(Untitled)

[vulchu]

So these past two days were the JET mid-year conference which was hilariously something that I was looking forward to but wound up being exceptionally disappointing.

I shall explain.

Comments

[arealphony]

That sounds so freakin frustrating! Teaching is hard enough, without culture shock and language barriers and living in a new place where you have few social supports. Not to mention you missed orientation. Yikes.

Unrelated: Can you email me you shiny new Japanese address? I have Christmas Greetings I want to send :D

[vulchu]

Yeah it's generally been sort of. Augh. I mean, late arrivals are not unprecedented, but they have no real formal support structure in place for people who do arrive late so it's just. Very frustrating.

Also I will be in town for the holidays! From the 22nd to the 6th or so. We must make a point of a meet up and exchange while I am around. :|b

[arealphony]

I hope this isn't too much to ask but can you bring me "Pure"? It's a gummy candy they sell and Sankyuu and I was addicted to it when I was there and I haven't had it since! It's like Sour Patch Kids, but better! You should eat them and everything will be better!

[vulchu]

Sure! I will do my best to search for it :|b

[slipout]

Oh, honey. This all sounds very, well, Japanese, but I'm sorry you're being run through the ringer on it. Politics and all that bureaucracy sucks. I wish you had someone within the system to talk to about this. Those kind of people are really important, especially since I know you how you are and would love to be involved.

How have the classes been lately? And you're enjoying getting around the country, right?

[vulchu]

I would kill for a change to actually work within the system to change a lot of these things! I have ideas that I think could be easily implemented! But the bureaucracy of it all makes it insanely difficult to find the proper avenues to pursue that change PLUS it would probably require...staying here longer than I'm really comfortable with staying.

Classes at least have been good. And I have been getting out and seeing Kansai.

[slipout]

Well, you don't have to give up just when you leave. It's how much you would like to dedicate to the cause.

Good, good. ♥ Hopefully, it gets easier from here on out.

[vulchu]

Well I doubt I'm going to be able to do much to change the JET Programme once I'm out of it, but yeah I definitely will be taking a lot home from this in terms of a learning experience.

It is getting a lot better! I used to be totally miserable, but lat least now I'm able to identify a lot more of what's making me miserable and work to resolve it.

[haeralis]

Yeah, that sounds incredibly frustrating and was what I was worried about wrt the JET program in general. Ugh. I wish I could give you a big hug and take you out for delicious foods every day. :(b Also, if you like you can skype me anytime I'm online if you want to talk, I'm christi.morelei.

How long will you be staying in Japan, anyway?

[vulchu]

I imagine it is easier on people who are hired ON TIME because you get orientation in July and you don't start teaching until September so there's a lot more time to be eased into the system and build up a rhythm for yourself outside of school before you get your energy drained on a daily basis. But for me it...sort of went the opposite direction.

As for the length, idk. I'm putting in a transfer application to CIR. If I get that, I'll stay another year at least. If not, I might be going back to Seattle come July. We'll see.

[killercherrypie]

*hugs* I'm sorry that this became so sad and stressful for you.

I really don't like MYC. The only thing I liked about it was the speaker they got for us who spoke at the first session for both this year and last year. He is cool, has excellent ideas, and always gets me pumped to try new things. Then I spend the rest of the conference feeling bored and go back to schools where I can't really try any of the great things I learned in that first session.

I totally understand your frustration with the CLAIR speech at the end. We basically got the same thing in our second day. Everyone always says "Ah, those JTEs are always so busy". Well, that's bullshit. JTEs are as busy as they want to be, essentially. However, they are busy with things they KNOW exist in their schools and communities. ALTs, on the other hand, DON'T know what they can do or where they can do it (and part of that might have to do with their contracts usually specifying that they can not be employed elsewhere).

[vulchu]

Yeah. I did get some good ideas out of things! And the CLAIR lecture did give me some ideas for how to get more involved, but the entire tone of the conference was really meh-inducing and irritating how they seem to fail to recognize that what they're saying to us is sometimes RIGHTEOUSLY unhelpful.

And I am totally with you on the second part. My JTEs are NOT too busy to do simple things like ask me to help with cleaning, give me a list of when the school's different clubs meet, and generally make an effort to at least meet me halfway in terms of getting more involved. I mean, hell, I never even got a tour of any of my schools. I don't know where half of the classrooms are. They do that much for their transfer students, they could at least put forth that effort for someone who's going to be teaching with them.

[angel_vixen]

I wish I had constructive help to offer, but I don't. So I offer sympathy and warm drinks, and hope that helps in some small way.

AngelVixen :-)

[vulchu]

Warm drinks are always appreciated as it is getting cold here. (And the fog is getting crazier)