2001-10-19 - 11:09 p.m.
Today was my last day of school at my first placement, and I have to say that I’m a bit surprised at the sense of accomplishment I feel. I think it just feels nice to have finished something, to have a concrete parcel of work which I can set aside as complete. In the unofficial hierarchy of JET set-ups, the JET who stays at one school for an entire year is at the top, and the JET who moves around to different schools is at the bottom (the more frequently you change schools, the lower you are). This is based on some kind of idealization of the JET experience, wherein the JET becomes a valued and integral part of the school community over time, yada yada yada. But in reality, I think that this is a job that really benefits from regular change. I think that if I didn’t move about, I’d get bored, no matter what school I was in. If I’m going to be spending 3-5 hours a day sitting at my desk in the teacher’s room, I’d at least like a change of scenery and characters every couple of months. Before I came here I was not looking forward to having to start over repeatedly. I generally get performance anxiety in new situations and I was worried that it would be rough to go to six different schools and have to be the new teacher each time. But the reception of the kids and the teachers is so warm, and their thanks at the end is so sincere, that I look forward to going through this process more than just once.
Many of the kids seemed stunned when I told them that it was my last day -- apparently no one had prepared them for this shocking reality. One girl gave me the Winnie the Pooh pin off of her lapel. Another presented me with a sticker-picture of she and her best friend, with the words “ra-bu & pi-su” written along the bottom in katakana (that’s “ love and peace”). A third-year girl told me “I miss you” -- they haven’t learned the future tense yet. The teachers all gathered and gave me a small gift, and the principal gave a speech to me? about me? which in any event, no one bothered to translate. After school I taught one last pottery lesson for the art club. Afterwards, the art teacher gathered the students around me. They presented with flowers and a first-year girl read a short speech in Japanese which the teacher translated: “Thank you Sarah-sensei. You were here only a short time but you taught so many of us. It was our first time doing pottery and you made it very enjoyable. We had a good time. Thank you very much and good luck.” On my way out, a third-year girl gave me an envelope which contained three pieces of candy and a note, which read:
“Dear Teacher,
Here’s a little something for you. This is “Milky”! very nice a caramel. Help yourself, please.
See you again.
From
Sala”
Over the past few weeks I’ve spent some time wondering whether or not I actually helped any of the kids improve their English. But thinking about leaving today, I realized that my presence at the school, perhaps more than my presence in the classroom, encourages the kids to use English. Without me sitting at my desk, the kids won’t come into the teacher’s room and try to put together English sentences, and the other teachers won’t attempt to either. The art teacher told me that I had made the art club into “international time,” which I know she meant as a compliment. When I was unlocking my bike to go home this evening, I overheard a student call out to her friend, “Phone card, please!” I looked up, and immediately said, “Speaking English, good!” The girl looked over at me, proud of herself -- she hadn’t even known that I was there.
I’m going to spend the weekend chilling around home base -- this is a declared no-Tokyo weekend. Monday I start all over again, this time in the rice fields...
