No, I'm not actually curious if you have a boyfriend. But, my Japanese high school students would like to know. I got this question (at least once) in every class I taught this past week.
Students returned from summer break on the 22st of August. On that day, there was an opening ceremony where I introduced myself in front of the whole school. There are about 700 students, and I teach the entire freshman class (240 students). During the first few days of classes, I mostly just sat in on a few English classes and helped out where I could. The plan was that I would actually start teaching on the 28th, so it was nice to have a few days to see how things operate.
This past week was my first full week of teaching. I taught my self-introduction lesson (along with a game of Bingo with my favorite things/hobbies) twelve times throughout the week, so I'm quite tired of explaining Whataburger and Olivia Rodrigo to a classroom of 15 year-olds. Classes can be pretty hit or miss (but luckily are mostly a hit). Sometimes students are disinterested or sleepy (the most challenging classes were 1st period ones), and some simply don't know enough English to understand what I'm saying, leaving my jokes or references lost on them. Still, for every class that felt like a flop, there was a class with more excited and active students than non-participatory ones. I'm slowly starting to learn students' names and personalities. Outside of class, I try to walk through the freshman hall during passing periods, and I ate lunch with a few of my classes last week, too. The lunch break is a moment of calm for most teachers (although they eat at their desks while continuing to do work), but, because I don't teach every class period, I still have the bandwidth to sit with students during lunch. Because it’s their hour of no adult supervision, the freshman hall is a pretty rowdy place during this hour. In the last few days, three boys have started playing ‘baseball’ in the hallway using an umbrella and crumpled up paper ball.
There are some hilarious students in my classes, and I am baffled by the random American songs or references they know. I walked into one class and a boy was singing 'don't go wasting your emotions' from Mama Mia, and another boy told me that his favorite movie is Bohemian Rhapsody. Other students are really into American rappers/singers like A$AP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert, or Ariana Grande and were so excited that they screamed when I mentioned I had seen the former in concert. I’ve nicknamed one boy ‘Doja Cat’ at his request. He’s funny. One boy chased me down in the hallway and started talking to me about his part time job at a ramen shop. He even acted out how he greets customers with 'Irashamasei' (Japanese for welcome - you've probably heard this if you've ever eaten at a sushi or ramen restaurant). Girls ask me whether or not I have a boyfriend or if I've dated before. Other times they'll scream out J-Pop songs to see if I know the tune. I ask them for recommendations around Osaka, or what Japanese bands I should listen to. All of these interactions are done in a mixture of English and Japanese (and me pestering them with ‘how do you say in English?’) and lots of charades.
Before classes started, I asked a few of my fellow teachers about the types of students at my school. Instead of talking about how high ranking the school is academically, my teachers replied, describing the students with words like 'lively,' 'social,' or 'friendly.' I work at a big public high school, and have learned that only a third of the graduating students attend college. Another third go straight into the workforce, many of them working for family businesses, and the last third go to trade school. Although the English level is extremely low, students are in fact lively and social, which I enjoy. So far, I prefer teaching that type of student to the super strict and quiet type.
This school atmosphere is different from the one I was immersed in when I studied abroad in Tokyo sophomore year of high school. I attended St. Margaret's/Rikkyo Jogakuin, a private, all-girls school in an affluent area of Tokyo. Uniforms were strict, even down to the color of socks we had to wear. At the high school where I work, everyone still has a uniform, but things are a bit more lenient. Girls have fake nails and wear makeup. Plenty of students have piercings (which are technically not allowed) and cover them up with band-aids, clear place-holders, or masks. Similar to St. Margaret’s, however, this school is strict about hair color. After the opening ceremony assembly, homeroom teachers checked every single one of their students' hair color to ensure no dyed or permed hair (perms are very trendy right now). Cell phones are not allowed, but I've seen many students use them during passing periods and lunchtime. At St. Margaret's, seeing a phone at school was a rare occurrence, and one going off in class would incite a full-blown operation to find its owner. Most girls followed the rules strictly.
In Japan, high school students are divided into homeroom classes. These homerooms are made up of 40 students. The homeroom classroom is where students meet first thing in the morning, eat lunch, and meet for school dismissal. Homeroom classes tend to be very tightly knit because of how much time everyone spends together. There are 6 homeroom classes for the freshman class, and they are divided into Advanced and Standard level for English class, making 12 classes that I teach. Japanese teachers move from homeroom classroom to homeroom classroom, rather than students moving between each teachers' room, meaning that teachers don't have their own individual classrooms.
Teachers also take on various other tasks/administrative roles outside of teaching their classes. From what I understand, they are all assigned a club to help out with or a sports team to supervise. My supervisor is both an English teacher and one of the librarians. There is a rotating schedule of teachers assigned to stand at the school gate and greet students as they arrive in the morning. Teachers answer the landline phones in the teachers office throughout the day, and from my Japanese knowledge, these phone calls often consist of conversations with parents of their students. I've heard teachers answer the phone with, "is he sick today? is it a fever? alright, I'll mark his absence down." Whether or not there is an attendance person is beside me. But it seems like homeroom teachers are the first person for families to contact in a student's absence.
At my high school in the US (St. Stephen’s), teachers had individual carrells scattered across campus. In Japanese high schools, each teacher has a desk in the teachers room, which fits 60+ teachers. Desk order is based on a strict hierarchy, with the Vice Principal at the front of the room. Needless to say, my desk is on the last row, closest to the kitchenette and fridge in the back of the room. I sit in a row with the other ‘part-time’ teachers (even though I am very much full time). Two of them are boys my age which is fun. We often go on walks around the school when we aren’t teaching. Part-time teachers can come and go when they have class, so my desk row can be pretty quiet, but I really don’t mind my placement because I have a vantage point of everyone in the room and during lunch hour, my corner is the place to be. I've slowly been able to chat with teachers while their food heats up in the microwave or while they make coffee, and sometimes a colleague will stop to ask me about the lesson I'm making.
The teachers room was an extremely daunting place while I was studying in Tokyo. There are lots of formalities in Japan related to interactions with people of higher status than your own. There are set phrases for these situations, including the situation of a student entering the teachers room. The phrase for this is “shitsureishimasu” (失礼します). The closest translation to English would be “I am causing a disturbance.” Students must announce their presence when entering the teachers room by yelling this phrase, which is followed by a formal sentence asking if so-and-so teacher is in the room. The teacher greets the student at the door, and after the teacher and student have had their conversation, the student says “I have caused a disturbance” or "shitsureishimashita," (失礼しました) then exits the room. Calling out for a teacher into the massive room was a nerve racking part of the daily life as a Japanese high school student, so it's a funny feeling being on the other side of the door. Still, however, there are formal phrases used amongst colleagues that I've learned. When you arrive, you greet the entire room with "ohayougozaimasu" (おはようございます - good morning), and when you leave before your colleagues, you must say "osaki ni shitsureishimasu," roughly translating to "Sorry that I am leaving before you," or "otsukaresamadesu," meaning "good work today."
I think that's my big update on the first week of classes and school life in Japan. I should say that I’m posting this about a week after I wrote it - sorry for the delay! More to come on the apartment situation and other updates. So, with that, "otsukaresamadesu!"
P.S. One interesting thing is that during the 10 minute passing period between classes, classical music billows through the whole school’s loud speakers. I was very confused on the first day when class was ended with the start of ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks’ by George Frideric Handel. The song changes from time to time, between Beethoven or Bach and many others. The most intense is when Offenbach’s Can Can plays in the last 2 minutes of the passing period and there's a frenzy of students and teachers running to make it to their next class. Quite the scene!