How to be a teacher

Today, I got to teach year one for the first time ever at one of my schools. Despite having been here for over a year, this is the first opportunity I've been given to do so.

Wow, it was so wonderful- I haven't felt this good coming out of a lesson in a while. I did a self introduction complete with pictures and bad Japanese translations, sang B-I-N-G-O with them, and ate school lunch on a table that was way too low whilst sitting on a seat that was way too high.

They were so intrigued by me, it was insanely gorgeous. What's more, for once, they accepted me completely, and not one kid laughed at my Japanese. In fact, when I stuffed up or didn't know a word, they helped me. It was an amazing feeling not to be mocked, or have my attempts to communicate thrown in my face.

At lunch, I promised to play the Japanese version of "Tip" with one of the classes. What a bizarre experience it was walking out into the school yard. For some reason, everywhere I walked kids were calling out my name in glee and greeting me with bright hellos. When I play outside, usually only a couple of kids come up to me. This time I was swamped (mainly by they year ones). So much so my year 5s and 6s stared in awe as I had my little groupies mob me. It was quite hilarious! And, in the corridors, I bumped into a kid who has some behavioral issues and often mucks around in my classes and often is quite rude. He greeted me in English, answered my "how are you?" perfectly and gave me a huge smile. You can't pay to have a greater moment as a teacher.

To add to all this, an English teacher from another school came today to teach my year 5 kids. I had a couple come up to me after and say they missed me teaching them, and couldn't wait for me to teach them again. Rarely do I get to hear such positive feedback directly from the kids. Sure, sometimes they come up to me and say thank you after a lesson, and are sometimes excited to see me in the corridors, but to hear that they actually value my lessons is another thing altogether.

This feeling I'm feeling- that of pure elation- is something I miss. It's something I used to feel when I taught back in Australia that on the whole, I haven't quite been able to recreate here.

It makes me feel incredibly guilty when someone asks me about my job and I say that my heart is just not in it. I have done everything to get that feeling back, but have just come to accept that there will be good moments and bad, and that that's the best I can hope for.

Of course there are many highs in this job! I am very lucky to teach kids who are overall gorgeous, reasonably well behaved and many who are eager to learn. The feeling I get when a student understands something even in part because of me is second to none. The laughs of kids when I am being silly makes me feel like I'm on a cloud. When kids are absolutely bursting to share with me something about themselves, or want me to hear the English words they know, my heart feels like it is bouncing with joy. And of course, I do work with some great teachers who inspire me, and have met many lovely people along the way who encourage me and give me the time of day (because many act like I don't exist).

But, I can't lie and say there's certain things that don't get to me. Like, despite that my job is meant to be that of an assistant, they expect me to do everything without any help. Fair enough if they want to give me responsibility because they're too scared to speak a word of English, but the least I think they can do is keep the class under control, and not distract the kids by cracking irrelevant jokes while I am in the middle of teaching a lesson.

Or, on the flip side, when I'm in a class where the teacher is leading (in junior high school) and the teacher doesn't involve me at all for long stretches of time, so I either have to stand there awkwardly, or just walk around the classroom with the premise of checking to see if the kids are doing their work. I feel useless and like I'm wasting my time when I know I have the potential to do much more. I tell them I want to be more involved, but most of the time it just falls on deaf ears.

However, the main thing that stops me from fully enjoying my job is the monotony of teaching four to five classes, all the same grade, exactly the same non-stimulating thing. "Apple- apple. Pear-pear." Read this sentence, repeat. Again, and again. Only to do it at another school yet again. Arguably, I could just create lessons myself. But there's a textbook we have to stick to, and curriculum goals to reach, and so whilst I do try my best to make the lessons as fun as possible (when I have the power to), with as many games as I can squeeze in, my hands are largely tied.

Moreover, it was just the luck of the draw that I teach at ridiculously big schools. The implication is that whilst I yearn to teach the younger grades, I am stuck in a routine of teaching Year 5 and 6 consecutively, with only one or two chances at most a year to teach the lower grades. I think that this is a huge factor in my job dissatisfaction- I know if my days were more varied I would thrive from the added variety, and feel like I'm stimulated by the different faces I'm teaching.

With only 9 more months to go now, I'm on the home stretch. Everyday I try my best to be positive, bat away the feelings of boredom and waves of frustration. I try to give my all to every class, despite what I'm feeling, because kids deserve a teacher who is happy, motivated and had their learning at the centre of their minds.

