Today was the STEP test, another way to make easy money in Japan. I went to work a little early and helped with some of the setup. We gathered all of the interviewers around a big square table and did introductions. One of the best parts of the introductions is that Mr. Hayashi introduces some people, and he’s always saying funny things about them. Some of them are true, some are part true, and most of them are weird. He likes to use obscure English that nobody in the room is likely to know (like “lingua franca”).
He was also very sly in having all the interviewers that are not qualified to sit facing me. That way later he could point them out easily. They are all in via a grandfather clause, but Mr. Hayashi would love to get rid of them. He tries to make them as uncomfortable as possible, by asking them to introduce themselves in English, conducting the instructions in English, and generally trying to shake them up any chance he gets. The problem is that the money is so good that they are willing to put up with quite a lot.
My interviews went well, and I had quite a few of my own students trying to pass the interview test. Some of them I had been training over the last few weeks, and they were relieved to see me in the interviewer’s seat. I didn’t give them a free ride though, and I’m sure they’re going to give me a hard time tomorrow. Still, I don’t want them to think they only passed because they were lucky enough to have me as an interviewer.
One guy came in and passed the test with flying colors. I got the impression that he was either an English teacher or someone from headquarters doing a quality control check.
Another student was in second or third grade of elementary school, but did pretty well. Some girls would smile at me and giggle and hope that would soften me up, and some boys stared at me expectantly like I would give them the correct answer because they wanted it so bad. An interesting mix.
We wrapped up the day, and Mr. Hayashi gathered Miss Yamamoto and I and we went to Sannomiya to have our ceremonial post-STEP dinner. We met Mr. Kimura in Sannomiya and then went to the restaurant. Originally Mr. Hayashi had planned to invite a girl that’s been helping out, but he chickened out at the last minute because he thought his wife would figure it out.
Dinner at Graciani’s was fabulous as usual. We had the roasted duck, and some great warmup dishes including a lot of fresh crabmeat and apple shavings wrapped in smoked salmon. I had a couple of glasses of wine, and we joked around and had a good time. I had everyone scrambling for their dictionaries when I called Mr. Hayashi “cantankerous“. He actually called himself “hard headed”, and I said “cantankerous”, and nobody knew what that meant. I was a little embarrassed when the dictionary translation came out a little harsher than I thought it would be.
Mr. Kimura and I took the train home for Kobe, but the line was delayed because of a broken signal somewhere, so we had to wait an extra 20 minutes or so. Now I’m home with an extra 20,000 yen – it’ll come in handy when I finally get a DVD burner. My poor computer is chock full and I need to make some space.
