My Gulag: Part I

Guest post by Net Pariah

PRELUDE to MY GULAG

In the fall of 2000, I was working as an A.L.T in the capital city of a rural prefecture in Honshu. Unlike almost all the others who had been around longer than three years I got the feeling--the right one as it turned out--that the B.O.E. there was planning on getting rid of everyone who had been there 3 years or longer, and that included me. I began quietly looking for a job. Looking everywhere. I had figured it out that since they were the ones ditching us, that now was the time to break my contract early and make the move to the college level. If you didn't know it already, the genius who designed the J.E.T. program had the A.L.T.'s contracts start at a time such that their work year overlaps the work years of college teachers. Perhaps there was some wisdom or cunning in this, actually, since it inhibits A.L.T.s jumping ship for the college jobs (although there is small chance of this happening generally anyway since the A.L.T. gig tends to be pretty cushy and since most J.E.T.s are unqualified or uninterested in teaching college. It happens that this did not apply to me though and as "luck" would have it I was invited to a job interview.

The interview was with a guy who I'll henceforth call No-gnads, the English teacher at this little junior college. There was also a strange woman who I'll call Lying Mormon Bitch, in her 50s, who I learned I'd be replacing where I was hired. She was incredibly supportive, but as I later found out, a wellspring of misinformation. She was the kind of person who no matter how poorly we'd been treated she'd still feel loyalty toward her employer, even if it meant totally misrepresenting them to applicants. I still feel a lot of animosity towards her, in fact, but I guess I am a wiser person now. I'm also a different person in ways I would have preferred not to have become.

Anyway, the first interview had happened so quickly--I'd made a phone call from my junior high and had been scheduled into a time-slot the following week, which I'd had little time to prepare. I met with the two of them and we were soon joined by a son-of-a-bitch I'll henceforth call Ass-Head. He was sort of the head of the junior college second only to Riji-Cho. The atmosphere of the first interview was so relaxed that I felt very at ease and was really looking forward to working there. If nothing else, if I got the job (and I thought I probably would) it would be a nice way to break into the college scene.

A few days later the Lying Mormon Bitch called me back and said that I'd done well and that they wanted to meet me again, except that this time Riji-Cho herself wanted to look me over. She also told me that No-gnads felt I should prepare better for this one, bringing in lesson plans and teaching materials. I had about five days to prepare and so every night every spare moment was spent typing up lesson plans into a template that I devised on the spot. One of the lessons involved distributing random photos and random descriptions of photos and having the students mill about and match up photos and descriptions--pretty standard stuff, only problem being I had no photos and no description cards, so hours were also spent typing these up and cropping photos on Adobe. Perhaps I went over the top, but I was determined not to be begging for scraps the following spring when the B.O.E let us all go.

On the morning of the interview, in the computer room of my junior high, I finally finished printing out and gluing onto pasteboard about seventy photos and description cards, my wife having been smuggled in to assist me. I donned my suit cleaned the print and glue off my hands and we shot across the prefecture. In the last mile, I wanted to make a note and the pen I picked out of the glove compartment leaked black ink all over my hand. I freaked out and we pulled into a 7-11 to get my hands clean. Finally, composed (somewhat) we arrived at the college. I got my briefcase and bag of teaching materials out, told my wife I'd call her later when I was finished and walked up for my first meeting with Riji-Cho.

For the sake of brevity I will say that No-gnads seemed very nervous and was sweating a lot. I got through it all right, already feeling some confidence from the previous interview, and managed to speak in fairly intelligible Japanese during most of the interview. It was evident that he held him not only in high esteem, but that he was also scared shitless of him. I thought at the time that he seemed like an authoritative but considerate sort. I was disappointed that no one had even the slightest interest in the teaching materials that had been demanded, and as for the letters of recommendation the envelopes were not even looked at. In fact I now recall that I thought I saw Riji-Cho actually smirked when I presented them as though it were a joke. At the time I interpreted this as a sort of offhanded casualness.

Wishful thinking I guess. Riji-Cho asked the normal bullshit questions and I answered appropriately, No-gnads offering to help when necessary. It was obvious that he wanted me to get the job (for his own reasons because if they didn't find some sorry sucker he'd be teaching a double-load) and I gladly accepted his support. But even from my first telephone conversation with him I had sensed something wrong with him, something oily, something . . . well let me put it this way: he reminded me of my first supervisor 6 years before and that guy had been friendly enough but he'd also been stunningly incompetent. The votes were certainly not all in on No-gnads but that was the feeling I picked up on. As it turned out he was much much worse than my former supervisor.

