The Chrysanthemum Journal, Week 46
Before I get started today, I just thought that I would take a small moment out of this message to say that there's something I'm tired of seeing during my stay in this company, and that's the people who don't seem to know what they're getting into, despite the intensive 2-day interview and the training at orientation that all applicants go through to prepare us. Perhaps the process has changed, but when I went to both New York and Vancouver, I was made absolutely one-hundred percent aware that I would be working for a corporation and not a government-funded school, meaning first and foremost that we are supposed to turn a profit. It keeps us in business, keeps money coming in to my pocket, and can even mean that I get some incentives.
However, on a number of occasions, I see people complaining that GEOS is out to make money from students, as if it's some kind of heartless company for doing so. But that's just a ridiculous notion. After all, while I am certainly doing my best to make sure that our school has money coming in, I'm still a face for the company, so I also have the task (as well as the desire) to make sure my students are getting an education that's worth the yen the put into it. I've recommended GEOS to several of my friends who are looking for a way to get into Japan without paying for it, and I'll continue to do so. But I want everyone to realize that my job is as an employee of an international corporation. If making money and selling a product is something to be considered evil, then please do not apply. You'll only burn yourself out, and that's not good for you or the students.
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Had a bit of a heat wave at the school recently. Came in as usual on Friday morning and flipped on all the elctronic equipment. Prepped for classes, logged in the system. About an hour in, I noticed I wasn't feeling cool at all, and was actually sweating. Even in summer, our office is kept nice and cool, so it was not usual. Get up, go and check on the thermostats. 28 Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit). This is up from the starting 26 (78.8). I figured that the air conditioners were just being clunky and hadn't fully kicked in yet. Just to make sure they were trying their hardest, I set them all at the lowest temperature setting (19 C - 66.2 F), planning to raise it back up once we had some results.
But the results weren't exactly what we hoped for. By the time my first class started, it was up at 30 (86), and when that class ended, the stats were saying 31 (87.8)! So, I discussed the problem with the manager, who said that a repairman had been there earlier in the week and had been unable to fix the main unit because he needed to order a part and it would've taken about a week. However, with climbing temperatures, we couldn't really stand it.
Our manager decided to go and speak with the building manager about the situation and we were thankfully able to come up with a solution. Our school is right next to a big room that is currently not being used by any business, so the building manager was kind enough to let us borrow it until the problem is fixed. All we had to do was transport some of our necessities like whiteboards, books, CD Players, etc. Tables and chairs were already available. The only problem was that, while a huge room, it didn't have any sort of dividing walls, so basically my coworker and I picked a corner and stayed there.
Unfortunately, there were some casualties in all of this. My manager, since she has to be able to answer the phone, write e-mails, send faxes, and generally do all kinds of office work, had to stay in the office. Must have been hell, as during the height of the heat, our school was a crisp 35 C (95 F). In addition, another teacher comes to our school every Saturday to teach some kids as part of a separate GEOS program, and we had no place to put her in the big room, as her classes involve running around and screaming a lot. Kind of a distraction for most adult students. So she ended up teaching there on Saturday when, again, the temps climbed to 35.
I was told that a repairman would be coming either today or tomorrow, so we'll just have to hope for the best, eh?
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Been catching up on quite a few videos I've been meaning to see for quite some time. It started with watching relatively recent releases such as "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," and "Kung Fu Panda." But then I decided that there have been many many movies in the past that I've had an interest in, but haven't checked out yet. So, the first one I saw was "The Green Mile," which I'll admit I never knew was a science fiction film. I simply thought it was another Steven King prison drama. I was quite impressed, though, but then I always have loved Michael Clarke Duncan and Tom Hanks. And David Morse ain't a bad addition, either. After that, it was "Remember the Titans," since my manager has told me on a couple of occasions that it's one of her favorite movies. Both of us love human drama stories, so I figured it'd be a good flick, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.
Sunday I had a horror marathon, beginning with both of the new "The Hills Have Eyes." The first one actually did get me on a couple of occasions but the second one was a big let-down. I've never really been a big fan of the "roughneck-military-types-versus-big-scary-monster" genre, mostly because the characters are almost always stereotypical grunts with bullets for brains and more often than not kind of deserve to get killed off. I can understand a scared family member saying "I'm going off alone to find help" even in dangerous situations, but I cannot afford the same leniancy to soldiers breaking off from their unit. Anyway, after that, I watched George A. Romero's "Diary of the Dead," which, while not my favorite zombie flick, had a fresh visual style and managed to keep my interest. At least, when it wasn't preaching about how we can't trust the news media. Then "The Happening" from M. Night Shyamalan, which just felt like he was starting to scrape ideas from the bottom of the barrel. It actually reminded me of this scene from Family Guy (yes, I know it's a funny coincidence that I show a clip gagging on Stephen King when I just said The Green Mile was great). Seriously, there was almost no story...stuff happens, people react, then stuff stops happening, and the movie ends. Plus, the characters were so one-dimensional I just didn't care.
The next day, it was international horror day. I began by watching "The Descent," which was bloody brilliant (have to use British expressions to describe British films, yeh?) up until the last third, when one character was treated brutally for no reason other than she made a mistake and kept quiet about it. And didn't seem to mind. Umm...? Then for some Asian horror, I watched "Forbidden Siren," and "Shutter (The Original)," both of which were wonderful and disturbingly creepy, just as one expects from the Asian horror genre. No reliance on the flash-in-the-pan fright moments you get with most horror in the West.
