10 Goals For The New (School) Year

I feel like I’ve been a little more dour in my most recent blog posts. I won’t fault myself too much for that, the end of the school year brought about more changes than I had really expected. Alongside those changes, I was given two weeks with no classes, but still had to spend 8 hours at my desk doing pretty much nothing. 

So, as both a way to kill some of that time, and a way to try and stay more positive, I thought I’d brainstorm some new goals for the year. When I started this program I had some vague goals in mind, but once I got here, I shifted into survival mode pretty much immediately. There were a lot of sudden changes, and I was just doing my best not to get overwhelmed. 

Now that I’ve been in Japan for a few months, I’ve gotten more comfortable with my life here. Enough that in some ways I feel I’ve grown a little complacent, and maybe lost sight of some of the reasons for coming here. I’ll always be proud of myself for taking this leap of faith and doing this program in the first place, but I don’t want to look back and wish that I’d done more. 

In the interest of that idea, I’ll put some ideas down, in writing, and make it a sort of public contract. I won’t guarantee I’ll do all, or even any of these ideas, but on some level, I would like too. Even if they don’t pan out, I want to at least say I was able to try them. So, without further ado, let’s get started. 

1. Study Japanese At Work 

Thankfully, this is one I’ve sort of started doing already. Granted, I could probably push it much further, but it’s a start. I’ve been using the site WaniKani to help me practice learning vocabulary and kanji. It teaches you the radicals, the basic building blocks of kanji, before moving onto kanji or vocabulary, which has been helpful. Sometimes the names for radicals have been kind of silly, or might be different than the ways I’ve learned them in the past, but learning these will help me vaguely understand even kanji I haven’t seen before. 

I think I’ll have to start paying a subscription after I finish the next level, but I’m learning the hard way that any learning system worth its salt eventually forces you to pay. You either pay up, progress at a snail's pace, or have to sit through ads. I used Duolingo in the past and liked it well enough, but I don’t really want to sit on my phone at work, so having something web based has been helpful. 

There’s really no getting around it, you need to learn Japanese if you live here in Japan. My rudimentary Japanese has gotten me by so far, but I’ve still been dependent on my supervisor for anything more complicated or official. If I want to not be as overwhelmed, or scared to interact with people here, like it or not I’ve got to study.

2. Talk With A Non-English Teacher

Speaking of studying, my second goal I’ve got in mind is also supposed to help with my Japanese. At work, I’ve mainly interacted with other Japanese English teachers, and they do their best to communicate with me in English. In addition to teaching the students, I’m also supposed to help other teachers practice their English and answer questions about English. 

It’s nice knowing I have a few coworkers I can communicate with, but that still leaves almost 3 quarters of the office that I can’t understand and have very limited communication with. At one of my visit schools, I had another staff member gingerly approach me one day, and ask if we could chat. 

I was surprised at first, they weren’t an English teacher, they worked in the school office, but still had solid English skills. After a short conversation talking about hobbies and other small talk, they asked if they could come by again the next time I was at that school. I quickly agreed, glad for something to break up my day, and hopeful for getting to know someone. 

Sadly, I won’t be returning to that school in the new school year, but I do want to borrow that idea. If I can work up the courage to approach a teacher at my main school and ask them for a favor, a quick conversation for me to practice my Japanese, I think that would be invaluable. I’ve mostly held back in fear of the inevitable awkwardness, given that I’ll probably be reaching for words or phrases I don’t know. 

Hopefully I’ll bite the bullet, and take the plunge this year. With some teachers leaving and new ones starting, I don’t really have anyone in mind. If I get lucky perhaps the new teacher who sits beside me would be willing to help me practice some daily Japanese.

3. Join A Club 

I’ve talked about wanting to do this before I’m sure, but it would be nice to get more involved at school. For one, I might be able to do part of it during work hours, which would be a nice way to break up my day. It also might allow me to get to know students and teachers in a slightly more casual way, with a common activity or interest to help break the ice. 

Since the new school year means clubs will be just starting up again with new members joining, it really is the perfect time to try and branch out. I don’t know if I’ll try and join a club that another English teacher is a part of, or do something that seems the most interesting. Either way,
I hope I can at least see what club activities in Japan are like up close. 

4. Make A Japanese Friend 

Of the two friends I’ve managed to make here in Japan, both have been foreigners. It makes sense considering my Japanese is still so poor, but it doesn’t make it less frustrating. I can make friends with people more similar to me back home. I'd like to try and make friends I wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet while I’m here in Japan. 

