What I was too afraid to ask before moving to Japan

DO YOUR WORK AT WORK.

It sounds so simple. And it is.

If you are even moderately motivated and want to accomplish a lot with your students, do that work AT WORK. Stop working at home and do something else instead. Instead of working at home, study your Japanese, learn to cook, make some friends, pick up a hobby. Trust me, these other things will make all the difference in whether your experience is a meh one or a WOW one.

The flipside, use your desk-sitting time for actual work time. Lesson plan, make games, plan for next week, do your projects, mark the papers, write emails, do whatever you need to do AT WORK. Don’t take it home with you!!

If you need an example: you would not believe (or maybe you CAN) how many times a teacher has asked me for a game, so I spend my evening making one, only to have them cancel my class or decide to postpone it anyway. So I needn’t have given up my evening for WORK when I could have finished the game AT WORK in the one to two hours I usually get before my lessons start in third period. At the very least, I could have just decided what I wanted to do and then waited until the next day to set it all up. This happened probably 15 times in my first year before I finally decided, NOPE, only making games at work from now on. Wish I had done that much sooner.

So long story short, I took a university Japanese class once and then several years later I moved to Japan. But hey! I’m surviving!

The first month was hard. Not so hard I wanted to go home, but it was frustrating to have all your independence stripped because you can’t even form a coherent sentence. I couldn’t go to the bank or post office alone, I could barely go shopping for groceries, I couldn’t understand my bosses or most of my teachers, I couldn’t answer my phone, and I had no idea what anyone expected from me (other than what was in my contract) because NO ONE in my area spoke English. There were many, many, many misunderstandings on everyone’s part. Usually there is at least ONE person who knows English, but I wasn’t that lucky.

Step one: DON’T PANIC. and get good at charades. I don’t think I understood a thing my first week here and everything was mimed. Anything anyone said is as good as gone. I survived by observing everyone else and doing what everyone else was doing (in terms of greetings, bowing, paying for items/shopping, etc.) You become very good at watching. This will be your life for a while.

Step two: Start studying! The Jet Programme should have given you a small book of basic Japanese pre-departure. If you didn’t, I suggest learning hiragana and katakana first. And write down common phrases/words you hear on a daily basis. Teach yourself words that are relevant to your life right now. The phrases I heard the most were “narimashitaka?” (basically: have you adjusted to life in Japan?) and “atsuidesune?” (isn’t it hot?). Small talk is small talk. Weather, hobbies, food. Arm yourself with small talk. It’s easy and it’s useful.

Step three: Take the Language Course. You will hear all sorts of nay-saying about the Jet Language Course, but I have largely noticed it’s only the people who’ve already studied a lot of Japanese and aren’t very self-motivated that find it unsatisfactory. It was a LIFE SAVER for me. It was nice having a focus for my studies and vocab lists I could practice. Every time I learned a new word, I would hear it the very next day in casual conversation! Obviously I was very self-motivated because I couldn’t stand being helpless. I passed the course with flying colours while my friends didn’t bother because they already knew enough Japanese to get by and couldn’t see the point in studying.

You can read about WHY you should try teaching Eikaiwa in my last post about making friends with people over 60. 

My Eikaiwa class started when my neighbour left me a letter in my mailbox that simply asked if I would help an old lady (her words!) study for the English Proficiency Exam (aka Eiken). I didn’t know anyone yet and was thrilled to get out of the house! We had to have the awkward conversation where I tried to explain that I wanted to help but I couldn’t accept money. We worked it out and we started to have coffee every week.  When we were a couple months in, she asked if I would meet some of her friends as well. I said yes again! So my experience was largely word of mouth and was kicked off by someone approaching ME.  But since then I have been proactive in approaching people I think might be interested or seem interested in what I do. When I meet someone who knows a little English, I immediately ask them if they like English. If they say yes, I ask them if they want to hang out sometime to practice. They almost always say yes! Because we live in a small community it’s rare for people to get to practice their Engilsh and they usually already know everything about me lol (ugh, small towns :P ) so it’s not ENTIRELY awkward on their part. My first advice would be trying to find those people who are interested in English, normally someone (your BOE/teachers) will introduce you to some community members (company employees, community leaders, tourism people) and you can go from there. OR you can talk to your BOE about advertising. I haven’t done this yet, but I would really like to make posters for a Karaoke Eikaiwa! in the future. The newspaper is also a good resource because everyone I’ve ever talked to reads the daily news. If you want to be more passive about this, you can try just attending any and all community events and stop to talk to anyone who stops to talk to you! We stand out like a sore thumb anywhere we go anyway, so use that power for good! Go to some festivals and when your kids scream and run up to you, introduce yourself to their parents. Get to be a familiar face and soon anyone in the community who is thinking about Eikaiwa, will likely approach you. My next big advice, is have a hobby. Doesn’t matter what. Sports, cars, flowers, just anything you can use to break the ice. Chances are there is someone else in the community with interests similar to yours and eventually you will either find them or someone will bring you to them. I can’t, of course, guarantee this will end in Eikaiwa, but it will bring you closer to someone who will probably know of someone who wants to learn/practice English. (Small town power).