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And that's it for the week! Sorry, but there was absolutely nothing picture-worthy this time around. But next week my parents will be coming to check up on me in Japan, so I might not be able to write a journal entry. This is just a heads-up!
However, on a number of occasions, I see people complaining that GEOS is out to make money from students, as if it's some kind of heartless company for doing so. But that's just a ridiculous notion. After all, while I am certainly doing my best to make sure that our school has money coming in, I'm still a face for the company, so I also have the task (as well as the desire) to make sure my students are getting an education that's worth the yen the put into it. I've recommended GEOS to several of my friends who are looking for a way to get into Japan without paying for it, and I'll continue to do so. But I want everyone to realize that my job is as an employee of an international corporation. If making money and selling a product is something to be considered evil, then please do not apply. You'll only burn yourself out, and that's not good for you or the students.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Had a bit of a heat wave at the school recently. Came in as usual on Friday morning and flipped on all the elctronic equipment. Prepped for classes, logged in the system. About an hour in, I noticed I wasn't feeling cool at all, and was actually sweating. Even in summer, our office is kept nice and cool, so it was not usual. Get up, go and check on the thermostats. 28 Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit). This is up from the starting 26 (78.8). I figured that the air conditioners were just being clunky and hadn't fully kicked in yet. Just to make sure they were trying their hardest, I set them all at the lowest temperature setting (19 C - 66.2 F), planning to raise it back up once we had some results.
But the results weren't exactly what we hoped for. By the time my first class started, it was up at 30 (86), and when that class ended, the stats were saying 31 (87.8)! So, I discussed the problem with the manager, who said that a repairman had been there earlier in the week and had been unable to fix the main unit because he needed to order a part and it would've taken about a week. However, with climbing temperatures, we couldn't really stand it.
Our manager decided to go and speak with the building manager about the situation and we were thankfully able to come up with a solution. Our school is right next to a big room that is currently not being used by any business, so the building manager was kind enough to let us borrow it until the problem is fixed. All we had to do was transport some of our necessities like whiteboards, books, CD Players, etc. Tables and chairs were already available. The only problem was that, while a huge room, it didn't have any sort of dividing walls, so basically my coworker and I picked a corner and stayed there.
Unfortunately, there were some casualties in all of this. My manager, since she has to be able to answer the phone, write e-mails, send faxes, and generally do all kinds of office work, had to stay in the office. Must have been hell, as during the height of the heat, our school was a crisp 35 C (95 F). In addition, another teacher comes to our school every Saturday to teach some kids as part of a separate GEOS program, and we had no place to put her in the big room, as her classes involve running around and screaming a lot. Kind of a distraction for most adult students. So she ended up teaching there on Saturday when, again, the temps climbed to 35.
I was told that a repairman would be coming either today or tomorrow, so we'll just have to hope for the best, eh?
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Been catching up on quite a few videos I've been meaning to see for quite some time. It started with watching relatively recent releases such as "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," and "Kung Fu Panda." But then I decided that there have been many many movies in the past that I've had an interest in, but haven't checked out yet. So, the first one I saw was "The Green Mile," which I'll admit I never knew was a science fiction film. I simply thought it was another Steven King prison drama. I was quite impressed, though, but then I always have loved Michael Clarke Duncan and Tom Hanks. And David Morse ain't a bad addition, either. After that, it was "Remember the Titans," since my manager has told me on a couple of occasions that it's one of her favorite movies. Both of us love human drama stories, so I figured it'd be a good flick, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.
Sunday I had a horror marathon, beginning with both of the new "The Hills Have Eyes." The first one actually did get me on a couple of occasions but the second one was a big let-down. I've never really been a big fan of the "roughneck-military-types-versus-big-scary-monster" genre, mostly because the characters are almost always stereotypical grunts with bullets for brains and more often than not kind of deserve to get killed off. I can understand a scared family member saying "I'm going off alone to find help" even in dangerous situations, but I cannot afford the same leniancy to soldiers breaking off from their unit. Anyway, after that, I watched George A. Romero's "Diary of the Dead," which, while not my favorite zombie flick, had a fresh visual style and managed to keep my interest. At least, when it wasn't preaching about how we can't trust the news media. Then "The Happening" from M. Night Shyamalan, which just felt like he was starting to scrape ideas from the bottom of the barrel. It actually reminded me of this scene from Family Guy (yes, I know it's a funny coincidence that I show a clip gagging on Stephen King when I just said The Green Mile was great). Seriously, there was almost no story...stuff happens, people react, then stuff stops happening, and the movie ends. Plus, the characters were so one-dimensional I just didn't care.
The next day, it was international horror day. I began by watching "The Descent," which was bloody brilliant (have to use British expressions to describe British films, yeh?) up until the last third, when one character was treated brutally for no reason other than she made a mistake and kept quiet about it. And didn't seem to mind. Umm...? Then for some Asian horror, I watched "Forbidden Siren," and "Shutter (The Original)," both of which were wonderful and disturbingly creepy, just as one expects from the Asian horror genre. No reliance on the flash-in-the-pan fright moments you get with most horror in the West.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
And that's it for the week! Sorry, but there was absolutely nothing picture-worthy this time around. But next week my parents will be coming to check up on me in Japan, so I might not be able to write a journal entry. This is just a heads-up!