I just want to know I'm making a difference. Whether I can get that one kid to understand that grammar point they couldn't wrap their head around til now. Or I can make that one kid who's always messing around in class to pay attention and find the work we're doing stimulating. Or crack some stupid joke and have a couple of kids laugh. Or, see the faces of kids beaming back at me, excited to see me like I'm someone they respect.

I just want to be the teacher I've always aspired to be, but more often than not, I feel like I'm falling short of it. But, days like today are a little reminder that maybe, just maybe, I'm not so bad.

Fu*k(uoka) you!

Hello all! Hope you're all well, and that your life is filled with lots of dessert, weather that's the perfect balance of cool and warn, free samples, tea drinking, green traffic lights at perfect times and hilarious innuendo. Because, that's my conception of a good life!

So around a month ago (given my terrible conception of time- where "a couple of days ago" means a year ago- it was probably more than that!), I went to Fukuoka with some friends. It was an incredibly fun day of driving, singing, talking, eating and shopping...on steroids.

Fukuoka is basically the biggest city in Kyushu, the part of Japan I'm living in. It's like our answer to Tokyo. It takes around 2 hours by car, but due to Tomek's super pro driving, we got there a lot quicker! I got a real awakening of the crazy K-Pop kind. Tomek, Katie and Cheryl were belting out K-pop tunes, it was absolutely hilarious and incredibly entertaining. Honestly, the fun we had in the car was my favourite part of the day!

First of all, we went to Dazaifu, an absolutely beautiful temple. We got our fortunes for the year ahead. Luckily we were all in the clear... although worryingly, mine was meant to be good, but said things like "If you want to do X you shouldn't." and "You will die". Well, it didn't really say the second one, but it may as well have because I felt a tremendous amount of trepidation for the coming year! Luckily, they have it all figured out in Japan, in that if you tie the piece of paper onto a special place, your bad luck will go away. So I did that. I'm pleased to report that since then, I have tried to do as little as humanly possible. You may call it lazy- I call it risk minimisation!

After, we visited the Pokemon centre.  Because, I'm mad keen on Pokemon, yo! Ahhh, well, not really. Never have I felt so excluded from fandom when I was in amongst a huge mass of Pokemon fans, and of course my Pokemon-crazed friends.

By this time, my stomach was just about eating itself because I hadn't eaten in around 8 hours. We finally got our stomachs lined with yummy ramen. The shop was so popular we had to line up! It was worth the wait, I really enjoyed it. Hakata ramen (a tonkotsu broth) is very famous for being lip-smakingly delicious. But I must admit and be a bit patriotic in saying I actually prefer the ramen in Oita! "Oita, Oita, Oita- Oi, Oi, Oi!" (joke for you Ozzies!)

Next stop- the shopping trip! I was ultra excited, because it is a bit lacking here for clothes shops here in Oita. So, ah, I kind of spent the whole of the 2 hours we had to shop in Forever 21 (Like Zara, but more fun and a hell of a lot cheaper). It's just such a frikken amazing store- don't judge!

Then we went to Costco- my first time! Woah, what a crazy place! For some odd reason, there was a huge line outside to enter, which apparently isn't usually the case. I got all the things you can't readily find here/is expensive- porridge, nuts, dried fruit and the like. It was so fun to try and find some bargains, but my god it was like trying to navigate through a maze! We had an incredibly healthy dinner of hotdogs and cinnamon scrolls, providing us fuel to sing like maniacs on the way home.

Last stop was Ikea. Who doesn't like Ikea? (Whilst this was a rhetorical question, if you do happen to know someone- I recommend you stop hanging out with them effective immediately). We, being the extremely mature 20-something year olds we are, made use of the displays. Enjoy the results!

All in all, it was an awesome day. Can't wait til next time!

Sushi, cocktails and cleaning

The weekend just passed was just awesome. For one thing, it was a 3-day weekend, and for another, I got so much done, and got to hang out with a lot of different people.

On Saturday, I had one of those rare days where I get some magical burst of determination to get heaps of crap done. I made a yummy brekky, did two loads of laundry, washed my Mt. Everest pile of dishes, made my house look somewhat presentable, went to the gym to lift weights and run 5km on the treadmill, went to the library with Kayo and studied Japanese for an hour.

