
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