Three Month Business Trip

 As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, I've been working in Hyogo prefecture since the beginning of January, and I'll be finishing up here (and go back to my apartment in Kanto) by the beginning of next week. For privacy reasons, I won't name the specific city that I am working in. 

Where I am working, it's pretty rural. Having worked in rural cities in my time as an ALT for a number of years, this is nothing new to me. What is new to me is having to stay in a hotel for an extended period of time. Before this, the longest I was staying in a hotel for work was 6 weeks, so three months is a little bit harder. Fortunately, my hotel room (covered by my employer) is pretty big, and its location is fairly convenient in that there's a cafe, supermarket, pharmacy and a few petrol stations are all really close by, plus to get to my work place from my hotel is not that much of a drive luckily. However, the crappy thing about living in a hotel for so long is that I'm not able to really cook anything. Sure, I do have a kettle and microwave, but there's only so much you can do. On the other hand, I have learned from my previous experiences in that I am not having a big breakfast or dinner, purely because I have a big lunch at my workplace. Plus, the company provides a daily allowance for food too.

On the other hand, compared to other rural cities I have lived or worked in, there isn't all that much going on around here. My regular gym does not have any branches anywhere near me, with the closest perhaps being Himeji, and that's quite a distance just to go for the gym - though I have found an alternative small gym to get me by. It seems to be the only gym in the city, as the members that come seemed to be pretty tight knit and know each other well. The owner is a body builder, and is nice enough guy, and I spotted in the local newspaper that one of his members won a body building contest recently. As for the gym itself, it's not an Anytime Fitness, but it has most of what I need. I was going three times a week initially, but with things getting busy recently, I have only been able to go twice, maybe three times if there's a public holiday. 
Another thing I noticed is the lack of a Don Quijote store in the city or nearby cities, and having lived in other rural cities that did have one, I thought this was really weird. There's a nearby Aeon Mall (as small as it is), but I have to take nearly an hour train trip to the nearest ドンキ.

Despite the shortcomings, there are some upsides. As mentioned in a previous post, Himeji is a little over an hour away, and Kobe is about an hour and a half away, both by train. I did go to Himeji to watch the Gundam SEED Freedom movie, and I went to Kobe a few times for shopping and to celebrate my birthday by myself by doing everything I wanted to do: Go shopping for gunpla and games and catch up on IIDX.

I have also tried the local delicacy recommended by my coworkers, which is the local ramen - unlike ramen I usually have, it's a mildly sweet and salty soup that is used which works surprisingly well. When people told me it was sweet, I was worried it was going to be overpowering, but it wasn't. On the other hand, I'm not sure if it's just a Kansai thing, but the menu for ramen I was looking at came with rice of various sizes. At the time, I had set menu that included a small serve of rice (the amount you would get for school lunches), plus mince katsu and croquet of a pretty decent size which made for a sizeable meal - keep in mind that this is the smallest set menu you could get, and even I thought that was already big. 

Despite it being 3 months out here, the last 4 weeks or so went by really quickly. While I did go back to Saitama back in mid-Feb for bills and see my girlfriend, it will be nice to return to Saitama, and not have to worry about having to go back again. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed working here, and I would probably enjoy it more if I was actually living in this area - though this part of Hyogo is definitely not for everyone, especially if you're not used to rural areas that lack key Japanese things like a Don Quijote among other things. 

Recent activity (No fancy titles today)

So for last 4 weeks or so, I've been sent to work in Okayama prefecture. I won't name the specific city that I'm working at, but I will say that it is a rural port city. I have been filling in as a temporary teacher in this city, and it has been quite fun. For some background information, this city has not had the budget to have ALTs working in their schools for some years, and this year is the first time in a while that the city has the budget for ALTs. Before this, schools were apparently studying English through online teachers. As a result, I have found that the students I have been working with to be very keen and excited to interact with a foreigner, even if their English is far from perfect, but they are willing to try.

For me, it has been a good opportunity to get away from the office, as March and April were incredibly busy, and I had just been assigned to work at one of the company's Tokyo offices, which I did not (and still don't) enjoy. The quietness of this city compared to Tokyo is something I welcome. While I have no problem going to Tokyo for the occasional day trip or holiday, I cannot stand commuting to Tokyo on a daily basis. I find that compared to the rural areas, Tokyo folk are too busy to be polite. Most tourists won't notice, but if you spend enough time in a rural area, and then compare it to Tokyo, you'll pick up on the subtleties.

In terms of the work, it is also a chance for me to brush up on my ALT skills. Compared to the past where I was using Japanese quite a lot with students, I have deliberately minimized the amount of Japanese I use where possible with students. The students will in most cases speak to me in Japanese, or at least attempt to speak to me in English, but in almost every case, I will reply in English.

Since it is unreasonable for me to go back to Saitama every weekend (it costs me nearly 20,000 yen one way on the shinkansen), I have spent some time looking around the town, trying some of the local cafes and restaurants, and even finding time to go to a local gym. While they don't have the franchise gym I'm signed up with, the local community gym has been sufficient for my needs.

On a different topic, my mother came to visit me recently. While I was not able to get all the days off that I wanted from my employer, I was able to spend a full 7 days with my mother doing shopping and sightseeing, and even brought her out to where I was working. On the days that I was working, my mother would either stay at the hotel, or have a look around the surrounding area, before I came back in the afternoon, and we would go out for dinner. However, I noticed that the rural city I'm working in does not have much open in the way of dining outside of franchise/chain restaurants. I noticed that many of the local restaurants and cafes close pretty early. 

It was good to see my mum after nearly 4 years, and she made sure to make the visit count by bringing a lot of snacks and other gifts from Australia. The only regret is that my dad could not come and see Japan for himself before he died a few years back. I'm finally comfortable in saying that out loud after 2 years. Perhaps I will go in to more detail about it in a future post.

You've got to be fucking kidding me

When you've been asked to cover work at two different cities, then they ask you to do it again for a third day in a different city, and you just know you'll be asked to do it again on Friday.

