Fair Warning: This blog might be a little negative or depressing to read. Also, spelling errors. ごめんね。
Let's start with a little backstory. In Japan, the school year starts on April 1st. Each year, near the middle of March, certain teachers are informed that they will be changing to a new school. As far as I can tell, there is very little rhyme or reason to who gets transferred... but on the whole, the younger a given teacher is or the longer a given teacher has been at the school, the greater the chance that he/she will be transferred.
I can sort of understand the reasoning behind it, but a lot of what I see makes no sense at all. Sometimes I feel like someone somewhere picks a name from one hat, a school from another, and "PRESTO!" those are the changes to be made.
That out of the way, I have two very different stories to tell.
As I have said many times before, I teach at 7 schools. Five of them are Elementary Schools (ES) and two are Junior High Schools (JHS). I enjoy my time at ES, but in all honesty, it is not where my heart is. I much prefer my days at JHS over my days at ES. The kids are more mature, they tend to take English more seriously than their ES counterparts, and I get to work with teachers who have studied and speak English.
Yesterday and today were the farewell dinners for both my JHS. This type of dinner starts out really formal, with the Principal and Vice-Principal each making a speech. Then, each teacher that is leaving makes his or her speech. Then the eating and drinking commences. Through the course of the night, more speeches are made, presents given, and one-on-one chats take place. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but let's just say I've had wildly different experiences at my two JHS.
At one of the schools, the teachers are incredibly nice, friendly, and I feel like they actually want to get to know me as a person. At this school, 5 teachers are being transferred. Two of the teachers were part-time, so I didn't really get to know them that much (as we were rarely at the school at the same time). But the other three I'm really sad to see go.
One is a PE teacher who is almost like a motherly figure to me. It's really difficult for me to put into words, but something about her really reminds me of my mom. I wont lie - I got a little choked up when we said goodbye. The second is the Vice-Principal. The only word I can think of to describe this man is "jolly". He would often come to my desk to chat with me, or ask me about this and that, or tell me jokes. He's just a really good, well-rounded man. Finally, the music teacher. I think I'm most sad that she is leaving, because I really only started talking with her a month or two ago. This is mostly my fault that we didn't speak as I was too shy and my Japanese is still really bad. I'm really starting to regret it now, as she can sing well, play piano beautifully, is interested in English, is younger than 30 years old (this is RARE in my town), and is unbelievably pretty. Lesson learned: don't wait around.
Now, let's switch to the other school. At this school, the teachers barely even acknowledge my existence. I don't think its that they dont like me, I think it may just be that they are really busy. Still, there are days at this school where I quite literally talk to NO ONE, except to announce my arrival to and departure from school and a couple sentences here and there with the English teacher about the days classes.
With that in mind, let's jump to the farewell dinner of this school. Seven teachers are leaving, most of whom I have never even shared a word with. Two of the younger teachers came over to talk with me, but other than them (and the English teacher), I pretty much spoke to no one. I know part of it is my own fault, as I probably need to be more outspoken in Japan than I currently am. But a lot of the time, I think I get lost in the madness of the school day, and as a result I end up at my desk bored to tears. Sometimes I just wish a teacher, any teacher, would come to my desk and say "Let's go clean!" or "Come play tennis with us!" At least that way I would feel more included than I currently do. Yesterday at this school, I kind of just thought "Screw it!", and I basically followed my English teacher throughout the whole day and just did whatever she did. It definitely beat sitting at my desk, so I will probably be using this method next year as well. Still, it would make me BEYOND happy just to be asked, even if it was just once or for some menial task.
So yeah: two schools, two experiences. And that doesn't even include the FIVE elementary schools I go to every week. It may sound kind of weird when you consider that my schedule is the same every week, but I feel like there is very little consistency in what I do. That is to say, when I visit my Wednesday school, the time between this Wednesday's visit and the next Wednesday's visit encompasses 6 other schools, some 16-odd classes, with about 700 students ranging from 6 years old to 15 years old, with class sizes ranging from 2 students to 35 students, and all this with teachers who have wildly varying levels of English and drastically different teaching styles. Granted each week is practically over in a flash, but each week also takes me from the start to the end and makes sure nothing, and I mean NOTHING, gets lost in between. While it is rewarding, it is insanely exhausting. I've never been so tired before in my life than I am currently feeling. Some nights, even with 10 hours of sleep, I wake up and feel like I didn't even sleep at all.
So yeah... this wasn't really a rant or anything, just a way for me to put things into perspective, and hopefully others can find it interesting. If it came off depressing as I thought it might, I'm fairly confident it's because of the things happening around me. Teachers leaving, students graduating, the return of the unrelenting winter cold, RAIN, etc. etc.
While I will miss many of the teachers and students, I pretty much have to force myself to move on for my own sake.
In that sense, I am ready for spring, the new year, the new teachers, and new chances.
That's all for this time.
JJ, signing off.
