The first two days had the greatest mixture of excitement and anxiety, and after that it somewhat tapered off. Although I'm nearly a week into my brief stay in Urasa, I haven't started teaching yet. Only then will I become more accustomed to life here. The real routine has yet to begin.
So far, I've gotten to know most of my fellow teachers. As a collective, we are an easy going and laid back group with similar interests. I keep forgetting how much I fit in with many ESL/EFL programs. We all have a fascination for new languages and cultures. There's also a great appreciation for nature that nearly everyone shares. And everyone has some type of interest in the arts, whether it is music or literature, "high culture" if you will. So it is very easy to get along with everyone.
Yesterday was the first time I got to meet a good number of the 80-81 students. I will be assigned to a group of 11-12 tomorrow, so I should get to know them very well. Most of the students are younger than me, but not too much younger than me. Like the teachers, they are highly interested in international affairs. We are at an international university, mind you. Most of the students are Japanese, but there's a good number from Southeast Asia and Central Asia.
I probably felt the most relaxed after a good "meet and greet" session followed by some badminton with several students. It was also the first day that I wasn't bothered by being drenched in my own sweat for a good portion of the whole day. That said, it's not too hard to feel isolated as the location is quite isolating and many people keep busy.
I've realized that a big contributor to some anxiety is comparing my current experience with my first experience coming to Japan. Even though I don't expect much of it to be the same, there's a little part that does. But I haven't found much in common at all. Firstly, I'm much more mature than I was then. Secondly, I'm familiar with Japan and ESL education. Thirdly, I'm much more respected because of my experience and the prestige of this summer program. Bluntly, I'm not making as many stupid mistakes and nobody's acting like a jerk. Put that way, I feel much better.
I get a little melancholy because those naive and foolish/fun days are long gone. I'm also distant from a lot of the Japanese culture I was used to--urban Kanto life. Rural Niigata life is almost like a different country that speaks the same language. I guess it sometimes feel like your best friend lives next store, but you can't visit him right now and you've heard that he's changed a lot, so you may be disappointed in a reunion.
Information and communication technology has also made it more difficult to immerse myself into the culture. Before I was excited to jump into Japanese, Korean, and Russian life. I also had the security of having my fiancee/wife with me. This time I am alone and I am in a rural environment. I guess one could say that I am having my first rural expatriate experience. I have been to rural areas in Japan before, but I was just visiting. This is definitely new. I have to learn how to create a lifestyle in rural Japan, but the technology tempts me away from adjusting to this lifestyle.
My previous lifestyle was dominated by research, PhD courses, and child-rearing, which called for me to stay at home or work in the office and not much else. I should take a break from that, but I still need to do some research. I have some course work here of course, but most importantly, the internet provides the feeling of connectedness. Is this connectedness helping or hurting my adjustment to the new lifestyle?
My need to take in Japanese media is almost non-existent. However, Japanese media helped me to improve my understanding of the language and culture. If I were to stay here for longer than 6 weeks, I would consider it. Anyway, it's nearly as accessible as American media online anyway. Because I'm in Japan, nearly all the advertisements I get online are Japanese, so the media is getting to me in some way. I feel a bit disrespectful in that I prefer to take in American media over Japanese as it is less relevant to my context however it is more relevant to me. I believe that if I were to stay here longer that American media would be an obstacle to my adjustment to Japanese life. I'm strongly considering to look into this aspect of intercultural adjustment in my research.
Then there is media that is more or less international like Facebook and YouTube. Although I use these sites in English, they recognize that my server is in Japan. YouTube has especially changed in that nearly all of its recommendations are popular Japanese videos. Perhaps I should look into this to help with my adjustment. I wonder how many new expatriates learn about their host culture in this way.
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