Not going to lie, this one of my least favorite parts of the job. It means my job has to take a back seat, not to mention having to reassign many of my tasks to my co-workers.

English Motherfucker! Do you speak/read it!

My work has taken me to another part of Japan that I have never been to before - the Chugoku region. This is the first time that I've been here, but due to my work, I haven't had much time to go sightseeing. I had a bit of scare yesterday with a slight fever, but it looks it's gone today, so it's probably more than a slight cold due to the recent cold weather. Glad that it's not the CCP virus again, especially being so far away from my apartment.

In any case, I thought I would talk about some things relating concerning applying for ALT work. Being on the other end of things this time, I see a lot of mistakes that can be easily avoided, and I thought I'd share some pointers. While these pointers are not a guarantee that you will get a job as an ALT with any dispatch company, it would definitely help improve your chances.

1) Any email sent to you by dispatch companies should be read in its entirety.

There's going to plenty of important information sent in emails from employers, so it is important you read it in its entirety. This can range from how orientations or interviews will be run, asking about your availability based on certain dates or times, to what to do in the event that you are not able to make it to an interview or orientation in time. Considering you're applying for a job that requires teaching English to children, not being able to follow basic English instructions isn't a good start in making an impression with your future employers.

Simply replying "I will be there" shows that you did not fully read the email

2a) If you have tattoos - say so

Anyone who has lived in Japan or has learned about Japanese society will know that tattoos are still a taboo thing. This is because tattoos are still associated with the Yakuza - the Japanese mafia. Obviously working in school with children, visible tattoos aren't exactly projecting a kid friendly image. 
If you try hiding this fact, it will come out at some point - in which case the school will tell the city's Board of Education, who will give your employer hell for it, which in turn will lead to your employer giving you hell for it. There will be a good chance that the Board of Education will want you kicked out of their city, and if you're lucky, your employer may assign you to a different city but you're more likely to be fired. So basically, don't lie about your tattoos.

And another thing, don't get tattoos after you've been hired - companies still reserve the right to change their minds, and when they find out, they can and will withdraw their offer. I say this because there are people out there that have been dumb enough to do this. 

2b) Don't lie about your Japanese ability.

This is more for your sake rather than the employer's sake. While Japanese ability is not necessary to run the classes, you are going to need some Japanese ability to communicate with teachers, especially at elementary schools, where there's not always going to be a dedicated Japanese English teacher, unlike Junior and Senior High schools. Some teachers at Elementary schools may be able to speak English, but to what extent will obviously vary from school to school. If you have over exaggerated your Japanese ability, it's going to unravel very quickly when you begin at your school, which is going to piss off your teachers, and piss off your employer for lying. 

I've seen this happen, leading to ALTs resigning, and citing that their Japanese ability is not sufficient enough for their assigned schools. Dispatch companies will assign ALTs to schools after factoring in everything - including Japanese ability. 
It's better that you be more modest when it comes to assessing your own Japanese ability - at some point, you will have to demonstrate your Japanese skills to your employers.

3) If you don't pass, don't be a dick about it. 

Even though you feel that you did well in an orientation/interview, sometimes things don't turn out the way you want it to. That's just life. But that doesn't give you a free pass to act like a piece of shit about it. You think employers are going to consider you in the future if you send childish or dickish emails that show you for who you really are? If anything, it would confirm the employer made the right choice in not hiring you. If you want to reply, simply leave it at thank you for your time, and would look forward to another opportunity in the future. This will leave a much more pleasant impression of you. 

That's all I have for the moment for advice about applying for Japanese ALT dispatch companies. Most of these tips would seem pretty obvious and self-explanatory, but with what I've seen in my job since joining in April this year - there are some pretty dumb people out there.

Toji's Guide/Thoughts on Being an ALT

Ms. Baker (left) is best ALT waifu

In a rare change of pace, I'll be posting a kind of guide here today. I had actually written this up a few months earlier, but decided to hold off on uploading it until it was much closer to the end of my current ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) contract. I figured that since I'll be moving on to a new job at the beginning of next month, I should probably summarize what it's been like for me to be an ALT out in the woop woop parts (a.k.a rural) of Ibaraki  and things to be aware of, for anybody who is thinking of wanting to come to Japan to work. While some might think that ALT work is incredibly easy work, that's not always the case.

Note that these are purely from my own experiences only, and while some of these experiences and pointers may vary from place to place, other pointers are generally applicable to all schools.

1) ALT work does not pay much these days*. 

When I first started working as an ALT in Kamisu city back in mid-2016, I was earning about 13,000 yen a day - approximately 260,000 yen a month. However, after having to move to a different city, my pay was reduced to about 12,500 yen a day - around 250,000. In my current city now? I'm not even earning that. Due to some number manipulating on my employer's part, I'm earning about 12,000 yen a day - 240,000 yen a month. However, this includes the expenses to cover commuting to school. In my previous two cities, the commuting pay was separate from my regular pay.

Regardless of the company, anyone who has been an ALT will generally agree that these days, it's a race to the bottom for companies to pay as little as legally possible to ALTs. While it would seem at first glance that dispatch companies are being tight with money, it's more to do with the Board of Education being tight with the money - but not necessarily by choice. The problem is that the budgets assigned to them by their local/prefectural governments are getting smaller. Despite this, Boards of Education still want good quality ALTs, even if they can't/won't pay accordingly for said ALTs. Dispatch companies want to pay their ALTs more so they'll stay on, but they also want to win more contracts and build up their reputation throughout the country. So it's a snowball effect, starting with governments being stingy on children's education.

While I won't say avoid ALT work like the plague, I would advise that you carefully check how much you will get paid per day - or at the very least, per month. Some job advertisements will show the annual pay, but it seems to be an attempt to hide how little you will be paid. If you can, only take the jobs that pay at least 250,000 yen a month. Also, with the current situation of the CCP virus, dispatch companies are desperate for ALTs right now, and I would dare say that you might have a bit of room to negotiate. Just don't be too greedy if you do try negotiating.