-insert the Jet Programme’s motto: “Every situation is different”-

Okay, now that that’s out of the way. I brought $2500 ish to Japan (and the exchange rate and fees SUCKED ass and I had less than I thought I did). But it was still enough to get started. 

The annoying things were I had to buy a phone ($300 dollars) and wifi ($200 dollars). I actually didn’t go through much of the money I brought at first. I bought grocheries and then I just concentrated on work for the most part. I didn’t go out too often, but I did make it to a couple of festivals and spent money there too.

My payday is the 21st of every month (and it’s the same for everyone in my area). Most bills come after that. 

Here is a break down of what I pay a month. This was from this past winter: $220 Rent (VERY CHEAP!! It’s the inaka discount. If you’re in a city, you’ll be paying much more). $30 Water $90 Gas [this is MUCH cheaper in the summer since I don’t have to use my heater] my last bill (May/June was about $26) $30 Kerosene [I’m not 100% on whether I actually pay this every month. I do know that if you run out of kerosene (which heats the water and your stove) it’s around $400 to refill ;_; ) $100 Cell Phone and Internet (I’m with AU phone company. And what I don’t like about this company is that if my phone bill is lower than $40 that month, they don’t invoice me, instead they just tack it onto my bill for next month. I don’t really understand how that works, but basically some months I pay nothing and then some months I’m paying around $100 :\ ) $30 Energy $50 School Lunch (If you’re in Junior High or Elementary School) $25.95 Land Line (if your BOE makes you have one, like me) $20 NHK (cable) there are many stories about this bill&company you will probably hear about but I actually enjoy the sounds of TV in the background of my life, I don’t mind paying this bill. I listed it here as ($20/month) but I only have to pay it every two months, so it’s really just ($10/month). But I only get 5 channels and not the good channels, lol. All together, my most expensive months come to about $575

What you’re expected to do (or GET to do) relies 100% on your placement, school, teacher, and whatever your pred did.  JHS (Junior High School)

In my daily life, I make ‘review’ games for 16 Junior High Classes at the request of my JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English) (I have 4 JHS JTEs) to practice and review whatever target language they’re working on. I do this about 40% of the time (at first it was maybe 5% but my games were really popular with the kids, so teachers started requesting games more). I use PowerPoint to make Quiz Show type games and the kids have to answer questions in English to get points. I try to come up with new games every time. Though I probably could get away with using the same games over and over again. I usually just research ESL games and take the best ones or the most interesting ones and fit them to my classes (levels, interest levels, etc.).

60% of the time, I stand in the classroom at the front of the class and read out loud from their textbook. Yes, it’s boring (and sometimes embarrassing) but many teachers just want the kids to hear ‘natural’ English and exposure is a VERY important part of learning a language. There are probably more interesting ways to give the kids ‘exposure’, but this is what the teachers want, so this is what I do. I usually only have about three classes a day (about three hours of class) but sometimes it’s up to 5 classes in one day and sometimes I have literally none so I try to look busy for 8 hours... I know that sucks for some people, but I read a lot, write a lot, and practice Japanese! ES (Elementary School) I do a lot more in Elementary School. Usually the teachers give me free reign of the class for 45 minutes. I teach Grade 1 - 6, but most often grades 5 + 6 and we use a text book. I look at the text book and use whatever phrase we’re learning to try and come up with something interesting to entertain them with (and get them to use the language) for the 45 minutes. I do have two teachers that don’t let me do anything at all. So I just show up and bug the kids a little before I go home.  When I’m teaching the full class. I start with a short review of whatever they’re learning, then we play games (that focus on talking/using the language) for the rest of class.

The two major differences between buses here and buses I’ve taken in North America, is you get on in the back of the bus (the door people usually get OFF of in Canada/America) and you pay when you disembark! 

I LIVE IN A SMALL CITY, so keep that in mind. I haven’t yet taken the bus in a big city like Tokyo.

So you wait at a bus stop (that usually has the schedule posted nearby) and when the bus comes you get on the door that opens. The door that opens is usually near the middle of the bus. There’s a ticket machine just inside and you grab a numbered ticket from the machine before you sit down (or stand, if it’s crowded).

The numbered ticket corresponds with a screen at the front of the bus that you should be able to see no matter where you sit. The screen displays the fare you pay when you get off the bus.

So for example, you get on, grab a ticket, let’s say your number is “number 15″ on your ticket. When your stop is coming up, push the button to signal the bus driver to stop. When he stops, make your way to the FRONT of the bus and drop your ticket AND the fare (that’s displayed next to your number on the screen). 

The buses also have a money exchanger at the front! So you don’t need to worry about exact change right away. If you only have a bill, put it in the machine and get your change! Put the exact change in the fare box (along with your numbered ticket).