by Frances Harper
Before arriving in Japan, I formed certain expectations about what my life would be like. Naturally, most of those preconceived ideas turned out to be far from the reality. Here are five things about which I was utterly wrong.
1. My supervisor will speak English.
I came to Japan with absolutely no knowledge of the language. Sure, I had picked up a book called Japanese in 10 Minutes a Day and learned a few vocabulary words and survival questions, but I definitely cannot speak Japanese. So, I assumed that there would be someone at my job who could translate important things for me such as my contract, bills, my appliances, etc.
Unlike many of you, I am a municipal JET, employed by my local Board of Education to teach junior high school. So, my supervisor is not an English teacher. The lady whose job it is to help me do everything has a very limited English vocabulary. The first week, an e-dictionary was our primary means of communication. It was mostly effective, but we were limited to one-word sentences for communication. Luckily I was able to decipher many of the odd translations, such as "Do you have any puzzle (meaning questions)?"
2. Japanese iwll be easy to learn.
Considering the lack of ability to communiate with my supervisor, I feel a great urgency to learn as much Japanese as possible. This works out well for me because this was one of my goals in coming to the country. I assumed that learning Japanese would not be that difficult, considering that I would be completely surrounded by it. I expected to pick up much of the language just by being exposed to it regularly. I have never been so wrong!
I study Japanese for hours everyday and am now taking lessons three days a week, but I am still not capable of carrying on a simple conversation. My listening ability is improving amazingly, but the speaking is much more difficult than I anticipated. Perhaps this is because I am a Latin scholar and have never been required to actually speak any language other than English. But, with all the help I have been offered, from everyone I know, I should be spitting out Japanese in no time. Since everyone is now aware of my enthusiasm for learning Japanese, they all want to offer me free Japanese lessons! This is great, except now I have so many "lessons," I do not have any time to study!
3. I will save a lot of money.
This is not my first time in Japan, so I thought I was prepared for how expensive life is in this country. Nevertheless, previous JETs told me about all the money I can save while on the JET Program. Now, I am thinking that those people must have really been in teh boonies. I am still hopeful that my financial situation will change once I really start to get paid. But, I still cannot believe that I can bring myself to pay 120 yen for 280mL of water from a vending machine!
4. I will be able to eat chicken in Japan.
For ten years, I was strictly vegetarian. Then, about two years ago, I added small amounts of meat to my diet. I knew that being vegetarian can be difficult in Japan, but I assumed eating chicken would help to give me a few more dining options.
Now, however, I am seriously considering giving up all meat again. After the difficult task of deciphering the menus and finding something I think I can eat, I am usually highly disappointed with what is served to me. If what I get is actually chicken, it is usually dark meat, fatty, or still has the skin. For someone barely accustomed to grilled, white meat chicken breast, this is a little scary.
My frustrations with dining out have forced me into the kitchen. My experience in the kitchen has not been so pleasant either, mostly due to the fact that I cannot read any of the labels or cooking instructions for the food at the supermarket. The applicances have also presented somewhat of a problem. I have figured out my rice cooker, but the oven/microwave spits fire every time I attempt to use it. I purchased a Japanese vegetarian cookbook, so my luck is looking up thanks to all the pictures of the ingredients. I am sure I look rather odd walking through the vegetable section of the supermarket with my huge cookbook. Luckily, all is forgiven since I am foreign and look odd anyway.
5. The students will be ...
Well, by the time school started, I was not exactly sure what I expected. My Japanese friend had warned me that being so close to Tokyo the students might be "bad." I heard stories about keitai use and students walking out of the classroom. The teachers even warned me that the students were not well behaved.
On the other hand, I was told that Japanese students are extremely shy, and coming from being a teacher in an inner city school in America, I thought things could only get better. So, it turns out that I think the students are great! True, some of them sleep and could care less about what I am saying, and I am sure this is "bad" by Japanese standards. At least none of my lessons have been interrupted by uncontrollable vulgarity, I ahve yet to witness a fight, and none of the students are pregnant.
I was amazed that the students are left unsupervised for ten minutes between classes. If I am working with kids who can be alone for ten minutes without someone turning up dead, maimed, or pregnant, then I could not ask for more.