This won't be a problem if you're only thinking of doing a year or two in Japan as an ALT, or using ALT work as a means to get a better job as soon as possible in Japan, but this is not the kind of work you would want to do long term. Some people can make this their living, but I've found those sorts of people tend to be few and far between.

*... However, this is from my experience working for a ALT dispatch company. Companies like Interac and Altia Central are examples of such dispatch companies. If you get lucky and work directly for a city's Board of Education, you will get paid significantly more (I spotted a job-ad not too long ago that was offering 290,000 yen a month), as there is no middle-man taking a cut out of your pay. However, from my own observations, it's rare to see a city's Board of Education advertise for an ALT. In my 5 years in Japan, I've probably seen only 2 - 3 positions advertised, and heard of a co-worker successfully get a direct-hire position. Also, you will most likely need a Japanese driver's license to be eligible for a direct-hire position.

2) Your role will vary depending on your schools. 

Officially, ALTs are there to assist the teacher in teaching English to students. In Junior High School and High School, this will generally ring true. At those schools, there will already be dedicated Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) to teach English. Your role there will usually be reading from the textbook, checking the students' work, and preparing any extra material that you think may be useful, such as English boards, worksheets and so on. Basically, you get the easy work, and it's no surprise that many ALTs would prefer to work at a JHS or HS. 

Elementary Schools on the other hand... well, that's a different story. Unlike JHS and HS, there's not always going to be a dedicated JTE at an elementary school. There will more often than not be at least one teacher there that can speak English, and therefore, your only point of contact if you have questions or concerns regarding day to day operations at the school (unless you've got some Japanese ability under your belt), but will either not be confident enough to run an English class, or may have other responsibilities running classes for their assigned grade. This means that you will more than likely be preparing the lessons, preparing the materials (assuming the previous ALT didn't leave any materials for you to use) and running the classes, with the homeroom teacher usually playing the assistant role. You may get lucky and have some teachers that will get involved in the lessons and planning process, but I have found that to be the exception, rather than the rule. If you're lucky to have a head teacher who has experience teaching English, and takes charge of lesson planning and running classes for some of the grades - enjoy it while you can. In my five years, I've only encountered two or three teachers who took the lead for the class; two of those teachers were involved in the planning process, while one planned the entire lesson, and kept me in the loop on what they would be doing for what lesson, occasionally asking for my input or ideas.

3) Not all students are created equal.

Presumably, if you're wanting to be an ALT, you should at least have a little bit of experience working with children, or at the very least have the patience to work with children. I mean, you are going to be working at a school after all. A school. Full of children.

While I have been very fortunate to have had pretty good students overall, that streak came to an end this year, with my 6th graders at my elementary school. One class is usually ok, but the other... fucking hell. I hate the class, and I have found that the source of why the class is so bad is down to most of the boys in that class being absolute pieces of shit - disruptive, won't listen, then complain they don't understand because they're disruptive and won't listen. You need to have patience with children, and if you don't have patience for children, or willing to learn patience, do not bother becoming an ALT. 
Generally 6th graders can be arrogant, because they are essentially the kings of Elementary school - of course this comes to a crashing halt the second they go in to Junior high school. But basically, you need to learn to keep your cool in front of the kids, regardless of what happens in the classroom.

In my experience, 4th graders can also be a handful. Oddly enough, despite my earlier comment about 6th graders being arrogant, my experiences have been generally positive aside from this year. The 6th graders I have worked with have mostly been shy, but rarely have they been disruptive. Though the 6th graders that I have worked with for more than 1 year I have found to be a bit more lively, but again, rarely are they disruptive, and I have found those kinds of students to be fun. 
This does carry on a little bit in to junior high school. The 1st graders are usually still full of energy and enthusiasm, though by the time they reach 3rd grade, it's pretty much non-existent - the weight of trying to pass their entrance exams to get in to their desired high school is on their shoulders, and I do not envy the kind of pressure that has been put on them. All I can do for them is help where I can. If they ask for my help, great. If they don't it, that's fine too.

More importantly, what you need to realize is that because you'll be working in a public school, not every student is going to be enthusiastic about learning another language, let alone English. Yes, you'll have a few that genuinely want to learn and improve their English, and in my experience - not just schools in Japan, but language learning in general - girls tend to take English (and language learning) more seriously than boys. That's not to say that there aren't boys who want to learn and improve their English, but you'll find it more likely that girls will be studying harder for English. So, if you aren't getting a good reaction from your students, it could simply be that they're not really in to English, and not necessarily a problem with you personally.
Of course, if you decide to work in an Eikaiwa, most of your students are there because they want to improve their English (or at least, their parents want them to).

4) Welcome to the rice fields, motherfucker. 

While you might get assigned to a major city, and be able to get by with zero or very little Japanese (more on that in the next section), chances are, you're going to be assigned to work in a rural city. Depending on your personal preference, this could be seen as a paradise of peace and quiet, or it could be absolute torture and boredom. If you're in the latter category, I'd suggest finding an apartment near a train station that can take you somewhere more lively for the weekend.

On the other hand, while it is possible to get to your school by bike or walking, having a driver's license from your home country will make you more appealing to ALT dispatch companies, as it means they can assign you to cities and schools where you might need a car. Most companies will provide a car  (for a certain monthly fee) to get to school and to allow you to go about your day to day business. If you do decide to go for a company car, the company will reimburse you for the daily cost of commutes to school, and will pay for the regular car inspections (the shaken/車検). In addition, they will cover any repairs to the car, provided it wasn't your fault. If you have a valid license from your home country, it means you have the opportunity to transfer it in to a Japanese driver's license. 

Also, being in a small rural town means news travels around fast. This also means that as an ALT, you could potentially face greater scrutiny if you're caught doing something you're not supposed to or, just as bad, be accused of something you didn't do (especially if you're a man). Potential punishment can vary between having to leave the city (and your employer having to assign you somewhere else quickly), to being outright fired by the company. I have known this to happen to some friends who are no longer ALTs, but have fortunately bounced back and are still living and working in Japan.

5) If you want better work in Japan, git gud at Japanese, gaijin.

