What am I doing in Japan?

Now that I've been in Japan for 2 months, it seems as good a time as any to let you know what I'm doing here.  Last year I applied and was accepted to the JET Programme.  The Programme, started in the late 80's, is sponsored by a number of Japanese ministries (Education, Foreign Affairs, two others) and seeks english-speaking college graduates with the goal of placing them in Japanese schools to serve as teachers, mentors, and foster cultural exchange through ties with the local community.  My personal motivations were my interest in spending time in Japan and joining the program dating back to 2003, the short work hours offered by the program that affords me time for some personal endeavors, and as a chance to gain foreign work experience and hopefully improve my Japanese speaking ability (and have fun).

Objective Benefits:

- A job during a time of economic uncertainty

- Entry into the Japanese Public Healthcare system

- No income tax with earnings in the 35,000-40,000$ range

- 35 hour work-week + Lots of Holidays

- Pre-arranged housing

- Yearly option to re-contract 4 additional times for a total of 5 years

Every JET is given a different situation.  Some people teach at up to 15 schools while others teach at one, municipalities vary from the center of a big city to a town of 700 people, and locations vary from the tropical islands of Okinawa to the frozen-half-a-year island of Hokkaido.  So really it is the luck-of-the-draw and in my placement I have been very lucky.  I was hired by the Nagasaki Prefectural Board of Education and placed in the center of Nagasaki City.  There are a total of 154 JETS in Nagasaki which ranks as the 3rd most JETs despite the prefecture being only the 37th largest in Japan.  The reason is that many Nagasaki JETs are living on various islands off the coast of the prefecture, some of them (such a Tsushima) being closer to Korea than to Japan.  I was assigned two schools: Nagasaki West High School and Kakunan Special Education School.

Nagasaki West is the top prefectural school in Nagasaki.  It ranks in the top 15 of public high schools in Japan and focus on science education.  There are 960 students and a staff of about 80 teachers and administrators.  The students are smart, hard-working, and sleep about half the number of hours that I sleep everyday.  They come to school early, stick around late, spend their nights at cram school and their weekends in school.  West is unique among most Japanese high schools because it doesn't offer conversation classes.  Instead students main focus is on science and passing their college entrance examinations.  This is unfortunate because the exam doesn't include an oral portion, thus my actual classroom instruction is sparse and limited mostly to grammar, translations, and posing corrections.  During exams (which has been often so far) I grade 600 or so short essays, which keeps me busy for the better part of 3 days.  I have 10 other Japanese teachers working in the English department with me and together we cover 3 grade-levels with 24 classes of 40 students.  Aside from myself, there is also a basketball coach from the United States, because somehow these kids have enough time to also have the best basketball team in the prefecture.

Kakunan Special School is located about 30 minutes outside of Nagasaki City by bus.  Its on the top of a mountain (a fact I soon discovered the first time I went there and got off at the wrong stop with the next bus 45 minutes away.   Needless to say, I showed up late, sweaty, and looking exhausted) and offers great views and starkly different environment from West High School.  There is an elementary school of 90 students and a high school of about 50.  The students who attend have Autism, Asperger's and other disabilities ranging from mild to severe in nature.  The staff numbers around 80 personnel and the typical classrooms functions at a 7:2 student:teacher ratio.  I attend Kakunan once a week and it is easily my favorite day.   Dress consists of sweat pants and a t-shirt, the staff is young, energetic and non-english speaking, and the students are always engaging and active.  My first day I was admittedly  anxious,  but that faded by lunch-time.  As there is no formal English education at Kakunan, I am currently teaching the 'culture' class during high school students' 'Kakunan time' (an extra curricular period where students can opt for gym, art, music, or culture class).  My lessons are taught almost entirely in Japanese and aim to be fun.  I covered my personal self-introduction with information about places I've lived, my family, Virginia, etc.  I taught about American children's games such as Duck Duck goose, how to do an English introduction, Heads-Shoulders-Knees-and-Toes, and English numbers/colors.  I know those students even more than my West High School students simply because I'm spending much more time in the classroom interacting, so I definitely enjoy it.

Anyway that is it for today.  Leave any questions you'd like.  In the next few days I'll try and round up questions in the past two months of comments and answer them.

Also Happy Birthday to Jen!