Yeah, so I got a new job a couple of weeks ago. (For those of you just joining us, ever since I moved from Fukui in February, I've been juggling a couple of part-time jobs to cover my beer, rent and ramen expenses. I tend to get new jobs fairly regularly...) I'm now an assistant English teacher at a Junior High School.
On the one hand, the job is a lot of fun. The pay's not great, and the commute is a 90-minute pain in the ass that involves changing trains twice and walking for 15 minutes at each end. But the students are generally a lot of fun. For some reason, learning a 2nd language here is viewed as kind of fun. (Why the hell wasn't my experience like that. After 5 years of unwilling Spanish, all I can really recall is how to ask where the bathroom is and a couple of insults.) Hell, even the lunches aren't bad. And they're cheap, too.
There's something oddly thrilling about hearing a class of students correctly use something they've learned from you. Maybe it's a little thing, but hearing someone say "I'm OK, how you been?" instead of "ai-mu fai-nu an-do-yu?" is satisfying. And I gotta be honest, it's kind of a kick to have people be interested in me, rather than scared or condescending, just because I'm different from them. And kids are pretty good for that.
Of course, since I am working for a Japanese company that is leasing my services to the board of education, I'm not actually going to get paid until almost two months after my first day. It's kind of nice after you leave a job, cause you get that month's pay to travel or pay your taxes or try to live while you look for another job. But at first it kind of sucks. Which is why I had to continue working at the conversation school at night.
I'm tired. but I'm working. And I'm skilled, but I'm underpaid.
So, uh, I guess all I need is a misunderstanding about the meaning of "irony" and I can be an Alanis Morisette song.
(Japan does bad things to your sense of what pop culture is wretched and what's acceptable...)
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