Drabbles: The ALT
[ 1 ]
“Good morning,” Mayumi-sensei chimed as she shuffled through the open doorway, the new assistant language teacher, or ALT, following right on her heels. But, the greeting was lost amidst the chaos as girls whispered wide-eyed amongst themselves and the boys fought to be heard over one another.
The ALT watched in fascination as students automatically took their seats when the English teacher took her place at the teacher’s desk.
“Alright, let’s begin,” Mayumi-sensei said over the light chatter. The ALT’s heartbeat sped up as all eyes turned to focus on her.
[ 2 ]
“Now, are there any questions for Niko-sensei? Ok, Masaki-kun.”
The ALT stifled a grin as a lanky boy with big puppy-eyes leaped out of his chair. “Do…you…do…you…etto…do you…like…animal??” Masaki grinned proudly as he sat back down.
Niko-sensei smiled broadly in return, “Yes, I like animals. I like dogs very much.”
“I like dog, too!!!” Masaki cried out happily.
“Oh, very good English!” Niko-sensei said with a laugh.
“Oh, thank you thank you,” Masaki said with a small bow.
“Ok, next question.”
[ 3 ]
“Ninomiya-kun. Please sit back in your own seat,” Mayumi-sensei rattled off in Japanese.
The ALT barely contained her laugh as Ninomiya pouted from his place in another boy’s lap. “But, Aiba-chan’s lap is more comfortable,” he whined as he crawled back to his own chair.
The English teacher sighed as she looked at her assistant. “They are very interesting, right?” she said in halting English.
“Very interesting,” Niko-sensei laughed as she watched Ninomiya crawl into another boy’s lap.
[ 4 ]
“Jun-kun, please read the first sentence.”
A gangly boy timidly stood from his seat in the middle of the class, his big eyes sweeping nervously over the page of the text book. “I…I…” he stuttered, clearly stuck on the next word.
The boy behind him leaned forward to whisper, “…cleaned…” before sitting back in his seat, attention directed back to the front of the class.
“I…kureendo…mai rumu…dis…moruneengu,” Jun-kun said in a hurry, sitting down and staring hard at his textbook.
“Good, next. Ninomiya-kun,” Mayumi-sensei said, the boy behind Jun-kun already half-way standing.
[ 5 ]
“Satoshi-kun, what is the meaning of this word?” The English teacher pointed to the first vocabulary word written on the board.
Satoshi stared blankly at the board as Mayumi-sensei waited patiently for him to answer.
“I have no idea,” Satoshi mumbled finally, blinking owlishly at the teacher. A chorus of voices echoed the answer around the room. “Jitsubutsu,” he answered finally.
“Correct,” the English teacher praised as she wrote the kanji below its English equivalent.
The ALT snorted softly when the boy went back to doodling in his English notebook.
[ 6 ]
“What are your hobbies?” Niko-sensei asked, being sure to speak slowly and enunciate clearly.
Masaki cocked his head to the side, his mouth open in a gaping smile. “Hoppies?”
“Hobbies,” the ALT corrected him.
“Yes, I am happi!” Masaki exclaimed, promptly bursting into nervous giggles.
Niko-sensei laughed along with him. “Yes, you sure are!”
[ 7 ]
The relative quiet of the lunchtime chatter was broken suddenly by a shout of “I like milk! I like orange! I like Japan!” A squeal of laughter quickly followed as Masaki buried his face into Ninomiya’s shoulder. Jun sat next to the pair, hands covering his mouth, as his shoulders shook with laughter.
The ALT, her milk carton poised halfway to her mouth, froze in shock. Recovering quickly, she laughed along with the students around her, resuming her meal with a fond shake of her head.
[ 8 ]
“Hello, are you Matsuko Deluxe?”
“No, no. I am not Matsuko Deluxe,” Sho said with an exaggerated shake of his head.
The ALT made a face as she looked down at the worksheet in her hand. “Are you…Pocahontas?”
Sho grinned, “Yes! I am Pocahontas!!”
