After telling almost every teacher for a year, I'll GO TO ANY CLASS! I'm SO BORED! GIVE ME THINGS TO DO! Teachers have started complying. With various business trips and mid-terms in between, I've been extra busy. As some supervising people have been real shitty with keeping tabs on my schedule and as a result I've had to Jam an entire weeks worth of lessons in to 3 days. I taught "only" three classes today, and will teach 5 tomorrow, and I taught 4 the day before. Fun!
Also I have for some reason agreed to forgo my lunch times and to stay late possibly past 6 (2 hours after I my work day ends) to proctor listening exams. Wait did I say proctor? I mean give them, evaluate them and basically do all the work. And since I am not actually their teacher, nor will it fit in my schedule to actually go to their class, I have to jam 40 students in between my lunch and after school for about two weeks...Lately I've been feeling like a real teacher.
The problem with me becoming more like a real teacher is I haven't really been an ALT to the kids. My lessons have been down right boring (difficult and educational), and instead of me randomly bugging students and being jolly with them, I've been getting irritated at their sloppy work and loudness. I've been less tolerant of them going crazy, and getting down on students with bad attitudes.
Before I felt the most important thing was to be nice to even bad students and win them over with kindness. But, this year I am trying to really teach them things, really get them to improve and really I just can't let them run wild and distract the other students, which happened a lot last year.
In some ways I think it can work, but in other ways its making me re-evaluate what it means to be an ALT. A lot of times I swear we are just dancing monkeys for them, and while I'm certainly not a human tape recorder, I am becoming just another Japanese teacher. Its really kinda sad and daunting, but I can't just let them run wild and let them have fun like before. Especially for the third years, who I am teaching with A LOT! I feel bad that some of them who would smile and be happy to see me have just been giving me perfunctory greetings.
But, I am hoping something ANYTHING I teach them will help them. But really I am unsure it is, because even though teachers tell me my students level is not bad (and recently I am even beginning to believe them) its just too difficult to learn grammar points and complex English rules with NO Japanese equivalent or translation. I sometimes feel I am talking into walls, or just boring the students into TEARS... I don't think I am filling them with more love of English, but reinforcing the fact that English is hard and boring. BAH!
Though I have been working like a teacher, and doing all the things regular teachers do, in the end I am not a teacher. These are the first third lessons I have had to give, and they are the first grammar lessons I have had to give, the first oral tests, the first essay tests, and I am DAMN unsure of myself.
Also since I am really busy grading things and doing things for the third years I have not been to a single second year class! I really miss those second year kids, when they see my in the halls ways they are really surprised and seem happy. (Not all of them keep in mind, but quite a few I got along with well) But I am usually walking to another class, or walking toward the teachers room to prepare for another class. So I don't talk to them even thought I wish I could. And while they are second years I feel that it's still OK to go to their class and let them have SOME fun. (Since hey their classes are boring and I swear ANYTHING I teach them would be better than what some of the other second year teachers teach...)
I thought getting more work and being more serious would increase my job satisfaction and bring down boredom. However, now days even when I have things to do I feel bored the second I have down time, BUT when I have my days jam packed I am frazzled and easily irritated. I just can't seem to win! Sadness...
On a very happy note, I met one girl in the first year who is PAINFULLY SHY! She would not even sit down near other students without me specifically guiding her. And when I started my introduction game she sat down by herself not doing anything. So I went to her to talk and suddenly other students started talking to her to ask her questions (you need to ask as many people as you can to win) and they seemed to know how shy she was and initially avoided her. However, she was soon laughing and talking with alot of students. At the end of class she still walked out by herself, but when I talked to her and asked her some questions she actually answered me. And I was happy, she seemed to have a good time.
