The little things · 6:31am Dec 8th, 2023
It is a very special feeling when small children want your attention. Not in the, 'do you have games on your phone' or 'can you buy this for me' ways, but the 'will you play with me?' kind. Nothing makes your heart melt faster.
For context, I moved to Japan in March to become an ALT or Assistant Language Teacher. I'm the native speaker of english in the classroom and assist with various tasks, sometimes taking over entirely when I'm needed to (not sure how legal that is when I have no professional licenses or anything, but it just happens.) I speak enough Japanese these days to get by on my own for the most part, which also helps a lot when I'm trying to actually teach.
However, none of that matters much when in the lowest grade we usually teach which is 3rd grade. I am the jungle gym, the cannon, the hand shaker, and the master of rock paper scissors. Generally, I don't care to come to my Thursday/Friday school just because a few of my classes tend to be horrible more often than not. I'd say there's at least one bad class at each of the three schools I teach at (though one is so small that it only has like 100 students total across six grades), but nowhere is it as consistently bad as it is here. 2/3 5th grade classes kinda suck more often than not, the two 4th grade classes are either horrible or tolerable at best (however, they did enjoy 2-4 "Luna Eclipsed (JPN dub)" the most when I showed that for Halloween), and it's a lot better now, but some of the 6th grade classes used to give me the cold shoulder too. Won most of them over by now, which is pretty good.
Every Friday is a good day because I get to see my favorite class across the board which would be 3-2. Even if they see me in the hall, they always go 'Koren-sensei' and run up to give me a high five or do the 'secret' hand shake before they have to run back to class. I pick them up, I play games, and I've even got enough sway over the more crazy ones in the class that they'll actually listen to me.
There was a day where the first kid to really attach himself to me was playing with some kind of plastic clothes bag, couldn't sit still (more than usual), and decided that he needed to loudly sing the local tour boat rower's song in the middle of class. To stop all this, I had him come to me and just kinda held him still for a while. A few of the kids laughed and said 'Koren sensei is like his dad' (in japanese of course) and while it was funny at the time, It really made me think. There's definitely a gamut to go with it, but small children are a lot more fun to be around than I'd ever imagined. I look forward to Fridays.
The 3-1 class isn't nearly as friendly with me, but even having a couple of kids like this in a class makes all the shit that comes with it worth it. I like this place. I could see myself being here for a long time, possibly even the rest of my life. But, because of that, I'm going to move to a different part of Japan here in a few months.
Both of my brothers are married with kid(s), the elder having four, and the younger having one. However, out of my entire family, I'm the only one who has ever been to this side of the world at all. I'm also the only one who is moderately bilingual. I could see myself here in rural japan for the rest of my life, and if I just consigned myself to that, I might never leave. There's still a lot I want to do and see here in Japan, and from where I am now, most of that is just too difficult. At the very least, my other favorite class is a group of 6th graders, and they'll go off to middle school next year so I'd lose them regardless. One of them was so awful that he couldn't be left unattended at the beginning of the year, but for whatever reason, he got attached to me one day and always comes to see me when he can, and actually participates in class now, which I've been told just didn't happen last year.
It'll be sad to see them go, and it's been great to watch them all improve over time, but I can't see myself having some of my own if I stay in a place like this. Cake cannot be had and eaten too, I suppose.
Next year, I'll be moving away from the west coast and toward the east along the bullet train line, but still within Chugoku. One of my major motivations to apply to my original destination, Tohoku, was because I wanted to see the snow festival in Sapporo. That's coming up here in a couple months, and it would literally be cheaper for me to take a 4 hour train to Hiroshima and fly out from that airport, than to fly out from either of the two airports less than an hour away from my current location. Cheaper by about 70USD, which is like a night in a regular hotel room across Japan. That's how rural it is here.
I suppose, when it comes down to it, I'll be sad to go, but not sad enough to stay. Maybe one day after I've seen the country and had my fun living all over the place, I'll come back to a place like this and settle down. Not as if I'm going to get much use out of my Japanese elsewhere in the world, and for as much as I hate the language, I love the language. All things told, we're Japan for life here.
Anyways, that's all for this week. Only seven more days of classes till I'm off for about 3 weeks. Too poor to go home for the holidays, so I'll probably go find somewhere new to explore. I still haven't been to Hiroshima yet, so probably there.
Until Next Time~
-KCZ
In regards to the kids, I know what you mean. I've got nine nieces and nephews (I include kids of cousins in that list) ranging in ages from three to ten, and every single one of them is a treasure in some way. And they all seem to really like me for some reason, at least once they've been around me for a little while. Mom likes to say I've got a way with children. She also says I'm a pushover, which I'm equally as willing to accept (and is also the reason my one foray into the world you're now in didn't last long). But when they decide to turn their attention to me, it creates a certain appeal that's inescapable, even when I'm not in the mood for it.
Glad to hear you're enjoying the teaching life in Japan.
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It's definitely a lot at once when you've got five or six of them that are trying to hang off you all the time (I think it's five boys and one very small adorable girl) but it's always fun. They're all about 8, so I guess that's the range.
I definitely don't see myself quitting or anything any time soon, and since I'm not a JET, I don't have a time limit. As long as I continue to do well a since my English Teachers really like me, I'll probably move up in the company starting my 3rd year. Not allowed to do much of anything until 2 years of service are down though, which sucks a bit.