My New Job

I have a new job.

There. I spent a while trying to work out how to say that and ‘blurting’ seems to be just about the best method.

I work for the Sakai City Board of Education. They were my previous employer while I was a JET and have been kind enough to reemploy me to work at their office where I assist in the development and implementation of new strategies to teach English to students. Officially, I’m the Coordinator for English Education. This makes me sound very important which I must confess I really like.

Saying what I do is probably my favourite part of the job at the moment. That sounds terrible, I realise, and maybe doesn’t bode well for the future but the fact is that after being in Japan for almost two years being able to say that I do something other than English teaching is really fulfulling. It’s nice to be able to tell people I meet what I do and have them be surprised. The feeling of being different, having to wear a suit to work, working in a Japanese office: look, I’m the first to admit this isn’t the UN but by the same token it’s not the same thing every second white guy in Japan is doing.

In fact being given the opportunity to actually fix things is where I expect the real satisfaction is going to come. I have been frustrated about this for some time but never did I think somehow I’d be in a position where I could have a real chance of making a difference (however slight). I’m sure that’s a lot of hopeful enthusiasm and I should probably set myself up for the inevitable disappointment — but dammit, I spoke to a lot of people before I left about not taking jobs that just make money and yet for the last two years I’m not sure I can really say I’ve been any different. At least now I feel like I am. Maybe.

So far I’ve been helping with preparation, trying to orient myself around the office and the city of Sakai and wishing to God that I could speak better Japanese. Most of what I do is in English but I could be of such greater assistance if I were more capable linguistically. The answer to this problem is the same as it’s always been. Study more.

The other thing that’s nice about the job is that it’s 4 days a week. It means I don’t get paid quite as much as I did when I was a JET but on the other hand I get an extra day off. Rui has suggested that I spend this time, once we get back from Australia, developing web sites. I’ve thought about being a web designer since I was in high school so it’s kind of cool to have that opportunity. Not quite sure if it’s going to lead anywhere but you can only try, I guess.

I’ll try to keep you updated. For real this time.