Golden week came last week April 29 and I finally got my first vacation. What's kind of frustrating about this job is that they don't really allocate enough "time off" for their employees. Generally speaking, if you work for a Japanese company, you should expect to work more than the designated time slots. You most likely won't be working a typical 9 - 5 shift; it's more of a 9 - 6 or 6:30, sometimes later. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Japanese companies are more efficient. It seems people stay later trying to finish work they most likely could have finished during the day. Just comparing to my experience working in the States, the mindset was in most cases "Finish the tasks designated to you, then you're done."It was more of a work really hard to finish what you had to do then you could relax a bit. When I shared this idea with some people I know here, they thought it was a rather odd concept. They said if you're finished with your designated tasks, then more work will be given. Of course we have the same thing in the States, but the important thing for our "system" is that if the boss comes by to check on you, just don't tell him you're completely done! Ironically enough some people focus so hard on not getting dealt extra work that they don't finish their original assignment in time.
My company is doing really well in regards to finances. But as most can agree, sometimes there seems to be a one sided view on things as the employee. I work the same amount of hours as any teacher, and anyone who has done such a job understands you can get really burnt out. The only problem here is that there isn't really any time to recover. Sometimes when that weekend finally comes you realize you were assigned to work an open Sunday for 4 or 5 hours. Furthermore, we are only given three 1 week vacations the entire year, whereas most teachers receive Spring, Winter, Christmas, and a 2 month Summer vacation. With this said, I can understand how the average time at this company is about 1.5 years. The teaching and lesson structures themselves are amazing, but there seems to be a lack of consideration for the teacher's stamina and durability.
This week was the first vacation, which was well looked forward to. Friday and Saturday I spend a lot of time playing soccer. Sunday I went back to Fukuoka to see the Spring flowers in Samurai Park (I visited in February). In Fukuoka after the park I went to a yatai food stall and met a couple of people from Cali. As expected, they were really laid back and we went out drinking for the rest of the night. Monday I returned to Sasebo for a soccer game. Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the hot spring to relax and had another outdoor soccer game. Thursday was preparation for work on Friday and Friday was back on the grind. The good thing was that work was only Friday and Saturday that week. Next week starts new classes and schedule. It looks like I'm teaching 6 classes Tuesday Thursday and Friday and 7 classes on Wednesday and Saturday. That's just enough time to fit in a lunch break : D.
Besides work, studying and learning Japanese has been really enjoyable. It seems like at each level of proficiency there appears a road block in the way. Once that road block is reached, it requires a certain amount of energy and discomfort forced on the brain to acquire the new material in order to break down the road block. Then it's time to move on. Sometimes the language becomes difficult. For example, in English we use the verb to wear that can be applied to any thing you put on your body (hat, shirt, shoes, socks, pants etc.) but in Japanese you use a different verb depending on the article you art putting on. Wearing pants is different from wearing a hat which is different from wearing a bracelet which is different from wearing glasses. Of course there is the Kanji part of it which requires a ridiculous amount of time to remember (if you are not Chinese of course).
Just a quick clarification: The Kanji are the intricate characters that are the same as Chinese characters. So anyone who speaks Chinese may have an idea what the Kanji means, but not how it's pronounced. The big difference between Chinese and Japanese comes with Japanese's separate alphabets Hiragana and Katakana. Katakana is an alphabet used strictly for foreign derived words. For example, the English word cake is converted to a Japanese written way ケーキ and pronounced ke e ki (sounds like kehhki). Hiragana is a simplified alphabet for original words. Not every adult can read Kanji, and of course most kids have not even learned certain Kanji yet, so this helps simplify the Kanji for those who do not know. If the kanji is written as 島 then at times you may see the Hiragana writing above it saying "しま”。In English its pronounced as "shima", which means island.
Kanji are really important because there are many words that are spelt the same in Hiragana but pronounced differently. But someone who looked at it on paper wouldn't know the difference, so drawing it in Kanji helps differentiate. For example: bridge is written as はし(hashi), and chopsticks is also written as はし(hashi). The only way to differentiate the two in written language would be through Kanji. Therefore we have 橋 for bridge and 箸 for chopsticks
Some words don't even have Kanji, so they are written in Hiragana. Also, most
verbs are a combination of Kanji and Hiragana.
So if I wrote the same word in each of the three ways they would look like this:
Hiragana: にほんじん
Katakana:ニホンジン
Kanji:日本人
That's the basic difference between the three alphabets. Ah I'm late for work!!!! Talk to you again soon!
This was not the most positive post I had, but sorry it wasn't the best of weeks : )
