First year JET in a city in the north of Japan. I’ve already made the decision to not recontract but I don’t know how I’m going to make it to August.
I really enjoy my life outside of school here. My friends are great, I live in a nice area, travel often, etc. etc. However, my school is getting me down so much that I feel like I’m dragging myself to work every day.
I have two junior high schools. One I see once a week and the other I’m there every other day. I spend the majority of my time deskwarming but when I am in a class I usually just read out a list of vocab and then the teacher will the rest of the lesson in Japanese. I do walk around to help the kids but as the majority of them use translation apps with no repercussions it doesn’t take too long.
I have tried to offer ideas and activities but I get shot down most of the time. It seems that the teachers are determined to stick to exactly what the textbook says and that they don’t really want to deal with me.
I feel so checked out from the job already. I did EPIK in South Korea 2 years ago so I have a bunch of materials and activities that I was excited to use here but it’s all just going to waste.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation? How did you get through it?
​
by Dull-Supermarket1972