Sadly, her class is annoying, and they have some boy students with really bad attitudes who talk shit about me as I walk by, and refuse to listen and stop talking when I am explaining the lesson. There are some girls who are really into the game but then they also won't shut up. Basically it's a loud and somewhat unruly class and they get me the most frazzled and irritated. Especially the shit talking boys, it's to the point where I can't wait to leave just so I can turn to them and mouth off in Japanese, I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING YOU SAID YOU LITTLE SHIT HEADS!
Ugh, what happened to the days when I could just laugh it off!!! I used to just go oh, silly children! BAH!
2007年5月21日月曜日
But I speak English!
Mid-terms have come, and I am starting to grade papers. I have an intensive oral communications class and hilariously the section I must grade is an essay. Sadly, I often find myself doubting the validity of my corrections. I am admittedly atrocious at grammar.
In High School I was recommended for Honors and AP English, 3 times. Each time I bombed out due to the fact I was HIDEOUS at grammar. My essays which I thought were rather well written, often were docked SERIOUS points due to my grammar. Run-ons sentences, fragments, improper usage, my essays had them all.
The fact that I was even going to Japan to teach English was a bit of a joke to my friends. So today, the teachers were joking with each other at how many students were writing down, "She speaks a little English". They even joked to me about it. And I had to second guess myself for a long while, thinking "I say that ALL the time" But in all seriousness, Hawaii is not known for it's proper English. And I know our colloquial English breaks down almost all grammar rules.
But, with a bit of temerity I challenged them, saying" I think that's right" They gave me a confounded look to which I said more sternly, "I'm almost certain thats correct." In the end I had enough doubt to call up Matt to reconfirm my assertion. Thankfully I was right, they even looked it up in the dictionary and found a sentence almost identical.
Though grammar is my weak point, and I am from a place where spoken English is no where close to proper, I think I need to trust my ability to speak English. That is after all what I am here for. Also I think this is the clearest sign that I need to speak English properly. I often am offended when friends correct my English, I think "Stop being such a Nazi"! But, as an English teacher we should be careful, least we really do teach them something horrible. I'd feel mighty awful if they failed their tests simply because my spoken English is such rubbish. So I am thinking of asking my parents to send me up a grammar book for English speakers.... I wonder how all you other JETs are doing.
Please respond, and from you Hawaii people, what do you think about your English?
In High School I was recommended for Honors and AP English, 3 times. Each time I bombed out due to the fact I was HIDEOUS at grammar. My essays which I thought were rather well written, often were docked SERIOUS points due to my grammar. Run-ons sentences, fragments, improper usage, my essays had them all.
The fact that I was even going to Japan to teach English was a bit of a joke to my friends. So today, the teachers were joking with each other at how many students were writing down, "She speaks a little English". They even joked to me about it. And I had to second guess myself for a long while, thinking "I say that ALL the time" But in all seriousness, Hawaii is not known for it's proper English. And I know our colloquial English breaks down almost all grammar rules.
But, with a bit of temerity I challenged them, saying" I think that's right" They gave me a confounded look to which I said more sternly, "I'm almost certain thats correct." In the end I had enough doubt to call up Matt to reconfirm my assertion. Thankfully I was right, they even looked it up in the dictionary and found a sentence almost identical.
Though grammar is my weak point, and I am from a place where spoken English is no where close to proper, I think I need to trust my ability to speak English. That is after all what I am here for. Also I think this is the clearest sign that I need to speak English properly. I often am offended when friends correct my English, I think "Stop being such a Nazi"! But, as an English teacher we should be careful, least we really do teach them something horrible. I'd feel mighty awful if they failed their tests simply because my spoken English is such rubbish. So I am thinking of asking my parents to send me up a grammar book for English speakers.... I wonder how all you other JETs are doing.
Please respond, and from you Hawaii people, what do you think about your English?