While ALT dispatch companies will advertise that Japanese ability isn't required, it's partly true. While you might not need Japanese to teach English at your schools, you will definitely need Japanese ability to get by outside of school. If you happen to be assigned to a rural city as discussed above, Japanese ability is a must. Need to go to the doctor? You're going to need Japanese to adequately tell them what's wrong. Need to set up an account for your apartment's utilities or phone? You're going to need Japanese. Need to go to city hall for anything? You will need Japanese, but some city halls will have a booth dedicated to assisting foreigners, though I am not sure if this is standard across the country or not. Fortunately, some cities have night schools for learning Japanese, and it might be an idea to take it up if you're thinking of living in Japan long term.

Alternatively, you could work at an Eikaiwa school, which pays more than typical ALT work. However if you want a job in Japan beyond being an ALT or Eikaiwa instructor, you will need Japanese proficiency, along with physical proof of that proficiency. By that, I mean you need to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test - more commonly known as the JLPT (or 能力試験). Most non-ALT jobs these days will require that you at least have JLPT N2 certification, which is roughly the equivalent of advanced/business level Japanese, with N1 being considered the equivalent of native level Japanese. If you can at least get N2 certification, it will open up a lot more job opportunities for you within the country.

If you're intending to take the JLPT, there are plenty of textbooks available to purchase to cover vocabulary, grammar, kanji, reading and listening. The JLPT is held twice a year in Japan (first Sunday of July and December), whereas most other countries only hold it once a year in December. Registering for the test isn't cheap, but the benefit of having that certification is worth it.

6) The Summer Vacation - the good and the bad.

There are two things you need to be aware of concerning working as an ALT in public schools: Your schedule follows that of the school year, and you're paid based on the number of days you work each month. But the thing is, you will receive your pay the following month. For example, your pay for January will arrive in February. Since you won't be working in August because of the summer vacation, come September... see where I'm getting at here?

Some companies will pay between 50-75% of your regular monthly pay to help you get by until you receive your September pay in October. I believe Interac is one of the dispatch companies that does this. Unfortunately, my employer is not so gracious, though they do offer a little extra work during the summer break so I got a little bit of pay to get me through the following month, which was why I loved only having two weeks of summer vacation last year. In any case, it's recommended that before the summer break, you save up some money to help you get through September.

Also, be especially aware if you're starting in August (or even April), this is even more important, as your first pay won't arrive until two months later. Fortunately, my employer was upfront about this part before I moved to Japan to start work. At the very least, you should ask your employer what their policy is regarding pay for the summer break when factoring in the initial cost of moving to Japan.

In Conclusion

Those are my pointers for the moment, though I will be sure to update this post if there are any other key points that I think would be important for anybody who is wanting to become an ALT in Japan. However, due to the coronavirus, it's more difficult to enter the country at the moment, so you'll need to factor the cost of quarantine on top of everything else if you are able to get in to Japan

Lastly, while this post could be seen as hating on ALT work (and there are plenty of former ALTs out there who do hate the job with a passion), ALT work is not all bad. There is some joy in teaching students English, and see them improve over time. But as I mentioned earlier, this is not a long term job. At the very least, it's a good experience, and also a good way to move on to better jobs in Japan - provided you're willing to put that extra work in to be eligible for a better job. On top of that, though, you need to be prepared to accept that Japan is not exactly like what you see in anime and pop-culture. It's quite different from western culture in some ways, but in others it borrows a lot from it too, creating this weird fusion between old and modern. In any case, the first few weeks will be a little bumpy as you acclimate to your new environment, but if you're able to stick it out, you'll come out of it for the better.

At some point, I will probably shift this guide over to my main site, as this will probably get buried by future posts.

ALT companies desperate for foreigners

 I came across an article on Mainichi Shinbun regarding the effects of the CCP virus on companies that largely rely on employing people from overseas. This article covers the impact on the Japanese Exchange and Teaching program (or as it is more commonly known as the JET program), where foreigners will come to Japan and help teach English as an ALT to elementary, junior high, and high school students, while at the same time taking the opportunity to learn more about Japanese culture. The catch with this program vs. working for a ALT dispatch company, is that you can only stay in the program for 5 years max, as this is never intended to serve as long term work - only a "cultural exchange". 

I have heard from other people also that ALT dispatch companies are feeling the pinch, and - if rumor is true - Interac is apparently not doing so well in terms of retaining or recruiting foreigners. The fact that the Japanese government has effectively locked out foreigners that aren't permanent residents from entering the country, has forced ALT dispatch companies to look within the country for prospective candidates. Most cases though, foreigners living in Japan will probably already have a good job, or at least hold on to the current job, especially given the stress that comes with moving to another part of the country. My current employer has also been pushing on us to recommend anyone to sign up with them, but I always give the same answer: I don't know anyone (or at least, anyone that would want to sign up with them)

I will need to submit my resignation some time soon also, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. My coordinator has made it clear that they would like me to stay on in my current city for one more year, and upper management has finally got its act together in interviewing me and trying to train me up for a position at one of their offices. Fortunately, the pay they're offering is significantly less than the company I'm choosing to jump to, but I still need to confirm some things about this training before dropping the bomb on them.

April can't come soon enough

When you cannot stand some of your classes any longer, despite a new job being lined up in April

The World is the ultimate Stand!

When you just took an offer for a new job elsewhere, and suddenly your current employer wants to speak to you about a new position within the company:

Online classes for the first time

Since late August, Ibaraki prefecture (among many other prefectures) had been under a State of Emergency (here on out referred to as SOE). What this entails is that people are required to work from home (where possible), restaurants have their hours shortened to only open until 8pm - and no alcohol to be served during that time - and schools, although technically open for classes from the beginning of this month, are to have online lessons.

