burningbright

A teacher I met at an enkai told me she works at a small alternative high school, for kids who didn’t make it in the regular schools for whatever reason. After the structure and uniforms and delineated student-teacher relationships that define even my non-academic, mid-level school, I was curious about the kids who don’t play the game. The ones who flame, where do they go?

So I visited for a day, as a sort of guest ALT. There were about 60 kids in total, no uniforms, and interestingly, no use of the term -kun, the form of address used with younger, subordinate male names. At my other schools, girls are Shirokawa-san, boys are Kamogawa-kun, and only their friends will use their first names. At this school, everyone was -san, possibly using first names, and some teachers went by Firstname-sensei, the biggest shocker of all.

I had lunch with three girls, then visited a couple classes. I met a tough-looking girl who, according to the teacher, is raising her younger brothers. Another girl, who loves Marilyn Manson. There was the too-cool kid, whose favorite band is Backstreet Boys. A friendly nerdy boy who loves Japanese animation, and sounded amazed to learn I spent junior high watching anime too. A washed out, used-looking girl in spikey heeled boots. The smart girl who speaks excellent English, who apparently used to go to an academic high school but was absent for too long and will be attending university next year.

I enjoyed talking to them, and I think they enjoyed talking to me. There was a tense moment in one of the classes, when a ringleader boy with a giant hole in his ear, dressed like a thug, asked me if I had a boyfriend. I decided to say yes, so then he asked, ‘yateimashitaka’, have you done him?–and instead of making the other kids laugh, they all looked really embarrassed and told him to shush. The teacher was annoyed too and she asked the class, ’shall we ignore that question?’ They all said yes, and I pretended I hadn’t understood any of it. A year ago I would have been flustered or annoyed, but this time I almost laughed. And the attitude of the other kids won me over.

There was also a totally hot kid, who I kept trying not to stare at, whom I actually tried to come up with reasons to photograph for my records because he was so incredibly attractive, with the huge slanty eyes and the straight unstyled hair…mmm. Should I be describing jailbait this way?

After school, a cute JTE with fangs, who turned out to be exactly my age, took me to chat with two of his students who had expressed an interest in chatting with the ALT. To thank me, Kyoto-sensei wrote me a poem that was a play on my name, in calligraphy on nice paper. I was definitely feeling the love and welcome, doing the Japanese nicenice thing. It was a good day.

The nicenice used to make me uncomfortable, but I think now I get it. I kinda wish I’d gotten it more last year, I wouldn’t have felt so awkward when I visited the elementary school (that school closed for good last spring, going the way of so many small, rural schools). Anyway, though I get it now, being sweet and cheerful does wear thin after a whole day, and I’m glad I don’t do visits like that too often.

Lest this post get too upbeat, let us not forget last week, when a third-year girl in my Monday school patted my butt. I asked her why, and she laughed, so I mock-demanded an explanation and she said ‘cheek. Nice.’ On Tuesday a first-year at my other school poked my chest gently and I said ‘What the fuck?’ (horrible potty mouth, comes from being professionally aware at all times of just how little English is actually understood in this country). She laughed too, ’sekuhara hahaha!’ Sekuhara= seksual harassment; another bad day for the roots of the English language.

And along with that rockstar appreciation comes a little objectification, never forget.

February 2nd, 2006
Categories: school, japan . Author: ximena

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