Familiarity

   It's strange going back and reading my blog posts from the past.

   Fujimi has treated me much better than Azuma ever did. In a way, it feels like everything is almost more "real" than it was at Azuma. I feel like I drifted in and out of school at Azuma without really ever affecting anything; the principal didn't really like me, so that was probably a large part of it.

   At Fujimi, though, I'm really involved in the school life. I go to judo tournaments to cheer for the kids, I occasionally go to judo practice, I occasionally go to art club, I help with after-school English study, I enjoy going to the drinking parties the school has, and I have a lot of fun talking to the kids. I feel like I actually have an impact on people at Fujimi, for better or for worse, and it makes me feel like I fit in a lot more.

   That doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt when I see my old students from Azuma and they don't seem to care or try to avoid me, though.

   One difference still bothers me, though; the students at Azuma all had plastic nametags with their first and last names printed on them in readable kanji. The students at Fujimi don't have those; their last names are embroidered on their clothes, but some of them pick off the thread. It doesn't matter much anyway, since nobody seems to use last names at Fujimi!

   But it makes it a lot harder to learn their names when there's nothing to learn from. It really bothers me that I can't learn their names as easily as I did at Azuma.

   There are a bunch of students whose names I know because they're unique or I run into them a lot -- especially the kids in the judo club -- but in a school of around 700, that's not a lot. For every student I know well, there are at least 10 others I don't.

   So my new goal? To look up their official pictures and start learning their names. I should have done this a long time ago.

Respect

   Thanks to Azrael and his posts at Outpost Nine, one of the most well-known aspects of teaching in Japan is the kancho -- a "game" where kids shove their pointed index fingers up your ass.

   I have a bunch of problems with this on so many levels. It's always bothered me that the one thing everyone seems to know (and popularize) is this stupid game. It just exaggerates the lack of respect everyone has for ALTs, including the ALTs themselves!

   I'm not denying that it happens.

   I feel like the practice of being kanchoed is something that's more the ALT's fault than anything. Yes, it would be nice if students would stop doing it, and of course, it would be nice if teachers would discipline them. But they won't and they don't -- there's nothing that ALTs can do about that.

   On the other hand, ALTs are pretty much the only ones (playmates aside) that get kanchoed. This tells me that it's likely an issue with ALTs rather than the kids. The way I worded the first sentence of this paragraph should give you a hint about what I think the problem really is: ALTs are more like playmates than teachers.

   A lot of people who come over here want to be friends with the kids; I'm not denying that I don't feel that way, because I certainly do. My kids are all incredibly important to me and I enjoy talking and playing with them. At the same time, though, I'm a teacher, so there are certain lines that I have to establish.

   Those lines, ironically enough, weren't as firm at my old school, despite it having much stiffer discipline than Fujimi. I wasn't included with all of the teachers in the various parts of... being a teacher. Nobody discussed student problems with me or invited me out to school events like teachers at Fujimi do, so I always felt like an outsider. Naturally, I went to the group that would accept me: the students.

   I tried treating them like younger friends, though I had some basic boundaries set up -- especially in the last year, when I was getting stricter with students who wouldn't study.

   On the other hand, the teachers at Fujimi have been great. They've accepted me from square one, so I feel much more like a teacher. In a lot of ways, I was still a kid when I came to Japan; coming to Fujimi has made me more of an adult. I've had to mature a lot as a person to deal with the kids up here. I could have just been their friend, like I was at Azuma, but I'm not.

   I'm a teacher.

   I feel like other ALTs, who are less invested in the job or less mindful of what their job actually is (as opposed to what people say it is [that is, a human typewriter or class clown]), tend to joke around a lot more and stay in the "friend" or "funny guy" zone more than anything else. Once you drop down to the students' level, though, you're just one of the guys and they think it's "okay" to kancho you, or "okay" to use a certain level of politeness in speech to you.

   These things are all symptoms of a lack of respect. If they don't do it to the "real" teachers, then why are they doing it to you? What makes you different as a person?

   Why am I ranting about this now?

   I've gotten a lot closer to ALTs this year than ever before, and they all talk about being kanchoed. It really bothers me, because it's never been a real issue for me and I don't see why it should be for anyone who shows that they respect their own job.

   On the other hand, it could also be a problem stemming from a lack of communication; if, as an ALT, you cannot speak Japanese, the number of people you can talk to is very small. In addition to that, disfluency is seen as a sign of a lack of intelligence by most people; ALTs may be intelligent, but if Japanese people can't communicate with them fluently for whatever reason, there's a tendency to see them as not being intelligent -- or vice versa.

   So students, who can never really get a look at the "professional" side of the ALT, may begin to view him/her as more of a "funny pet" than anything.

   While you can screw with your pets, you can't screw with your teachers.

School Comparisons

   I know I shouldn't do it because nobody wins, but I still do it anyway.

   I compare the junior high school I work at now with the one I worked at for the last three years.

   This school has come to feel like home, so it's not like I look down on it or think badly of it; it's just different. Jarringly different sometimes. For example, the other day, I was checking mini-speeches written by the second-year students about their dreams. It was strange in a lot of ways; the girls wanted to be doctors, nurses, and pastry chefs -- normal stuff. The boys had different aspirations, though. They wanted to be mailmen, delivery men, mechanics, farmers, maintenance men, office workers, and government employees. Sure, a few of them wanted to be astronauts or chefs, but the vast majority of them wanted to be... well, practical workers with a steady salary.

   Read on!

Local News

   I saw a tiny news headline on Google News about a truck accident in the city I live in that killed three teenaged girls. My heart was racing as I googled for a Japanese article with names...

   I'm relieved that the three girls who died were from other cities. I didn't know them. I was scared to death that they could have been girls I knew.

Sunny Day

   Looks like the storm is holding off, so there's some great, sunny weather. I biked home and enjoyed the coolness of the summer wind at my back. As soon as I got home, I grabbed my camera and headed down the street to take some pictures while the weather is great. I gripe a lot about this being the country, but the scenery and colors really are great.

   Read on!

The Gathering Storm

   It's been generally hot and unpleasant for a while, but that's something that comes with summer. The humidity's been really high and I thought we'd get some relief since it rained last night, but apparently it didn't rain hard enough.

   The sky today is gorgeous, though.

Birthday

   Yesterday was my birthday.

   Quarter of a century, yep.

   I had a simple plan; wake up around 5 to shower/clean the apartment a little, catch a ride at 6:40ish to go to the judo tournament and cheer for my judo girls in the prefecturals, then come home and do laundry or something. Nothing spectacular; I don't really celebrate birthdays. Not that there's anything to do out here. Or anyone to do it with.

   So I woke up around five, showered, cleaned, worked on the HTPC a bit more...

   Read on!