Teaching

After my first few months of teaching in a Japanese school I have accumulated a rather large collection of humorous stories and observations. Here are just a few of them. I’m going to try and keep this post short, but I already know that I will fail.

1. Lets start with something sweet… Students LOVE their teachers. In Japan there is a teacher assigned to every class called their homeroom teacher. Being a homeroom teacher is a huge responsibility. These teachers stay with the same students all the way through high school and are like a 3^rd parent. A homeroom teacher visits every student’s home 2-3 times a year to meet with the parents and give updates on student progress and discuss the future of the child. Often, if there is a problem with a student outside of school the homeroom teacher is called to come and discipline the student rather than their parents. In response, students become very close to their homeroom teachers. For example, When the blue team won sports day they were cheering and yelling and then an entire class of boys ran over to their homeroom teacher and picked him up and starting throwing him in the air and catching him repeatedly. It was like a rock concert or the ending to Rudy x3 intense points. Probably one of the sweetest things I have seen.

2. High school in Japan is not obligatory. If you choose, you can finish junior high school and get a professional job at the age of 15. This is quite unusual but it does happen. Therefore, high school students are treated more like university students. Discipline is completely different. If a student feels like getting up and walking out of class, they can do so. If a student feels like talking or sleeping through a lecture, no one will stop them. Luckily, I am at an academic high school which means most of my students are preparing to enter university, so they take studying seriously. But, I still have issues with behavior. Adjusting my expectations to the Japanese expectations of behavior in a classroom has been a real challenge.

3. Japanese schools take physical education seriously. In addition to sports day, last week my students walked up a mountain and all the way back to the high school. It was a total of 26 km and the whole day of school was given up so the students could have a good dose of healthy exercise.

4. Teachers work hard together. Teachers also play together. “Choir practices” in American schools have nothing on Japanese enkais. An enkai is literally a work drinking party. The first 3 weeks working at my school, I had 3 enkais in a row. The first one was only for the English department and it was their welcome enkai for me. The English teachers were great and it was the first time I really got to see the teachers that I work with daily relax and be themselves. They were all eager to tell me something about the teacher sitting next to them and across from them. I learned that the English department nicknamed  one of the other teachers “god” because he reads English better than most native English speakers, that my supervisor claims to be shy but isn’t, and that the tiniest English teacher at my school is so scary to students that sometimes she makes them poop their pants. My second enkai was a part for only the young teachers. A young teacher is a teacher under the age of 35. There are 16 of them at my school, 17 including me. That is ridiculous amount for a high school. Needless to say this enkai was far and away the craziest. One teacher proclaimed himself a break-dancer. I responded with, “prove it.” After pushing chairs and tables out of the way he did, and he was pretty dang good for being drunk. There was karaoke afterwards and a drunken good singing time was had by all. The third enkai was a whole school enkai where I sat next to Kyoto-sensei and Kocho-sensei (seats of honor) and was required to give a speech in Japanese to everyone. Luckily, I was a little late so by the time I gave my speech everyone was drunk enough that my crappy Japanese didn't make a difference. The teachers were unbelievably kind to me and also more willing to speak to me than while at school.

5. Students love to touch my hair.