Going through the motions and living day by day
So I finally settled in and I don't feel like I am on vacation anymore. The honeymoon stage of being in another country has started to wear off and the reality of what I signed up for is starting to settle in.
My typical day consist of waking up at around 9am and getting ready for work. Once I am ready, I head out to starbucks to study for a few hours and learn some Japanese. I usually get something to eat and get into work around 12:30pm. I don't have to be there until 1pm but in Japan everyone is always early. I work until about 10pm, then I come home and get ready for bed. Unlike at home I spend a lot of time by myself which is unusual for me. I even discovered eating by myself which I wouldn't be found dead doing back home. I also spend a lot of time listening since most of the time I cant say anything and just listen and watch people. Most of the time I don't know what they are saying but I can catch a few words here and there. Sometimes enough to piece together the general jist of what they are saying.
I found that girls in the US and Japan all complain about the same things. At the office 50% of the time the girls are complaining about being hot, hungry and tired. I told all the girls in the office that Japanese and American girls aren't that different.
I am becoming a better teacher and I am starting to understand the job better. At first I thought it was all fun and games and the job was really easy but now I actually want to be able to teach them well. Unlike Engineering this job is all about people and communication. The strangest part of this job is varying the level of English ability you speak to different level students. For example low level students you must speak slowly and use 1 or 2 words and higher level students you can say complete sentences but need to pause after each sentence so they can translate in their head. Also the words that you pick are very important and sometimes you can get in trouble trying to explain something. I was trying to explain to a student that San Francisco's Haight Ashbury District is an interesting place to visit. When I told her that they have a lot of hippies there I got into big trouble. She didn't know hippies and any words that I picked to describe them got me into more trouble.
So in one day you must vary your level of English with every person you talk to from beginner to advanced and choose different words when talking to both. The hard part is first remembering which one of the 200 students you are talking to and there approximate level or ability. Learning Japanese also helps me with this since I can sometime hear the Japanese word and anticipate what words they want to say to me. Also some sayings are totally cultural and Japanese people have no idea what you are talking about. For example most of my sayings come from movie and television. I never realized how much slang and movie quotes actually use in my every day vocabulary.
Other culture problems I have recently encountered was my bad posture was interrupted by our older students as disrespectful and arrogant. I also accidentally insulted my co-worker this week when I joking with her. I caught I bit of a cold this week and she took me to the drug store to buy medicine. So jokingly I told her that I was going to take the whole bottle since I couldn't read the instructions. Appartently she was up all night worrying about me and when I came in the next day I told her I took the whole bottle and I feel better now. When she asked if I was joking I laughed and didn't reply. She thought I was being patronizing and insensitive to her worry so I upset her.
All and all I think everything is going fairly well. I am a bit lonely out here and I wish I could have all my friend from home here to share the experience. I did make some really good friends Tim and Brian and we spent our weekends hanging out and partying. Both are big drinkers and party animals so naturally we are good friends. Its been almost a month and I feel that I have adjusted well but I am starting to miss things from home.
My typical day consist of waking up at around 9am and getting ready for work. Once I am ready, I head out to starbucks to study for a few hours and learn some Japanese. I usually get something to eat and get into work around 12:30pm. I don't have to be there until 1pm but in Japan everyone is always early. I work until about 10pm, then I come home and get ready for bed. Unlike at home I spend a lot of time by myself which is unusual for me. I even discovered eating by myself which I wouldn't be found dead doing back home. I also spend a lot of time listening since most of the time I cant say anything and just listen and watch people. Most of the time I don't know what they are saying but I can catch a few words here and there. Sometimes enough to piece together the general jist of what they are saying.
I found that girls in the US and Japan all complain about the same things. At the office 50% of the time the girls are complaining about being hot, hungry and tired. I told all the girls in the office that Japanese and American girls aren't that different.
I am becoming a better teacher and I am starting to understand the job better. At first I thought it was all fun and games and the job was really easy but now I actually want to be able to teach them well. Unlike Engineering this job is all about people and communication. The strangest part of this job is varying the level of English ability you speak to different level students. For example low level students you must speak slowly and use 1 or 2 words and higher level students you can say complete sentences but need to pause after each sentence so they can translate in their head. Also the words that you pick are very important and sometimes you can get in trouble trying to explain something. I was trying to explain to a student that San Francisco's Haight Ashbury District is an interesting place to visit. When I told her that they have a lot of hippies there I got into big trouble. She didn't know hippies and any words that I picked to describe them got me into more trouble.
So in one day you must vary your level of English with every person you talk to from beginner to advanced and choose different words when talking to both. The hard part is first remembering which one of the 200 students you are talking to and there approximate level or ability. Learning Japanese also helps me with this since I can sometime hear the Japanese word and anticipate what words they want to say to me. Also some sayings are totally cultural and Japanese people have no idea what you are talking about. For example most of my sayings come from movie and television. I never realized how much slang and movie quotes actually use in my every day vocabulary.
Other culture problems I have recently encountered was my bad posture was interrupted by our older students as disrespectful and arrogant. I also accidentally insulted my co-worker this week when I joking with her. I caught I bit of a cold this week and she took me to the drug store to buy medicine. So jokingly I told her that I was going to take the whole bottle since I couldn't read the instructions. Appartently she was up all night worrying about me and when I came in the next day I told her I took the whole bottle and I feel better now. When she asked if I was joking I laughed and didn't reply. She thought I was being patronizing and insensitive to her worry so I upset her.
All and all I think everything is going fairly well. I am a bit lonely out here and I wish I could have all my friend from home here to share the experience. I did make some really good friends Tim and Brian and we spent our weekends hanging out and partying. Both are big drinkers and party animals so naturally we are good friends. Its been almost a month and I feel that I have adjusted well but I am starting to miss things from home.
posted by ksokada at 1:19 AM
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