It's my 6 month Japanniversary today. I have experienced so much and I'd like to say it went by so fast or it went by so slow, but I can't. I think so far this has been such a crazy experience that I find it more and more difficult to gauge the time I've been here. I've been through phases, sure. Exploring my town, making as many friends as possible, trying to travel every weekend, falling into a rhythm, and whatever phase I'm in now. Festival season? Vacation season?
I feel like it's the calm before the storm. I have 6 months left at this job and a little more than that left in Asia. In 8 months, I plan to be back stateside. That seems like a long time, but so many awesome things happen before that, that I'm sure it will fly by. Strange to think about. Carpe diem, eh?
Here's some cool news for y'all though... post-Japan I'm spending 4 weeks in India. Forever a gaijin. Maybe that's what I'll title my next blog.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The Company
There are many people talking about Coco Juku online and what it is like to work for the company. I recently looked back to my first post on my blog and can say that things are pretty different than the idea I had back then. This is my blog, so here are my two cents...well, two yen.
Obviously, that means this post will not be one of my adventures. I am just hoping to help those looking into applying to Coco.
Background of my school. We are in Matsue, a town of 200,000. The rest of the prefecture is largely rural rice fields or mountains. There are not many reasons for a lot of people to speak English. We opened in the middle of February this year. At the beginning, we may have had a few demo lessons a week, which was pretty exciting. We even had a few people sign up! But after those first 2 or 3 months, things slowed drastically.We ended up going a full month without anyone signing up. True, sometimes it takes a while to get a company on its feet. Hopefully that's the case with us. We have had some events lately which might at least get the word out.
We - rather, the Japanese staff - began having sales meetings. After a few months, my other foreign teacher and I were excluded from almost every meeting. I understand -- it's difficult translating back and forth during a meeting and trying to keep any sort of flow. That is especially true when it seems so difficult to decide which of our counselors will translate what is being said. It usually falls to the youngest (who, in Japanese society will almost always be the lowest-ranked) member of the group. That being said, being left out of meetings all the time can get pretty frustrating pretty fast. Much of the time we feel like we don't have a say in what happens in the office.
I have heard some horror stories by others working at busier schools in Coco, but at my school, mostly there is not a lot to do. That is one reason that I will not be staying another year. With sometimes as few as two lessons a week, the job can get pretty boring.
I can realize and acknowledge how lucky I am. I get along well with my branch manager who, after I learned her history, seems like someone I would have been friends with had we grown up in the same generation and spoken the same language. Since we have fewer students, my coworkers and I are able to joke around a bit more. We can have fun during the day and teach each other phrases in different languages. (I learned that the word for a drunkard is youparai (yow-pah-rai) and my Japanese coworkers learned the phrase cat nap.) There are only four of us in the office -- one school manager/counselor, one counselor, and two native teachers -- so things can be pretty relaxed. Most of the time, it is a fun work environment. Difficulties do, of course, arise when things need to change or happen and that dang language barrier gets in the way. There is a lot lost in translation not just because translation is difficult, but because so much in Japan and in the Japanese language is implied. A word I hear many times a day is the word for maybe. I think it is probably among the top 10 most commonly used words in Japanese. I believe I have talked about this enough in previous posts.
All that said, I came to Coco Juku with no experience. They taught me how to teach and gave me a job. My coworkers helped me (and still help me) solve all of my tasks having to do with living in Japan. I signed up for this job to have a way to earn money in order to live in another country. I did not sign up to be given a bunch of time off and do what I please. No matter how frustrating the job can be sometimes, it brought me to a foreign country. I think back to the demo lesson I gave over Skype during my interview and wince. I have learned so much and it is all because of Coco. Although frequently the job is dull, my experience here has been overall a positive one. But again, it really depends on the staff at your school.
Hopefully this will give some folks insight on what it is like for one person working at one branch of Coco. I promise the next post will be exciting.
Obviously, that means this post will not be one of my adventures. I am just hoping to help those looking into applying to Coco.
Background of my school. We are in Matsue, a town of 200,000. The rest of the prefecture is largely rural rice fields or mountains. There are not many reasons for a lot of people to speak English. We opened in the middle of February this year. At the beginning, we may have had a few demo lessons a week, which was pretty exciting. We even had a few people sign up! But after those first 2 or 3 months, things slowed drastically.We ended up going a full month without anyone signing up. True, sometimes it takes a while to get a company on its feet. Hopefully that's the case with us. We have had some events lately which might at least get the word out.
