With the school year approaching its end, I thought I would write about what it is that I like to do in my spare time when I don’t have any classes. First, I will talk about what I do when there is no school and I am just a desk warmer, then I will talk about what I do normally during the week, when they are classes.
I hate the days when I literally have nothing to do. It is basically just me getting paid to sit there. My mere presence is charge worthy I guess. Many teachers internet shop and have their items delivered to the school during breaks. It is kind of entertaining. I don’t internet shop, in case you were wondering. Some other teachers will sleep and snore quite loudly. I also do not do this, in case you were wondering that as well. What I do is actually productive (at least I think it is). I spend the first 4 hours studying Japanese. At first I had to take a break every half hour to an hour, but now I can work a full 4 hours without needing a break. I rarely study beyond 4 hours. I will do vocab review or listening comprehension, but I don’t consider those to be studying Japanese as it does not involve a brain exercise. Studying a foreign language is exactly the same as going to the gym. The brain is a muscle, and when you study a foreign language, you are doing work outs. You are using parts of your brain that were never exercised before. (Prepare for a lesson on your brain and language learning) When you know only one language, your brain is split in half. You have half your brain doing the active (speaking and writing) and the other half doing the passive (listening and reading). You can actually feel your brain working if you concentrate. Try speaking and reading, your brain will work in either the front or the back. When you start to learn a new language, you brain needs to reorganize. Up until then, your English language files were spread all over the place and you only had one little man pulling up files as you needed them. When a second language comes into play, the poor little man has to now reorganize your entire brain to create an English side, and a foreign side, in this case Japanese. Using Japanese requires your brain to work in ways it never has before. First filtering everything it hears and reads through English, then regurgitating everything it wants to express with writing or speaking through English. After a short period of time, your brain will literally get sore. You will get headaches, and many people experience severe migraines. There are also days where the little man just needs a break from running back and forth between the two languages and will just refuse to work. Those are the times that I like to call a brain shut down. You just run on auto piolet. And no matter what you do, your brain will just not let you retain or recall anything in the foreign language. After a while, the poor little man realizes that he cannot keep running back and forth and filtering everything Japanese through English and vice versa, and then he will eventually hire new people to assist him. This is when you start to dream in the new language, because the new people are going through training. Then one day, you literally wake up and think, “Oh! I can think in Japanese now.” I am not joking! This has happened to me 3 times (Spanish, Korean, and Japanese). Also, other people have claimed the same thing. You just wake up, and happen to have the magical ability to think in the new language. Now that you have new hires for your brain, your brain then splits again. You still have the passive and active parts working separately only this time, each of those parts are split into two. You have one section for each skill (reading, writing, listening, speaking). Some scholars will argue and insist that nothing has changed, but you are going to have a hard time convincing me that reading and listening are the same exact skill. It’s not. I can read and understand much in Japanese, but hearing that same passage I just read is difficult for me to comprehend. Same with writing. I can write long cohesive sentences in Japanese, but ask me to formulate them with my mouth and you get a dying cat on Valentine’s Day. When using the second language, you can more easily feel your brain working in different sections. When I speak Japanese, the front, right of my brain is working hard, when I read Japanese, the back, left of my brain is working. Pretty cool. Much like working out, eventually, if you keep it up, you will become very fit and in shape. It is the same with your brain. You will be able to do more and more with your language abilities and studying becomes more fun than it does painful. When I speak Japanese, it is really exciting for me. Almost euphoric. Especially when others understand what I say and we have a conversation. It really lets me know how far I have come. (Back to the original post)I am trying to get to the point where I can spend the full 8 hours studying Japanese. I am wanting to improve my Korean, so if I extend my language learning abilities, then my mind will be stretched enough to handle the 3rd language. I have reviewed bits and pieces of Korean here and there to test my brain so to speak, but I have not gone into grammar focus just yet. I spend the first hour doing Kanji review. I have a separate book for that. Then I spend the next 90 minutes reading Japanese (45 minutes without the dictionary 45 with the dictionary), then the next 90 minutes is spent on reading comprehension and grammar learning/practice. Then I have lunch, and after that is listening comprehension/practice. I use resources from my text book I am using as well as a fun site I was introduced to. Occasionally throwing in some vocab learning too. On days where I just cannot be bothered to keep learning Japanese, I will write or read. I feel kind of nerdy and too adult to be saying this, but I read text books about ESL and SLA. Even though I have already read them, there are still things I forget so I read them again. I will also read articles online (scholarly ones I might add) about the same topics. Language learning is an innovative topic so it is ever changing. When I write, I mostly focus on writing for my story. I would say book, but I have finally decided against getting it published. I was seriously considering it for a while, but I feel that it is more of just a recreational hobby than a vocation. On rare occasions, I will read an