When Ellen first moved to Japan, she was READY. Ready to waltz into a new job, and be the best Assistant Language Teacher EVER!
And in the beginning, it was great. She moved into a fantastic Leopalace, rented by her employer. It was so clean and all hers. Yeah it was a little small, and the air con unit did nothing to combat the hot, Japanese summer, but all was gravy.
Ellen's first day at her new school was amazing too. She gave a great self introduction, and totally had her class eating out of the palm of her hand.
But even better than work, was the great social life that went with it. A few colleagues and Ellen discovered Nomihodai (all you can drink) and the fun never stopped.
Quickly, Ellen learned that her teaching job was a bit of an uphill struggle. Motivating the kids in her countryside school was difficult, and she mainly just smiled and said "Let's speak English" in a peppy fashion. Still, everyone loved the novelty Gaijin, and it wasn't all that bad.
In fact, the speech contest student Ellen was tutoring invited her over for dinner with his family. Ellen found this a totally awkward time, as she didn't speak any Japanese, and couldn't refuse the raw sea urchin that was passed to her on a plate. She dreamed of Kara-age and Nomi hodai.
NOMI HODAI!
School was just getting worse for Ellen, as pubescent boys started asking her to define words like 'boobs' and 'sex' that they found in their dictionaries. There wasn't an easy way to combat this, so all Ellen did was push through the day, knowing that at the end of this term was golden week, and she could leave all of these trying students behind.
A FANTASTIC golden week spent in Thailand really refreshed Ellen. In fact, it made her start to question what had motivated her to teach English in Japan in the first place. The long working hours meant her leopalace apartment hadn't been clean for about a month, her lesson plans had become sterile, and the lack of English proficiency in her classes had begun to make her despair. At least there was still
NOMI HODAI
Back at work, Ellen painstakingly tried to improve the accents of her students, but her heart wasn't really in it. Her dreams were of Thailand, the USA and Nomi hodai. As Friday approached, and she received a LINE message about the latest AJET night out, things started looking up. But when Ellen looked in her bank account, she realised a night in with tins of cheap, tasteless, rich malt was all she could afford.
Ellen's weekend was spent in treacherous self loathing and pity. She was recognised by the convenience store staff, and could feel their judging eyes upon her as she approached the liquor fridge. Monday morning, she was hungover as hell, but still managed to stumble into her Junior High.
There, on the desk, was an updated textbook. Ellen flicked through the pages. She sighed, as she noted the grammatical mistakes, and uninspiring exercises. Then she did a double take. That character, that ALT, she looked just like her. Wait, it was her! Ellen was in the very textbook that she was reading. What was going on? Ellen stuffed the textbook in her bag and ran home, unsure of what to do next. Cowering in her purpose built apartment, Ellen questioned life as she had known it. Everything she was about, all of her hopes and dreams, reduced to a two dimensional trope of a foreigner in an English textbook.
Huddled on the floor, and sobbing quietly, Ellen wondered how this could have happened. All she had wanted to do was to visit Japan and teach English. The magnitude of being immortalised forever in a national textbook brought a new kind of pain, the kind of pain which even Nomi Hodai couldn't solace.
Ki wo tsukete, Ellen Baker.