We - rather, the Japanese staff - began having sales meetings. After a few months, my other foreign teacher and I were excluded from almost every meeting. I understand -- it's difficult translating back and forth during a meeting and trying to keep any sort of flow. That is especially true when it seems so difficult to decide which of our counselors will translate what is being said. It usually falls to the youngest (who, in Japanese society will almost always be the lowest-ranked) member of the group. That being said, being left out of meetings all the time can get pretty frustrating pretty fast. Much of the time we feel like we don't have a say in what happens in the office.
I have heard some horror stories by others working at busier schools in Coco, but at my school, mostly there is not a lot to do. That is one reason that I will not be staying another year. With sometimes as few as two lessons a week, the job can get pretty boring.
I can realize and acknowledge how lucky I am. I get along well with my branch manager who, after I learned her history, seems like someone I would have been friends with had we grown up in the same generation and spoken the same language. Since we have fewer students, my coworkers and I are able to joke around a bit more. We can have fun during the day and teach each other phrases in different languages. (I learned that the word for a drunkard is youparai (yow-pah-rai) and my Japanese coworkers learned the phrase cat nap.) There are only four of us in the office -- one school manager/counselor, one counselor, and two native teachers -- so things can be pretty relaxed. Most of the time, it is a fun work environment. Difficulties do, of course, arise when things need to change or happen and that dang language barrier gets in the way. There is a lot lost in translation not just because translation is difficult, but because so much in Japan and in the Japanese language is implied. A word I hear many times a day is the word for maybe. I think it is probably among the top 10 most commonly used words in Japanese. I believe I have talked about this enough in previous posts.
All that said, I came to Coco Juku with no experience. They taught me how to teach and gave me a job. My coworkers helped me (and still help me) solve all of my tasks having to do with living in Japan. I signed up for this job to have a way to earn money in order to live in another country. I did not sign up to be given a bunch of time off and do what I please. No matter how frustrating the job can be sometimes, it brought me to a foreign country. I think back to the demo lesson I gave over Skype during my interview and wince. I have learned so much and it is all because of Coco. Although frequently the job is dull, my experience here has been overall a positive one. But again, it really depends on the staff at your school.
Hopefully this will give some folks insight on what it is like for one person working at one branch of Coco. I promise the next post will be exciting.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
3000+!!
Hey pals- you've passed the 3000 mark on views, so thanks for reading!
In lieu of the celebration, I will attempt to keep a theme of threes for the post.
First, I will begin with the number three. In Japan, three is さん, which is romajinized as san but pronounced like sun (sort of). The Japanese sun is a harsh one. I'm not exactly sure why. I could look it up, but I don't care enough. I just know that's what everyone says. Maybe it is pollution? Wakadonai (I don't know). I do know that I went to the beach this weekend and got a lovely sunburn. That was, of course, mostly my fault. I think that every year, at least once, the sun reminds me that I need to reapply my sunscreen. 2013 lesson: learned. In America, I remember commenting with friends on how silly it seemed that Asian people, especially women, would use umbrellas in the sun. Let me say now, that is the least of it. There are cute umbrellas made only for UV protection (I call them sunbrellas), long-armed UV gloves, UV scarves, UV shirts and pants, and big hats. I saw a woman once on the bus with full pants on, a long-sleeved shirt, gloves, a scarf, and a hat on, but fanning herself like mad and wiping away sweat with her handkerchief. So silly. That's something that almost all Japanese people have- a handkerchief. A lesson learned quickly when almost none of the public bathrooms have paper towels or hand driers. I gave in and purchased a sunbrella, which was a fantastic buy. Makes standing at the bus stop half-bearable. But also some of my friends who are closer to my age who are Japanese just don't care about the sun or actually want to get tan. To each his own.
