The changing of the guard
Mar. 29th, 2007 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flonnebonneSayonara, sensei-tachi
This year we're losing twelve staff members out of a staff of...thirty-eight, I think, including office workers and cooks. Holy crap, that's a lot of turnover. I wonder if it's an unusually high number this year?
Some of the teachers are leaving because they are required to change schools every five or six years. Yikes. It seems like a ridiculous policy, but some third year JETs assured me that it makes sense after you've been here for a while. Prevents stagnation and corrupt dictatorships and whatnot, since the Japanese are prone to that kind of thing, ha ha ha (I'm a bad person). I guess that's why JETs are only allowed to stay here a few years as well.
Among the departing teachers are the track and field coach, who is kind of famous locally (he helped produce quite a few national-level athletes this year), and the English teacher who works with the special needs kids. Wah. But I have to say, even if it sounds kind of mean, that I was very relieved when I found out who was going. All of the regular English teachers who I work with and all the really genki teachers are staying.
We're also losing the principal, which makes me sad because he's a warm, funny guy who's been to Vancouver and knows about our embarrassingly slow electric buses *cough*. At the goodbye party, he had the best line of the evening (well, I could only understand about four lines that evening, so that's a highly subjective judgment). The non-leavers were giving individual send-off speeches to the departing teachers when the principal broke in--
Young male teacher to young female teacher: Ms. Kannou...
Principal: I like you!
Another thing about the send-off speeches...you know how in Prince of Tennis, that one time when whatsherface, Tomoko or something, the girl with pigtails, started yelling, "Hurray! Hurray!" except it sounded like "Furaaaaay! Furaaaaaay!"? Well, it's not just Tomoko who does that, it's the whole nation of Japan. It's a cheer they do here, usually on a one-to-one basis, ie. one person will get up in front of whoever needs cheering and will start yelling and slowly flinging their arms out, one at a time, in a set pattern, and everyone else will participate by clapping and cheering at the appointed time. One of the teachers did the cheer for me at my welcome party, which would have freaked me out more than it did if I hadn't watched Prince of Tennis.
Mr. Morokoshi: Blah blah blah, welcome and encouragement, blah. (Changes to a huge, booming voice) Osu! Huurrrraaaaaaaaayyyy!!!! Huurrrraaaaaaaaayyyy!!!! Steeeeppphhhhaaannniieee
Me: Eep.
Anyway, back to the teachers' goodbye party. Each of the departing teachers received a bouquet of flowers and a laminated printout with pictures of themselves on it along with a little write-up about their background and exploits at the school (I think). Apparently, from what the the principal's write-up said, he used to be quite the cyclist (a 2-dan, I think?), a long, long, long, long time ago.
At the end of the party, we formed a big arch with our arms for the departing teachers to walk through on their way out, amidst lots of intentional but amicable tripping and trapping with our arms.
Some people went home after that, and some people went to the "second stage" of the party--karaoke. Some people including me. And yes, I sang (badly). "Yesterday" by The Beatles and "YMCA," if you wanna know. Pretty laid-back affair, no one got really drunk. But then, I can't say that for sure because they might have gone on to a "third stage" of the party after I went home.
(Man, I should post some pictures from the end-of-year party we had in December...now THAT was a weird affair.)
Anyway, it was a fun night, and I will miss the teachers who are leaving, but not terribly. Yeah, I'm a bad person. New teachers are arriving next week, hope they're cool.
In Japan kindergarten takes two years out of your life. My first year kindergarteners will be with me for another year, but the second years are moving on to elementary school. Truth be told, most of my favourites are among the older kids. They're less shy and better at English (yes, I totally play favourites, as hard as I try not to), and some of them are even smart enough to dumb down their Japanese so I can understand it a little, which is a really important skill in communication that most adults are unaware of.
At one of the schools, Narita Kindergarten (no relation to the airport), the one I spend more time at, on the last day of class the kids gave me a HUGE bag of origami and one of the girls drew a picture of me in crayon. I have no idea what to do with all that origami. I've run out of space to display all the things they've given me.
I didn't get to attend the two kindergartens' combined grad ceremony because I was teaching at junior high that day. Probably for the best, as I would have been a puddly crying mess, I'm guessing. They're just so darn cute. Not much else to say about my kindergarten classes except that they're wonderful kids, adorable and sweet and totally enthusiastic about learning English. Some of them are shy, some of them are rambunctious to the point of being disruptive, but I always look forward to seeing them.
