My First Day at the Office

I had my first day of work today. The office is really small and 6 people share a space smaller than my bosses office back home. Suddenly my 9'x10' cubicle back home doesnt feel so small. But the nice thing is everyone is close together and everyone is working hard at the same time. Sometimes I need quite time and move to my classroom to catch some peace and quite. However its not the same kind of noise when 4 girls are talking japanese and you have no idea what they are saying. The sounds quickly becomes background noise and I can ignore it enough to get some work done. So far the work has been really fun and easy, all I had to do today was draw a board with my name, place of birth, hobbies, previous job and countries I have traveled. Everyone was really impressed by my drawings which I find funny since its not my best work and alot of Japanese are far better artist than me.

I have a pretty easy schedule averaging about 3-4 classes per day except for sat which has 6-7 classes. Since teaching english is a service industry we are bound by the times that people are available so the busy times are at lunch time and after work. I start work at 12:45pm (Japanese are never late and you are expected to be at work early, so no more foster city time) from Tuesday to Saturday and get off work around 10pm.

I wear a suit and tie to work everyday and spend most of my time talking to students and observing my fellow teachers classes. The job doesnt seem very hard but like anything you need to get used to it. So far its alot more fun and doesnt really feel like I am working. I am worried about Thursday when the teacher I am replacing leaves since the guy has the job down and it's easy to just copy what he is doing.

I took some photos of my office so you can see what my office looks like. I have my own classroom and I am allowed to decorate it anyway I like. I have 6 co-workers: Kyle is from Texas and I am replacing him, John Paul is from New York and he is the other foreign teacher, Chihiro and Kaori are japanese teachers and teacher the lower level students, Shuko is the boss and Keiko is the assistant manager.

I spend most of my day preparing for my lessons, coloring drawing and reviewing grammer points. Then when lessons start we are required to sit in the lobby and talk to students before and after class. Other job requirements are interviewing potential students and consoling students on how to study more effectively.

Right now I still need help on teaching but I think after a few weeks I should have it down. Keep your figures crossed since the rest of this week should get interesting when Kyle leaves by myself.