The job were I to accept it necessitated that, or it was strongly encouraged anyway, I and my wife move from the capital where we were very happily situated out to some bumphuk dirt-town. We looked at a couple of apartments in the area closest to the college. The rent was nearly one-and-a-half times that of our place in X______, and only marginally nicer. In short there was nothing about the place that we liked. I was also miffed that although earlier in negotiation stage No-gnads had suggested that the "full-time position" as it had been advertised included a small bonus as well as compensation for rent equaling 80,000 yen. Once they had me hooked and had discerned that I was in real need of the position, the full-time position was explained away as "somebody's mistake" and these perks all quickly evaporated. At the interview I made it clear (and No-gnads translated it correctly and accurately to Riji-Cho) that part-time schedule was agreeable with me as long as I were able to continue my evening courses and that that meant my schedule needed to be a bit flexible.

What they had meant to write in the ad they said was that if after the first year I worked out, then a full-time position would be considered. They also had another surprise for me. They only needed me at the college two days a week. On the three other days I would be required to teach at the high school and the pre-school that were also under Riji-Cho's magnanimous guidance. Since, I would in title at least be a week-long college teacher this was not completely disagreeable. In my 6-year experience work in public education had been largely sitting around drinking tea and surfing the net. As for the pre-school, well it was not something I could really expect to look forward to every week, but I had visited pre-schools before and most of the time I had worked with a couple of classes in the morning and then returned to my main school. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. So, all things considered, my situation would be markedly better than were I to have to move to another city as an A.L.T. again or worse yet go to an eikaiwa. Note: eikaiwa was never a real danger, because at least in the public education realm I have friends and connections throughout the prefecture. I have been here long enough that I know a lot of people and the right kind of people, and not through cultivation but honest happenstance.

Even my supervisors in the capital city like me and were very supportive of my leaving early having written letters of recommendation and so on, but this was all secondary to the fact that I desperately wanted to get to the next level. And, I told myself, sacrifices might be necessary in the way of convenience and comfort. I had no idea what sacrifices would be necessary in the way of self-respect before this was all over. For the moment though there had been a turn and a twist here and there all seemed to be going in the right direction at least in the big picture. I called No-gnads one day to confirm the agreement we'd all agreed to at the interview and that I would be able to continue my 6:00 classes in a different city as well as my 5:30 class in the city nearby. Both necessitated that I leave about twenty to thirty minutes before the regular leaving time. This should not have been a problem since other part-time teachers at the same school leave early. But they had special plans for me.

[Dear readers, sorry to run off at the mouth, but I want you all to understand all the elements that were running around my mind and playing their various roles in my decision-making process. It will do little for enhancing your understanding of the abuse of power that was to come but it may preclude some remarks later to the effect that I was foolish or spineless to put up with so much for so long, so thank you for bearing with me. The gang rape is about to begin and you, gentle souls, are invited to have a laugh at my expense.]

It turned out that we were not forced to move to the dirt-town, thankfully since that would have certainly further isolated us and would have no doubt impeded our escape as well as maimed us with deposits and key money. The boss of my former mentally-handicapped supervisor had six months prior twice asked me if I wouldn't consider moving into the house next to his. While the prospect of living next to your landlord who has also been your superior and could easily make it tough for you (through the grapevine that is public education) were things not to work out, I began to seriously consider it. Before looking at the other apartments it had been a sort of last resort. After all it wasn't really close to the junior college and besides I have learned not to mix my private and my professional life.

However, I had since coming to Japan always greatly admired Mr. K, as one of the enigmas of the city hall. A city officer high up in public education and rising who was not a two-faced half-wit but rather a genuine, unassuming, intelligent and cultivated man. Since moving in next door to him and his family nearly two years ago they have never given us the slightest reason for regret. To the contrary they have been a great help and a comfort through hard times. In his case my instinct for character was correct. O' were that it had been in the case of the abusers!

[And with this all said, I should like to conclude my prelude and do now gentle readers lay before you the record, poorly written as it is, of the inhumanities that I and others did suffer at this ignoble hellhole still to this day masquerading as a institution of higher learning. The style becomes increasingly loose and you may interpret this as the declining condition of my deteriorating mental faculties at the time. ]

June 16th, 2001. I have been maintaining radio silence recently. If you want to know what has been going on in our lives just read on something very close to systematic terrorization. But we seem to have survived and gotten through the worst of so . . . Well I've heard about this kind of stuff happening to the other guy, so I guess it finally came to be my turn. My feeling at the time is that I'll probably stay here for a while, but I gotta get outa here fast before I am typecast. Only having Mr. Tagalog the Filipino teacher here to talk to and ask for guidance.

