Embittered

I’ve got into a habit of writing these entries, forgetting about them and posting them up on the blog at almost the precise moment they lose relevancy. A bit like the UK government then. Maybe I should consider going in to politics, I’m lazy enough.

So, this is the entry where I pour great steaming heaps on disappointment on you all; I won’t be returning to Britain any time soon. I’ve decided that, because of my limited time here and the fact that when I return home Tony Blair is not going to let me (or anyone) leave those hallowed shores ever again, I should make the most of my time here. So, I’ll be heading off to China for 2 weeks, more specifically to Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an (where all those terracotta solders are kept).

I know many will be thunderstruck by this news, and many others will simply not hear about it as this blog must now be reaching less people than Steve Irwin, but I’m afraid the rainy, scum ridden, expensive, US-pandering, freedom hating, racist streets of Britain were just edged out by the home of one of the most ancient civilisations on Earth and the many ridiculously cheap attractions contained therein. Sure it’s Communist, but after looking at today’s UK from a distance I’ve come to realise the Chinese could be a lot worse off.

You may have noticed from that last paragraph that I’ve become somewhat disenchanted with the country of my birth. Well, sort of. I really do recommend that everyone who reads this and who hasn’t done so already takes a few months off and lives in a country outside of Britain. Any country, it doesn’t matter. It changes your perception radically. While living in England, I knew that everything was more expensive here and that the government had long since stopped acting for the people. I knew that the British populace were often considered mean, rude and miserable by the international community (although I couldn’t see that at the time). But I thought of places in far off climes and said to myself…well, it could be worse.

Of course that all changed after about 2 weeks in Japan. Even now, when traditions I first thought were quaint have brought me to the brink of insanity, nothing here has made me pine for the grassy hills of home. I miss the people back in England, I really do, and as it’s coming up to Christmas I’ll miss the atmosphere of the place (but again, that’s mainly down to family and friends) but the country itself…I’m incredibly glad to be shot of the place, even if it is only temporary.

Possibly the aspect that gets my goat the most are the prices we pay. Japan is a country that was not built with humans in mind. 70% of the place is taken up with huge impassable mountains that only the most hardy of sheep would dare ascend. They have zero natural resources over here, none; they import it all. But still, the 120 million people they have here manage to get by. Not only get by, but also in most cases get by comfortably. This is probably because the price of consumables over here is reasonable. Not cheap, but reasonable. Compared to the prices infesting the UK though, they might as well be free. I don’t pretend to know all the politics behind it, why it is the UK government charges us 17.5% VAT while the Japanese government gets by on 5% consumer tax, but I know that I can get all the food I need for a week for £20. In Leeds that would barely last me 2 days. I know that my car insurance is not going to cost me as much as my house does every month, because some statistic from the 70s said that people under 25 can’t drive. I know that flights out of the country will not induce a 3-year saving plan. I know that my wage will not be cut in half by taxes to be spent on red tape and administration.

I could go on and on (and I have) but I’ll stop ranting now. As it is, I’m having a good old time over here at the moment, with a long weekend on the horizon and someone special to spend it with.

Next time: The 7 reasons I hate you and your family.

Scratch

This one's a bit old but I thought I'd post it up anyway! More complaining ahoy!

I use this blog more as a virtual scratching post more than anything. I do apologise about that but, well, it is my blog.

Went to the Shaken place yesterday to see what was going on. They told me that the procedure would cost 90000 yen (about £450) which is oddly enough what I’d hoped for. Got to go back on Monday to actually get it done and find out what needs repairing. Apparently the repairs they might suggest are just that; suggestions. Apart from a few serious problems it’s entirely up to you whether you repair them or not.

Another fun meeting with one of my JTEs a few minutes ago. Yesterday we decided to embark on a new adventure. We decided that, for once, we would let the students think. I usually take my lesson plan topics for Oral Communication lessons from the text book the other teachers use when I am not in a lesson. Now these things are awful, terrible books that not only do not teach English but sometimes get it plain wrong. An example, from the current book:

“I have a dream of becoming a dentist.”

While grammatically correct (sort of) I would never, ever utter that phrase in conversation. “I dream of becoming a dentist” maybe, but that still sounds rather disjointed.

Now, the first few chapters of this book were easy to use as the themes of lesson plans; Holiday, directions, the telephone. But the 4^th chapter is titled “Would you like an extra blanket?” and is about…nothing. Well no, it’s actually about how to ask for an extra blanket and some more nuts on an airplane. So, I went to my teacher yesterday (about 10 minutes after I was supposed to be at my second school as the said teacher had disappeared for 40 minutes) and told her I couldn’t make a plan out of this chapter. So we decided to do more on the previous topic, the telephone. As far as I was concerned we had decided to, for once, let the kids actually use the English they’d “learnt” and spend the lesson constructing their own telephone conversations from the Key Phrases I’d given them the lesson before.

Today, she saunters up to me and asks to see the worksheet I’ve prepared for today’s lesson. “I’m sorry?” I stutter. “For the lesson today, did you make a worksheet?” I remind her that only the day before we had decided to let the kids work in groups this lesson, we had decided to let them use their brains. “But I thought you were going to make a worksheet for that?” I patiently explain that the Key Phrases are on the worksheet I did last week that the kids still have, and that we agreed yesterday that we’d suggest a few topics for the conversations on the board. Of course, this totally confuses her. “Well, their English level is very low…” Ignoring the fact that she’s now completely forgotten about yesterday’s conversation, I tell her that this sort of thing is what I used to do in French lessons, and my level of French was never much higher than “low”. Still she looks nonplussed.

Then she moves on to the two English 1 classes I have today. Why I have two is still beyond me, my original lesson plan made at the start of this term clearly states that on Wednesdays I should only have one. Never mind. She asks me if I have any ideas. No clarification on what topic or subject I should broach, just “Do you have any ideas?” No, no I don’t. I have never planned these lessons, that’s been left up to the JTEs. They haven’t been doing a very good job lately, most lessons end up in me playing cards with the students. I’m not entirely sure why the JTEs can’t organise these lessons considering all the lessons they do without me are taken straight from the terrible textbooks.

Then she asks if I have any activities involving the past tense. Oh yes, just let me find them… Grammar points are almost impossible to make into any activity that isn’t excruciatingly dull and luckily they usually leave the grammar stuff to the lessons not involving me. Not this time. She says we’ll discuss it in the period before the lesson, you know, when I’ve got all of 45 minutes to put something together.

I despair I really do. The Japanese education system, at least regarding English, has possibly the worst attitude towards the students that I’ve ever come across. They’re treated like unthinking drones incapable of retaining even the most basic knowledge. Any creative thought or input is actively discouraged. Learn this. Memorise this. Say this, then. “I’m fine, and you?” But to be honest, that’s exactly what my students are like. Whether this is due to the students themselves or the way they are treated from the very beginnings of their education is a distinction crying out for research.

Well, I just had the “thinking” class and amazingly enough it went very well. The students actually thought about what they were doing in their groups (well, most of them) and the conversations they came up with were actually pretty good. The atmosphere was really good too.

I suppose that answers the nature or nurture question I had before…