Kvetching (skip this one if you like...)

I'm not dead or anything. It's just been a bit difficult to find anything I felt like typing up. Perhaps a real teacher has a lot more in the way of emotional drain as well as feedback from the kids. But the nature of my work precludes getting to know many of the students very well. I spend about the same amount of time with all 650 of the junior high schoolers (that is, one visit to a class of 40 per week) and all 1100 of the elementary school kids (one visit per class of 40 about every five or six weeks). All of which is to say that when I hear about the intangible rewards of teaching, I have to assume they more frequently come to the people who don't shuffle from class to class six times a day.

All of which is to say that I'm not really getting so much out of being an assistant language teacher in Japan these days. Sure, hearing the kids crack wise now and again is a hoot. And I do feel a sense of pride when they trust me enough to smart off in front of me. Of course, that may have more to do with the fact that they probably don't see me as any sort of authority figure, but I'm going to continue assuming it's trust and not just a lack of respect/fear. But what I was trying to say is that it's not really enough.

For the first couple of weeks this job was fairly demanding. Not the actual class stuff, but figuring out how to function in a new environment without the recognizable social and language clues. Thanks to the "rote and repeat" learning methods favored by the ministry of education, I really don't have to do much more than demonstrate pronunciation and intonation. A moderately clever person with a script, some sound editing software, and a CD burner could cover about a months worth of my work in a two-hour session. Of course, they might not have access to a mellifluous voice like mine, but that's not really the issue. My job takes a lot of time and a fair amount of energy, but it really isn't much of a challenge anymore.

And honestly, a lot of the time there is a distinct feeling of futility. Think carefully here: how many times in the last year have you had to explain the same thing to the same group of people before you could start a meeting? Even though most people here seem to learn "I'mfainsankyu" as a single word to be used in response to any "how" question, the fact that children in speaking classes are trained to mindlessly repeat everything the teacher says means I have to re-teach the answer to "how are you?" every single time I enter an elementary school class.

How many times have I had to teach the answer to "how are you?" this year? Total count for 2005: 362 times.

Bear in mind, I didn't work in the public schools at all during the month of August, and do not teach children on weekends. And no matter how often I do it, it's not going to stick from my 40 minute sessions once every month or so. There seems to be an idea that if the kids are continually "showered with little drops of English," they will magically, osmotically become fluent speakers. But given the way they have memorize-response commands drubbed into them, I really don't expect them to learn how to apply any of the skills that would actually let them use the language.

All of which is to say that I have to exert a lot of effort to do the same tasks again and again, and I don't really see a lot of progress.

The junior high is a different kettle of fish. Not that I particularly like fish by the kettle-full, but the situation there is appreciably different. There are some chances to interact with the kids, and those moments can be a lot of fun. But the majority of my day is, as has been said two or three times in this post, going from class to class and providing model pronunciation, with occasional cultural explanations.

By way of example, I had to learn when and where trick-or-treating originated, what a Jack O'lantern symbolizes, and why they're made from pumpkins these days (instead of the original turnips) for a class last month.

All told, these aren't the kind of work experiences that really make for an impressive resume, and it's not the kind of job I want to cling to until retirement/death, whichever comes first.

Feh.