I am at high school today, sitting at a very plain desk in a very plain office for the part-time teachers, among whom I am one. Things seem to have quieted down quite a bit since the first week, but I am all the poorer for it now. I had nothing but misinformation and trouble all during my first week here. Last Monday, the first "day of work" I expected to be introduced to the other staff members and to attend a few meetings, and so naturally I was looking my best in my new suit. When I arrived at the school and walked into the teachers' room the place looked like it had been turned over by vandals. Desks were scattered everywhere, papers and files on the floor, electrical cords lay in tangles and equipment such as copy machines, fax machines, and printers were everywhere.

No-gnads found me standing there and without explanation asked me to find a chair and sit there until he came back from the morning meeting. When I asked why I wasn't attending the meeting, he explained that only full-time teachers attended the morning meetings and left me there to enjoy breathing the still unsettled dust. He returned 50 minutes later and explained matter-of-factly, "Now we have to move everything out of this room and take it to different rooms all over the school."

It seems that just the night before, that it had been decided that the teachers would be moved into separate offices in pairs. So, without introduction to the staff, we all began carrying scores of desks, cabinets, thousands of books and other office equipment across the campus and up as many as three flights of stairs. And did that all day. The next day all we did was clean out storerooms. At the end of the day, No-gnads told me that I should go to the pre-school the next day.

The next day I took the train to K_______ City and walked to the pre-school, which was not easy to find since no one told me how to get there except that it was across the street from the high school. But no one told me that the high school has three different locations. I arrived there, expecting to be greeted by the other teachers, but nobody knew I was coming and the office was thrown into chaos by my arrival. The Head Teacher was also kind enough to inform me that they "really hadn't asked for my weekly visits anyway." In other words, "we really don't need (want) you here." Another American woman visits there every weekday but Wednesday, and they really don't want to work with a male.

I said that that was fine and later explained that I needed to leave by 3:15 to teach in A__________ by 4:45. And she said that that was fine as long as No-gnads knew about it which he did because I'd explained it to him in details a number of times and had even given him my schedule in writing. Flexible hours had been one of the major points of negotiation at the interview. I left and taught the classes. That involves me taking the train one station back about five minutes to E__________, getting off there and then walking down through about 2 km of rice fields. Since this was my first time to go to the class by this route I wasn't quite if I was going the right way, and I was beginning to get a little worried when a truck passed me and pulled over to the side of the road. Out jumped Mr. R__________, a cucumber farmer and the husband of the woman who runs the juku. I was wheeled off in his mini-truck, laden with vegetables.

Before I started the R__________'s class I called the college and asked for the number of the high school. Then I called the high school to make sure that they had been told by No-gnads that I was coming, since I was sure he hadn't. After putting me on hold several times they came back and said that there was no plan for me to come in the next day, but that they guessed it would be okay for me to come in the morning. I said I'd be there by 8:50 a.m. my usual beginning time. But the next morning I decided to go to the college first and talk to No-gnads about what had happened at the kindergarten and how no one had been expecting me at the high school. I also wanted to talk to him about his meeting with Riji-cho (the president of the college). They had been afraid that she would want me to stay at the yochien until 5:15, and I wanted to assure him that it was okay with them if I left early since they didn't really want me there at all anyway.

We called the high school at 8:20 to let them know I wouldn't be in quite so early. By around 10:00 I was at the school. First thing I heard was that the English teacher had been waiting for me since 8:50 since my and No-gnads's message hadn't been passed along to her; and this has proven to be typical of the way all matter are handled here. She was nice enough though and her English wasn't bad either. She had a class to teach, but came back and we talked for about forty-five minutes. Around that time the vice-principal came in and said that since they had no plan for me that day, that I should just return to my house. And after the English teacher (Y__________) and I had finished talking she reiterated the same thing to me, that I should go home. So, I'm stupid. What do I do? I go home. When I got home there was a message for me. No-gnads had called. I called him back but there was no answer on his cell phone. He called me back around 6:30 to inform me that RIJI-CHO had "FOUND OUT" that I had left early and "GOT VERY ANGRY" at ME.

Of course, I was floored by this news, since first of all No-gnads was well aware of my schedule. Second, I specifically negotiated a contract with flexibility in the hours as long as I'm part-time, and since the vice-principal had specifically sent me home. Despite the conditions of the contract which I'd negotiated, No-gnads advised me that it was in my own best interests to discontinue teaching any evening classes that required me leaving earlier than 5:15. Because of his failure to communicate with me and with the other schools, I found myself in a situation in which I had no choice but to give in for a loss of about two or three thousand dollars that year; quitting my job would cost me considerably more. No-gnads said we'd talk about it the next morning. I spent the rest of the evening on the phone finding replacements for those two classes, explaining and apologizing to people I'd worked for over two years.

