Unused

A few weeks ago, schools around the city have been told by the city's board of education to use ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers - i.e. me) for first grade English only, because "second and third graders need to focus on passing exams". And so for the last 4 or so I was only schedule with the 1st graders. I was used less than 50% of my time in school. I had to ASK the 2nd and 3rd grade English teachers to let me come to their classes. I think it's the first time I've actually asked for lesson time.

What are those office-bound grandpas and grannies at the BOE thinking!? That 2nd and 3rd graders don't need to learn English from native speakers? That 'focusing on passing exams' means they can't learn anything from us? And that whole 'need to focus on exams' thing is so hypocritical - the whole point of hiring us JETs is to give their English lessons something more than just for the sake of exams. It gives them opportunities to interact with an English speaker, to get them to talk and listen to native sounds, to expand their horizons within the classroom, to prepare them for this increasingly multicultural world that we live in. And yet these so-called educationers are going back to what I thought they were trying to break free from - narrow-minded exam-focused youth who are so behind in communicating in the world's one common language - even compared to many of their Chinese and Southeast Asian counterparts. These kids are smart, they have so much potential, and if given the opportunity and incentive they can improve a lot in their language education.

I always get comments from Japanese people saying how my Japanese is so good when I've only learned it for 4 years, whereas they can hardly utter a word in English despite the fact that they've learnt it all though junior high and high school and some even in university. Of course, one of the main reasons for this difference is because I am emerged in a solely-Japanese-speaking society. And that's it. If people here were taught English more intensely and from a younger age, more people would be using English, and they wouldn't have zero-English.

I feel quite often that I'm cheating the government's/tax payers' money when I'm being paid so much for doing so little. Use me!