It’s Tuesday, September 5th and my first day of school at Ohtawara Junior High School, the largest middle school in the city.That means I spent two sleepless night worrying about my first day of teaching. To say I was nervous was a complete misunderstanding of the word. Scared spitless… yes, my mouth was dry.
Leaving my apartment, I rode my large 18-speed bicycle the ten minutes down a newly paved stretch of road with a plethora of rice fields around me. Hundreds of students walked or rode a bicycle in the same direction. Children of the Rice.
At 8AM, I arrived safely at Ohtawara Junior High School (aka Dai Chu - Big Junior - as it was the biggest junior school in the city.) and parked my bicycle in the already crowded bike rack, and locked it up. Checking out the other bikes, I notice that not one of them was locked up. Despite being in a city, the school is contained within a large area of farmland. Not exactly a hub of criminal activity.
Walking slowly to the teacher’s office, every single student (gakusei) glances at me, bows deeply and says, “ohio gozaimasu (good morning)!” Respect! Baby, I love this place!
I’m wearing a light grey suit and tie and have a green backpack with me containing the English language books for years 1-3 that I will be using to team-teach with a Japanese Teacher of English. Hence forth, these folks will always be called “teachers”. Me, I’m an Assistant English Teacher (AET), and by the time I’m done, these brilliant Japanese kids will be speaking English like a native (not like a Texan, Bawstonian or New Yawker) and know all of the idioms like the peace sign and the thumbs up. Okay... they all know the peace sign. More in another blog.
As soon as I arrive, I make sure I go over and bow first to Principal Mori (kouchou–sensei), the vice-principal (kyouto–sensei) and then to the other teachers (sensei). Everyone is smiling. Everyone is glad to see me. Everyone is speaking Japanese to me.
That’s cool. This is Japan, afterall. I should be speaking their lingo. I just can’t yet. Luckily, Shibata-sensei comes by. He’s a mid-20’s skinny, hip guy with good hair that has obviously seen some gel, and is pulled back up onto his head with a slight messy tousle. Handsome guy. I'll post some pix of him in the next blog...
After five minutes of talking with him (in English), it’s obvious that he has a fantastic sense of humour—as do the other young teachers around, as everyone is laughing and cracking funnies in English! Even some of the older teachers join in. Nani? (What?) This teaching thing is going to be friggin’ easy!
I should mention that as soon as I sat down (next to Ryuichi Shibata), I was immediately brought a small clay-fired mug by one of the pretty women there and poured a nice steaming hot cup of o-cha (green tea). Thanks to Styx, I was able to say domo arigato (thank-you very much), leaving out the Mister Roboto crap. Really, check out this video by the Polysix: HERE. Remember, click on the coloured words in my blogs!
Because of my dry mouth, I quickly drained my cup. Seconds later, another woman was pouring more tea for me. Thanks again. I drank it. More tea, from another woman. Hmmm, I think I see a trend. Let’s confirm. I threw back another and saw the first three women jan-ken-pon (rock-paper-scissors) to see who would get to serve me. Not sure if it was the winner or the loser.
So, it appears as though the women make and serve the tea to the teachers… turns out that the women are teachers, too. Young or old, experienced or inexperienced, the women get the tea for the men. It doesn't matter where you work or go, that's the reality of this male-centric country. I’m no male chauvinist, but the guy in me could see that this country was… what’s the word I’m looking for… oh yeah… AWESOME!
Look… read the intro to the blog under the title… I’m calling myself an idiot, okay?
Anyhow, I now had four cups of green tea in me, and it flowed right through me. I had to go. Unfortunately, before I could mention my predicament, Shibata-sensei also told me it was time to go. Not sure what he meant, I bit my lip and followed him.
We went outside to a large building that was obviously the gymnasium. There, all of us teachers took off our shoes and put on some stupid, floppy slippers. Luckily, my large feet were anticipated, so they had slippers for me in size 30. Japanese shoe sizes are measured in centimeters. My 10-1/2 US shoes are equivalent to 30cm Japanese, which equals one foot. How handy. Or footy.
Did I mention that the slippers were pink with green cartoony frogs on them? Why are all the slippers that fit me, pink? What's with the frogs? Do men like pink?
Following Shibata-sensei up a set of stairs I suddenly realized that I was now walking on a stage in front of the entire student body of about 700 students. Junior high school, for those unaware, consists of Grades 7, 8 and 9 aka Year 1, 2, and 3.
The students were in their dress uniforms. They looked resplendent!
Behind me on the stage (see photo above) was a large flag of Canada, Japan, and one of Ohtawara. Awesome!