You can imagine I was pretty pissed about how everything had been handled so far so. That next morning rather than wait for them to find me, I went straight into Ass-head's office and told him I wanted a meeting that morning before class. Though I was speaking quietly he could tell that I was not pleased. We met at about 9:00 a.m. and I came prepared with notes. Rather than apologize I spent about 15 minutes "scolding" them for the way things had been handled, for not honoring the contract, for their lack of tact, lack of communication, for making me look bad, for placing me in an embarrassing position with the two private classes, for putting the same two jukus in a difficult position since they would have to get new teachers, for a substantial loss of income on my part and for endangering my future prospects of getting on full-time there at the college. They took this all in fairly well, acknowledging their faults, said that they'd explain everything to RIJI-CHO and that it was not THAT big of a deal that I should think that she'd still remember it next year when contracts are rewritten. So the meeting ended well (well, as well as could be expected) and I went off to teach my first college class in Japan.

That class has about 34 students in it, mostly girls, but maybe six or seven guys too. I got through it okay, but felt a little nervous. I'm not used to speaking in a room that big. It's about four times as large as a junior high school classroom. But it's a really nice room with a large video screen and overheard projector. The students' English level is pretty low though. On the handout I gave them I asked them "Are you really interested in English?" One student wrote, "No, are am."

It was on one of these first days that I met a Filipino teacher there, the only other foreigner there, Mr. Tagalog, was a constant source of commiseration for me. I met him for the first time when walking into the computer lab and seeing him only in quarter-profile, I spoke to him in Japanese. He turned and looked at me and said, "Oh your the new guy (Lying Mormon Bitch) told me NP's the man."

Seeing the confusion on my face, he quickly added. "Oh I'm not Japanese." Of course, only having seen most young Filipino men from behind and in the dark, I would not have been able to place his nationality so quickly and he was nothing like the Filipinos I had met before. He was somewhat heavy set and had a moustache. He had been around for a couple of years already and knew the score. Upon my initiation to the SYSTEM he told me that this was exactly the way it was, resistance was futile, and that everyone hated it there. He is however a character that is destined to be under-developed, which is too bad because seeing him every morning over coffee and spending many afternoons with him in the computerlab we came to be good friends. I would have surely gone mad without him. But this is a story about the Evil Junior College and me.

So, I'm still here at the high school. I just team-taught my first high school class and the students' level was probably lower than at most junior high schools I have taught at. One girl on the front row spent the hour putting on make-up and staring into a ten-inch mirror setting on her desk, and one whole row of six boys were all sleeping with their heads on their desks. Another boy had cuts all over his face. Another girl plays with a package of false eyelashes. And this is one of the better classes. In the normal classes the previous ALT told me that one girl was trimming her hair during the pair work. Fortunately, I don't care.

Working at this school is two parts a pain in the ass and one part embarrassment. When I tell anybody I'm teaching high school in K_______, they say "Oh no, you're not working at K_______ Dai Ichi are you?" Then they just laugh at me. K_______ Dai Ichi is well known as the worst school in F______. When one teacher told me that she thought that the students here have the lowest ability in F______, I answered, "I believe you." I have many 5th graders at primary schools with more English skill. K_______ Dai Ichi is the end of the educational line for kids who have worked hard at hardly working in order to get there. Still, I'm lucky. The class I taught today was for the higher-level students.

Later I had a meeting with the vice-principal, and let him know the trouble I'd had because of his sending me home without telling RIJI-CHO. In other words, I am not letting them get away with any of that nonsense and letting them know that at least in my case, shit does not always flow downstream. [Readers may feel free to guffaw at this point] I asked him to talk to RIJI-CHO ASAP and to later tell me what was said. But they never did. When I got back to the part-timers' office, I learned that we newcomers don't even get a proper desk (desk shortage and space shortage) so we'll just have to use regular students desks all day. I'm now sitting at the train station. Train comes in another thirty-five minutes. Sitting here listening to Above The Law's Black Mafia Life on the MD player. Gotta get home and meet three mothers and their three children (all 6th grader). They're coming over at 7:00 p.m. for about one hour to discuss the kids starting classes at our house.

Looking at another 20,000 yen a month. Will at least begin to make up for the losses mentioned above. Oh right, I mentioned that I joined a religious cult. Did a self-intro in the teachers' room today and sat through the morning meeting afterward. I have never seen anything like it before. All the teachers, about fifty of them. Then, one teacher led the rest of the teachers in an incantation of sorts, I suppose a kind of meditation on how they should do a good job all day. Maybe to keep them from all going crazy at this place.