My New Job

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.