In my city, this is the first time for all teachers to run their classes online. Of course, for students to be able to attend online classes, they need laptops and access to the internet. For the former, Ibaraki prefecture has had some sort of special funding by the central government where all schools are being supplied with Chromebooks for each and every student to use, and all schools have had their internet infrastructure given upgrades to allow all students to access the internet via their chromebooks when they're at school. However, for those who do not have internet access at home (and there are a few students here and there that do not), and for those who do not have any parents at home to supervise them (due to work), the school is open for them, and they can still do online lessons using the school's internet.
However, because the classes are online, it's possible to run a lesson with all classes from each grade attending at the same time - so for example, if there are four classes worth of second graders, you can run the class for all to attend at once - basically leaving teachers with more time freed up after class. For the last three weeks, I've run a few online lessons for my elementary school. I was a bit nervous with my first lesson for a couple of reasons. For one, as I'm looking at a camera, rather than students, it was hard to gauge reactions of students to see if they're paying attention, understand, or have no idea what I'm talking about. The other reason, is that because most of the activities I do in class require some sort of direct interaction with teachers or with other students, I've had to adjust my activities accordingly. One activity I normally do, is "small talk" where the home room teacher and I will split the class in half, and the teacher and I will go to each student asking one question for them to answer (which we explain/demonstrate before the start of the activity) - this ensures that the students have to speak English, while it also gets the home room teacher involved, and by setting an example, it gets the students to also try (in theory anyway...). Instead, what I have had to do, is pick students at random to do small talk (of course, with a demonstration first with the teacher), as there's not enough time to go through two classes worth of students for this exercise.
Another change I have made, is using powerpoint slides. Normally, I use the blackboard, but in this case, to make it easier for students to see and understand, I've been preparing powerpoint slides instead to explain certain grammar points, or as flashcards for students to practice pronouncing the vocab. For my first class, it seemed to go well with them. On the other hand, with more time freed up, as a result of doing both classes at once, I have more time to prepare lessons and powerpoint slides. 

The SOE will actually be wrapping up on Thursday, with Friday meaning the return of regular classes. Honestly, I'm looking forward to it, as I really don't like sitting at my desk at the teachers' office for long periods of time. That, and being able to interact with the students will be nice too.

Teachers getting fast tracked for vaccines?

Japan Today has posted a recent article highlighting why Japan is dragging its feet on the vaccine rollout, something I briefly talked about briefly in a previous post.

On the note of the vaccine, I sat in on the usual teachers' meetings at one of my schools. What was of particular note was regarding vaccines for the corona/CCP virus. Officially, the city is rolling out the vaccine for the elderly residents. However, it appears that due to there being excess vaccine left over, it is being offered to teachers for the next three weeks, which I think is a good thing, given they have regular exposure to children for extended periods of time. In addition, this seems to be available to teachers at all schools. But, due to most people getting flu-like symptoms that last around 3 days after taking the vaccine, they seem to be utilizing a system where so many teachers from each school at any one time (around 2-3) will go get the vaccine, before the next lot teachers go. This is apparently to reduce the impact of absent teachers needing time to recover from the flu-like symptoms after taking the vaccine.
While this is great news for them, there really hasn't been any mention of whether this would apply to ALTs, who also work at these schools. Since ALTs are subcontracted to work at these schools, we don't fall under the usual school pecking order, and I suspect that we would be ineligible for this time period.
I spoke to a fellow ALT about this, where they mentioned that teachers were asking them if they had any allergies to certain vaccines in the past, though didn't say outright anything about the CCP virus vaccine that all teachers would have access too. Despite no outright mention of it to them, it would seem to match up with what I heard at the teacher's meeting. 

I want to speak to the company about this, though I suspect that they might not know anything about this, as this seems exclusive to my current city. In any case, given that we are working in close contact with children (despite attempts at social distancing), it would be worthwhile finding out if there is any sort of vaccine program available to ALTs if there are extra vaccines that are sitting around being unused.

Working from home

With things starting to escalate in Japan over the CCP virus, and the number of infections in Ibaraki prefecture now over 100 people, it's reached a point now where we have received instructions from the city's BOE to work from home until May 7th, after Golden Week. My employer has guaranteed that we will be paid for working from home, on the condition that we submit either lesson plans/materials to prove that we have been working each day. Some of us ALTs have decided to pool together resources in to a group document, so it means that we aren't doubling up on lesson plans, and also gives an opportunity to share ideas/resources, especially for ALTs who may not have as much experience in either JHS or ES, or are newbie ALTs this year.

On one hand, it means that I'm not having to sit in the teacher's room pretending to look like I'm busy when I have finished my work for the day. On the other hand, I lose the opportunity to talk with some of the teachers, whether it be simple chit chat during lunch break, or a chance to coordinate lesson preparations. I had a chance to talk with one of my elementary school teachers about the first lessons for the 6th graders. Similarly, at one of my Junior High Schools, one of the English teachers asked me to help her in preparing materials, while another asked for my input on ideas for lessons, based on my experiences at Chikusei. Also, at that same JHS, a bunch of teachers decided to go play volleyball in the gym during lunch break, as they had pretty much finished their work for the day. There was also one student in attendance too, as the schools will remain open for students whose parents have to work during the day. In any case, it was pretty fun to just hang out with the teachers in a non-formal environment.

My girlfriend is still staying over for the moment, and even bought a bicycle that she can use to get around the city while I'm out. Considering that the nearest supermarket is about a 15 minute walk away, likewise with the train station, it was a good purchase. I am considering using the bicycle as well from time to time when she heads back to Tokyo - it would be a shame to let it just sit there and all that.

Anyway, that's all I have at the moment. Pretty much two weeks working from home until after Golden Week ends next month.

New city & Other topics

Just over a week ago, I moved to a new city. While I had no problem talking about the last city I lived in the last 3 years (hint: it was Chikusei), I feel it probably be better not to talk about my current city, especially what I'm aiming for (hopefully) next year regarding the company I'm working for. I will simply say that I have moved to a city that is south of Chikusei, and is about an hour away from Tokyo by train. However, given the whole coronavirus/CCP virus situation at the moment, heading to Tokyo isn't exactly an option right now.

