First week of school
Finished my first week of school. Teaching is a lot more tiring than I thought it would be. Although I teach only 2-3 classes a day, there are lessons to prepare for and other miscellaneous work like advising other teachers on the correct usage of words and preparing listening comprehension tests! The preparation work is ok. You can get really creative and it can be fun. But actual lessons are the draining ones. We teach only conversation class and the entire class is basically filled with one activity after another. (Writing and grammar classes are taught only by the Japanese English teachers coz these are conducted mostly in Japanese. Yes, it's bizarre.) You can't set the students a task for them to complete quietly. So, you are actively involved for the entire 48-min lesson. It doesn't help that the timetable is such that my classes are all back-to-back.
Most of my students are really friendly and nice. Their language ability may be somewhat limited, but they aren't shy to call out to me when they see me and attempt a conversation. Some of the students appear to really like me. The English Club, which had a membership of 4, suddenly grew to having 6 members on our first meeting and the 2 new members were my students! They are really sweet and come into the staff room just to say hi to me. Then they ask if I remember their names and I feel really bad when I don't.
The other day, some students declared that I was SUGOI! (i.e. cool!) when they saw me cycling home. Another day, some students practicing baseball started shouting "Shindy, shindy" (Japanese language doesn't have "si" sound...only "shi" sound) when I cycled past the field on my way home. You feel like a mini celebrity sometimes. Perhaps I shouldn't wear my ratty t-shirt and shorts when I go to the supermarket anymore!
Tonight I'll be going to Tokamachi for a region party. The JETs around our region are having a get-together to meet everyone. It's a 6-course dinner plus all-you-can-drink meal. It should be fun. Better be, since I've to pay 3,600-yen (slightly more than S$50) for it!! Then I'll be staying overnight in Tokamachi to attend a matsuri in the next town tomorrow.
Hope all of you have enjoyable weekends too! :)
Finished my first week of school. Teaching is a lot more tiring than I thought it would be. Although I teach only 2-3 classes a day, there are lessons to prepare for and other miscellaneous work like advising other teachers on the correct usage of words and preparing listening comprehension tests! The preparation work is ok. You can get really creative and it can be fun. But actual lessons are the draining ones. We teach only conversation class and the entire class is basically filled with one activity after another. (Writing and grammar classes are taught only by the Japanese English teachers coz these are conducted mostly in Japanese. Yes, it's bizarre.) You can't set the students a task for them to complete quietly. So, you are actively involved for the entire 48-min lesson. It doesn't help that the timetable is such that my classes are all back-to-back.
Most of my students are really friendly and nice. Their language ability may be somewhat limited, but they aren't shy to call out to me when they see me and attempt a conversation. Some of the students appear to really like me. The English Club, which had a membership of 4, suddenly grew to having 6 members on our first meeting and the 2 new members were my students! They are really sweet and come into the staff room just to say hi to me. Then they ask if I remember their names and I feel really bad when I don't.
The other day, some students declared that I was SUGOI! (i.e. cool!) when they saw me cycling home. Another day, some students practicing baseball started shouting "Shindy, shindy" (Japanese language doesn't have "si" sound...only "shi" sound) when I cycled past the field on my way home. You feel like a mini celebrity sometimes. Perhaps I shouldn't wear my ratty t-shirt and shorts when I go to the supermarket anymore!
Tonight I'll be going to Tokamachi for a region party. The JETs around our region are having a get-together to meet everyone. It's a 6-course dinner plus all-you-can-drink meal. It should be fun. Better be, since I've to pay 3,600-yen (slightly more than S$50) for it!! Then I'll be staying overnight in Tokamachi to attend a matsuri in the next town tomorrow.
Hope all of you have enjoyable weekends too! :)
posted by Cindy @ Japan @ 11:29 PM
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