Re-views and Re-visions
...written on 2001-01-23, @ 01:49:34
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Tue January 23, 2001
Ugh, I hate getting behind. While I have written and posted some entries, I have written and left others unfinished and thus un-posted and haven't written that which needs to be recorded.
I have been looking at my older entries, my thoughts on Japan and the Japanese (the Japan Luna Sees). Already, after being here only 4 months I want to revise them . . .
"Hey, I thought it was that way, but it's not."
I think it is important to keep them as they are though and make note of the differences, record the enlightenments as they come.
I hope I can keep up with the changes I'm feeling and going through. I have been doing lots of reading on my own about the Japanese culture and seeing things differently. I don't think you'll be hearing me whining anymore about the "hot and cold" faces the Japanese put on at work (of course, I probably won't whine any LESS either. I can understand it, but I don't have to like it. tee hee)
We have a new English teacher in our midst. Her name is Lana and she is from Massachussetts. She's blonde, green eyed and petite and sure to garner plenty of attention. I want to help her adjust to this new environment. I want to record her journey into this culture as she transmits it to me, and also how I see it as well (she had a pretty rough first day, I thought we might lose her). I have to take good notes too because I have just been given a new responsibility: Trainer of the Foreign English Teachers (TFET) or how about: Foreign Teacher Trainer (FTT), or maybe: Foreign English Teacher Trainer (FETT). Or I can be ITT, International Teacher Trainer! I pretty much can call it what I want, because I am the first one!! Yippee!
Hide told me about this tonight after my class. They want me to extend my stay in Japan for another year, but I don't have to commit at this time (they will ask me again in March). I said I'd be happy to train the Foreign teachers for the time being, especially since cross-cultural training has always been a big interest of mine. This is the opportunity that I was talking about in Bagus or Bogus? It will require recruiting trips to the US a couple of times a year as well as a myriad of other duties of course.
Now we just have to deal with the little shift of being "one of the foreign guys" to being "a go-between for the company and the foreign guys".
Things are going well for me right now. Be glad. Be very glad.