Sometimes the Japanese work ethic is just too much. They are like continuous robots….just work, work, work all the time. For example, this morning I woke up to some farmer weed-eating RIGHT NEXT TO MY WINDOW. Anyone want to guess the time? 6:30! 6:30 IN THE MORNING! Uggghhh! I tried to pull the blanket over my head and go back to sleep, but there was no way that was possible with the constant whirring noise outside my window.
Now that the whole process of applying is over and I found out the result, I feel safe in telling that I applied for a job at my high school, St. Mary, in Paducah. A good friend told me that St. Mary was looking for an English teacher, and HELLO! I is right good at teachin’ the English. So I applied. I don’t want to boast, but I think that my teaching resume is pretty darn good. I’ve taught pre-school up through post-secondary. I’ve taught non-trads, students with learning disabilities, and non-English speakers. I’ve pretty much done it all from faculty meetings to lesson planning to learning how to manage a classroom. So I thought I had a pretty good chance at this job. The two factors standing in my way were:
1) my lack of teaching certification
2) my return date to the States.
The first one isn’t so bad at St. Mary. Since they are a private school, teachers are recommended to get their certification, but they don’t HAVE to have it. The second one is a little more difficult. I can’t change the fact that my contract doesn’t end until July 31st. I’ve already bought international tickets without refunds. The day I get home is the day I get home. End of sentence.
The director at St. Mary contacted me quickly after I emailed in my resume, and I took that as a good sign. She allowed me to do a Skype interview a few days later, and I was feeling really good about it. The interview started off really well…we chit-chatted about Japan and what it was like to live here. I thought it was going well until she asked me a question that I hadn’t seen coming. “How do you feel about teaching Spanish?”
While it’s true that I was a Spanish major, I mostly did that out of convenience sake. After studying abroad in Mexico and Spain, I only had to take a few more classes to bump my Spanish minor into a major. As much as I enjoy learning new languages, there’s NO WAY in heck I’ll ever be fluent enough to teach them! I told her the truth….that I hadn’t spoken Spanish in a while and that I could probably teach Spanish I or II, but I definitely don’t feel confident teaching the upper levels. She then asked me about German and Japanese. Would I feel comfortable teaching either of them? Out of the three I’m most passionate about German, but once again I haven’t spoken it in so long, and my German needs a refresher. While I have lived in Japan for two years, it’s one of the most difficult languages to learn. Considering I can only read a MINIMAL amount of Japanese, no…I don’t feel comfortable teaching that language, either.
She moved on and asked me about teaching drama, speech, or even religion. Although I have no experience teaching any of them, I said yes. At least it’s closer to English than a foreign language! After the interview was done, I felt like I had thrown away an opportunity. Here was a job that had benefits, wouldn’t require me to commute to Murray, paid almost $10,000 more than teaching at WKCTC and MSU combined, and I pissed it away because I didn’t feel confident enough in my language abilities. While I had applied for the English teacher position and she threw a complete curveball at me with the languages, I feel like I should have responded better.
Anyway, I finally found out this week that I didn’t get the job. Was I disappointed? Yes. Things DEFINITELY would have been a lot easier with that extra $10,000 AND benefits. After I found out that I hadn’t gotten the job, I immediately checked my WKCTC and MSU classes to make sure that they were still OK. As it turns out, one of my WKCTC classes had been dropped. It wasn’t a good day to find out about my future employment! Oh well. Where one door closes, another one opens. (And hopefully one will swing WIDE open for me!)
So….that’s all for today. It’s Friday. Hurray! Here’s to a wonderful weekend of doing whatever you please!
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