I had intended to make my next blog post about the intensely crazy yet wonderful weekend I just had a few days ago, but something just happened in the 6th grade classroom that's left me with the NEED to vent to a foreign audience.
Most things about life in Japan are easy enough to get used to. The foods you don't like, the way you must interact with your co-workers, the "cultural differences" that you expect. There is one thing I will never get used to though, and that is the punishment policies in the Japanese classroom.
Just a bit ago, I was sitting in with some of my 6th grade students. We'd spent the previous period working on posters with the theme of world friendship. Then in the break between classes, the teacher Mr. Y starts talking about what they'll do next period. Somehow, I missed what the girl in the front seat did that roused his anger, but she must have done something. Suddenly, the normally genial Mr. Y starts to yell at this girl. He bops her on the head, rough, twice. She cowers and lowers her head to the desk. Mr. Y then proceeds to grab the back of her shirt, drag her out of her chair, and then drop her to the floor by the door. Still not finished, he keeps yelling at her to get out, and literally uses his feet to push her the rest of the way out the door of the classroom.
While she cries in the hallway, he comes back and finishes talking to the class. No one besides me is disturbed. Once the class starts gathering up their things to head to the gym for the next period, Mr. Y goes out into the hall again and talks to her, though I can't hear what's being said over the other kids around me.
My gut reaction is of course shock and repulsion. If this man was a teacher in America, that would have been his job right there. Gone, no question. Yet this is a standard disciplinary action here. I have seen situations like this before...students struck hard, pulled by the collar, or dragged out of class. And these are not kids exhibiting violent behavior that requires restraint, at least not most of the time. It always seems like an extreme punishment for minor crimes.
Not only is it difficult to sit and watch this, but it's difficult to be unable to do anything about it. I'm the outsider here, and it is not my place to object. In fact, I would probably just make things worse by trying to do anything. I just have to sit and remember to the teachers AND to the kids, this is normal. But every fiber of my being wants to scream out against this behavior when it happens. I want to stand up for the kid. A grown 40 year old man vs. an 11 year old girl just seems unjustified, no matter her offense.
I try to console myself by remembering the opposite side of this spectrum. Here, the kids can have positive physical contact with their teachers. I've taught a lot of my kids how to give me a high five, but I can't lie and say I don't like it when the little guys take my hand or give me a hug. The kids have a bond with their teachers here that isn't really allowed in the States. The relationship is closer than the normal teacher-student one we know had with our teachers, even the good ones we think fondly of. Teachers are more like parents than strangers. There's a lot of responsibility placed upon teachers here for that reason, but the students do show a lot more affection towards them for it.
That said, I am not accustomed to seeing a child treated the way I just saw. And I hope that I never will be.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
mo' mix'd up
Some older mixes converted to my new system, and given some artistic treatment (in the first case, anyway). The third one is kind of a joke that isn't very funny if you don't live in Japan, and even if you do, it's still not that funny. Track listing for that one less important, but available to those that might want it.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
A Cautionary Tale
So back at the end of February, I was in a very minor car accident. I was following some friends to a party and when they turned at a stop sign, I went to follow them without looking quite well enough to the side. I hit the passenger door of a car coming up to the intersection. Thankfully, no one was hurt, the damage to both cars was all cosmetic, and the other driver was exceptionally nice to me, especially since it was my fault and I'm a crazy foreigner here. This was my first accident ever in a car, and I felt terrible about it, but the friends I was with assured me that as accidents go, this one was not so bad.
Unfortunately, I had this accident in Japan. Which means dealing with the Japanese police. I am still dealing with this incident, now well into the month of May. Here's the story of my recent day with the Fukusaki Police.
On Friday, I went in with my supervisor to the police station. I'd been told we were going to the site of the accident and I was going to say what had happened. I assumed this meant we would go to the intersection where the collision occurred. A good guess, you'd think. But it was not this straightforward. I got into the unmarked police van with my supervisor and three police officers, two of them in plain clothes. I had my picture taken next to the van first, of course. Then, we proceeded to go back to my apartment, which is fairly close to the police station. I thought this was in order to look at my car. But no, they just wanted me to get out of the van and have my picture taken next to my car. Not near the damage to the front right light, but at the back. Just to have it.