I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the friends I do have, I’d probably be ready to pack it in and go home without them. I want to get to know Japanese people a little bit better, what their lives have been like, how their culture informs the kind of people they become, things like that. I can only really do that if I make a Japanese friend, plus it’d be another conversation partner to practice with! 

5. Find A Hobby Outside Of My House 

When I was young, my mom always used to tell me I was barn sour. I always wanted to go home and didn’t much care to leave. Well, in some ways that’s still true. All of my hobbies, video games, anime, yoga, working out, they’re all things I can do in my own home. I like being in my own space, it lets me relax and decompress, though it is a little isolating. 

I don’t have much involvement with the border community here outside of work. So, taking up a hobby somewhere like my local community center would be a great solution to that. I might only take a class or two and give up if it’s too difficult all in Japanese, but I still should give it a try. 

6. Learn A Student’s Name 

This one feels a bit like low hanging fruit, I’m almost embarrassed I haven’t done it yet. During my summers at Byte Camp, teaching coding camps for kids, I had to learn around 10 names every week. By the end of the second day I usually knew every kid's name no problem. Granted, at Byte Camp we played a name game that involved whacking each other with a foam noodle, so that made it far easier. 

I doubt I could use the same strategy here unfortunately. I only spend about 50 minutes with a class each week, and with around 30 students each, everyone tends to become a blur. I’ve talked to a few students outside of class and felt terrible when I couldn’t remember their names. So this year I’ll try and remember at least one student’s name. 

7. Take A Trip

After exploring Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, I didn’t really have anything left that was high up on my list of places to go. The only other place I’ve really thought about has been Hokkaido, the northmost prefecture here in Japan, and a totally different island. It’s a fair bit colder up there, and the only place to ski in Japan (I think). 

They have a snow festival each year in February which might be fun to attend, but going somewhere cold has never really been my ideal trip. I’m sure there’s plenty of fun places still to explore in Japan, and I want to see as much as I can, I just need to decide what exactly those places are. 

8. Wear A Kimono 

Kimonos are a pretty important and iconic part of Japanese culture, and I can’t help but want to try wearing one. Of course, I’ve gone back and forth about whether it’s okay to wear one as a white person, if that’s appropriation, or celebration, of a culture that’s not my own. There’s plenty of articles out there on the topic, but I’d like to have a friend of my own to advise me on the matter. 

Having someone you know personally gives a level of frankness that online articles tend to lack. If they thought it was a good idea, I’d also want their help picking one out, either to rent or buy. I’d probably also need their help putting it on and making sure I was wearing it correctly. So as much as I’d like to try it, this goal is probably more of a maybe than the others. 

9. Go To An Onsen 

Bathing is a rather unique aspect of Japanese culture, and one that I’ve been curious about, but so far unable to participate in. Onsen (hot springs) and Sento (public baths) both usually prohibit people with tattoos, of which I have 6. If I had smaller ones, or maybe just one I could cover with a skin colored sleeve, I might give it a try and go to a standard one. 

My tattoos however, are on the bigger side, and can be bright and colorful, a bit tougher to hide. There are some places that allow customers with tattoos, but they’re certainly more rare, and need to be sought out. It’s something I quite want to try, but hard to justify a special trip just to take a bath. 

10. Go To Tokyo Disneyland

It’s Disneyland, of course I want to go. 

So there you have it, some goals I’ve thought up for the year. Studying Japanese is probably the easiest, everyday I feel like I’m confronted with how little I know. Rather than run from it, I might as well try to improve and become less scared of it. Aside from Japanese, I hope to get a little more involved with the community, and continue to have experiences I can only have here in Japan.

These goals were fun to think about, even if it feels like idle daydreaming at times. I can’t magically get rid of all the obstacles that were preventing, or making these things difficult in the first place. Picturing myself achieving or doing these things is at least a good first step, and I have a whole school year ahead to try and work towards the things on this list. 

Hopefully in a year’s time I’ll be able to look back on this list and be proud of the progress I’ve made. Or at least have some fun stories about how I tried and maybe even failed at achieving some of these goals. Setting a goal doesn’t mean you’ll succeed, and achieving your goal isn’t the only measure of success either. Working towards a goal, is a success in itself, because you tried, and that’s far more important.