I am an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). Thing is, I'm definitely not a teacher. I do have a college degree, but it's in biochemistry which is very far from teaching. I'm also not expected to most of the teacher stuff like grading and making lesson plans and all the other things I don't know about. The assistant part of my title is more important the teacher part. However people still call me "Juno sensei" which is a little weird to me, so perhaps I'll try to tell people to just call me Juno. Anyway, that isn't exactly the point of this blog post, but it touches on it. The point of this blog post is to discuss how the students view me.
As I've somewhat established, I'm an assistant to the English teacher. I spend a lot of time hanging out in the corner of the classroom and do things when called to do so. I hang out in the hallways at lunch and wait outside for all the buses to leave. These are the times I interact with the students. My students' favorite way to interact with me is to wave at me and see how long it takes for me to notice and wave back. Some of them walk up, high five me, then walk away. Others like to stand near me, probably too shy to say anything. Some have realized I can understand them if they speak simple enough Japanese, others just wave or use the occasional English.
Now, they are kids, so they don't necessarily think too deeply about what adults are up to, but I think the best way to describe how most students view me is as a cute pet. It's like when you are taking a walk and see a cute dog in a window and get excited when it notices you and wags its tail. The dog is aware of your existence, can recognize you, understand some basic communication, does tricks, but you don't really expect much from the dog. It's a cute dog, or in my case I'm a cute foreigner. I stand in the corner, wave to everyone as they leave school, speak English when requested in class, and interact with them if approached. They don't expect me to know or understand much. I've startled some kids when I know their names or heard them talking about me then walked up and answered their questions.
Not everyone views me this way, though. One of the first years who sits closest to my usual corner of the classroom has taken to watching me to see how I react to various situations like the other students doing something weird, their reading that day, or whatever crazy weather is happening that day. Also will sometimes look to me for a clarification of what something means, like after hearing a word in English will turn to me and say the word in Japanese, looking to see if he has the correct understanding. Another kid asks me a lot of odd questions, but that's a story for another blog post. These interactions to me show that these kids see the humanity in me, more than just cool thing to wave at that speaks English. I have nothing against the kids who just want to wave at me or completely ignore my existence, but it is interesting to see the kids make that connection that I can understand and communicate more than just pronunciation and a wave.
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