My placement is very non-demanding because the work is extremely easy. A majority of my time I just sit at my desk.
When I am helping teaching, I get the most enjoyment out of planning the class and interacting with students directly in class and in after school activities.
There is really nothing to complain about for me compared to other ALTs who might be stressed out of their mind. But there is no challenge to it. Sometimes showing up to work is the minimum requirement to fulfill my duties.
But I feel like I am going insane with boredom sometimes. I live in a big city so I often regret not choosing a more rural location where I can enjoy the country and experience local cultures, or even just escape at the beach. I really have no motivation to amble around a big city; I would rather just be in the country.
I feel like I should not be complaining since I have the opportunity to make use of my time however I want. I was able to hang out with various coworkers a couple times which was nice. But I feel like I am just holding myself back by staying in this job. I want to leave my position sometimes out of pure boredom but I think that it will be unfavorable to me in the future and make my opportunities worse than before JET.
Because of COVID I have no opportunities whatsoever to interact with my fellow ALTs, the few people who I could commiserate with and relate to. It’s a real shame, because first arriving even with quarantine was more exciting than it is now.
It seems like JET has stopped caring about their ALTs, whereas CLAIR never cared to begin with. Everything has been the minimum level of engagement and social distancing and social media has made everyone lazy.
I arrived in October of last year so it put a big dent in my first contract, and I was asked to renew within a month or two of starting work. It was barely enough time to know whether I wanted to do two (not really) years. I don’t think I can do this for another whole year and atm plan to stay until at most February when the third years graduate. It sucks because if I leave early I’m afraid JET will not look kindly on this decision and it will abandon any chance for me to utilize my network (which I thought was a big perk of JET but so far I haven’t actually interacted with anyone in the program since 10 months ago.)
It seems like people who had the best experiences did so outside of Tokyo and BC (Before COVID). This experience feels like a lie and it sucks because I’m sure other ALT placements are enjoying themselves much more. The only thing keeping me going is the convenience of stuff like being able to take music lessons and going to the gym.
That’s enough out of me. Next?