2007年5月8日火曜日
China...re-take
So unlike an intelligent person going to sleep early, I am still up at 12:30 reading others blogs. I realized Yamato, Matt, et all have returned from Laos and decided to read up on their blogs. Yamato gave a rather terse entry, but Matt wrote up quite a bit. Their trip seemed heavenly, and it got me thinking about China. And I suppose I decided to think back on the good of China. (It really wasn't ALL bad)
One thing that Matt seemed to talk a lot about was the reverence and general kindness of people. I found that kindness and reverence was lacking in China. From the people flat out ignoring pleas of help when we were lost, to the carelessness of people throwing piles of garbage on the great wall. But, there where times were I was amazed at the Chinese people.
Going to the Lama temple I was amazed to see what kind of people where praying with fervor. Many had bought insane amounts of incense to burn at every statue, every shrine etc. They prayed to all four corners and they bowed their heads low in their prayers, making sure to touch their foreheads to the ground. I was rather amazed as many of those who were the most sincere seeming in their prayers were young. Perhaps in their twenties, possibly my own age. I was not sure, but it made me glad to see that the youth was not completely disaffected.
Sadly, the Lama temple itself was steeped in commercialism. The people who came had loads of incense which they bought at inflated prices in the temple. At every step were plaques commemorating this or that, and while there were monks they seemed more prudent to show around big wigs or prevent the crush of foreign and local tourists from taking pictures. Prayers were not said aloud by waiting monks but was instead pre-recorded and blasted from a near by speaker.
Other temples were more of the same. The white-jade Buddha temple was a rather big joke. You had to pay once to get into the actual temple, which was more like an overblown gift shop. Then had to pay again to see the jade Buddha. There instead of a monk praying, was a woman there ready to sell you anointed oils which you could offer up to the statue. It made me feel like I was watching some sort of selling of absolutions.
On the other hand, another rather touching sight was on the great wall. While standing in line amidst garbage and shoving attendants who literally shoved you into the trolley up the wall and literally ripped you out (Sheenae can attest and she was actually flung into a wall!) I saw an extremely elderly couple. They were skinny, aged, and toothless, their faces and especially their teeth bore signs of the hardship of their life. But they could not have been more happy to have been on the wall. They were both full of toothless grins looking around them, almost giddy that they were actually about to ascend the wall. I had no idea what they were saying, but they spoke excitedly to their son. Their son was obviously a success, one of the new rich of China. Unlike his parents who were tanned, and slight he was rather portly and white, he sported a gold watch and a digital camera. He seemed rather proud that he could not only afford to bring his family and parents to the wall but also that he could afford to take them up in style via the trolley.
Mao said that one could only become a true hero after he had climbed the wall, and I'm sure that couples son felt like a hero. Granted the wall itself was a let down, with the crush of people, the obvious disregard for sanitation (walking into on of the fortifications you were instantly smothered by the smell of pee, since toilets were far and few between most seemingly took it upon themselves to pee in the most convenient dark place.) but seeing that couple made me smile.
People often complain that the Japanese are so polite one can never get a feel of their true intention. While this may be true, I felt like the Chinese were so openly rude and seemingly full of contempt for us foreigners that I could not get a feel for ...well anything. I stopped seeing them as simply a different culture, but could only see how rude they were. I really tried my best to see them in a good light, as it's horrible to judge an entire people based on a single experience, but it seemed at each junction of my trip that the people let me down.
Matt's journey seemed to reaffirm his trust in humanity and the innate goodness of people, sadly China has seemingly done the opposite for me. I have never felt that an entire people could be so collectively mean. Even in restaurants and in the hotels the workers seemed to treat you more of a nuisance than a valued costumer. The concierge was especially telling when he brushed us off when we asked him questions, he gave a rather brusque and quite terse answer to our question before sending us off... I then dropped him a rather generous tip in yen. He promptly chased us down, gave us a map and listing of nice restaurants and called a taxi for us. It seemed the only time people were nice was when money was being flashed. In the market people called us friends, till you bartered them down low enough then they would often throw things down in frustration and throw you the product before greedily snatching away your money. Even beggars on the street would come up to you begging "give me money" and would get rather testy with you when you simply ignored them.
