Flies In Your Eyes
One aspect of working in Japan that I certainly will not miss is having money demanded of me every month from one or more of my teachers for parties and trips that a) are extremely expensive; b) I do not want to go on but must; and c) I never enjoy.
First of all I hate the way they ask:
"Geoff-san, you give two thousand yen for teacher party"
"Geoff-san, now give me four thousand yen for school excursion"
"Geoff-san, you must pay now six thousand yen for school party"
And they always ask me for it all at once a few weeks after payday, when I have budgeted all my money and have nothing left.
Today my supervisor told me to give her money for the school trip.
"Eh? That was months ago, I thought I paid for that. Plus, it rained, it was awful."
"Geoff-san, you must pay. You have pay for English teachers party yes. And, ne, you have pay for school enkai?"
"What? I thought that was free?"
"Maybe it is a lot of money ne?"
"Well, it's over a hundred dollars altogether"
"Maybe you can complain to someone..."
"...count to ten count to ten..."
"You are counting?"
"Yes, er, no....I mean...Why am I only told now?"
"...?"
"What I don't get, you know, I've never had to actually pay to go to work before."
"..."
"Right, well, okay, I'll see Mitsuda-sensei and, okay...five six seven eight...."
I have to pay about $100 to have to pretend to have fun with teachers who ignore me most of the time in school.
Another thing I wont miss is the tendency to 'pass' every student, regardless of his or her actual grade. While assessing students' communication activity presentations the ALT and the JTE separately grade the groups out of five. Then the mean must be taken between the two grades and each student in the group gets that grade. I think this is unfair since the mean of any two grades out of five will always end up being three, penalising the good students and rewarding the bad. I questioned my supervisor about this system, "Ah but it is fair ne?" She replied. Not really, no; in the first term every student got the same mark.
In the second term I attempted to correct the system by introducing half-marks, in effect increasing the range of potential scores. However, the JTEs caught on to this and instructed me to round up every half mark. Funnily enough for the second term every student got roughly the same marks, but higher.
During my third and final term I decided that I had had enough. At the end of one presentation one student in the group still hadn't said anything. The JTE started applauding, signalling the next group to come up. As they started to shuffle off stage I stopped them and pointed to the girl, "anata wa?" I said pointing at the girl, "are you going to say anything?" She stepped back on the stage and, looking at her feet, said: "Sank you.” According to the grading guidelines, for her one line, she should get the average 3/5 mark for the group. It was at this point that I started to dock marks from the individual students that didn't try. It was also at this point that I began to disregard each JTE score that disagreed with mine. Throughout the entire year here I have compared the JTEs evaluations with mine and repeatedly wondered if they have been watching the same presentations as me. One group I graded 1.5 out of five, as they had spent the entire presentation giggling and got out about three words in English. The JTE gave them a four. Out of five. She’s just passing them all through.
Think you're making a difference? You're really not.
First of all I hate the way they ask:
"Geoff-san, you give two thousand yen for teacher party"
"Geoff-san, now give me four thousand yen for school excursion"
"Geoff-san, you must pay now six thousand yen for school party"
And they always ask me for it all at once a few weeks after payday, when I have budgeted all my money and have nothing left.
Today my supervisor told me to give her money for the school trip.
"Eh? That was months ago, I thought I paid for that. Plus, it rained, it was awful."
"Geoff-san, you must pay. You have pay for English teachers party yes. And, ne, you have pay for school enkai?"
"What? I thought that was free?"
"Maybe it is a lot of money ne?"
"Well, it's over a hundred dollars altogether"
"Maybe you can complain to someone..."
"...count to ten count to ten..."
"You are counting?"
"Yes, er, no....I mean...Why am I only told now?"
"...?"
"What I don't get, you know, I've never had to actually pay to go to work before."
"..."
"Right, well, okay, I'll see Mitsuda-sensei and, okay...five six seven eight...."
I have to pay about $100 to have to pretend to have fun with teachers who ignore me most of the time in school.
Another thing I wont miss is the tendency to 'pass' every student, regardless of his or her actual grade. While assessing students' communication activity presentations the ALT and the JTE separately grade the groups out of five. Then the mean must be taken between the two grades and each student in the group gets that grade. I think this is unfair since the mean of any two grades out of five will always end up being three, penalising the good students and rewarding the bad. I questioned my supervisor about this system, "Ah but it is fair ne?" She replied. Not really, no; in the first term every student got the same mark.
In the second term I attempted to correct the system by introducing half-marks, in effect increasing the range of potential scores. However, the JTEs caught on to this and instructed me to round up every half mark. Funnily enough for the second term every student got roughly the same marks, but higher.
During my third and final term I decided that I had had enough. At the end of one presentation one student in the group still hadn't said anything. The JTE started applauding, signalling the next group to come up. As they started to shuffle off stage I stopped them and pointed to the girl, "anata wa?" I said pointing at the girl, "are you going to say anything?" She stepped back on the stage and, looking at her feet, said: "Sank you.” According to the grading guidelines, for her one line, she should get the average 3/5 mark for the group. It was at this point that I started to dock marks from the individual students that didn't try. It was also at this point that I began to disregard each JTE score that disagreed with mine. Throughout the entire year here I have compared the JTEs evaluations with mine and repeatedly wondered if they have been watching the same presentations as me. One group I graded 1.5 out of five, as they had spent the entire presentation giggling and got out about three words in English. The JTE gave them a four. Out of five. She’s just passing them all through.
Think you're making a difference? You're really not.
posted by Geoff at 12:24 AM
5 Comments:
So...bitter...
Just a couple more weeks, buddy. You can do it.
Whenever you get pissed at schoo;, just do what I do. Think how about a thousand years ago there must have inevitably been tons of ninjas flipping all over the exact place where you now teach by the blackboard. There might have even been a knarly Ninja rumble, or maybe a Samurai duel. Either way, it must have been sweet a thousand years ago. Shame it sucks now. That usually brings a smile to my face.
We're not here to make a difference, stupid! We're here to perv on school girls, right?
Right??
In honor of your special interest.
http://www.trailerdownload.net/remote/932
shaz
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