Mon. Sept. 8 to Fri. Sept. 12 – What it’s like to be a human tape recorder

Back home, I stumbled into tons of people who told me the cons of being an assistant language teacher.
In essence, I sometimes feel like a mascot of all things foreign. I am used in many classes only for my natural Canadian accent, in that the English class mantra often involves: “Please repeat after Gemma-sensei…” Oh, and I’m also allowed to do greetings and warm-up games. In a 50-minute class, I talk for about 10-15 minutes on a good day. Well, one of my JTEs does give me a greater talking role in class. We like doing skits with the day’s language target! That's always fun.
I’m so glad that I didn’t invest hundreds of dollars in taking that intensive TESOL course before coming here, because I don’t really have to prepare anything. There have been a couple instances where I’ve had to come up with worksheets for my students. But other than that, I can come into class unprepared. I’ve offered to create activities and games, but I’m often greeted with a “Oh, maybe?!” I’ll become more assertive as time goes on. And seriously, isn't there an 80-20 rule? That's totally out of the window. I’d like to get some actual teaching experience before I leave Japan…
Although I’m outlining the boring parts of this job, I really do enjoy my city and school life. The kids always greet me with a friendly “Hello!” in the hallways. And during recess, I make an effort to hang out with them. They are super kawaii (cute) and genki, so that’s what helps get me excited every morning. Even on my daily seven-minute walk to work, I see many of my students hurriedly making their way to school on their bikes. One of my outgoing san-nensei boys (third-year student) likes beaming with pride as he shouts a hearty “GOOD MORNING!” to me.
There was one day this weekend we had a pantomime theater crew perform in our gymnasium. It was pretty hilarious when they asked for students and one teacher (who looks like a bear! But he’s actually quite nice) to come up on stage. They had to act our “Romeo and Juliet,” which ripped the kids into pieces.