But I suppose it's easy for me to judge them from my position of well off child born in a first world country. The people in the markets were obviously intelligent, walking the aisles of rip off goods I heard French, English, Russian, even Spanish spoken by the various sellers. These men and women seemed to be the cream of the crop and yet were reduced to open barter of knock off goods. The Chinese are trying to merely catch up to us, the traffic, the cars, the money the power, they want it all. Maybe they are ready to sacrifice the niceties to get there?
I'm honestly not sure where I am going with this, but I want to believe the Chinese are not that bad... but seeing poster in Beijing warning its citizens not spit in the street, the let children poop in front of others, not to beat your wife in public or leave your children unattended, I just have a hard time giving them slack. I have a hard time looking past the extremely brusque seemingly exploitive people I met and seeing the good in them.
This trip was great in showing me how good it is to be in Japan, but also horrible in showing me how people can be... and worse yet I feel guilty thinking the inevitable "how uncivilized, how backwards" that I now feel about China. This trip did make me reflect a lot, not just about myself but about people and where this world is going today, and it makes me sad...
One thing that Matt seemed to talk a lot about was the reverence and general kindness of people. I found that kindness and reverence was lacking in China. From the people flat out ignoring pleas of help when we were lost, to the carelessness of people throwing piles of garbage on the great wall. But, there where times were I was amazed at the Chinese people.
Going to the Lama temple I was amazed to see what kind of people where praying with fervor. Many had bought insane amounts of incense to burn at every statue, every shrine etc. They prayed to all four corners and they bowed their heads low in their prayers, making sure to touch their foreheads to the ground. I was rather amazed as many of those who were the most sincere seeming in their prayers were young. Perhaps in their twenties, possibly my own age. I was not sure, but it made me glad to see that the youth was not completely disaffected.
Sadly, the Lama temple itself was steeped in commercialism. The people who came had loads of incense which they bought at inflated prices in the temple. At every step were plaques commemorating this or that, and while there were monks they seemed more prudent to show around big wigs or prevent the crush of foreign and local tourists from taking pictures. Prayers were not said aloud by waiting monks but was instead pre-recorded and blasted from a near by speaker.
Other temples were more of the same. The white-jade Buddha temple was a rather big joke. You had to pay once to get into the actual temple, which was more like an overblown gift shop. Then had to pay again to see the jade Buddha. There instead of a monk praying, was a woman there ready to sell you anointed oils which you could offer up to the statue. It made me feel like I was watching some sort of selling of absolutions.
On the other hand, another rather touching sight was on the great wall. While standing in line amidst garbage and shoving attendants who literally shoved you into the trolley up the wall and literally ripped you out (Sheenae can attest and she was actually flung into a wall!) I saw an extremely elderly couple. They were skinny, aged, and toothless, their faces and especially their teeth bore signs of the hardship of their life. But they could not have been more happy to have been on the wall. They were both full of toothless grins looking around them, almost giddy that they were actually about to ascend the wall. I had no idea what they were saying, but they spoke excitedly to their son. Their son was obviously a success, one of the new rich of China. Unlike his parents who were tanned, and slight he was rather portly and white, he sported a gold watch and a digital camera. He seemed rather proud that he could not only afford to bring his family and parents to the wall but also that he could afford to take them up in style via the trolley.
Mao said that one could only become a true hero after he had climbed the wall, and I'm sure that couples son felt like a hero. Granted the wall itself was a let down, with the crush of people, the obvious disregard for sanitation (walking into on of the fortifications you were instantly smothered by the smell of pee, since toilets were far and few between most seemingly took it upon themselves to pee in the most convenient dark place.) but seeing that couple made me smile.
People often complain that the Japanese are so polite one can never get a feel of their true intention. While this may be true, I felt like the Chinese were so openly rude and seemingly full of contempt for us foreigners that I could not get a feel for ...well anything. I stopped seeing them as simply a different culture, but could only see how rude they were. I really tried my best to see them in a good light, as it's horrible to judge an entire people based on a single experience, but it seemed at each junction of my trip that the people let me down.
