Assistant No More

hey all,

So I have finished my week of subbing. I get the impression that the mothers, students, and my coworkers and boss are generally pleased with me, at least they don't seem to be forming any lynch squads at the moment. My boss has commented that the students like me and like the efforts I'm making in class so far.

The hardest part has again been the private/semiprivate lessons in the afternoon, because every day there are different students learning different material with different levels of English, and it seems the teacher I subbed for was pretty good at organization, but certain materials would just turn up missing, or 30 minutes of my lesson prep time would vanish as I'd be asked to do a baby lesson suddenly. When I say baby lesson, I mean baby lesson: between 0 and 2 years old.

I'm trying to post a video from the rock climbing trip, but Blogger's servers seem to be finicky tonight.

I've been wondering whether I should technically start a new blog now that I'm not an ALT anymore. I'm still teaching English, but we're using science, math, history, etc to do that, and I'm not assisting anyone: I'm in charge of every class I do.

Cheers,

Time

hey all,

The rock climbing trip came off rather well. I'd love to post some more about it, but I'm exhausted. I'm going to try to move into the new place in Yokohama this weekend, but I'm not sure about my work schedule yet. This hour long commute is killing me: I leave at 7:30AM, and don't get back until around 8PM.

Classes are gong OK, but I am substituting for someone else's classes right now, so I keep having to ask where they left off last time, was there any homework I should check, etc. And on top of that, I can't always find the materials listed in the lesson plan (if there is one), etc.

In the mornings I'm with the regular students which is pretty nice, but the afternoons are the tricky part because it is different students with different abilities every time learning different materials.

Basically, I'm getting by, but I think things will get better once I get used to teaching here and once I move.

Cheers,

Changes

hey all,

I was able to check out the guest house near my new job after work yesterday. While talking to the teacher I'm replacing, I learned that if I move in there, I'll actually be moving into his old building.

The place seemed nice enough. To be honest, it is a little old, and a little dirty. But it will be temporary. That is the point of "guest houses:" they are places that you only have to put up with for a certain period of time. And I'm hoping that my period of time will be up next March.

The room does boast several benefits. First, it is larger than my current room. It has a massive 2 layer closet, which will probably be taken up by my suitcase, tent, sleeping bag, climbing gear, and assorted goodies. It has its own refrigerator: a model similar to the one I had in college with an real freezer compartment, and not just the little ineffective icebox thingy. And since the teacher I'm replacing lived there, it is close to my job. Probably about 30 minutes by walking, and he claims 10 minutes by bike, but that seems like taking a scenic route at a leisurely pace.

I'm going through reserving it, and planning my move for the weeks ahead.

However, the agent from the guest house in Shinkawasaki that I looked at earlier has been a little too persistent in trying to get me to move into one of his company's buildings. I keep telling him that I've been looking at a place which has a larger room than the ones he's showing me, is closer than any of the buildings he's suggested, and is cheaper as well. But he can't take the hint.

Anyway, today was supposed to be part of an outdoor rock climbing trip, but the weather has interfered and instead of a two day trip, it has been reduced to a day trip instead. We're heading out bright and early tomorrow morning and going to one of our favorite spots: Makuyama Park in Yugawara.

Some good news is that Michi and I went indoor rock climbing briefly today to make sure my shoulder was up to it, and I think I should be fine. I've got a little bit of soreness, but nothing like the shooting/jolting pain when I injured it swimming.

Cheers,

British English, Finally Over

hey all,

I've finally said good bye to all of my schools. As much as I didn't like a few of the teachers, or teaching some of the rude or loud classes, for the most part the students and teachers were really good and fun working with. So I've been feeling a bit down the last few days saying good bye to all of them.

Something that has been bugging me as an English teacher is that British people are also allowed to teach English. They often get higher pay in fact, as there are some schools which only specialize in British English. But there are a lot of things just wrong with British English. For example, the headline here. They do this with "committee" and "government," as well: treat a morphologically, semantically, and syntactically singular noun as a plural, which changes the conjugation on the verb.

And of course, they say things like "I'm going to go to hospital." I try to look at this as an extension of "go to work" and "go to school" and even stranger "go home" (No preposition and no determiner!!?!). But still, it seems oddball.

No rest for the weary.

Cheers,

Almost Over/Beginning

hey all,

I'm in the process of saying good bye to my schools. Yesterday I said good bye to my least favorite school, today I said good bye to the school with the high tech which usually lets me go early, and tomorrow I say good bye to my second favorite school.

Saturday I go in to my new job and do more observing, training, and practicing. After that, I have an appointment to check out a guest house within walking distance of the school.

Sunday and Monday are rock climbing, and then Tuesday through Saturday I go back to my new school.

Something random I ran across is the picture below. It is a keyboard for typing Japanese developed by Google. Apparently, the way you type is like playing the drums, and there are also pedals which you can't see in the picture below.

Cheers,

Belated

hey all,

Above is a belated video from my Golden week camping/climbing trip (early May 2010).

More Ughishness

hey all,

I got back a while ago from checking out the guesthouse in Shinkawasaki, and it seemed really nice. The area seemed OK, but there weren't really any stores or anything: no big shopping complexes by the station like I've come to expect in most Japanese cities. The building itself was pretty good: clean, well-maintained, new, and the people seemed pretty friendly.

I decided I'd sign an application for them, but they called later today saying that I hadn't passed their application process, but they'd still like to give me the room, as long as I'd pay double the deposit. Well, the building is nice, but it isn't that nice, and especially given that there were no stores around, it doesn't seem like it is worth it. Even with their promises the I'll get the money back when I move out. I don't really care. I'm not handing over that much money to even a reputable company like that housing firm.

So, I started up the process of looking again, and I've come up with at least one place that is closer to my job, and might offer more in the way of stores, etc. The rent is also cheaper, but we'll see how things go.

More actual good news is that my arm is almost back to normal. I'm still getting some twinges of pain every now and then, but the pain and the grinding have greatly lessened. I decided I'd see what my rock climbing training book had to say about shoulder injuries, and I've been doing several reps of two simple exercises everyday. Combined with the shot I received, it seems like I should be back to rock climbing soon. The ugh part here is that the exercises look unfortunately like you're practicing for seppuku. Yes, the ritual slitting open of one's belly following a disgrace.

Cheers,