My Job

I signed the contract for my new job today. There are some really good things about it and a few bad. The good is that I will be at one junior high school for a full school year. That's great. I love that. I am very happy about that. The bad thing is that my company is still stupid and the reason they exist is still stupid. The only reason they exist is because Japanese schools and school boards are uneasy with hiring foreigners directly. They feel that they have to go to foreigner wranglers who specialize in wrangling us. That is why they treat us like they do. If Japanese systems actually promoted based on skill I can think of several teacher that I work with who could handle hiring the foreign staff for a city. That will not happen for a long time ago. I set through the meeting waiting for it to be over. However there was the one enthusiastic guy. The enthusiastic guy who seconded every thing the silly lady said and was exited about the whole process. It made me reflect on how most corporate structures were. Why we have so much bad journalism. Looking around the room, at the 5 other people, of course I would be the last to be promoted. I spoke up when she bad mouthed the union, I questioned the structure of the contract and wondered about the teaching situation. The well intentioned, enthusiastic doofus, cheered it all on. Of course he would move up. The supervisor told us how important this contract was for the company. "Then treat us like it." I thought. I talked with one other teacher as we were leaving and he said, "It is amazing what is expected of us in relation to how we are treated." That is exactly how I feel about it. My job now is in Neyagawa which is running an experimental English program that is being supervised by the local college. It requires the teachers to be able to speak and read Japanese, to have teaching experience, to have a valid visa and to already reside in Japan. That is a pretty specific skill set. Is it a lot to ask to treat and pay us in a like manner? But that is the economy we are presented with.

I am pretty sure once we get to the schools, where the teachers hate our company and the school board as much as we do, that things will fall into place. In the meantime I have to endure the bullshit. These systems that exist to leech off the education system and are completely unnecessary .