A Day in the Life

A number of friends and family have asked "what the heck do you do there?" I guess I haven't been very descriptive about the day-to-day schedule of an eigo sensei えいごせんせい (English teacher).

I'll begin with some acronyms. I was hired through the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program. I am an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) or AET (Assistant English Teacher). My position is to expose students to English and promote "grassroots internationalization" in the schools and larger community in which I live. In schools I work with JTE's (Japanese Teachers of English). My office base is at the BOE (Board of Education), where I report every day for work at 8:45. I pause at the door to offer a formal ohayoo gozaimasu おはいよございます(good morning).

The BOE is in a nice new building which shares space with the city library and various meeting and art exhibition spaces. I have twelve co-workers at the BOE, and I am invited/required to attend various parties and sporting events with them semi-regularly. Some of my BOE coworkers are semi-retired principals, but most are administrative employees with no direct experience working in education. Interestingly, the Superintendent of Education used to work as an architect; I don't know why he changed professions to some thing so different. Unlike many more rural BOE offices, our staff seem to be pretty busy. When I leave the BOE I announce at the door itte kimasu いってきます(I am going). From the BOE I walk or drive the BOE car to any of fourteen schools where I teach. In the autumn my learning curve was steep as I had to become familiar with many different outlying towns, schools, principals and teachers' expectations, and thousands of students.

Once I enter a school I first stop to take off my outside shoes and switch into inside shoes. If I happen to forget my inside shoes, I must wear vinyl slippers. Next I walk to the teacher's office and pause at the door to offer a formal ohaiyoo gozaimasu or konnichiwa こんいちわ(good afternoon/hello), as appropriate. I then take my seat at an empty desk near the JTE and we meet to review lesson plans for the day. Our goal is "team teaching", working off one another's skills. Or we chat, depending on our relationship. Most of my JTE's are very friendly and genuinely wish to have a relationship based on cultural/linguistic/human exchange. My relationships with my JTE's are really stimulating and sustaining in what is sometimes a lonely place. Only one or two of my JTE's are too busy or disinterested or racist to talk. Overall, I am really lucky with my work situation.

At the junior high schools I typically teach three classes a day. I eat lunch with the students in the classrooms, and also attend music or physical education classes just to have more fun with them. As for English classes, some teachers wish for me to use the whole period to "have fun" with the students. Other teachers give me 15 minutes for a fun-but-relevant activity. Sometimes I am simply utilized as a "human tape recorder" reading the text in the book and correcting pronunciation (this is the worst-case scenario, as it really doesn't use me efficiently nor does it get the students interested in English). For lesson plans I often use comics, music, card games, and Bingo.

If I am teaching at an elementary school I have the entire period to teach on my own. In our school district the elementary students are only exposed to English three times each school year, so I don't really get to know the teachers or students at these schools. But we sure do have fun! My lesson plans usually involve lots of music, physical activities and sensory games. Considering these kids know virtually no English, my job is to be Gesture Queen.

Upon leaving the schools I say a formal osaki ni shitsure shimasu おさきにしつれいします(please pardon me for leaving earlier than you), change my shoes, and hop back into the car. Some of the schools are five minutes away, and some are forty minutes from Furano City. I return to the BOE to do lesson plans for the next day. . . or read the newspaper/blog/email. My day ends between 4:30 and 5:30, when I leave the office again apologizing for my early departure.

In the evenings, life is usually quiet. We cook. Grocery shop. Play music. Play a team sport (sponsored by the BOE). Attend ikebana 　いけばな(flower arranging) class -- my favorite! Read. Surf the internet. Play cards. Eat out at the sushi-go-round. If it isn't blizzarding, we walk. I find that our quiet evenings help balance out the extreme challenges that face me in my work world; it isn't that the job is difficult, but that understanding what is required of me is the challenge.

On the weekends we often travel to meet friends or explore more of Hokkaido. Commiserating and celebrating with foreigner friends helps keep us sane. There are a lot of parties keeping our calendar filled a month in advance.

So there is a description of "a day in the life"! I am hoping that we will find this year to be as rewarding as it has been challenging. (Cuz gawd, I hope we have no more significant challenges!) Cheers!