I’ve only been teaching English for a month, but I’m starting to see a distinct pattern in how my lessons flow. Although I get mix of clients the vast majority are salarymen.
I start my lessons with a 5 minute warm up. How are you? How was your day? How was your weekend? Usually when I ask my clients what they did on the weekend or what they are doing after GABA on the weekend the answer is “work”. When I retort with: “Really? You’re working this weekend? It should be your break, right?”, I often get the reply “I overwork every weekend”. I correct them to the more natural “I work overtime every weekend” before giving my sympathy… even though I’m working all weekend too.
So far, I think my most taught phrases have been:
1. ”I feel sorry for you”
2. “To persevere”
3. ”Are you a strong drinker?”. Which leads me to the second most common thing I hear from my clients. “It’s ok, after working overtime I will go drinking with my coworkers”.
Of course, this is all old rope and the stereotypes are something I’ve heard before. But in my position as an Instructor I now get to see the human faces behind the Japanese salarymen. In my booth for 40 minutes they talk to me about their families, their dreams, and what they wanted to be when they were younger. When the bell chimes they straighten their tie, pick up their briefcase and go back to overtime or the compulsory drinking with their coworkers.
It’s times like this that I’m glad I work for GABA. I can limit my working hours and leave my work behind when I say my ‘otsukare-samas’ and bow goodbye. A lot of people have been asking about my experience working for GABA… this is something I’ll blog about in a few weeks when I have a little more experience!
Now I’m working full time it’s more difficult to get out and about for the ‘play hard’ part of my Japanese life. Last week I went back to Keio University. I hadn’t been there for three years, and the last time I had, I was with Rodger. It was a really strange feeling.
Calamus Gladio Fortior
My old friend, Tokyo Tower
Om nom nom
I also managed to pull my first ‘all naito’ since 2008, catching the first train home at around 6:45am. Although Tokyo doesn’t sleep, the trains do! If you stay out past about 00:30, unless you can walk home, you’re out all night in Tokyo. We found a great karaoke place in Shinjuku that had nomihoudai for 1000Y an hour, that amused us for a good while!
Karaoke Booth
Alcohol in a Konbini
Team Shinjooks
My free time in Japan hasn’t been all about nomihoudai karaoke, but I’ll write about my cultural adventures in my next blog. My parents are coming to Tokyo tomorrow so I’m pretty busy with preparation! I saw this final picture on the website Life after the B.O.E – written by a JET alumnus. This guy made a few comics that I think will ring true to anyone who’s ever worked or trained as an ALT.
Life After the B.O.E
