Sorry to spam but I want to add to my last post but I don't have internet access until late.

It doesn't matter to me that the guy isn't taking the job and it doesn't affect me one bit. Well I may not get money for finding a new teacher but with my boss you never know. I can't even feel bad for my boss. He never listened to my input about any new teacher and had he I would be willing to bet we would have an excellent teacher lined up. But God forbid my boss listen to me.....

Last week was pretty stressful. Between my continued insane work hours (Tuesday-Thursday I had more than 10 classes each day), I also have the added stress of packing and cleaning (which I did very little of), plus I got sick.

( My job is crazy! )

OK – I need to plan more for this week, do a little packing, wash some dishes, and stare lovingly at my Yoko signed pic. haha What? It's GORGEOUS!

This is going to sound random but I am really out of ideas. I've been kinda throwing stuff together on a whim the past few months but I am out of ideas.

I need something to do with my young preschool classes. The kids are ages 4-5. I teach minimum two classes of them a day. The smallest class is uh...... 7 and the largest is 25-30.

The parents want songs, but the problem is - the kids aren't learning anything from the songs. I had them do Head & Shoulders for three weeks at every lesson and they still couldn't do it by the end. No - really. Some could kinda do the head, shoulders, knees and toes - but past that..... nothing. I did more songs last year and some kids (maybe 50-75% of the classes) after up to 3 years of it couldn't clap at the right parts of BINGO. That is after doing the song for three years (I don't know how often before I got there, but I would assume fairly often based on what I was told).

So - needless to say I have no clue. I have tried some other songs but they are too hard and the kids don't learn anything. I can't do crafts or coloring because the parents don't like that. Games don't work too well because the kids can't take turns, they cry if they mess up, they are too shy to play, etc., Most books are too hard and my boss or someone will complain and say it is too hard. Then there are the kids that just sit there and do nothing. Their parents don't make them do anything either (if the parents are there).

If you have any ideas please let me know. I only have 3-4 more weeks to teach them but I really just don't know what to do anymore.

( new job )


In other news my friends and I applied for the Yoko cons in Tokyo. They added shows, which is good. The restrictions for getting a ticket were crazy. Basically, each membership could only apply for one ticket. If you want to try for 2 tickets you had to have 2 different memberships. Of the 9 memberships we tried with, 6 missed, 2 we haven’t heard yet and 1 hit.

It’s just nuts because they added shows and made it so that you could only get a ticket if you have a membership. Apparently they say they are going to be strict and check all tickets. And even if you have a letter you can’t get in. I personally think that is bull because there is no way that they are going to check more than 5000 tickets.

Last week was one of those weeks.

( My weird week )


( Ticket thing )

My kids are weird...

In addition to the usual "you don't live in America now?!" comments I get frequently, this week I got "why is your face white?" at one school. And at another, the kids told me I sounded like a real American.

I..... what?

Two of my adult students finally realized just how much work I do for my job. The one on Tusday nights had been in a conversation class but the other student quit (she is getting married and has preparations and moving and stuff). So now, he has been asking me to teach him about America, so I have to prepare handouts for him. Last night he said "where do you get these?" pointing to the handouts. I told him I make them. "You make them?" I told him that yes, I did make them. I told him that I would do all of the research, write the sheets up, try and find pictures if needed, etc., He looked at me like he finally realized that I do more than just show up to the lessons.

This morning my first student was asking me about my schedule and how many students I have. She said "You teach all of that alone?" I told her that yes, I do teach all of that alone. She didn't ask about preparations for the lessons, but she looked like she really thought I was pretty amazing for doing all of that. And she doesn't know the half of it.

It's amazing how much work I can get done when my adult classes get canceled. I've already done a bunch of stuff on my list. I love most of my adult classes (obviously not all), but not having to teach and prepare for them gives me more time to think about the kid’s classes - the ones that my boss loves to tell me are more important. Obviously they aren't so important seeing as he doesn’t give me time to prepare for them. Well, I take that back, I have time after work, before work, on the weekends. If I just stopped having fun I could have all the planning and preparation time I need!

Thankfully there are a lot of resources on the internet or else I would have had a nervous breakdown trying to do all of this on my own. I seriously wonder what my predecessors taught the kids. Vocab week in and week out? No phonics for sure.

Back to doing more preparations so I can spend my free time tonight doing what I want.

Today two of my students kept singing KanFuu Fighting over and over. They only knew the chorus though. And of course now it is stuck in my head. They are doing it for their sports day, which is why they were singing it.

Last week I was teaching weather - windy, cloudy, sunny, etc., Some of the kids added -y to other words and one said Johnny! So they started saying Johnny's.


Just something that made me smile.

I have been meaning to post my schedule since I got here ages ago. Anyway for those curious, here is my weekly schedule.


( schedule here )



I never work on the weekends. I get all national holidays off plus one week in August and two at Christmas/New Years. My schedule is slightly reduced in August and April but not by much (maybe one hour per day less in August and two or so in April). Getting days off is hard if not impossible. I am the only teacher so....


As you can see I teach quite a few lessons each week. And while some are short (only 20 minutes), I still have to plan for each lesson. Some days I can teach the same thing to every level, some days I can’t. Also, each class is different, so that makes it harder. All of my planning and preparation has to be done before I leave for work as I do not have time or a place to do anything like that the schools. I only have short breaks (if anything) when I am at the schools, and most of the time those breaks are filled with kids still in the classroom.

If you add in travel time and time spent with my boss, I am at work for about 40 hours a week teaching almost 40 lessons a week.

If you want to read all about my time in Japan - I am going to keep an updated journal of just that stuff at this journal: rebeccajapan. Feel free to friend me. I have entries for every day except today - which I will post later.