Today was an easy day for me – no classes to teach. I did help out Mr. Hayashi, though. They have a budget every year to hire some guest speakers for each department, and he had made contact with a college professor originally from New York who has been living in Japan for the last 20 years. We drove over to his college to pick him up, and he was a really nice guy. He was actually one of the first people on the JET program when it started, so he had some interesting insight into what kinds of things have changed over the years.
He had asked that we set up in the computer lab, so preparations had been made, and the class showed up ready to hit the computers. We got them all ready, and then the professor introduced himself, gave the students a web address, and then waited for everyone to load it up.
The site that we went to was really interesting – it was created by Voice of America to encourage people to learn English. There were tons of lessons and activities for the students to play with. The professor just walked around and earned money – he was a smart guy. The students enjoyed the activities, but they slowed down after about 30 minutes, and I could tell they were getting a little bored by the time 50 minutes rolled around. Maybe if the professor talked a little more, or led them through an activity in English it would have been better. But I don’t want to be a backseat-teacher.
The principal and vice-principal were really enjoying it. They came in and the vice principal was snapping pictures for the yearbook. He had me posing in a couple of them – I was like “Oh my gosh, an adverb clause!”, and some other vaguely unnatural teaching positions. It’ll look good in the yearbook, though.
I was surprised how quickly the students took to the computers – they did a great job and had almost no trouble. If they had questions they would ask me in English, and so maybe just the change of scene was a big help.
After the lesson we went to the principal’s office for the ceremonial cup of hot tea and post-visit discussion. This is always interesting for me because you just go in there and sit and drink tea and pretend like you’ve not a care in the world. We talked in big bold terms about English education, but nothing groundbreaking. It was fun. Our visiting professor doesn’t speak much Japanese despite being here for 20 years, but I caught him understanding some complex Japanese, so he’s been learning something.
We finished up with the cup of tea, and then went outside the office to do the bowing and goodbyes. After that Mr. Hayashi drove us to a nearby cafe for lunch. Over lunch we talked a little about what life is like for a college professor in Japan. I’ve heard that it’s the English teacher’s nirvana – good money, less hours, stable job. I was interested to hear the scoop from him, and I got his contact information – he seemed happy to be able to tell me all about what he does.
I got trapped in an English teacher’s staff meeting later in the day. I knew it was trouble when they said it was only a 15 minute meeting, and then they postponed it until 15 minutes before I was going to leave. I had no pressing engagements since the master cancelled our dinner party, but if I did have the party I would have been screwed. I didn’t get out of there until 5:45 – what a boring meeting. We just talked about the students that were likely to fail this term. Luckily, none of my students are on the edge.
I got home tonight and spent some time with Kuniko on the phone. She’s doing well but a think she’s a little worried about her job situation. Both of our career futures are a little up in the air right now, so although we’d like to have something nailed down for the long term, right now it’s just the short term that’s taken care of.
A simple dinner tonight of spicy miso soup and rice. No alcoholic beverages for the first time in three nights. My body appreciates the detox time!