Time is Creeping
For those of you who keep track of my blog, you know I’ve been getting ready to move to Japan since September. This has given me a lot of time to prepare, or at least think about preparing while time slowly crept closer to that last Critical Month. An that it has, I know have one month and six days from the time of this blog until I leave. That kind of freaks me out.
I have spent most the time since I found out I was leaving working so I had the money to get suits and get to Japan. Yeah, if you plan on leaving the country you might want to have a bit more foresight about it than me. Walk into your closet, look around, and figure out what jobs you are actually prepared for… Don’t wait until after a job offer to say shit, I need to buy stuff so I have more than 2 pairs of pants for my job. But work took up about 3 months. Now I’m desperately failing at learning kana (the Japanese script alphabets) and hoping that I can survive the first month successfully. It’s not that I’m unprepared merely that I wish I was much more so. If nothing else this is teaching me a great many things.
Most things I am learning are very basic… Things your mom told you, like:
- Plan Ahead
- You should clean and organize your room (or house)
- Eat that or no dessert for you! (or in this case, eat that or starve little man)
Nothing really groundbreaking here. Although I’m starting to dread teaching more and more as time passes. Thing is I’ve done some minor lectures, tutoring, and things of that nature before. I’ve done a fair bit of public speaking, including some closed circuit TV news. I’ve also had a couple of people I know pretty well say I ought to do great as a teacher. However, I’ve never been a teacher before and know what that responsibility means as a job. And you know, doing it overseas in a place a barely understand the language is another interesting feeling. But, this certainly contrasts in my mind with current or recent politics.
We hate illegal immigrants in the USA. No question about that. Actually if you listen to most conservative religious movements we hate a lot of people, but foreigners are the people all of us freeloaders from other countries can agree to hate. Arguably, what we hate most are people who come here and don’t learn the language. Now I get to go over the pond and be some idiot in a country and not speak the language. Not that I don’t plan on learning post haste, but its not like I haven’t had since September to get a much better grasp than I have now. Although I will have an official VISA to work in Japan and a college degree that says I sure did look smart when they were handing papers out.
But enough ranting from me… It’s going to be an interesting trip.
Don’t worry so much about being the foreigner in Japan – for the most part, it’s a very positive experience, and the Japanese people are very tolerant if you can’t speak the language (with the exception of banks and government offices). Check out my blog sometime if you’re looking for further insight. Gaijin on the Run