Sensei Swapping
by Alisha Griffith
It all started a month into school. I had befriended the hoken sensei who proved to be an invaluable resource, nursing me along as I adapted to my new lifestyle at the Nagayama junior high school. In a place where most teachers acted too busy or shy to practice their beloved "co-myu-ni-ke-shyon" with this new bit of blonde ninkimono, I was thankful for a friend who made me feel welcome...and human, to say the least. Several times per day she would come, by foot, from her desk near the kochoo sensei, to mine, in the far corner of the staff room; making small talk in Japanese or asking the pronunciation of a useful English expression she had found in her hundred-yen conversation book forged a relationship that was greatly appreciated. So it was with a shocked sadness I received her news one day in the tearoom that in fact, she was merely a substitute nurse who would be finishing her duties the next week. What?! Nani?! Eh?! How could they take the one person I looked forward to seeing each day away from me? Who would speak to me at lunch? This was an outrage.
This sad good-bye to my beloved nurse was my first encounter with the teacher mobility of Japanese education. While having a substitute teacher to take on the role of another on the disabled list is a perfectly natural example of the universal phenomenon we refer to as temporary work, it sparked an awareness in me of just how temporary the positions in the Japanese staff room are.
With the absence of my one teacher-friend, a void was created that desperately needed filling. To diversify my sensei portfolio, I invested in building relationships with the art teacher and the tea lady. I began to look forward to our daily "coffee time" and especially the pudding Tanaka-sensei was continually making and force-feeding me. Sparse for conversation partners in this English-free zone of Nagayama staff room, I was content with my few friends and thankful for the remaining time I could space out in front of my computer. It shouldn't have come as a surprise then when at lunch one day, Tanaka sensei informed me that she wouldn't be coming back to Nagayama in April. One by one, they all came out. Junko, the incredible English teacher I actually enjoyed team teaching with, would be moving to Tsuchiura. And since we were on a roll, Otani-san, my beloved tea lady, the only one not too proud to ramble on at me in Japanese, while I smiled and, nantonaku, understood, would be shipped off to the elementary school. The final count of departing sensei's capped at 11, nearly one-third of the total teacher population at Nagayama.