Teaching in Japan :: Jessica's Diary October


Jessica Hartridge worked at Cactus Language for two years as our Creative Designer.

Jessica has always been fascinated by Japanese culture and left Cactus in August to spend
a year teaching in Japan.

October Diary 2006....

My life in Kumejima is slowly starting to settle down. I am beginning to ignore the cars slowing down to gawp at Laila and I on the road. I completely understand them though as when I see photos of us I can see how different we look to everyone else and the other day I saw a white man on the island and nearly crashed into a wall. I’ve never been in the minority before and it’s not something I’ve ever really thought about. I always saw Brighton as being extremely multicultural but perhaps that was because I was in the majority.

The students have stopped having screaming fits when I walk into the room and now there is this fantastic sense of anticipation to see what ‘Jeshka sensei’ will do or say next. I am beginning to distinguish personalities; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Unfortunately there is very little hope for me learning all of my student’s names as I teach in three junior highs and six elementary schools, that’s roughly 48 classes altogether. Naturally I have begun to find favourites although I try not to show it. These are not necessarily the good students and I’ve never liked people who suck up. My favourites are those whose faces are interesting and whose expressions make me smile. These students can really make my day and when the class is in good spirit it’s a fantastic place to be.

It can be really refreshing to be in a class full of children, it brings out the child in me although I have to remind myself that I am now a teacher and can’t bask in mischief when the mood takes me. My school life was fantastic and I love having my memories evoked even if it makes me sad that I’m now an adult. Sometimes I feel paranoid because I can’t understand what everyone’s talking about and it can be quite depressing not to share the joke or information. My Japanese English teachers are generally good at translating for me but there are frequently times when I feel really dumb which, oddly, is not a feeling I can remember or relate to. I hate it and am eager to learn and study more Japanese. I feel like such a hypocrite! I’ve come here to teach English but what kind of an example am I setting when I can’t even speak the native language? Additionally the native language is called Hogan here which is the Okinawan language so I’m doubly fu#$ed! I get the feeling though that my Japanese Teachers of English (JTE’s) appreciate my poor level of Japanese as it forces me to communicate in English. You have to be a confident and humble person to do this without an ego to bruise and I’m afraid my massive ego and fear of humiliation keep me from progressing in communicating as much as I’d like to. I’ve never realized how amazing speaking is before and now really appreciate it.

In contrast to feeling stupid I can also swing to feeling too intelligent for repeatedly standing in front of a class of 12 year olds and reading out the lyrics of ‘Hello, Goodbye’ by the Beatles. At these times my brain goes to sleep and I go on auto pilot, but I guess you have moments like this in all types of professions. The books that the students use are good on the whole but sometimes the subject matter is completely off the wall. Sanen sai, or the third and final year at Junior High, have had the best example so far. There was a passage of which I can only guess was written to help students’ pronunciation as it featured a group of friends in a field picking shoots. The vocabulary was full of double entendres such as “my back hurts when I bend over” and then “Jon, you should be pushing it in deeper!” I saw this passage seconds before being asked to read it out to a class full of 14 year olds and found it really difficult to read with a steady voice. If that was read out in my class at school my classmates would have had fits! But I guess if it was read out in French and then translated perhaps it wouldn’t have been so funny… Anyway, luckily my students didn’t get it but it was difficult for me to listen to them individually repeat it back to me in an attempt to get the correct pronunciation and give feeling to the words. Who writes these books! To make things worse my JTE decided to use the text for their mid-term test so it was revised and repeated to my dismay. Maybe it’s just me being immature… I tried to explain the metaphor to my JTE but he didn’t get it either. Us Brit’s love a good pun!

Before arriving in Kume I had arranged to buy a car CD-player from my predecessor but what with one thing and another it had been sat in my boot until last Tuesday. I eventually found a garage to install it and have been kevving round the island volume up, window down, occasionally with cigarette in hand. Don’t worry I’ve had my fix now, it’s just I’ve never owned a car before and my stereo in my apartment is shit. I’d been putting up with the car radio until this point which played a mixture of gobbledygook and crap. I couldn’t help myself. The fact that the island has a 40kph speed limit was a little spirit-dampening but there are a few roads along the coast where you can stretch to 70 providing there are no coffin dodgers on the road and for a short time I felt like I was queen of the road.

Okinawa has one of the largest concentrations of centigenarians in the world. I am practicing for the Kumejima marathon at the moment and there are people of 80 or older out jogging or walking the odd 5K up hill on their way back home! It must be a combination of the good weather, lifestyle and food. There aren’t many people here in their twenties or thirties. They probably leave when they’re 18 and return with kids when they’re in their forties. The food here is generally quite greasy as Okinawan cuisine includes Chinese and Malaysian roots. The Okinawans also eat a lot of seaweed, I believe there are many different types here, and they eat goat or yagi sashimi (raw goat).

Finally I went to Tokyo for four days the other weekend with my brother although I did stay for one night on my own and also made it from Haneda airport to Asakusa where I’d booked a hostel for us. I am really proud of how independent I’ve become but also realise how much I miss my better half. Nick will be coming out in December and I am counting the days.

Tokyo time was spent shopping, people-watching, eating and drinking. Unfortunately we couldn’t go clubbing as I’d booked our accommodation in the sight-seeing side of the city and all the cool clubs are in Roppongi but we did go there as well as Harajuku, Shibuya and Akihabra. I really like Harajuku as it’s not only filled with wild teenagers but also has a fantastic road where all the chic shops and people are. Here there are many places to sit and watch the world go by as if you were in Paris or London. The other places don’t tend to have these sorts of places and this is a part of European cuture that I really miss. Along with the beautiful temples and shrines in Asakusa was the Asaahi building which is famous for having a golden flame-like-poo on top of it. We stayed right next to it so it was relatively easy to find our hostel at the end of the night. Tokyo streets are really easy places to get lost and not the best when there’s a typhoon in town. The typhoon only lasted one night luckily then the rest of the time was spent with a glorious clear blue sky and not the thick grey smog you would imagine.

It was REALLY cool to spend time in Tokyo but I couldn’t believe how much money I spent so I was glad to leave but now eager to return. I wish I could go once a month but Japan has other places to explore. Okinawa is nearly 1,000 miles from Tokyo and I felt quite sad leaving the mainland as I felt like I was leaving Japan. I love the people in Okinawa, I love my students and my home is pretty cool too, however it’s still 29 degrees out here in mid-October and I’m willing it to turn colder so I can wear more clothes. It’s so different to life back in the UK and I guess I am now through the honeymoon period. I’m getting tired of sweating and enjoyed wearing jeans in Tokyo - maybe in November!

November Diary >>