Matt's journey seemed to reaffirm his trust in humanity and the innate goodness of people, sadly China has seemingly done the opposite for me. I have never felt that an entire people could be so collectively mean. Even in restaurants and in the hotels the workers seemed to treat you more of a nuisance than a valued costumer. The concierge was especially telling when he brushed us off when we asked him questions, he gave a rather brusque and quite terse answer to our question before sending us off... I then dropped him a rather generous tip in yen. He promptly chased us down, gave us a map and listing of nice restaurants and called a taxi for us. It seemed the only time people were nice was when money was being flashed. In the market people called us friends, till you bartered them down low enough then they would often throw things down in frustration and throw you the product before greedily snatching away your money. Even beggars on the street would come up to you begging "give me money" and would get rather testy with you when you simply ignored them.
But I suppose it's easy for me to judge them from my position of well off child born in a first world country. The people in the markets were obviously intelligent, walking the aisles of rip off goods I heard French, English, Russian, even Spanish spoken by the various sellers. These men and women seemed to be the cream of the crop and yet were reduced to open barter of knock off goods. The Chinese are trying to merely catch up to us, the traffic, the cars, the money the power, they want it all. Maybe they are ready to sacrifice the niceties to get there?
I'm honestly not sure where I am going with this, but I want to believe the Chinese are not that bad... but seeing poster in Beijing warning its citizens not spit in the street, the let children poop in front of others, not to beat your wife in public or leave your children unattended, I just have a hard time giving them slack. I have a hard time looking past the extremely brusque seemingly exploitive people I met and seeing the good in them.
This trip was great in showing me how good it is to be in Japan, but also horrible in showing me how people can be... and worse yet I feel guilty thinking the inevitable "how uncivilized, how backwards" that I now feel about China. This trip did make me reflect a lot, not just about myself but about people and where this world is going today, and it makes me sad...
2007年5月7日月曜日
CHINA.......and doom
So I am back from China......and let me just say, WHAT A TRIP!
And this is not really in a positive sense. First off, I have never loved Japan more than when I was in China. Touching down from the airplane I was SHOCKED at how bad the pollution was. I had heard it was bad enough that many Chinese people wore face masks. Shockingly no one was, and I could not find any. But it was so bad I found myself hacking away just about everyday, and it reduced visibility to like maybe 200 meters at some points.
Also the smells, OMG the smells! In China its perfectly normal for children to have no bottoms in their pants. When they need to go they simply squat down and poop or pee...where ever they may be. Also, trash pick up seems spotty at best but to clean up for the Olympic games it seems that Beijing is trying to step up trash pick up at the main tourist sites. And so there are these cleaning ladies picking up trash everywhere, thus the Chinese people seem to dump trash where ever. Even on the great wall, people just carelessly threw their garbage in deep ravines, and the trash pick up ladies seemingly had to risk their lives to retrieve it. So it seems no matter where I went there were hideous smells...at every turn.
Also, like Japan's golden week, China also has a week long vacation that happens to coincide with Japans. Thus everywhere was PACKED with Chinese people. And man can they be rude. I have never been shoved so much in my life. I thought Korea was bad about the lack of standing in lines and the pushing, but in China multiply that by 10!
Also, I hear you need to barter to get around, but in China expect prices to be inflated 1000%. I am not joking you will get prices that are RIDICULOUS! I mean the first price they throw out will be more expensive than even America or Japan. And sometimes they will not budge. Its like they hear English and that the magic sign to throw out insane numbers. Also I had very little in the concept of money, the small denominations to me seemed like dollars so I'd fight to get 1 yuan off (which is apparently 1/7 of a dollar) But when it was in the 100's of yuan (Something like 16 dollars) I'd think yeah thats like what....2 dollars due to my adjustment of yen. So yeah, I got ripped off on EVERYTHING, at least thats how I feel.