We then loaded back up into the van, and they asked me where I went to meet with my friends. I explained the directions I took to get to the parking lot where I met the Kasai folks before heading to the party. We proceeded along this route at about 20km an hour (twenty km under the speed limit in this area), and the officer in the front seat with the camera took a picture of every corner or intersection where I turned. People behind us were honking their horns, oblivious to the fact we were on police business. When we arrived at the gravel lot where I had waited for my friends, I again had to get out of the van and have my photo taken, standing in the empty lot. After this, we once again got into the van and went back the way we'd come to the accident site.
Here, where it actually made sense to me, I got out of the van and explained about where the cars had collided. The officer with the camera then marked a chalk circle and X on the spot I estimated the actual hit happened. Then I again had to have my picture taken with it. I had to point my finger to the spot though. The picture could not be taken until I understood that I HAD to POINT to where I said the accident happened. This was the end of the first part of my adventure.
Back at the station, my friend Clay was waiting for us to return. He'd been in the car with me that night, and so the police had requested he'd come in to give a statement. We were taken upstairs in the station, to a room with tables and chairs facing a chalkboard and podium, clearly meant for teaching and lectures, not an interrogation room of any kind. I had already given my statement to the police back closer to the date of the accident, but since then, April had come.
In Japan, April is the time of year when all the people in public service and school jobs change over. Sometimes you stay in the same job, sometimes you switch departments or offices. The person who had been in charge of the department my case fell under had changed, and instead of the salt-and-pepper haired man I'd spoken to in March, a young woman sat across the desk from me. This meant I had to restate everything that I had said previously.
At the same table, side by side, an older male officer I had not met before sat across from Clay. After being told we had the right to remain silent (which took a little work with the electronic dictionary), they proceeded to ask us questions. At the same time. I had difficulty sometimes hearing the soft-spoken woman's questions over the louder voice of the man talking next to her, and I actually had to lean over and cup my hand around my ears to hear her. Sometimes we had to wait for the other officer and my friend to finish with something before we could get my supervisor to try and help with Japanese I didn't understand. Not that my supervisor speaks English, mind you, it was just a "two-heads-can-use-an-electronic-dictionary-better-than-one" scenario.
While it was embarrassing that I couldn't understand all the questions, the fact that the questions ranged so widely might explain why I was at a loss at times. I was asked about where I went to high school, what had I studied in college, why did I want to come to Japan, what were the names of the members of my family and what did they all do for a living, how much money did I make a month, how much of that money was I able to save, was I satisfied with my salary/lifestyle, had I found my apartment on my own, what was my schedule at work like...I can't even remember now all the questions I was asked. I was surprised I wasn't asked for my blood type and list of sexual partners. How much of this had to be revealed to deal with the accident is something I'll never understand, but I knew that it was probably better just to answer than to put up a fuss.
After answering all the questions, the officers read back to us the entirety of the statements. It was like listening to a biography rather than a police report about an accident. Once they'd read it aloud, they printed it off the laptop. Thankfully I noticed that my young officer didn't have the printer hooked up to the computer, otherwise we might have been there even longer. Small misprints and spelling errors caused the report to be printed no less than three times. After they were printed, we were asked to read them yet again and sign the statements. Going over the accident in the van had taken about an hour, and this question and answer session took three times that long. Having gone in at 1pm, we finally left the station at 5pm. I was informed that the police would probably also call again to settle out the rest of the details.
I apologized to Clay for making him take time off work to come into the police station for so many hours. He commented on the Japanese commitment to the very letter of the law. It seemed to me like an obsessive relationship to the brush strokes that make the characters that made the letter of the law.
The moral of this story? Do your best not to get into a car accident in Japan.
Unfortunately, I had this accident in Japan. Which means dealing with the Japanese police. I am still dealing with this incident, now well into the month of May. Here's the story of my recent day with the Fukusaki Police.