This time around, I opted to rent an apartment independent of my employer. Again, it's a Leopalace apartment, and aside from a few small things, it's pretty much identical to my previous apartment. Though this time, I'm trying to take better care of this apartment compared to my last one - especially the kitchen. While I didn't destroy the last apartment in any way, I felt I could have done a better job looking after it. Well, it just so happens my girlfriend has been staying over for the past week, so there has been some incentive to keep the place as clean as possible (despite a whole bunch of packing boxes moved off to one side.
The reason she has been staying over lately, has been due to concerns that Tokyo may be put in lock down indefinitely, especially with the number of infections increasing on a daily basis in Tokyo. Combine this with the fact that Prime Minister Abe now has the authority to declare a national emergency. However, with the problem of the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to next year, and the potential economic damage such an emergency could do, Abe has been incredibly hesitant to make that call, despite Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike putting pressure on Abe to do so. Also, last week's call by Koike for Tokyo residents to stay home over the previous weekend prompted panic buying from Tokyo folk, clearing out supermarkets and convenience stores. Fortunately, my girlfriend and I stocked up early on food to last us about a month, so we've been living off that. In another stroke of good luck, it seems the panic buying hasn't reached out to this current city I'm in. While some supermarkets here have signs up about limits on certain products, there seems to be ample of products to go around. Unfortunately, we're still waiting on new masks to be produced, given that they've all been bought up since early last month. I have checked on Amazon Japan for masks, I notice that many of the masks on sale are from sellers located in China, which seems to match with China and the CCP's soft power plans to try and profit from this mess that they have spread (whether they caused it is up for debate, but their mismanagement and deception on this matter certainly didn't help in the early stages).

Anyway, I also visited my schools last week. Unlike my time in Chikusei, I will be working in three schools: one elementary school, and two junior high schools. My elementary school will be my main school (three days a week), and I'll be working one day each for my junior high schools. However, I've been told classes will not officially start until the 20th of this month, though I will still be going to school and getting paid for it fortunately. However, it seems that some students may still turn up to school during that time (due to working parents), so it will at least be an opportunity to meet some of the students and get to know them - and possibly join the JHS' art clubs and get back in to drawing, since I haven't done any since moving... and I'm currently waiting on a new touch pen to be delivered soon.

So that's about it for now.

Three Weeks of Nothing

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, Japan's Prime Minister has ordered that all schools be closed until the end of spring vacation. Naturally, many people are upset about the suddenness of the announcement, not to mention that Abe apparently did not bother to do any consultation or coordinate how to pull this off while minimizing the impact across the country.

I was more concerned about my fate in all this, and whether or not I will be working and or getting paid for March. Well, I received an email from my employer after school last Friday, and fortunately I will be going to school until the end of semester - regardless of the fact that there are no students, and no classes during that time. While I have been instructed to plan lessons and help the teachers, the fact that I'm out by the end of the semester has me feeling tuned out from all of this. Fortunately, I'm keeping myself busy at my schools.
At junior high school, I'm reviewing the new textbooks that 5th and 6th graders will be using at elementary school next year. In addition for 5th and 6th grade, English will be taught as a proper subject, as opposed to "foreign language activity" (外国活動）. Looking at the textbooks, there is certainly a lot more material compared to what they went through this year. In addition, it's feeling a lot like Junior High School level of content they're doing - at the very least JHS 1st grade levels.
At my elementary school, I'm pretty much tidying up my "English room," where I'm sorting out and organizing my flashcards so that they're easy to take back with me when it's my last day in two weeks time. Yeah, I'm not leaving much behind for the next ALT, but considering the flashcards were not made at school, and I forked out of my own pocket, they're mine to do with as I please. Also, learning from my experiences when I first started at this elementary school 2 years ago, and finding out there were no materials left by the previous ALT, I've decided not to risk assuming there will be materials for me to use at the next elementary school I might end up with. It will mean I'm better prepared, and I won't be caught on the back foot during the first few weeks of the first semester.

Yeah... that's pretty much it for now. Just counting down the days until I'm out.

An early end to the school year?

According to news that's springing up online just recently, Prime Minister Abe has ordered that all schools be closed from March 2 until the end of spring break:

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200227/p2g/00m/0na/101000c

This basically means that tomorrow is my last day at my schools. While the teachers know that I will not be the same schools next year, I haven't told them that I will be leaving the city. Guess I'll have to break that news to them tomorrow too.
This also means, that I will probably not get any work or pay for March. I have yet to receive any word from my employer on this matter, that I am sure we will be getting some sort of email from the company tomorrow. 

This also gives me plenty of time to pack up my things, and be able to get the keys to my apartment from the Leopalace office in Chiba on the 24th without having to ask for time off. Still, that little bit of convenience is not worth the trade off of having no work for the next 3 weeks. Hopefully, it will only last until end of spring break, and not be extended any further - otherwise, I (and many other ALTs) will probably begin feeling the pinch not long after.

I have my own thoughts on this whole Corona virus - WHO selling out to China, CCP not being entirely honest, Australia pretty much belonging to China at this point. I guess I'll save that for another time when I have collected my thoughts.

Company School Visit

Today, I got a visit from my employer for the standard school visit. Usually what happens is that my employer gives the school a heads up on when they're coming to visit, which gets conveyed to the head teacher, and eventually I get told about it. What's different in this case, is that none of that apparently happened. So imagine my (and my 2nd grade English teacher's) surprise when we found out a few minutes before 2nd Grade English class began that someone from the company would be coming in to watch. To make the matter even more worrying is that the 2nd graders have been surprisingly troublesome this year, and I also found out that this isn't isolated to just English - other teachers have been expressing the same level of frustration that the English teacher and myself have been experiencing. But, that's a story for another time.

Fortunately, this particular class that the company staff came to was probably the best behaved out of all the other 2nd Grade classes. So with a little bit of last minute discussion and planning with the English teacher, the usual rolling with punches, and minus the obligatory scolding I've been giving 2nd graders this year,  it went pretty smoothly. The staff spoke to me after class and was pretty pleased all round, commenting that I was moving around the classroom as opposed to just standing around in one spot, as well as getting involved with some activities students were doing to make up for numbers, to checking new vocab with the class that easy to follow and understand. Funnily enough, there wasn't any real criticisms for my performance, considering I was only made aware a few minutes beforehand about the company visit.

