As this is my first Hanukkah/X-mas/New Year's living abroad, I should think it understandable that after I got home from work and logged onto the other job, one of my co-workers dutifully reminded me that some people will not be working Monday (this was in reply to an email where I provided Monday as an estimated completion time for a task I'm working on). Christmas is not a holiday here in Japan, and though I won't be teaching on Monday, that is only because my weekends are Sundays and Mondays.
My last class today ended on a surreal and distinctly Japanese note, evoking a feeling sort of similar to that when I rode homeward tandem after a late night party. It was one of my group classes, a class I get along with very well, even though they are one of my least advanced groups. Our rapport has nothing to do with the fact they were all girls, aged 18-30 (usually the class is a group of 7, six girls, one very obviously gay guy, but today a few people didn't show). Right, nothing at all.
We decided not to work too hard because it was their last class of the year, so we chatted as best we could for an hour (as I subtly fed them new vocabulary) and studied for ten minutes. After class, like in most of my classes for the last week, I thanked everyone for a good year, wished them a safe and happy holiday, and said that I'd see them again next year. Then something new happened: at once, they all said thank you and subsequently bowed. Usually I'm flattered when a student decides to call me Andrew-sensei, because the term implies a certain amount of respect (as I understand it, anyhow, based on the students who have opted to do as such). This was something entirely different, maybe even fulfilling in a way?
I know I'm not cut out to be a programmer for the rest of my life, and I don't think I'm slated to be a teacher, but maybe I'm getting closer to figuring out whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing.
Postscript: Call me Andrew-sensei and you will taste the cold, dark steel of ninja death. I have that power now.
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3 comments:
Figuring out what you should be doing in life is pretty cool. I think I'm doing some figuring of my own, too. Specifically, while hanging out in the office all week/weekend instead of going to Jamaica with extended family for the holidays, I'm realizing that these hours kinda blow.
Three cheers for self-discovery.
(PS, happy holidays man. Something tells me that, somewhere in the Caribbean, people are singing "Welcome to Jamaica" and relatives are drinking extra dirty bananas, and eating extra plates of lambchops to make up for our absence.)
happy holidays to you too! how long is your break before you see the students again?
ps cheesy as it is, those moments that come about so randomly (as in the one you just described) often turn out to be some of the most memorable ones of the abroad experience. good work!
I'll risk ninja death, Andrew-sensai. It's so appealing a title, and the respect that goes with it has to be fun. No?
You were missed in Jamaica, mon. Many dirty bananas went undrunk, not to mention the lambchops (I know. I know. You don't drink lamb chops)
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