On Friday, I went in with my supervisor to the police station. I'd been told we were going to the site of the accident and I was going to say what had happened. I assumed this meant we would go to the intersection where the collision occurred. A good guess, you'd think. But it was not this straightforward. I got into the unmarked police van with my supervisor and three police officers, two of them in plain clothes. I had my picture taken next to the van first, of course. Then, we proceeded to go back to my apartment, which is fairly close to the police station. I thought this was in order to look at my car. But no, they just wanted me to get out of the van and have my picture taken next to my car. Not near the damage to the front right light, but at the back. Just to have it.
We then loaded back up into the van, and they asked me where I went to meet with my friends. I explained the directions I took to get to the parking lot where I met the Kasai folks before heading to the party. We proceeded along this route at about 20km an hour (twenty km under the speed limit in this area), and the officer in the front seat with the camera took a picture of every corner or intersection where I turned. People behind us were honking their horns, oblivious to the fact we were on police business. When we arrived at the gravel lot where I had waited for my friends, I again had to get out of the van and have my photo taken, standing in the empty lot. After this, we once again got into the van and went back the way we'd come to the accident site.
Here, where it actually made sense to me, I got out of the van and explained about where the cars had collided. The officer with the camera then marked a chalk circle and X on the spot I estimated the actual hit happened. Then I again had to have my picture taken with it. I had to point my finger to the spot though. The picture could not be taken until I understood that I HAD to POINT to where I said the accident happened. This was the end of the first part of my adventure.
Back at the station, my friend Clay was waiting for us to return. He'd been in the car with me that night, and so the police had requested he'd come in to give a statement. We were taken upstairs in the station, to a room with tables and chairs facing a chalkboard and podium, clearly meant for teaching and lectures, not an interrogation room of any kind. I had already given my statement to the police back closer to the date of the accident, but since then, April had come.
In Japan, April is the time of year when all the people in public service and school jobs change over. Sometimes you stay in the same job, sometimes you switch departments or offices. The person who had been in charge of the department my case fell under had changed, and instead of the salt-and-pepper haired man I'd spoken to in March, a young woman sat across the desk from me. This meant I had to restate everything that I had said previously.
At the same table, side by side, an older male officer I had not met before sat across from Clay. After being told we had the right to remain silent (which took a little work with the electronic dictionary), they proceeded to ask us questions. At the same time. I had difficulty sometimes hearing the soft-spoken woman's questions over the louder voice of the man talking next to her, and I actually had to lean over and cup my hand around my ears to hear her. Sometimes we had to wait for the other officer and my friend to finish with something before we could get my supervisor to try and help with Japanese I didn't understand. Not that my supervisor speaks English, mind you, it was just a "two-heads-can-use-an-electronic-dictionary-better-than-one" scenario.
While it was embarrassing that I couldn't understand all the questions, the fact that the questions ranged so widely might explain why I was at a loss at times. I was asked about where I went to high school, what had I studied in college, why did I want to come to Japan, what were the names of the members of my family and what did they all do for a living, how much money did I make a month, how much of that money was I able to save, was I satisfied with my salary/lifestyle, had I found my apartment on my own, what was my schedule at work like...I can't even remember now all the questions I was asked. I was surprised I wasn't asked for my blood type and list of sexual partners. How much of this had to be revealed to deal with the accident is something I'll never understand, but I knew that it was probably better just to answer than to put up a fuss.
After answering all the questions, the officers read back to us the entirety of the statements. It was like listening to a biography rather than a police report about an accident. Once they'd read it aloud, they printed it off the laptop. Thankfully I noticed that my young officer didn't have the printer hooked up to the computer, otherwise we might have been there even longer. Small misprints and spelling errors caused the report to be printed no less than three times. After they were printed, we were asked to read them yet again and sign the statements. Going over the accident in the van had taken about an hour, and this question and answer session took three times that long. Having gone in at 1pm, we finally left the station at 5pm. I was informed that the police would probably also call again to settle out the rest of the details.
I apologized to Clay for making him take time off work to come into the police station for so many hours. He commented on the Japanese commitment to the very letter of the law. It seemed to me like an obsessive relationship to the brush strokes that make the characters that made the letter of the law.
The moral of this story? Do your best not to get into a car accident in Japan.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Hong Kong
Of all that's happened lately, my trip to Hong Kong is most worthy of further description. Here goes.
