#jet problems

Teacher: Catherine?

Me: Yes...

Teacher: 知ってますよぉー (I know....)

Me: *whispers* 何で知ってますか？ (Why do you know me...)

Teacher: *skips away without answering*

--Later that day--

Teacher: See you.

Me: 何で知ってますか？(Why do you know me?)

Teacher:知ってるから知ってるよ。See you. (I know you because I know you... See you.)

Recently, I've been hearing a lot of my students use Domestic Violence as a joke, and it's sort of disturbing. I guess DVする has become a joking way of saying you're beating up someone, and aaaaaah.

For example. Today, in the hallways, three boys were doing that junior high school "we're gonna chase each other around the halls" thing. Nothing out of the ordinary there, until one boy starts shouting "SENSEI (not to me, to another teacher) HE IS DV-ING ME" DVされた！DVされた！ The teacher took it semi seriously and was like, "Who is DV-ing you..." Her voice dropped into that tone that means serious, but then the sort of laughed it off and we walked away. 

Everyone in the city (jk, but like, most of the English teachers from the City) will be coming to watch my demonstration lesson this Friday and the teacher in charge STILLL has no idea

what she is doing

What I will do

if the students will be at the chapter they need to be at

what sort of lesson plan she will do

I'm having one of those bitter weeks, where I think about things that annoy me a lot, and a lot of things annoy me. 

This recent rant comes from a conversation I had with my boyfriend last night. We were talking about his visit in October (YAY!!!!!!!!) and how during that time, we'd need to go pick up the car at his house, and how it would be a good time to meet his mother. 

Now, for those of you who don't know, I am very tall. 184cm, 6 feet 1 inch, however you say it, the point is, I'm tall. The boyfriend, however, is not tall. I have a good 10cm on him, and I'm cool with his height and he's cool with my height. No problems, right?

When he mentioned going to meet his mom, my first instinct was to let out a long groan (I did). Poor Tom, he was like "What, you dont want to meet my mom??"

"It:s not that, I replied. I just don't want to deal with my height."

He gets quiet, because I think he thinks I dislike that he's short, so I say "No, no. I just don't want your mom to go でけっ! (HUGE!) when I walk in the door."

He started to assure me that she wouldn't, when mid-sentences he changes his approach: "She will probably say something like 大きいですね (My, you are big!) but that is a compliment! It won't be a negative, it's just like, Wow! You are tall! That is cool!"

And it's awkward because he doesn't get it- he can't get it. He can't understand that literally every introductory conversation I have involves my height or FOREIGNNESS in some way. That I have to listen to people whisper about my height every where I go. That sometimes I don't hear my friends calling me down the street because I'm actively trying to tune out all the rude things that I can hear Japanese people saying about me. Or that an old woman literally dropped her purse because my foreign presence was such a shock. 

He tries to tell me it's a compliment, but this attention for being foreign certainly doesn't feel like a compliment. It feels othering. It makes you really feel the 外 in 外国人. This is entirely not a height-specific problem- It happens to most foreigners living in Japan, I would say. My main issue is, at what point do we stop being attractions, stop being "WOW YOU ARE SO TALL WHY DO YOU LIKE STEAK" and start being allowed to be regular old people?

ALTs of tumblr- This can't just be me.