"I'm going to take this poisonous snake and stick it in my mouth."

[maypirate]

So much of my flist is already aware, but Steve Irwin died via Stingray to the heart today, and it is a sad day. We had to know it would end this way, but godspeed, Mr. Irwin.

The Crocodile Hunter is dead, long live the Crocodile Hunter.

In other news, of an equally bumming-out bent, I may not be fit for academia because half the readings I was assigned turned out to be boring as sin and largely irrelevent-seeming, so clearly I'm missing the mental capacity to figure shit out.

Also, the pain is visiting again, and I've triggered the bleedies two weeks early by being a moron. Bleeeeh.



A friend of mine, mikkeneko, just had her second teaching experience ever, and her JTE conveniently didn't show up for the class. Essentially, he left her alone and has said things like her job is "to teach the class and give us regular teachers a break, ha ha."

Yeah ha ha that's not funny.

He is, unfortunately, also her supervisor. Who should she talk to so this doesn't happen again, or is she going to have to kill him? Did y'all ever have this problem? Check it.

And right. Good for me for getting up at 9:30 today. The path to adulthood is spreading out before me.

Comments

[monkeybobert.livejournal.com]

This is the first I've heard of Steve Irwin! That is very sad, but I guess we did know it would come.

I wish the bad pain away for you!

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

*hugs May*

[herongale]

The Crocodile Hunter is dead, long live the Crocodile Hunter.

Whoa. Mind meld time: I typed this EXACT SAME THING out myself and was --><--- this close to putting it in my LJ last night. That is some scaaaaary resonance of thought!

[dursula.livejournal.com]

My advice,

She come in to school in a rage waving around her contract in which it is written that she is not a real teacher, but an assitant language teacher. The rage and the contract should put them back in place. She should certainly talk to the other english teachers at the school. and, if she's still getting no response, she should just cancel class. I know of a ALT who started class until the teacher arrived late. As soon as the other teacher arrived, he finished class and left the room in order to teach the JTE a lesson on being prompt.

Can she talk to her predecessor? or to other ALT in the area? She should try and find out the predecessor's situation. Maybe the old ALT was doing clas by him/herself and JTE has gotten lazy. She just needs to directly approach the JTE and explain that it's in her contract that they have to teach together, it's also an insurance issue!! to be alone in the classroom with the kids...which is apparently keeping me from going on school trip with my chou kids. Tell her to stand up for herself even if he is her supervisor.

[maxxim-huzzah.livejournal.com]

*is also a JET* What the fuck? It's mikkeneko's second time to teach an English class, and he's already ducking out?? ;0; It's nerve-wracking, especially teaching in the beginning. This is definitely NOT the way to be 'Yokoso'ed' to Japan.

dursula's advice is good, especially if her predecessor did most of the teaching. Some teachers actually think that the next ALT will be exactly like the last one. >:/ I don't know if it's because they expect foreigners to be the same...or if it's because workers here are trained to be THAT interchangeable!

Standing up for herself is the best action. Another thing Mikkeneko can do is tell her Prefectural Advisers (PAs). She needs to tell both an English rep and the Japanese rep. Wave the contract around, and the PAs bring the heavy guns. And make the squawk about it asap, because later on it will be considered routine. (So can dodging out of class.)

I hope things work out for you, Mikke-san! Holler if you have any more questions. :3 There's also jetjapan for reaching lots of JETs at once, and eikaiwa for English teachers in the big chains (AEON, NOVA, GEOS, etc.) I hope things work out.