The principal gets up to the podium. Someone yells out “Bey!” All of the student bow in unison. The principal gives a slight nod of acknowledgment. He then gives a speech in Japanese. Concludes. Someone yells “Bey!” again. Another bow by the students. I'm unsure of the spelling of the word bey, or even what it means, but it obviously meant something to the students.
Shibata-sensei then says it’s time for me to give a speech. Say wha-? No one told me! Or did they? Damn this language thing.
Okay. No big deal. I majored in political science, I can sling with the best of them.
I told the crowd how happy I was to be in Japan, and how much I was looking forward to meeting all of the students. I hoped that as I taught them English, they could also teach me Japanese and about Japan. It was all translated very quickly and efficiently by Shibata-sensei. If he was actually relating what I said, he was very good at English translation.
Anyhow, when I finished, the thunderous silence was deafening until someone yelled out “Bey!” and everyone bowed. I did the same, brought my head up and smiled my biggest smile. It started a murmur within the crowd of students.
I think they finally realized I wasn’t your standard teacher, despite my grey suit.
I looked to go back to my seat on stage, but Shibata-sensie held up a hand and shook his head no.
A pretty young female student (who’s kidding whom! They were all pretty!) got up on stage with a handsome young male student (this boy, wasn’t so handsome, but that just might be me) who held a large bouquet of flowers.
They bowed to the Japanese flag, bowed to principal, and then bowed to me. Dammit. I forgot to bow to the Japanese flag and to the principal! Getting to know these social customs is going to be a chore! But I’ll figure it out!
The girl said, in English: “Welcome to Japan and to our school, An-do-ryu sensei. We look forward to you teaching us English. Thank-you.” Are they all this good at speaking Japanese?
She grabbed the flowers from the boy, handed them to me, both bowed deeply while I did the same. Awwww.
The students were in their dress uniforms. They looked resplendent!
Behind me on the stage (see photo above) was a large flag of Canada, Japan, and one of Ohtawara. Awesome!
The principal gets up to the podium. Someone yells out “Bey!” All of the student bow in unison. The principal gives a slight nod of acknowledgment. He then gives a speech in Japanese. Concludes. Someone yells “Bey!” again. Another bow by the students. I'm unsure of the spelling of the word bey, or even what it means, but it obviously meant something to the students.
Shibata-sensei then says it’s time for me to give a speech. Say wha-? No one told me! Or did they? Damn this language thing.
Okay. No big deal. I majored in political science, I can sling with the best of them.
I told the crowd how happy I was to be in Japan, and how much I was looking forward to meeting all of the students. I hoped that as I taught them English, they could also teach me Japanese and about Japan. It was all translated very quickly and efficiently by Shibata-sensei. If he was actually relating what I said, he was very good at English translation.
Anyhow, when I finished, the thunderous silence was deafening until someone yelled out “Bey!” and everyone bowed. I did the same, brought my head up and smiled my biggest smile. It started a murmur within the crowd of students.
I think they finally realized I wasn’t your standard teacher, despite my grey suit.
I looked to go back to my seat on stage, but Shibata-sensie held up a hand and shook his head no.
A pretty young female student (who’s kidding whom! They were all pretty!) got up on stage with a handsome young male student (this boy, wasn’t so handsome, but that just might be me) who held a large bouquet of flowers.
They bowed to the Japanese flag, bowed to principal, and then bowed to me. Dammit. I forgot to bow to the Japanese flag and to the principal! Getting to know these social customs is going to be a chore! But I’ll figure it out!
The girl said, in English: “Welcome to Japan and to our school, An-do-ryu sensei. We look forward to you teaching us English. Thank-you.” Are they all this good at speaking Japanese?
She grabbed the flowers from the boy, handed them to me, both bowed deeply while I did the same. Awwww.
This time, I bowed to the student body, looked up smiled and winked at them (lots more murmuring!), turned, bowed to the principal and then bowed to the Japanese flag. I didn’t bow to the Canadian flag, because that’s not what we Canadians do. I’m not actually sure what we do to our flag, but I’m sure bowing isn’t on the agenda.
As I sat down, everyone else stood up. Someone yelled “Bey!” Everyone bowed and left the auditorium.
It’s 9:30AM. I’m emotionally and physically drained. Unfortunately, my kidneys are not. I still have to teach...
Somewhere bowing to pee-r pressure,
Andrew Joseph
Title by The Beach Boys
As I sat down, everyone else stood up. Someone yelled “Bey!” Everyone bowed and left the auditorium.
It’s 9:30AM. I’m emotionally and physically drained. Unfortunately, my kidneys are not. I still have to teach...
Somewhere bowing to pee-r pressure,
Andrew Joseph
Title by The Beach Boys
