TheLeong.com

Well today at the high school was busy as ever. Why do I keep volunteering myself to go to more classes and help? I even went to 2 parents (I should say mothers) classes today. Yep, the moms come and learn english too.

For the first time all semester, I have a lot of school work to do tonight. It’s a miracle. And oh man I’m so tired I don’t want to do any of it. So to waste time I’m going to sit here and watch Matthew Minami. Blah work.

I was supposed to be at Takanawadai High School, where I work, at 9AM this morning to help with the school festival’s English speech contest. I woke up at 7, miraculously, since my alarm was set to “weekdays” (I always forget that). I made it out the door, although running a little bit late. It takes about 45 minutes to get out to where the school is at. I transfer about 3/4 of the way at Nihombashi to get on a different train line for the last leg of the trip. I decided to call my supervisor at the school, to let them know I’d be about 15 minutes late.

How kind of them to let me know ahead of time that the festival was CANCELLED because of the typhoon expected to come. Great, I wake up early on a Saturday, tired as hell, make my way 30 minutes towards Tokyo, only to find out that it was for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. “Oh, I didn’t have your phone number, so couldn’t call you earlier.” Granted, it was cancelled at 6AM, but if I would have known, then I would have slept until about 1PM. And I KNOW I gave her my number before.

It was just raining, so I went to Akihabara via Daimon station. Had a McDonald’s Egg McMuffin for breakfast. It tasted really good. Haven’t had one of those since I lived in Forest last spring, I believe. Anyways, wasted some time, came home, and bummed around all day. The typhoon-ish weather was nuts: lots of wind and rain. I don’t think we ever actually got THE typhoon. Just a bad storm.

I called Renee (my supervisor) tonight at 8 to see if she knew whether or not I’d have to go in tomorrow. She doesn’t know yet. If they don’t let me know by 7AM, I’m not going in. Hopefully it’s cancelled, I don’t want to go in early tomorrow. Either way, I have to be at the Edo Tokyo Museum by 1PM for a class “field trip.”

On Wednesday, I finally got to go to my field placement and work. Got up around 5:30 in order to be at school in Sengakuji (about 1 station away from Shinagawa, southern Tokyo) by 8AM. Honestly, I do absolutely nothing until 8:45, when first period starts. I’m going to start getting there at 8:15 or 8:30 from now on. Especially considering the American lady who is my supervisor doesn’t get in until about 8:44, and before that I sit there and do nothing.

I taught 4 English oral communication (OC) classes. 1 class for the first years (equivalent to American high school sophomores), and 3 for the second years. All these OC classes are “team taught” by two teachers: a Japanese and a foreigner. I just join as the 3rd teacher, although they make me sit and practice with the kiddies also sometimes. That right there is the worst part of my job period. Sitting with the kids and helping them practice their English. I realize it might be good practice for them, but it’s almost…degrading for me at times to sit there and help practice English. I might mention to my supervisor that I’m here to be a teacher and not just a practice partner. I’m more comfortable at the head of the class here.

All the classes I taught, even the class for the “advanced” second years seemed about the same. The main things they were practicing were “What’s New” and “That’s All.” Pretty much just asking questions about recent activities, and giving long responses. For someone who is fluent in English, this is about as exciting as stabbing yourself in the foot with a corkscrew. Not only that, but I had to say the exact same thing about 50 times in one day. If I have to do something like this again, I swear I’m going to start making stuff up. One kid will hear me talk about my adventures the previous night in outer space. They probably won’t understand me, so it will be OK. If they happen to understand me, I will tell them “Hey good job for seeing that I was lying to you.”

After one day, I know I could never be a teacher “for real.” It wasn’t that bad, honestly, and was actually kind of fun. But the pure fact that I had to do the exact same lesson 4 times (in a row) bored the life out of me. I don’t know how teachers who do that everyday can live with themselves. I’m not one for rubidium of something boring like that, so I guess I can’t be a teacher. Overall, it was a fun day, but I’m going to have to start putting a little more variety in my work schedules otherwise I’m going to go nuts working at this school. I’ll be going back this weekend to help with the English Speech contest the 1st years are putting on. I’ll either be a judge or the M.C. I’m hoping for MC.