No, I haven't quit being an English teacher. Not yet, at least. I'm probably sticking with the profession for the long haul.
What I do have, though, is a new job that starts in late March. I will be moving from Koriyama, best known as the urban center of Fukushima prefecture and the place everyone fled to after the March earthquake, to Kofu, a smaller city from which I will be able to see Mt. Fuji. Okay, so I have a romanticized, lopsided view of what this new job will involve. I don't care; I'm excited to both leave my current job and start my new one.
There are a lot of reasons for this move. Most of them are whiny and self-indulgent, such as frustrations with my boss, my living situation, and my job. Yes, one of them is radiation (not my own fears, but my father's rather constant nagging). However, I feel justified in making the change. I came to Japan to be a teacher; I spend about 60% of my working hours as a glorified babysitter of two- to four-year-old students. I don't know if my new job will be much better in terms of teaching, as I'll be functioning more as a tutor than a teacher, but at least I'll be working with all ages. Taking a moment to whine, when applying for my current job, I was led to believe I'd be working with 2 to 16 year olds; my two oldest students are eight. From what I can tell, female teachers simply don't get the older classes here. Also, yes, there is one lone sixteen-year-old student who takes a private lesson once a week, but the official cut-off age for the school's main classes is 12.
And, perhaps most of all, I feel that if there's a moment in my career where I can afford to be self-indulgent, it's now. English teachers are in demand here, because people do tend to come and stay for just a year or two, and I'm more than qualified for most positions (which isn't saying much). I came to Japan to take a job that would be less demanding than working at a public school in the US, and to see if ESL teaching was a real long-term possibility for me. I don't need the job I have now, and I'm frustrated with it in hundreds of small, different ways. Yes, that will be true of any job I ever have. It's a selfish and short-sighted view of life to have.
But for the moment, I don't care.
