Cultural Values
I've never really experienced 'culture shock' too bad in my travels in Japan. Sure, there was the bath incident and the blowfish indident, but other than that I have had a pretty smooth adjustment to Japanese life in part because of all the studying I did before arriving here. That being said, some things still bother me.
Like yesterday for instance. I had to work an overtime shift at Mei-Eki Le Jac in Nagoya so I had to miss my Japanese lesson. Now, usually I would call and tell Izumi that I wasn't coming in, but I unfortunately forgot because I was so stressed about getting to Le Jac on time. She called me yesterday and left me a message about missing lesson and it was really nasty! She was mean to me! Now, I understand that I should have called, but there is no reason to be rude. I guess it is the Japanese mentality about it: she is doing me a favor and I should be thankful. Now, the way I see it, I am paying for a service and should be treated a little better. I don't call NOVA students who decide not to show up and bitch them out for it, do I? No. I wish I could. It just makes me angry. Now I'm sort of dreading going back to lessons because I really don't want a lecture.
We had a girl doing a help shift at Rio World today: Chau. She's really nice and it was refreshing to see a new face in the office, but I can't help but feel a little put off by her attitude. We were talking at lunch about teaching techniques and I was telling her about my feeling that as long as the students are talking and I am correcting their grammer and pronounciation from time to time as needed I don't feel it necessary to follow the LMP exactly. She got all upset and told me that I might not get taken off probation because that is just wrong. WTF. Calm the hell down. It's not that big of a deal. It's not that I don't use the LMP at all, I just try to personalize the lesson and that is what NOVA keeps harping on me to do. Grr. But then I thought that if NOVA decided to not move me to a Regular Instructor I might just quit. And do what? I'm not sure. Probably just go home and live in my parents basement like a bum. But honestly, who says that to people? She's been here just as long as I have and its just totally uncalled for.
I'm just tired. This week is going to be very long.
Like yesterday for instance. I had to work an overtime shift at Mei-Eki Le Jac in Nagoya so I had to miss my Japanese lesson. Now, usually I would call and tell Izumi that I wasn't coming in, but I unfortunately forgot because I was so stressed about getting to Le Jac on time. She called me yesterday and left me a message about missing lesson and it was really nasty! She was mean to me! Now, I understand that I should have called, but there is no reason to be rude. I guess it is the Japanese mentality about it: she is doing me a favor and I should be thankful. Now, the way I see it, I am paying for a service and should be treated a little better. I don't call NOVA students who decide not to show up and bitch them out for it, do I? No. I wish I could. It just makes me angry. Now I'm sort of dreading going back to lessons because I really don't want a lecture.
We had a girl doing a help shift at Rio World today: Chau. She's really nice and it was refreshing to see a new face in the office, but I can't help but feel a little put off by her attitude. We were talking at lunch about teaching techniques and I was telling her about my feeling that as long as the students are talking and I am correcting their grammer and pronounciation from time to time as needed I don't feel it necessary to follow the LMP exactly. She got all upset and told me that I might not get taken off probation because that is just wrong. WTF. Calm the hell down. It's not that big of a deal. It's not that I don't use the LMP at all, I just try to personalize the lesson and that is what NOVA keeps harping on me to do. Grr. But then I thought that if NOVA decided to not move me to a Regular Instructor I might just quit. And do what? I'm not sure. Probably just go home and live in my parents basement like a bum. But honestly, who says that to people? She's been here just as long as I have and its just totally uncalled for.
I'm just tired. This week is going to be very long.