Second, I have become hyper-aware of any three points that could potentially make triangles when I am walking. Why? Spiders. Spiders spiders spiders. It is the rainy season and never before has "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" song felt so true or repetitive in my life. There are spiders everywhere here and you can bet that if they can find a triangle, they will make a web. These spiders are luckily harmless, eating only bugs, but still not something you'd like to walk into...unless I guess if you're really into spiders. I have only seen two real monster spiders, at the beginning of spider season. With their legs, they were about the size of my palm. GROSS. They were both right outside my front door and within about a week of each other. Not the best welcome home from work, I'd say. Mostly though, spiders are anywhere between the size of a pinky-fingerpring to thumbprint. Maybe sometimes a print from a big thumb. Manageable though.
Third, I will point out that I have almost been in Japan for 3 (X2) months! So 6... loosely related to three, but three topics on three was more difficult than I thought it would be. Really though- 6 months. That's half of the time I will be here. Yes, I will announce it- I am officially only going to be in Japan for one year. Although there are many reasons, I think the main reason is that I have so many other places to be a gaijin. My list of places to travel and things to do is ever-growing. But Japan has been and continues to be an amazing and, naturally, life-changing experience for me.
In lieu of the celebration, I will attempt to keep a theme of threes for the post.
First, I will begin with the number three. In Japan, three is さん, which is romajinized as san but pronounced like sun (sort of). The Japanese sun is a harsh one. I'm not exactly sure why. I could look it up, but I don't care enough. I just know that's what everyone says. Maybe it is pollution? Wakadonai (I don't know). I do know that I went to the beach this weekend and got a lovely sunburn. That was, of course, mostly my fault. I think that every year, at least once, the sun reminds me that I need to reapply my sunscreen. 2013 lesson: learned. In America, I remember commenting with friends on how silly it seemed that Asian people, especially women, would use umbrellas in the sun. Let me say now, that is the least of it. There are cute umbrellas made only for UV protection (I call them sunbrellas), long-armed UV gloves, UV scarves, UV shirts and pants, and big hats. I saw a woman once on the bus with full pants on, a long-sleeved shirt, gloves, a scarf, and a hat on, but fanning herself like mad and wiping away sweat with her handkerchief. So silly. That's something that almost all Japanese people have- a handkerchief. A lesson learned quickly when almost none of the public bathrooms have paper towels or hand driers. I gave in and purchased a sunbrella, which was a fantastic buy. Makes standing at the bus stop half-bearable. But also some of my friends who are closer to my age who are Japanese just don't care about the sun or actually want to get tan. To each his own.
Second, I have become hyper-aware of any three points that could potentially make triangles when I am walking. Why? Spiders. Spiders spiders spiders. It is the rainy season and never before has "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" song felt so true or repetitive in my life. There are spiders everywhere here and you can bet that if they can find a triangle, they will make a web. These spiders are luckily harmless, eating only bugs, but still not something you'd like to walk into...unless I guess if you're really into spiders. I have only seen two real monster spiders, at the beginning of spider season. With their legs, they were about the size of my palm. GROSS. They were both right outside my front door and within about a week of each other. Not the best welcome home from work, I'd say. Mostly though, spiders are anywhere between the size of a pinky-fingerpring to thumbprint. Maybe sometimes a print from a big thumb. Manageable though.
Third, I will point out that I have almost been in Japan for 3 (X2) months! So 6... loosely related to three, but three topics on three was more difficult than I thought it would be. Really though- 6 months. That's half of the time I will be here. Yes, I will announce it- I am officially only going to be in Japan for one year. Although there are many reasons, I think the main reason is that I have so many other places to be a gaijin. My list of places to travel and things to do is ever-growing. But Japan has been and continues to be an amazing and, naturally, life-changing experience for me.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Surprises Part 1
There are some things about Japan that will never fail to surprise me. This is probably part 1 of a number of posts because I could go on and on.
The lifespan of businesses here is very puzzling to me. Not necessarily because they last a long time or a short time, but they begin and end so quickly and without warning. A few months ago, I was sitting at a newly established (and now my favorite) coffee shop. When I asked the owner of the shop, Nobu, how he was, he said good but mentioned the loud construction next door. I asked what they were building, and he said a crepe shop to be opened the following week. On my way out, I looked in at what was happening and it looked like a construction war zone. At this point I thought maybe the language barrier had gotten us again. Nobu couldn't possibly have meant that this mess would be a business next week, could he? And yet, the following week there was a cute little shop that now sells crepes and tapioca milk drinks (I almost feel like I don't have to say this, but it is now another favorite place). This all translates to me as a very high work ethic for Japanese people. What I have been told, and have experienced, about working in Japan is that if you look busy, you are busy. I suppose then, since the workers have a lot to do, and will almost always work overtime to do it, these construction jobs get completed very quickly.