actual book. During the time when I have classes, I lesson plan, or read my text book. This past year, I would prepare for my lessons by making copies and such, then teach classes, then start planning for the next lesson. I have two schools so I have to make a total of 5-7 different lessons a week. I also have to fax my lesson plans with all the materials to my visit school by Monday afternoon of each week. Mon-Wed free time was usually spent preparing for lessons, and gathering lesson notes/ideas from all my JTEs (Japanese teachers of English) then I used Thursday and Friday as my lesson planning day because I only had morning lessons on Thursday, and afternoon classes on Friday. The planning typically took the full 2 days. Sometimes even until Monday. At the end of terms, I like to play games with the students, but that requires me to make all the materials required for said games. Once, I decided to play Apples to Apples with my 3rd grade students, however, the game is not sold in Japan, nor would it have arrived in time before the term ended if I ordered it. So I had to make, each and every card by hand. I found a template online, and printed it out. Then I glued all the papers onto thick card and cut them out. I then colored all the backs of them in either red or green. I went through 3 red markers, a green marker, and a green colored pencil. After they were colored, I then laminated each and every one. Because the guy had me put them too close together in the machine, when I cute them out the sides were pealing. I needed them for class the next day so I took them all home, along with a huge roll of tape, and for the next 3-4 hours JD and I taped each and every side on all the cards. I made sure that these students would enjoy this game, and they did. So much so, that on another day, they asked to borrow the cards so they could play the game during lunch. Anyway, now you know what I do during my free time. I do get on Facebook during the day, but usually to chat with my family or because I am on lunch and just need a break. Until next time, sayonara!
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Hello! Long time no read. I have gotten some requests on what I should talk about, so I will be posting information about those once I have written out an outline for them. For now, I thought I would tackle the easiest request first, and that is, what is my schedule like? It won’t be exactly the same every school year, but the premise of it will still be the same. Also, I should probably explain a bit about the Japanese school system before I get into my schedule, to help you better understand.
I teach at high school level schools. I have two schools. Currently, I work 5 days a week, with Wednesday being my visit school day at my low level school. My base school is high academic. The only real difference, apart from the distance, is lesson planning and requirements. Other than that, it is basically the same. All JETs work at public schools. Public schools are technically funded by the government, but only with some things. Everything else is paid for via student tuition. For students, high school is optional. However, once they enter into a school, they are not allowed to transfer or drop out. They can never come back or go to another school. Students also are responsible for paying tuition. Parents usually pay it, but at lower level schools, the students sometimes work to pay for their own tuition. The tuition is cheaper than you would expect, so students working a part time job are easily able to afford it themselves. It is not as cruel as it sounds. Public schools (or commercial schools) all have a standard which the board of education sets. All schools are required to have these standards met. These standards are mostly regarding entrance exams. There are entrance exams for high school, and college. Every public high school has the same exam. What qualifies students to enter into one school over another is simply the score requirements of a particular school. There isn’t a standard for each school. The standard is determined after all the students have taken their entrance exams, and after their exams have been graded. Actually, last week I spent 2 days of overtime grading the English essays from those very exams, not once, but four times. Four! I get two times, but not four! There were hundreds of exams. Hundreds! Anyway, back on topic. Right now, the teachers are looking at the scores from all the students, and deciding what the minimum total score must be to enter this high school. Now, if they were like colleges, the minimum would have already been determined and if you didn’t make it, then you didn’t make it. But at high schools, they have a quota that needs to be filled, as well as a reputation, and they have to determine which one is more important. So as you can imagine, there is a lot of fighting going on right now. I do not have to be involved in such things as I am only an assistant teacher. Colleges also have these exams, but there are 3 major differences: 1) they are much more expensive, 2) each exam is designed by the individual universities themselves, and 3) the standard has already been decided, so you either pass or you don’t. SIDE NOTE: The difference between private schools and public schools in Japan is that one is government funded, and the other is student funded. Public schools are also higher academically than private schools. There is a negative stigma with a private school. Unlike the United States, high schools have an academic focus. Meaning, if you want to go into business, then you go to a business high school. If you want to go into nursing, you go to a medical high school. They all have standards, but if it does not relate to their field of study, then they don’t study it. For example, if you are wanting to be a business man, you don’t need to take chemistry. How is that going to help you run a business in the future? My base school is business focused, so much of what they learn is bookkeeping and have classes on how to wear a suit (Why? IDK) and my visit school is more of a vocational school. (They don’t expect their students to go into college. It is kind of sad.) I am sure there is much more to explain but this is my basic understanding of how things work. So, if I have gotten anything incorrect, please kindly advise me in the guestbook section of the website, or send me feedback. The