Next week, I'll be having someone else from the company coming to visit my Elementary school. Unlike what happened at my junior high school today, I've been given adequate warning about this (and another ALT shared the schedule sheet for the visits a few weeks back, and I noticed then, that there was nothing about any visit to my JHS).

So quick version - surprise visit by the company today, and they were happy with my work.

Joining Club Activities

Unlike the last two years at my Junior High School, I decided to participate and join in club activities this year. The reason I didn't get involved until now, has been because it's usually run after my scheduled hours are over. However, I decided to join the Art club specifically for two reasons:

1. To keep practicing my drawing on a regular basis. Ever since spring break, I've been admittedly slacking off on that part.
2. To try new things. Since I only draw things that I want to draw, joining the Art club has been a good chance to draw things I normally wouldn't draw.

The art club is admittedly small, and the majority of members are girls, and only one boy who is also the only 3rd Grader in the club.

Anyway, from what I understand Art club is usually broken down in to 3 sections (or 2.5, depending how you look at it)

• Quick sketching - A student poses in front of the club room, and everyone has to draw that student in 5 minutes. It is good practice for me to speed up on drawing the basic shapes before filling the details, as I usually only finish the basic frame by the time the 5 minutes are up. Depending on the pose the student does, I may be able to finish in time.
• Sketch your own hand - Self explanatory. I think it's a similar time limit. Fortunately, since it's only a hand, I can usually finish in time
• Drawing/Painting a poster - From what I understood, there were three themes we could choose. Two of them were relating to the upcoming local elections (I think), and feelings/emotions. I can't remember what the third theme was. In any case, I picked the feelings/emotions theme. At this point, all the 2nd and 3rd grade students (and myself) have finished the posters, so we're helping the 1st graders their posters.

Since joining the art club, I have been practicing both my pencil work and my digital work (I've also been bringing my tablet to school). I have to admit, I'm having a lot of fun in this club. The students are also supposed to be submitting sketches to use for the chorus contest that will be happening later this year. While the teacher in charge of the club, and the students don't mind me submitting something, I feel like it's kind of a dick move to do so, considering that the students are supposed to be the ones submitting the work. I don't mind drawing something, and I have put something together, but I feel like I shouldn't submit it. I spoke to my girlfriend about this, and she also agrees with this.

Unfortunately, I think interactive forum practice will be starting next month after Golden Week, so I don't think I'll be able to join in on club activities until after summer break. I'll see how it goes, as I'm definitely having fun, and the students enjoy having me there.

My own Classroom - Finally!

After nearly two months at my elementary school, I finally have my own English classroom.While it's nothing glamorous, it's functional, and at the moment, that's all I really want.
At my previous elementary school, there was already a dedicated English classroom set up - tables, tatami-style mats, as the students were going to be sitting on them, and a big flat screen TV, with a PC connected to it - no touch screen functionality for it, but I did not care, as it was leaps and bounds ahead of what I had available to me when I was in Kamisu.

I was beginning to think that school was not going to bother with an English room, due to there being no spare rooms available, but last week, a new digital board arrived. The head teacher asked me to sit in on the tutorial session that was being given by a visitor (not sure if he was from the Board of Education, or from the company that made the digital board), all in Japanese of course, but using it seemed pretty straight forward. On top of that, a laptop was provided (apparently on loan), that contained all the software I needed to use in conjunction with the students' textbooks, something I haven't been able to do until now, due to the installation discs being in DVD format, and a previous attempt to install the software on the school's laptops only yielded 50% completion in 6 hours. Furthermore, because my employer was coming to visit, they turned an open space area in to a makeshift English classroom, which I confirmed is now where I will be teaching to the students, and not a one-off thing as I was initially concerned it would be. As I said earlier, it's not glamorous or pretty, but it does the job.
Funnily enough, as a result of this, I find I'm more to get more work done. Trying to do my work in the teacher's room felt kind of stuffy, but with my own classroom and nobody else around, I feel like I can be left alone with my thoughts and ideas - not to mention I can actually use the laptop to check through each chapter on the software/textbook and find out on my own how certain activities are supposed to work. Hell, I can even show videos at last, which I did with my 6th grade class yesterday.

So yeah, I'm feeling pretty happy this week with my own classroom at last. It will take some time to pretty it up and make it feel less like a cobbled together room, and more in to a proper classroom, but for the moment, I have my own classroom.

Fuck. Yeah.

New Elementary School - Initial thoughts

Well, it's been 3 weeks since I started at my new elementary school. So, what are my initial thoughts.

It. Is. Small.

My previous school, while not as big as the schools I had back in Kamisu, it certainly wasn't small either. Aside from my 6th graders, all my other year groups were made up of at least two classes worth. My 6th grade was made of just one class, but there were nearly 40 students as a result.
This school I'm at now, there's only class of each grade, which isn't the most surprising part. The most surprising part is the size of these classes. At most, there are probably 20 students in each class, but my smallest class is made up of just 11.

My school is apparently still preparing a dedicated English classroom for me, at the request of the BoE, but I haven't heard anything of an ETA on it. So in the meantime, I go to each class to teach, with the students coming to pick me up from the teacher's room.
I have made an effort to spend time with the students during break time, usually I'm playing dodge ball with students, and they seem to enjoy me playing with them, and the teachers seem pretty happy about it too.

I am still getting used to the different environment and finding a teaching style to suit this school, but I'm slowly getting there. I will admit thought, I'm still sore about losing my previous elementary school. Hopefully I will get in to the swing of things at this school sooner rather than later.

Preparing for the Interactive Forum

Recently, I have been asked by my Junior High School that I help students prepare for the upcoming Interactive Forum. For those that do not know, an Interactive Forum is basically a competition based on English conversation, and getting students to talk in English as much as possible for a set period of time, while judges assess how each participant did.