So overall, I was happy to go to experience it. I didn't really have a strong compulsion to go, but I felt it was something I had to do. I got to walk the great wall, see the forbidden city, walk Tianamin Square. Very little of it had an impact on me. The great wall was nice, but I didn't even climb up it, since I went with the tour and most people in said tour preferred to take the buggy up. Also when I got up it was so polluted I could not down the valley. Also it was so crowded moving forward was slow going. But, it was still nice to see, one day I perhaps will go again, and this time with MUCH MORE CHINESE.
I did not learn a single word of Chinese, which I deeply regret. It was just ridiculous of me expecting to go with just English, and honestly I feel it was almost my own fault for making myself a mark.
Oh, yeah China can also be really scary. While trying to hitch a cab ride, some 8 random guys came up to me and my two friends. Ganged up on us, and then chased us down! They were trying to charge us a RIDICULOUS price for a cab ride, and instead of it being metered they were just content with trying to shove us in a cab. FREAKY!
Well, lets just say I am happy to be in Japan. I think for the next few weekends I will try to use my awesome car and travel around Japan more. I keep on saying this and I know it doesn't always happen, but I feel Japan has a lot to offer. I thought at times a lot of it was really touristy but in this world of global tourism I do not care where you go, there will be someone willing to exploit your dearth of knowledge of said locality. And things that may have been pristine paradises, will probably have become a hot bed of tourist exploitation... sounds miserable I know. But let's just say China has scared me for life! Hopefully the next place I go will be better... I don't want to be hating on China, but man...all I can say is China....WOW!
On another less sad note, I properly started my new first year lessons. Some classes are really genki and jazzed for English. So I am happy, my first lesson went really well. I was going to play the call response game and I didn't even need to! They totally answered all my questions, and after the class the new teacher I never taught with was really amazed that I did all the planing, print outs, and presentation. She also felt it went really well, YAY!
Something that makes me happy seeing as last year...my first lesson did not go so well. Power points, constantly changing things up etc, really helps. Sadly since I had a semi first lesson with one class, their technically second lesson but in order to keep the uniformity of other classes their first lesson was a kinda fail. Hopefully the scheduling will get better...which I doubt since I went through 2 random lesson changes with in the morning, without being warned and with it not being written up on the class schedule board. (Something that is in Japanese but which they have already told me to look at instead of the schedule they give me) w00t! Go my school!
They have even warned me that on Friday, I may have 3 classes back to back to back...or have Saturday school with the students. Oh joy. But at least it was a warning unlike today, which was Kristen the lesson schedule has changed! Then I go to the class and instead of it being what I was told in the morning it was completely something else. I love when its classes back to back to back...giving me basically zero time to improve them....
Well enough bitching! tomorrow is English Club, and another Oral Comm class (I am so unsure how it will go, since I still have not talked with that teacher I had a row with.....yikes!) So that means more planing and work so I'm signing off!
And yes sorry for the bitchfest, but wow. It in reality was not that bad... today that is, China on the other hand ....
And this is not really in a positive sense. First off, I have never loved Japan more than when I was in China. Touching down from the airplane I was SHOCKED at how bad the pollution was. I had heard it was bad enough that many Chinese people wore face masks. Shockingly no one was, and I could not find any. But it was so bad I found myself hacking away just about everyday, and it reduced visibility to like maybe 200 meters at some points.
Also the smells, OMG the smells! In China its perfectly normal for children to have no bottoms in their pants. When they need to go they simply squat down and poop or pee...where ever they may be. Also, trash pick up seems spotty at best but to clean up for the Olympic games it seems that Beijing is trying to step up trash pick up at the main tourist sites. And so there are these cleaning ladies picking up trash everywhere, thus the Chinese people seem to dump trash where ever. Even on the great wall, people just carelessly threw their garbage in deep ravines, and the trash pick up ladies seemingly had to risk their lives to retrieve it. So it seems no matter where I went there were hideous smells...at every turn.