The future will look like Hong Kong. A city where no one is out of place and yet no one is at home. Everyone is always in transit, passing through. People peddling fake watches and handbags constantly vie for your attention in the few seconds they have as you walk toward the next station or bus stop. I listen in earnest admiration as the woman working the desk at my cheap Kowloon guest house switches flawlessly back and forth between Chinese and British-accented English. But you are just as likely to hear German, French, or Hindi as English and Chinese. Whatever language you speak, there's someone ready to speak it back at you, especially if it means you'll buy something.
There are times when I definitely feel like I'm in China, with ducks hanging in meat shop windows and older people gathered in the park for Tai Chi. Other times, like when walking through the trendy restaurants and bars of the Soho district (yes, it's really called Soho), I'm back in the North American cities I haven't seen in years. The clean and efficient metro is like something you'd find in Europe, and the British voice over the loudspeaker only adds to the illusion. That quickly fades as I walk through areas packed with women in saris hawking various wares along the sides of the streets leading to the ferry. If I'd been homesick for Japan, there were plenty of sashimi restaurants and Japanese characters and movies to make me feel like I was back at home. International doesn't even begin to cover the feeling of Hong Kong. It's more like a miniature version of the world packed into one city with no set borders, no boundaries.
I bought American candy and shopped in H&M on Saturday. I went and saw one of the world's largest buddha statues on Sunday and met Mickey Mouse in Hong Kong Disneyland on Monday. The range of possibilities was seemingly endless. Hong Kong felt like a place where you could find pretty much anything you might be looking for.
Usually when I travel, I'm happy to come home to Japan. But after visiting Hong Kong, for the first time, I felt differently. It seemed suddenly that my beloved Kobe, and even Osaka, were gray, flat places, lacking the vibrancy and dimension I found in Hong Kong. Japan is Japan, and no other ideas hold sway over it. While that's what makes it special, it's also what makes it frustrating and suffocating at times. The future doesn't look like Japan anymore. Going to Hong Kong really put that reality in front of me for the first time.
It was only after meeting some of my students on the train home and talking with them that I remembered being in Japan is a far more important thing for me to be doing. If Japan wants to eventually make it to the future, it needs people like me to help them realize they aren't the only place in the world. Hong Kong doesn't need me to internationalize it, it has it's own momentum on that front. Still, I can't say I didn't find my trip to the future fascinating, and I may have to do it again sometime.
The future will look like Hong Kong. A city where no one is out of place and yet no one is at home. Everyone is always in transit, passing through. People peddling fake watches and handbags constantly vie for your attention in the few seconds they have as you walk toward the next station or bus stop. I listen in earnest admiration as the woman working the desk at my cheap Kowloon guest house switches flawlessly back and forth between Chinese and British-accented English. But you are just as likely to hear German, French, or Hindi as English and Chinese. Whatever language you speak, there's someone ready to speak it back at you, especially if it means you'll buy something.
There are times when I definitely feel like I'm in China, with ducks hanging in meat shop windows and older people gathered in the park for Tai Chi. Other times, like when walking through the trendy restaurants and bars of the Soho district (yes, it's really called Soho), I'm back in the North American cities I haven't seen in years. The clean and efficient metro is like something you'd find in Europe, and the British voice over the loudspeaker only adds to the illusion. That quickly fades as I walk through areas packed with women in saris hawking various wares along the sides of the streets leading to the ferry. If I'd been homesick for Japan, there were plenty of sashimi restaurants and Japanese characters and movies to make me feel like I was back at home. International doesn't even begin to cover the feeling of Hong Kong. It's more like a miniature version of the world packed into one city with no set borders, no boundaries.
I bought American candy and shopped in H&M on Saturday. I went and saw one of the world's largest buddha statues on Sunday and met Mickey Mouse in Hong Kong Disneyland on Monday. The range of possibilities was seemingly endless. Hong Kong felt like a place where you could find pretty much anything you might be looking for.
Usually when I travel, I'm happy to come home to Japan. But after visiting Hong Kong, for the first time, I felt differently. It seemed suddenly that my beloved Kobe, and even Osaka, were gray, flat places, lacking the vibrancy and dimension I found in Hong Kong. Japan is Japan, and no other ideas hold sway over it. While that's what makes it special, it's also what makes it frustrating and suffocating at times. The future doesn't look like Japan anymore. Going to Hong Kong really put that reality in front of me for the first time.
