Well everyone seems to be interested in what it is I do with my daze here in Japan.
Well my part time job is teaching English to kids, very young kids! 0-7.
You may all say oh how cute, how fun, you must love the little darlings well…no. Most of the morning consists of eight kids surrounding me all demanding my attention. You see I’m not an assistant or a helper; I am it, the sole teacher of sometimes ten kids all under the age of 3. For some reason I continually get lumped with the pre-schoolers!
We have a few terms in my school. First we have ‘separators’ they are kids that are separating from mum for the first time and like to let everyone know about it! The kids can remain in this status for weeks, depending on the how spoilt the kid is of course. We also have gorilla babies, who hang on and just wont let go. So if I’m lucky I will only have one gorilla and one separator. Not often the case! Picture this; me with a baby on each hip a couple of kids in the corner screaming “mama mama”, and then the rest running around like they’ve had three litres of red cordial each.
Nah, it’s not all mayhem. Most of the kids are really cute and make you feel special cause they repeat every little thing you say. “Red” “lredu” “Orange” “Orangi” “Shit” “Shit” Of course they get that one right! Most of the kids are ridiculously amused by the word ‘banana’ so that can get me out of almost any situation.
Rinsei is very cute, for a long time actually I thought he was a little girl. Oh boy that was embarrassing. See he is tiny though, like really really tiny! My first image of Rinsei is him carrying a blow up couch 3 times the size of him, up a slide, while manically singing the clean up song. Although he couldn’t quite get the whole song out and was looping the first phrase over….and over….and over again. A cute yet startling image.
Then we have Aminei. Aminei is the biggest space cadet and is virtually unstoppable. Lets call her a…‘free spirit’. The other day we went to the park and we were all playing in the sandpit. This time there were three teachers and maybe 15 kids. Dane says “Where’s Aminei?” “Oh fuck!” And there’s Aminei standing at the top of this huge metal slide thing. One of those slides on their own with a ladder up the back, the type that have now been removed from most playgrounds in Melbourne. How she got up there we will never know, she can just walk, and she just slips away. Dane ran up and grabbed her, just in the nick of time. 5 mins later same scenario. 10 mins later Aminei has gone missing again but is nowhere in site. I say “Dane…where’s Aminei?” Dane replies “HUNT HER DOWN!”. I jump up run, and manage to scoop her up five meters before the exit on to the road. Oh those little kiddly winks.
Oh there are so many other stories, the kids are all so different. Their personalities are so strong, even without words.
It’s not really conventional teaching, just playing when they are that young. The idea is to place them in an English environment from a young age to prepare them for English study in school. (As you may know, the Japanese take study very seriously! Primary school children are expected to do three hours homework a day.)
For the most part the job is actually quite fun. It is certainly getting easier. The kids are starting to respect me as not only a buddy but also as a teacher. My workmates are great. I get on particularly well with Justin who was a professional photographer. And there’s Dane who’s just loud and silly…and loud! He’s my boss, but not the big boss. The big boss is Japanese so I make sure to smile sweetly every day to keep him happy.
Well I think that’s about it…
Banana.
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