Work

For those of you not exactly sure what I've been doing recently, I'll sum up. Last October, the company I worked for went bankrupt under the direction of somewhat megalomaniacal president. I spent November and December working part time and converting my savings into "spendings" as one person put it. From January, I started a new job as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). I am subcontracted by a company that provides ALTs to Junior High Schools and Elementary Schools around Hitachi. I'll be doing the same job (but at different schools) for the next year.

The Japanese school year starts in April, and finishes in March. Working in a Japanese JHS has been really interesting! The classes generally have 30-40 students each, and the students have class from 8:30 until 3:30. But the students usually get to school from 7:30 or 8:00, and after school they have club activities until 5:00 or later. During lunch time, the students also spend time cleaning the entire school. (Which would be a great thing for North American students)

My job is fairly straightforward. I help the Japanese English Teachers with English classes by demonstrating pronunciation, planning activities, and just trying to make learning English fun. In general, the kids are pretty excited to have a strange foreigner hanging around, and are usually pretty friendly.

Fortunately I don't have to work the same hours as the Japanese teachers - they work fairly late in the evening, and also on weekends with club activities.

At the moment I'm on spring vacation (except for business English classes a couple evenings a week) but I should be back to school next week.