It was only after meeting some of my students on the train home and talking with them that I remembered being in Japan is a far more important thing for me to be doing. If Japan wants to eventually make it to the future, it needs people like me to help them realize they aren't the only place in the world. Hong Kong doesn't need me to internationalize it, it has it's own momentum on that front. Still, I can't say I didn't find my trip to the future fascinating, and I may have to do it again sometime.
mixed up
i've been working on mixes and covers for them of late. they're meant to be printed and folded, obviously, but looking at them digitally gives you an idea of the contents. If you are interested in any of the following, let me know and i can hook you up.
Life since February, in a nutshell
so the basics since i last said anything to anyone via the internet are:
1. staying in japan for a third year. this was a tough decision, but the facts that my car and my pets at home are gone, i have no boyfriend at home anymore, no job, no place to life or college plans yet to speak of, and overall enjoy my life here made me decide to go for the full 3 year possibility. this means if you still haven't visited me in japan yet, you have a while longer to do so.
2. my work is pretty crazy, since my board of education just adopted the schedule changes i proposed back in feb. approximately 3 weeks after the school year had already started. this is going to take some getting used to all around. in theory, it'll give me less work and more time with a smaller group of students. we'll see if it works out as intended after this initial run.
3. the change at work really surprised me, as the new rotation requires 2 English teachers and i thought as of next august we were going to have only one. yet, i walk into a meeting to find my old proposal laid out and translated, so it seems as though there will be more than one person next year. mixed messages from the board of ed aren't helping. if i do end up on my own next year, things are going to be really messed up.
4. i ran for a position in AJET, the association for japanese exchange and teaching participants, but i lost. slightly a relief, though a bit of a let down.
5. went to hong kong to visit my friend robin one last time before she heads off on the rest of her adventures through india and china, after which she'll go back to canada. she was my only friend from tokyo orientation onward, and it really saddens me to see her go. still, we had a great time in HK, and if you want to see photos, they are available on my facebook, let me know and i can send the link if you're not already part of the fb masses.
feeling good, although things can be stressful at times. the next time i have a good story, i'll put it up here. or if i think of something else. we'll see.
1. staying in japan for a third year. this was a tough decision, but the facts that my car and my pets at home are gone, i have no boyfriend at home anymore, no job, no place to life or college plans yet to speak of, and overall enjoy my life here made me decide to go for the full 3 year possibility. this means if you still haven't visited me in japan yet, you have a while longer to do so.
2. my work is pretty crazy, since my board of education just adopted the schedule changes i proposed back in feb. approximately 3 weeks after the school year had already started. this is going to take some getting used to all around. in theory, it'll give me less work and more time with a smaller group of students. we'll see if it works out as intended after this initial run.
3. the change at work really surprised me, as the new rotation requires 2 English teachers and i thought as of next august we were going to have only one. yet, i walk into a meeting to find my old proposal laid out and translated, so it seems as though there will be more than one person next year. mixed messages from the board of ed aren't helping. if i do end up on my own next year, things are going to be really messed up.
4. i ran for a position in AJET, the association for japanese exchange and teaching participants, but i lost. slightly a relief, though a bit of a let down.
5. went to hong kong to visit my friend robin one last time before she heads off on the rest of her adventures through india and china, after which she'll go back to canada. she was my only friend from tokyo orientation onward, and it really saddens me to see her go. still, we had a great time in HK, and if you want to see photos, they are available on my facebook, let me know and i can send the link if you're not already part of the fb masses.
feeling good, although things can be stressful at times. the next time i have a good story, i'll put it up here. or if i think of something else. we'll see.
The missing chronicles of my life to date
This is the start of a new blog, in the old journal-style, so as to keep people updated with my life (as there has been demand for it from several corners of the globe). It is intended mostly for people who I know living outside of Japan, but obviously anyone can have a look and leave a comment. facebook is still a good way to get in touch with me though.
This is a very boring first post, but you have to start somewhere.
This is a very boring first post, but you have to start somewhere.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