After so much work, I was greatly anticipating my evening. I met up for dinner and a big catch up with my lovely and gorgeous friend Megan. We went to Sushiro, which is a deeeliciousss sushi place with all sushi priced at Y105 ($1.20). I must admit, I'm not one of those people that crave sushi (I mean, I only started eating fish a couple of years ago after copping it constantly for being half-Japanese and not eating fish). But I crave the sushi here, so this was our second outing to Sushiro. At that price, obviously it's not gourmet cuts, but I love it nevertheless as I think the fish is fresh, flavours are full, selection of plates available is wide, and it's just a lot of fun! Unfortunately, a lot of other people think this as we had to wait a good hour! But, I'm pretty sure Megan and I could talk anywhere, so it wasn't a problem. And talk we did!

Megan!

Delicious salmon sushi

Megan had to go home for a Skype date, so later that night I met with my new awesome friend, Monica. Yes, I've finally met another Monica! And yes, she is loud too so together we are a crazy mix! We wanted to try somewhere different to get a drink, and we found a super cute small bar in Miyakomachi, the night-life district. It had old-school music playing, a chilled out atmosphere, and only a 3 metre bar and one table. My kind of place!

I was sad to leave, but, the thought of only getting at most 6 hours sleep before my day trip to Fukuoka on Sunday kicked my butt into perspective!

Monica x 2

Anne and Mikey in Oita: Last Day- Takasaki Yama

What better way to bid sayonara to my dear friends than to spend the day surrounded by wild monkeys? I really cannot think of a more awesome exit. I am, of course, referring to the absolutely amazing Takasaki Yama (高崎山)- or "Monkey Mountain" as it is affectionately referred to. Mt Takasaki is located just outside of Beppu, and features more than 1500 wild monkeys.Wild is no understatement- the monkeys roam free- weaving in and around visitors, picking fights with each other, huddled together for warmth.

I have never experienced anything quite like our outing to Takasaki Yama. I absolutely love monkeys- they are my tied favourite animal with penguins. To have the opportunity to be absolutely surrounded by monkeys, to see them unbelievably up-close was like a very strange dream come true! The monkeys are all tame- they won't bother you if you leave them alone. I think it's fantastic that such a park exists- letting animals be free, whilst providing the support to help them to develop.

I was so fascinated to see the mannerisms of the monkeys- it was so mesmerising to see them interact with each other. Of course, the similarities to humans were apparent. It's quite humbling knowing we don't stem too far from these amazing creatures!  

The most memorable part of the day for me was their feeding time- the monkeys went absolutely crazy. ALL of them flooded towards to the food. It was like a wave of monkeys- it was rather alarming to have so many swarm towards me at once! Apparently if a monkey goes through your legs it's good luck. So of course, there I was standing legs aspread, trying to manovere myself to get in line with the monkeys path. But alas! No such monkey luck for me this year!

Monkey being weighed

Monkey nipples!

This baby monkey was so distressed, squealing for its mother. :( But, its mother soon heard its cries and attended to it :)

Apparently the monkey is making the face I make when I'm angry. Ha!

Ringing the giant bell

<I cannot recommend it enough- it's only around 500 yen ($7.00), and it's right next to the aquarium (which I reviewed in a previous entry!) so you may as well get two done in one day (You can buy a bargain package deal which includes a return bus ride and entry to both places for Y1800 ($22).>

After that, wanting to explore our surroundings, we took a bus to Beppu and climbed the Beppu Tower. And by climb, I mean, took the elevator. For only Y200 ($2.50) we immersed ourselves in a view of Beppu. It was quite a great view! Beautiful mountains in the distance provide a nice backdrop to the many buildings in Beppu. We could also see Beppu Bay- a lovely, quiet 'beach' which is nice to walk alongside. The tower itself is pretty old, but, I think that made it all the more charming.

And, of course, we ended the night gorging ourselves with food. No understatement. I wish it were, for after our dinner we were all groaning of stomach pains and regret. We all went to what I believe is the best Indian restaurant in town- Surya. Hands down the best butter chicken, tandoori and naan I have ever eaten. So between the four of us we ordered- 2 butter chickens, two meal sets comprising of 1 big curry and 2 small curries; tandoori chicken; pickles; salad, and also, four naans, rice, one aloo patak, and we each had two lassis. Can anyone say "sumos in the making"?!

It was absolutely delicious, so it was worth the absolute gluttony. But, wait, there was more! When we returned to mine, we ate cake that Anne and Mikey had brought me all the way from their Japan travels. How nice! It was beautiful- a chestnut cake- half green tea, half chocolate.

It was so sad to say goodbye, but I'm so glad I got to make and share so many memories :) 
 
 

Sure, curry and cake go hand in hand...