On the Job

I don't often talk about my job on here, except in vague terms of going to random school festivals, and that the money I receive from doing it allows me to survive (and buy lots of curry, that's important). This does not mean, however, that I dislike my job. Actually, I love it, and today I want to post why. In addition to being something new every day, and the obvious benefits of teaching great kids, I occasionally help with the lessons in a more tangible way than running an activity or explaining grammar structure. Sometimes, sometimes, I get to make materials. Every now and then one of my teachers decides that the flash cards we have are boring, and so they come up to my desk, arms laden with big markers and sheets of paper, and ask me to draw things.

Granted, I'm not the best artist in the world, and even if I was, 5 minutes and some magic markers are hardly the ideal conditions in which to produce a masterpiece. Even so, I love doing it, the kids get a kick out of seeing them, and occasionally they turn out kinda cool. The one above is from a video game that's super popular here called Monster Hunter, or 'MoHan' for short. The one below? I was asked to draw a picture of the thing that most surprised me when I got to Japan: traditional Japanese toilets, otherwise known as holes in the ground. Fun, fun!