November 22

I've been giving interview tests at my schools the past two weeks. One on one, I ask each student five questions from a list of twenty, which they received about a week before the test. Has been a great opportunity for me to understand each student's level, as it is often hard to gauge in class. Some students have quite a high level, but are too shy to speak or actively participate in class. On the other hand, there are really poor students who can coast in class by repeating their classmates or getting help from their friends. Most students however, are middle of the road. Overall, their comprehension level was higher than I originally thought, but lack of confidence in their speaking ability holds them back.

One student, who had already tested (quite poorly), came again, asking for "revenge". He actually did worse this time, not answering any of the questions and speaking a total of about 6 words in English (including the "Good Morning" and "Revenge" when he came in.

I guess my point is that working with students who try and put forth effort is quite easy and especially rewarding, while working with the apathetic ones is frustrating and makes me apathetic about teaching. Luckily, I have more of the former than the latter...

This week I may have turned a corner at my "bad" school (Kawa-chu / River Middle), at least with some of the teachers. For some reason, the atmosphere was much lighter, markedly so in the teacher room (the principal even let me go home early yesterday). Not sure if it was me or them, but in the past two days I have conversed more with my fellow teachers than in the first months combined. Almost all the teachers were talking about my runner-up finish at the golf tournament last Saturday (all jealous of the rice I won) and everyone was praising my efforts for keeping a Japanese diary (they actually were praising my ability, but I think just to make me feel good?). The librarian was quite chatty yesterday, and the social studies teacher, who speaks some English was especially candid today. We talked about travel, women, sex, drugs, homosexuality, money, traffic laws, horse racing, culture (not necessarily in that order) all before lunchtime. Even the oft sour-faced and melancholy co-English teacher has been smiley and talkative.

Kawa-chu strangely oft schedules me only one or two classes per day (sometimes none), and because my co-teacher doesnt like to do lesson planning, I am essentially paid to sit at my desk and "look busy" (at roughly $100 a day, I aint complainin'). Yet six straight hours of Japanese study is monotonous to say the least, and nearly impossible, so the recent conversation has been most welcome.