Months ago I started planning to take my English club students to a local restaurant with an English-speaking waitress. We are going next week, on the 22nd.
Last week school told me I couldn't drive the students (they had also known for months that I intended to do this). They assured me that it was ok, 'if the students really want to come, they'll find a way. Their parents will take them or something'. Two ride the bus, two take bikes and fifth kid's mum probably wouldn't be impressed about driving her daughter to a restaurant only to return a bit over an hour later. So no, I don't think they will 'find a way'. How about making studying English EASY and FUN for them, aye, rather than relying on them having to make a huge effort??
Anyway, I got the teachers to call a taxi company and we were quoted 2000 yen for a trip from school to the restaurant. If we split that between four students (the fifth planned to bike to dinner then bike home from the restaurant), it was only 500 yen - about $8 - so I figured that was a good solution. I charged the teachers with telling the students so that I didn't look like the bad guy, 'changing my mind' about driving them.
So today I come in from a day at my visit school and they give me the English club update.
Issue: the principal has called some special meeting that the teachers (bar me) all need to attend.
My feeling on this: I didn't know either of the teachers were actually intending to come anyway. Certainly they don't help out during regular English club, so why would they need to come just because there's food??
Issue: the teachers are concerned it's too close to exams.
My feeling on this: I knew there was a 'no clubs one week out from exams' rule, but when did that turn into 'no clubs two weeks out from exams'? Does this depend on the importance of the exams, or is this just some bull they are pulling on me to stop me holding the restaurant thing then? I can't tell. These kids are always in bloody exams. No wonder they are all exhausted and have no time to develop a personality (ouch, but truth hurts! Most of these kids have 'listening to music' as their main hobby and they all want to be nurses or P.E. teachers. About 1/20 of my student journals have something interesting to say).
The teacher then went on to explain how we could do it during the holidays and then the students could get there any way they wanted and they wouldn't have to wear uniform. She then went on to say I could even take them to Hiroshima because there is so much English down there.
My feeling on this: if someone is going to give me a day off work to take the students to Hiroshima, that's awesome. If I have to use leave or my weekend, are you gonna pay my costs? No? I didn't think so. I'm passionate about teaching these kids, but I'm also married which means my financial decisions aren't all my own, it costs twice as much to travel anywhere and I have a partner who would most likely NOT be enthusiastic about spending a weekend following a group of 15 yr old girls. So no, offering me Hiroshima in the weekend is no substitute for my dinner with my students next week!
If we were at home I could just solve the problems to make it workable and everyone would be happy that I'm a problem-solver, but I can tell these are less genuine problems and more excuses to throw at me because it seems like too much effort doing something new. My taking five students out to dinner seems too much effort for the un-involved, not-present teachers. Much like my starting a sister-school relationship with my sister-in-law's school was going to be too much work for the teacher who simply had to say 'ok' to me. And as the teachers fear that my English club's NZ penpals will cause them a lot of work somehow.
I don't get it. Maybe it's a language problem, but I rather think it's a culture problem.
Oh goodie. The same teacher who gave me the English Club news just wanted to speak to me about something she wanted to do in our next class. Not realising I had given her the lesson plan for that class about three weeks ago. I told her we could do her thing, but she had to specify what she wanted to pull out and do it instead of.
She looked pretty put out, so I pointed out we could do it in the class after that. We were talking song listening activities. I like to use different NZ songs - partly because I'm proud of NZ music, partly because I want to show the students that not all music is pop and partly because I just have it on my computer so it's easy. Anyway, this teacher loves singing and she wants to do a song that the students could later do in karaoke or hear on TV. I'm not sure if she means she actually wants us to sing in class... Anyway, she wants to do the Carpenters, because they are, for some reason that eludes me, very very popular in Japan. I don't know if I'd even heard of them before Japan. I certainly can't tell you what they sing! So I don't really want to practise singing or listening to them for eight classes in a row. I am flexible about using other countries music, but I'm not sure I'm flexible to stuff that stopped being popular before I was born. They are young kids - why not use young music?
Admittedly she also suggested Adele (I copied my CD for her) and I love Adele. But then she will ask me to interpret the lyrics and I cannot do that for Adele! And then I get this look from the English teachers like, 'what kind of idiot are you if you can't even explain something that's in your native language?'
And mainly I'm just shitty because they have stopped me taking my students to the restaurant and will be making me look like the dick who can't keep her word. So I'm not feeling super flexible right now!
Sorry I always seem to complain on here. I'm pretty culture-shocky atm (yes, culture-shocky is a word. I know because Jeff and I use it all the time and we're English teachers!) and I apologise for that. Hopefully soon I will be too hot to even notice what my teachers say to me...
Hope you're all doing well.
xo
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