Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time in the Elementary School across the road from the Junior High School where I carry out the bulk of my work. With many of my fellow ALTs having given glowing reviews of their experiences with the 6-12 year olds, I had certainly been looking forward to experience an environment where the emphasis is more on fun than testing.
It is part of the curriculum for English to be introduced to students at this early level, which can prove problematic as their multi-purpose teachers often have little more than a passing knowledge of the language. Therefore, the benefit of having an ALT on hand can often be of great value.
Whilst most of my Junior High classes are run by the Japanese English Teacher (JTE) with supporting input by me, Elementary has given me an opportunity to play a much more pivotal role in the lesson. The students are undeniably excited by the presence of a strange, tall foreigner in their school and are refreshingly uninhibited about coming up to me and wanting to communicate with me. Whilst their English is quite limited, they are proud to show off what they know.
One noticeable difference is that students come to school in their own clothes rather than a uniform as in Junior High. Many of these garments contain hilariously bad or inappropriate English (or ‘Engrish’ as many of us know it as) which provides me with a constant source of amusement. Whether it’s a young boy with ‘Surf Bum’ emblazoned on his sweater or a classmate’s t-shirt daubed with what looks likes the incoherent ramblings of a town drunk, it still makes me wonder what all those Primani t-shirts with Japanese on actually say. However, my favourite was undoubtedly the third year girl who was proud to show me the Union Jack on her jumper, which was positioned just below an emblem of a cannabis leaf…
So far, my lessons have consisted of simple self-introductions (which mostly consist of talking about the UK flag, Manchester United and tortoises) and some fun, energetic games. One which has proven to be particularly successful is ‘touch the colour’ where students run around the classroom and touch an object of the colour I’ve announced. I’ve thus far resisted the temptation to confuse them and shout ‘puce’.
Some teachers will also want me to use some of their resources. One particularly traumatic one was a sickly ditty from a Disney CD called ‘What’s Your Name’, best described as an insanitarium lullaby, which I had to teach without having ever heard it before. Another was a recording of ‘London Bridge’, which according to Wikipedia has its origins in either a Norse invasion or child sacrifice. After around 50 consecutive exhausting renditions of that, I have a new sympathy with my own primary school teachers who spent most of the term attached to a mug full of Lemsip sounding like Madge from ‘Neighbours’.
Speaking of which, I have this week been struck down by my first proper illness since arriving in Japan. Whilst the winter has given me various minor colds, this week I had been feeling progressively rough and after having been informed about a flu epidemic at the Elementary School I had been working in the day before, thought that it would be best to ask my school nurse for a thermometer to test my temperature. Barely an hour later, I was in the clinic waiting for the results of a test to determine whether I had flu.
Healthcare in Japan is very different to the UK. Back home, I would have bought some paracetamol based drink sachets, dosed myself up and taken a day or two off work if I was feeling particularly bad. In Japan, it is not in the culture to take time off work – whilst ‘sick leave’ does exist and is in our contracts, days off for minor illnesses that don’t require a doctor’s note come out of our holiday allowance. Nonetheless, it is perhaps more common than back home to go and seek professional medical advice.
In Japan, medicines (by which I mean ones which aren’t vitamin placebos) are not as easily available at shops or pharmacies as they are in Blighty – and where certain products are available, my poor knowledge of Japanese means that I wouldn’t exactly be certain what I was buying and how to take it in any case.
Instead, it is more common to head straight to the clinic and get medicine prescribed by a doctor, even where you have a relatively minor ailment like a cold. To have been able to walk into a clean, quiet clinic just down the road from where I live without prior appointment was certainly a novelty compared to the surgery back home where the surly staff would pretty much shout at you if you dared request an appointment and weren’t literally at death’s door. After a check-over and a rather painful swab was taken (up the nose, down the throat and scraped around for a bit), I was told that I didn’t have flu and sent along my way with some pills, although I had to do the same process again the next day to make sure that the window between showing symptoms and having the swab taken has been fully breached.
I would have expected that such a service would have cost an arm and a leg. However, the bulk of the costs of any medical services are paid through the medical insurance deductions that workers contribute through their pay-packets, with individuals requiring to pay a percentage top-up when they actually use the services. My initial appointment and drugs cost £15. The second appointment was a similar amount with about £10 extra charged for the 5(!) different types of drug I was given subsequently. Conscious of the Marathon that I’m supposed to be running next weekend, I wasn’t too concerned about cost, merely just that I had what I needed so that I can be on the road to recovery. Therefore, I think I’ll be clad in a facemask for the whole of next week…