Considering that I was working at elementary schools in Kamisu, this is the first time that I've been involved in an Interactive Forum in some capacity. Despite the company doing a quick training session at a recent ALT meeting, I've kind of been going on the fly in helping students prepare for the upcoming competition. Fortunately, there are students that have actually been involved in the forum last year, so because they have a pretty good grasp of how things go down, I'm usually just trying to give pointers on not letting awkward silences happen, and just jump in at any time and just ask a question.
However, for 3rd Grade students, they are required to talk about their town - except it's not as clear cut as I thought initially. Apparently Chikusei is an amalgamation of several, smaller towns and because of that, they can't talk about Chikusei. They have to talk about their town where their junior high school is located. The thing is, according to the students and teachers, there is absolutely nothing of any real interest in the area - nothing for tourists to see at all. Consequently, this puts them at a major disadvantage. What I've tried to do, in order to compensate for the lack of variety in the town, is to explain to the students to try and talk as much as possible about the few things that are in the town. For example, there's a library, I try to get them to talk about why they go to the library, how often they go to the library, and what kind of books the like. By doing this, I'm hoping this helps them to just keep talking, despite the lack of things that are in the area. They seem to understand the idea, especially when we're practicing, although I occasionally need to prompt them to ask questions when there's that awkward silence.

Interestingly enough, I have also been invited to judge an Interactive Forum next month, together with a fellow ALT. This will be interesting to see how this turns out, as it is actually happening at a time I'm supposed to be at school. I guess we'll see how it goes - and hopefully, my students will do well.

Life in Chikusei: One Month Later

After nearly a month since I moved to Chikusei, I figured I should write on my thoughts of living in Chikusei so far, and how it compares to life in Kamisu.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my apartment is in a surprisingly convenient location for the daily necessities. From my apartment, I can walk to the supermarket, convenience store, city hall, a 100 yen store, bank, and even a train station that can take me to Tokyo (in 2 hours, but しょうがない ). Unlike my apartment in Kamisu, which was actually a shed converted in to an apartment, my Chikusei apartment is well insulated, so I'm comfortably warm in the winter. In addition, my apartment in Chikusei is furnished. The downsides I've found are that the kitchen is smaller (making storing everything troublesome), and since I'm renting this apartment through the company, rent is more expensive.

In terms of daily goods, Chikusei is straight up more expensive. While it is possible to find cheap things around when it comes to food, I find I have to look a bit harder for cheaper things. For example, I'll go to one supermarket for cheaper meat, but I will go to another supermarket (that is not too far away) for most other things since they usually sell most other goods cheaper. I am also paying more attention to specials and anything in the bargain bin. Actually, I bought two bags of cereal for a cost that is actually cheaper than buying 1 big bag of brand name cereal. Oddly enough, I can't find cheap 5 pack yakisoba like I in Kamisu. Apparently, ramen is the thing around here, as no matter what supermarket I go to, they have plenty of packs of ramen, but hardly anything for yakisoba. As a result of the increase in costs, I'm cooking more often and finding ways to make my meals last longer - though it does give me the opportunity to try and cook new things. Just recently, I tried cooking Jamaican style chicken curry. Eating it with a small amount of rice, I can make it last for three meals - a feat that is tied with the curry rice I some times cook.

For the schools I go to, there are some aspects between Kamisu and Chikusei that I like over the other. For example, I like that the elementary school I go to in Chikusei provides me with my own classroom, with plenty of materials, a computer, and a TV connected to it to use with the text books, though the students (especially the 6th graders) are a bit slow to get things done. The JTE has told me that the 6th graders are constantly being scolded by teachers for this, but it seems to have no effect. Whereas in Kamisu, I had no such problems, though I was constantly having to come up with my own material for lessons (hurting my wallet in the process). In addition, it was a much more casual atmosphere, though it was probably due to most of the teachers in my Kamisu schools being younger than me. For the Junior High School I go to in Chikusei, I have no point of reference to compare in Kamisu, as I was working at elementary schools for those 6 months, so I can't really say which is better. However, I will say that it is nice to be slipping in to the support role and helping answer students' questions, checking their work and whatnot, rather than coming up with lesson plans - though their lessons are a lot more thorough, as they not only learn vocabulary, but also grammar, reading, listening and writing.

In terms of recreation, I have not done all that much admittedly. However, I have been able to find a community center gym that I go to twice a week. I have tried out what seem to be the only two community center gyms available in Chikusei, according to the city's official website anyway. The first one I went to in Shimodate (下館) costs 300 yen per session, but I can work out for up to three hours. However, before that, I had to make a booking for a mandatory orientation session, and those only happen a handful of days in the month. The gym was good, though the lack of free weight equipment left me a little disappointed. However, that gym seems to be really popular, so there aren't many opportunities to use certain pieces of equipment for an extended period, especially if you want to do super sets. However, I went to another gym just recently in Kyowanomori (協和の杜). It's a little bit further from the one in Shimodate, but the best part of this gym is that is free of charge. Yeah, you read that right. Free. I was expecting that the gym would be run down or small, considering I'm paying nothing for it, but to my surprise, it does have a lot of equipment on offer. The equipment seems a bit older compared to the first gym and what I've used in Kamisu, though I will admit that the equipment is at least well looked after. Again, no free weights available, but given that most of the time I have the gym to myself, using equipment for extended periods for super sets has not been a problem, and there is enough variety of equipment to make up for the lack of bar bells and dumbbells. The opening hours are a bit weird though, in that it is open from 9:30am - 4:30pm, and then 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm. It makes getting to the gym after school impossible, but on the other hand, it gives me something to do on the weekend.

Finally, would be the other ALTs. I've only met the other Chikusei ALTs twice, though I have started catching up with one of the ALTs once a week, and helping him out wherever I can with logistics stuff. However, I still I try to keep in touch with some of the Kamisu ALTs. I caught up with one just before school started, and I asked him to let me know whenever he's planning basketball, as I'm always up for it (after doing a few games with him and other friends in Kamisu, and I've surprisingly improved a lot during those games, but that's a story for another time).

So the overall verdict? In terms of accommodation - Chikusei is the winner. In terms of the cost of living, and the schools - Kamisu. It is a shame I had to leave Kamisu, but sometimes these things cannot be avoided. Hopefully, I can go back to Kamisu someday, even if only for brief visit.