Sometimes, I will be walking down the street and notice an empty shop. I'll pause, do a double-take, and realize that just last week that was a manga store or a little obscure business. All of a sudden, maybe after only one day, the shop is empty and there is no trace that the previous business ever existed. It's a little eerie. I'll attribute this to the ninjas.
Not only that, but many physical things outside seem to get done in an extremely timely manner. One day during lunch, I walked out behind my office to go to the coffee shop. When I walked by, there was a group of workers repaving a parking lot. They were maybe halfway through pouring the surface of the parking lot. When I came back out, probably 30 minutes later, everyone was cleared out and there was just tape around it so it could dry. By the next day, it was painted and perfect.
Sitting at the front desk of the bottom floor of an office building, I see a lot of delivery service people delivering packages. If you thought the UPS men were efficient, you ain't seen nothin'. These people run everywhere. They use dollies to cart huge piles of boxes up to the top floor. I never see them walking if the package is small enough to run with it. Luckily, that means that packages arrive pretty fast.
That being said, other things seem to take an abnormally long time to be processed. This is mostly official paperwork about important things, especially dealing with money. My coworker recently got engaged (!) and she is getting married in Japan. I get to hear first hand about how difficult that is. It is especially hard because she is American, her fiancee is French, and they are getting married in Japan. Due to some crazy laws, she has to apply to apply for some sort of paperwork like a marriage certificate or some such. I'm not totally sure what it is, but doesn't that seem a bit ridiculous? And since nothing in Japan is on computers, it is all conducted through physical paperwork.
The lifespan of businesses here is very puzzling to me. Not necessarily because they last a long time or a short time, but they begin and end so quickly and without warning. A few months ago, I was sitting at a newly established (and now my favorite) coffee shop. When I asked the owner of the shop, Nobu, how he was, he said good but mentioned the loud construction next door. I asked what they were building, and he said a crepe shop to be opened the following week. On my way out, I looked in at what was happening and it looked like a construction war zone. At this point I thought maybe the language barrier had gotten us again. Nobu couldn't possibly have meant that this mess would be a business next week, could he? And yet, the following week there was a cute little shop that now sells crepes and tapioca milk drinks (I almost feel like I don't have to say this, but it is now another favorite place). This all translates to me as a very high work ethic for Japanese people. What I have been told, and have experienced, about working in Japan is that if you look busy, you are busy. I suppose then, since the workers have a lot to do, and will almost always work overtime to do it, these construction jobs get completed very quickly.
Sometimes, I will be walking down the street and notice an empty shop. I'll pause, do a double-take, and realize that just last week that was a manga store or a little obscure business. All of a sudden, maybe after only one day, the shop is empty and there is no trace that the previous business ever existed. It's a little eerie. I'll attribute this to the ninjas.
Not only that, but many physical things outside seem to get done in an extremely timely manner. One day during lunch, I walked out behind my office to go to the coffee shop. When I walked by, there was a group of workers repaving a parking lot. They were maybe halfway through pouring the surface of the parking lot. When I came back out, probably 30 minutes later, everyone was cleared out and there was just tape around it so it could dry. By the next day, it was painted and perfect.
Sitting at the front desk of the bottom floor of an office building, I see a lot of delivery service people delivering packages. If you thought the UPS men were efficient, you ain't seen nothin'. These people run everywhere. They use dollies to cart huge piles of boxes up to the top floor. I never see them walking if the package is small enough to run with it. Luckily, that means that packages arrive pretty fast.
That being said, other things seem to take an abnormally long time to be processed. This is mostly official paperwork about important things, especially dealing with money. My coworker recently got engaged (!) and she is getting married in Japan. I get to hear first hand about how difficult that is. It is especially hard because she is American, her fiancee is French, and they are getting married in Japan. Due to some crazy laws, she has to apply to apply for some sort of paperwork like a marriage certificate or some such. I'm not totally sure what it is, but doesn't that seem a bit ridiculous? And since nothing in Japan is on computers, it is all conducted through physical paperwork.
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