schools in Japan follow the Prussian school year systems. A school year starts in the second or first week of April, and finishes during the middle of March. There are 3 terms instead of 2, so I can’t really call them semesters as semi means half. Let’s call them trimesters. The first trimester goes from April until July. Then they have a summer vacation that lasts for about a month, and they start back up again from August/September until December. Their winter vacation usually starts after Christmas, as New Year’s is a much bigger holiday here. Much like how Thanksgiving is in the US. The third Trimester then begins in January, and ends in March. There are other national holidays, of course, at least once a month there is a holiday. Japan has the happy Monday system, but that mostly affects trash day, post offices, banks, and other small businesses. Not so much schools or companies. (Happy Monday system is giving a 3 day weekend every month). Very rarely do Japanese holidays coincide with American holidays. I didn’t start working in Japan until August 3rd, so I came in during their summer vacation, not knowing it was summer vacation, expecting to start teaching within the week. Nope. I had the entire month to myself. Also, it was a bit odd starting in the middle of the school year, but it mellowed out after about 4 months. On a final note, there are 6 years of elementary school, 3 years of junior high school, and 3 years of high school. So when you see me referring to 1 year students or 3 year students, just think in your mind 10th and 12th graders. Ok, now that you understand somewhat how the schools work, now on to my schedule. On any typical week, I have anywhere from 3-4 classes a day. I teach a total of 17 classes per week. My main focus year was first year students. Next year there has been some debate about me teaching all the first years and third years, but I don’t know my new schedule yet, so I will just focus on what it was like last school year. My school is huge. Almost 1000 students. Each class has 39-41 students. There are 8 classes in total for each grade. For example, every Monday, I taught first year’s class 1 and first year’s class 5. I would see each class once a week. I also saw the first 3 classes of the third year students, however, those were split up into 5 smaller classes because of their target focus. Each of those classes had specific English they were learning. Those classes ranged from 16-32 students. I tended to like those classes better because they had a stronger desire to learn English than the other classes. I taught with a total of 7 different English teachers. With the exception of one teacher, I taught with each one twice a week. On Wednesday, when I went to my visit school, I taught 4 classes. That school is significantly smaller than my base school and also significantly less strict and military like. I basically called the first years there, the crazy classes. There is one in particular that makes you question your sanity if being a teacher. Every day, there are students in trouble from that class. There was one glorious day, when 7 rowdy boys were in the principal’s office all at the same time and that class was glorious. The most peaceful lesson I ever had. That class has a few hundred students, so each grade is split into class A and class B. Each class has 35-41 students. I taught all the first years, and high academic second years (that class had 9 students) and a specialty class of the third years (16 students). I feel a little guilty for saying it, but the third year class was my favorite class this year. They really enjoyed my classes and really took advantage of asking me questions and using English. They threw me 2 parties. One was a surprise party, and one was a pizza party because they knew of my love of pizza. They all wrote me letters on my first day and I wrote them back. Then they gave me soo many snacks and sweets on my last class with them and gave me a good bye photo frame. So cute! Kawaii ^^! At my visit school, I teach with only two teachers. Unlike my base school, where almost everyone knows English pretty well, my visit school has just 3 people that speak English. And even those people who know English, will speak to me in Japanese more often than not. When I first arrive, they are using English like crazy, telling me about their week, their plans, and the weather, then after they have gotten that out of the way, they just use Japanese. At the end of the day when they are driving me to bus stop, we use Japanglish, which is basically just speaking bilingually. Using only certain phrases or words in one language over the other. I could go into why we do this, but it would take too long to explain. If you are interested in bilingualism then I recommend you research some scholarly articles. It is quite fascinating. I almost forgot about times! Silly me. My working hours are 8:25-4:10 Mon-Fri. I usually arrive 10 minutes early and leave 5 minutes late. It just ends up that way. The teachers here don’t end their day until 4:55. Depending upon the time of year, they will actually kick the teachers out and make them go home. Half of the year they stay ridiculously late, and the other half they make them leave right at 4:55pm. At 8:25am, they have a staff meeting where they talk about the schedule for the week and other things to remind their students, and other various things that are important for the day. Then at 8:30 each grade has a meeting. Meaning, all the teachers of first grade will meet and all the teachers of second grade will meet, and discuss specifics for that particular grade. I just kind of sit there, trying my best to comprehend everything. Also at 8:30, they play the school’s song over the loud speakers. Not sure why though. At 8:35 they have 10 minute home room, then break, then begin the lessons from 8:50. Every 50 minutes there is a class with 10 minutes of a break in between. There is lunch from 12:40-1:25 then resumes the lessons in the same format. With the exception of Tuesday, they have 6 lessons a day. After school, there is a 15 minute cleaning time, in which all the students clean the school while the teachers watch and yell at them for doing things wrong. That is basically it! Remember to leave your suggestions in the comments of other things you wish to know. |
AuthorJeny B Archives
August 2021
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