Also, like Japan's golden week, China also has a week long vacation that happens to coincide with Japans. Thus everywhere was PACKED with Chinese people. And man can they be rude. I have never been shoved so much in my life. I thought Korea was bad about the lack of standing in lines and the pushing, but in China multiply that by 10!
Also, I hear you need to barter to get around, but in China expect prices to be inflated 1000%. I am not joking you will get prices that are RIDICULOUS! I mean the first price they throw out will be more expensive than even America or Japan. And sometimes they will not budge. Its like they hear English and that the magic sign to throw out insane numbers. Also I had very little in the concept of money, the small denominations to me seemed like dollars so I'd fight to get 1 yuan off (which is apparently 1/7 of a dollar) But when it was in the 100's of yuan (Something like 16 dollars) I'd think yeah thats like what....2 dollars due to my adjustment of yen. So yeah, I got ripped off on EVERYTHING, at least thats how I feel.
So overall, I was happy to go to experience it. I didn't really have a strong compulsion to go, but I felt it was something I had to do. I got to walk the great wall, see the forbidden city, walk Tianamin Square. Very little of it had an impact on me. The great wall was nice, but I didn't even climb up it, since I went with the tour and most people in said tour preferred to take the buggy up. Also when I got up it was so polluted I could not down the valley. Also it was so crowded moving forward was slow going. But, it was still nice to see, one day I perhaps will go again, and this time with MUCH MORE CHINESE.
I did not learn a single word of Chinese, which I deeply regret. It was just ridiculous of me expecting to go with just English, and honestly I feel it was almost my own fault for making myself a mark.
Oh, yeah China can also be really scary. While trying to hitch a cab ride, some 8 random guys came up to me and my two friends. Ganged up on us, and then chased us down! They were trying to charge us a RIDICULOUS price for a cab ride, and instead of it being metered they were just content with trying to shove us in a cab. FREAKY!
Well, lets just say I am happy to be in Japan. I think for the next few weekends I will try to use my awesome car and travel around Japan more. I keep on saying this and I know it doesn't always happen, but I feel Japan has a lot to offer. I thought at times a lot of it was really touristy but in this world of global tourism I do not care where you go, there will be someone willing to exploit your dearth of knowledge of said locality. And things that may have been pristine paradises, will probably have become a hot bed of tourist exploitation... sounds miserable I know. But let's just say China has scared me for life! Hopefully the next place I go will be better... I don't want to be hating on China, but man...all I can say is China....WOW!
On another less sad note, I properly started my new first year lessons. Some classes are really genki and jazzed for English. So I am happy, my first lesson went really well. I was going to play the call response game and I didn't even need to! They totally answered all my questions, and after the class the new teacher I never taught with was really amazed that I did all the planing, print outs, and presentation. She also felt it went really well, YAY!
Something that makes me happy seeing as last year...my first lesson did not go so well. Power points, constantly changing things up etc, really helps. Sadly since I had a semi first lesson with one class, their technically second lesson but in order to keep the uniformity of other classes their first lesson was a kinda fail. Hopefully the scheduling will get better...which I doubt since I went through 2 random lesson changes with in the morning, without being warned and with it not being written up on the class schedule board. (Something that is in Japanese but which they have already told me to look at instead of the schedule they give me) w00t! Go my school!
They have even warned me that on Friday, I may have 3 classes back to back to back...or have Saturday school with the students. Oh joy. But at least it was a warning unlike today, which was Kristen the lesson schedule has changed! Then I go to the class and instead of it being what I was told in the morning it was completely something else. I love when its classes back to back to back...giving me basically zero time to improve them....
Well enough bitching! tomorrow is English Club, and another Oral Comm class (I am so unsure how it will go, since I still have not talked with that teacher I had a row with.....yikes!) So that means more planing and work so I'm signing off!
And yes sorry for the bitchfest, but wow. It in reality was not that bad... today that is, China on the other hand ....
登録:
投稿 (Atom)