7 days and counting. Training began Saturday with a bang. Despite some portable steamer/iron issues, I still showed up - like my Canadian and Aussie colleagues - dressed like a champ in a suit, as we'll be wearing them plenty. Two ladies living in a different guest house were in the new recruit batch too, Amanda and Tam, Canadian and Aussie respectively - so the 6 of us got down to business.
The first half of the day was literally signing papers, dotting all "i"'s precisely for tax forms, work forms, payment forms... it is surely more painstaking than the States, as in Japan they have "inkan"s, or personal seals with ones name on them to use on all government docs, work docs, bank docs - anything where a signature is required. We had to create our own "mini signature" to fit in these small circles where the seal would go; if it is not consistent and forgery is suspected in the least bit - denied! It was more stressful than the SAT's or a cumulative final exam, but probably compares to performing surgery. Our bouncy British trainer was superb at keeping us entertained with the dry, legalese topics we covered.
After a lunch of noodles and chicken on our own - my chopstick skillz are not at Karate Kid levels, but close - we jumped right into the company's teaching methods and school structure. We'll mainly be teaching elementary kiddos (but down to 1.5 y/o), peppered with some adolescents, or even adult business classes. "Genki" is energy, or cool, or something like that in Japanese, which is what we'll need at all times, so we practiced it with a 2-3 minute presentation on some dry data. Git yer game face awn!!!!
We covered their lingo for teaching methods - like chorusing, warm ups, controlled/free practice, modeling; with an Edu degree or not, its pretty clear. We also practiced pronunciation correction when students are speaking and common sounds Japanese stumble with when speaking English: "sunglasses" = "sungrass" or "favorite" = "faborite." As a conversational school, they stress speaking casually. "What time to you get up?" = "What-ime d'you geddup?" It's fantastic that this 2 week training is meant to get everyone on the same page with jargon and structure. I think of teaching in the States and lack of consensus on the meaning certain words, methods, or practices in the classroom, which could lead to widely different interpretations when educators left a conversation.
Sunday was off, so I purchased a cell phone. Cho had lived in Texas for 6 years, so the buying experience at SoftBank was a snap. I had to go home and come back on the JR Train Line with additional documentation from the government verifying my alien status, sign loads of more papers verifying I am me from where I am, but many hours later, I walked away with an iPhone 4!!!!! Again, the papers and signatures and signatures and whoa! I learned from Joy, our flat-mate from Taiwan, that I signed a ton more papers than she did - maybe since I'm a non-Asian foreigner. I bit the dust and will pay the ¥6000/mo. since, well, I'm bloody engaged and living 6500 miles away. I can Skype anywhere now, folks!
I've already got some Japanese language apps to help me learn... Mito, where I move on the 31st, will not have as many English speakers... Woot! Not that here has, as it took 10 minutes to awkwardly put a jacket on hold the other day, and another few minutes to explain that I had a jacket on hold upon my return. "Ima" is now. "Ato de" is later. "Watashi wa Will des." Gestures, writing, pointing... eventually we had a bit of a conversation, smiles and fun =) Every person - at a noodle place, retail shop, or 7-11 - is so gracious and respectful with customers. Bows, taking money with both hands, presenting change/receipts with both hands - its very touching, really, as a dirtbag American.
Oh, and Saturday night we - the 6 of us Native-English Speakers - went to a club called Camelot as led by our experienced Aussie guide Dirk. Guys had an unexpected ¥3500 cover (that's $42.... I thought 10£ was a lot in London) and received 2 free-drink tokens - OUCH, I wanted a freaking VIP table. Girls = ¥2500. Anyway, it was probably one of the best clubs I've been to - not that I'm a regular.
3 floors, 3 DJ's playing hip hop, house techno, and minimalist techno. Great dancing, great music, amazing seeing Japanese girls dolled up beyond anything I've ever seen in the States - and more universally too, like all wearing the same thing. Hair perfectly dyed a darksih blonde, bouncily curled down from a poofy/leathery 80's style small-brimmed hat, with boots/socks above the knee and a short, pressed skirt to boot. They even had a hair station there for girls to get touched up by club workers. Guys looked pretty baller, with the European look of slim pants, suit jackets, shirts - but also some of the "express" shiney-design T-shirt stuff too. Japanese guys hair is freakin' cool, a lot longer and done up like you'd see in anime or manga.
Pains = smoking is allowed indoors...like everywhere, unfortunately. It catches up to you, as did the crowds by 2AM (zero free space). Though the rest went all night, I walked 5.5k home after asking directions (In Japanese!!!! Aw yea!!!!) and forgoing cabs.
Anyway, back to the day. I head to shadow a teacher today and see many of the things we covered on our first day of training...gotta navigate there too!
Be sure to check out the other pages on the bar above here, like "Vids" and "Differences Cheese Sees"!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna post a vid of the where I'm living - 2 blocks from the Shin Okubo train station.
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