“Great! Please sign my paper!” Niko-sensei said, handing her activity sheet to the boy.
The boy repeated his answer like a mantra as he carefully wrote his name in romaji. A queue of students had formed before him by the time he looked up again.
The ALT laughed as she took back her paper.
[ 9 ]
“What sport do you play?”
The boy stared hard at the ALT as he tried to decipher her question and just as she was about to rephrase it into Japanese he replied, “I play…baseball.”
Niko-sensei smiled at Ninomiya. “Do you play well?”
The ALT could see the wheels in the boys head spinning furiously, so she waited patiently for his answer. “I am like Ichiro,” Ninomiya finally said, a smug grin on his face.
“Ok, Ichiro, I got it. Very good,” the ALT replied in amusement as she wandered away to chat with the next group of students.
[ 10 ]
The ALT frowned as she listened to class 1-2’s homeroom teacher talk in hushed tones to the other first-year teachers. Although 98% of the conversation was going right over her head, the 2% she could understand, along with Masaki’s name coming up in every other sentence, had piqued her interest.
When the teacher’s finally disbursed, she addressed her English teacher quietly. “Mayumi-sensei, is Masaki-kun…a troublemaker?”
“I think he’s a good boy,” the English teacher replied after some thought, “but, too much energy.”
“Ah, I see. He is a handful, isn’t he…” Niko-sensei said fondly.
[ 11 ]
“Ok, please repeat after me.” The ALT paused to look around the classroom of first year students. “Are you ready?”
“Ok!” the class replied in unison.
“Okaaaaay!” one drawn out voice continued after everyone was silent.
The ALT barely held in her laugh as Hiroki’s eyes danced with mirth. She started with the first word in the vocabulary list, but by the third one, Hiroki had begun chanting the words along with her.
Niko-sensei was laughing by the end of the section as was the English teacher, Hiroki, and the rest of the class.
[ 12 ]
The lunch group that she was sitting with today were particularly quiet. It also didn’t help that she didn’t know any of their names for sure.
She was pretty sure that the tiny boy sitting across from her was named Jun. And she would try to make conversation with him if he wasn’t trying to avoid eye contact with her if at all possible.
In the event that she’d happen to make eye contact with the boy, he’d freeze like a deer in headlights. She was trying not to laugh, but his awkwardness was endearing.
When she smiled and he blushed, she flat out snorted.
[ 13 ]
“Niko, what is this?”
“Pencil.”
“No, no. In nihongo.”
“…empitsu?”
“Yes. What is this?”
“…no idea,” the ALT said, racking her brain for the word for desk.
“Tsukue,” Sho said triumphantly.
“Fine, smarty pants,” Niko-sensei grumbled at the smirking boy. She picked up his protractor. “What’s this?”
“…”
“Protractor,” she laughed at his bewilderment. “Pro-trac-tor,” she said again, slower this time.
“Puro…puro…” he started but trailed off. The ALT waited for him to finish but was startled at his declaration of, “Impossible!”
“Ok, ok, here. Eraser,” she laughed putting the protractor to the side.
[ 14 ]
Now that she was settling into a rhythm at work and getting used to her surrounds, she had time to notice things.
Like in the morning, when she drove to work, she almost always passed the same students. Some rode their bikes in pairs, some by themselves.
But, there was one particularly large group of boys she passed more often than not. And in the middle of them, one would always see her coming and wave as she passed.
“Seriously, that Hiroki is way too cute,” she said in the quiet of her car, waving back as she drove past.
[ 15 ]
The ALT realized that there were certain cultural differences that would take some getting used to. However, she was quite sure that staring was considered at least somewhat rude, no matter what country she was in.
Yet, from the corner of her eye, she could see Ninomiya staring at her again. He did it often, usually in class or when she had lunch with their class. And it wasn’t paranoia because this time, when she had turned her head quickly to catch him at it, he’d scrabbled in his seat to turn around.
“I don’t understand at all,” she mumbled to herself, frowning when she heard his snickers behind her.
A/N: More to come~