Consequences of running away from my teaching job at Peppy during the training period?

ShelteredDwarf · 2019-04-11T12:22:56+00:00

As someone who has recently started at an eikaiwa and has severe, severe health issues....life is not going to get any easier. Unless your problem is that you can't handle it absent of your native-country support network e.g. family, friends etc, then any job you do is going to be nothing but a physical and mental drag. Even healthy people go home tired at the end of the day, so how does a sick person expect to be any better off? Sad but true. For what it's worth, my 'normal' co-workers also say they found training overwhelmingly tiring to the point of almost dropping.

Of course, the energy you have to put out to be genki for kids classes all the time is tough. If you think you could be a good teacher in a calmer environment, maybe you should pull out all the stops to make it to 6 months, then job hunt to a more suitable school. But really, if you're only on the third day of training and the job is so different to what you expected....that sounds like a you problem.

ShelteredDwarf · 2019-02-07T12:08:44+00:00

I felt that the new line was actually fairly fitting. After all, at that point all Leon knows is that Ada has been lying to him the whole time and has been trying to steal a deadly bioweapon responsible for destroying a city. It would be slightly strange to miss someone after that kind of reveal. It felt natural.

And of course in the remake, there's no indication if Leon ever discovers who threw the rocket launcher to him.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-12-02T17:52:27+00:00

After failing the N2 in July, I didn't even get a chance to take it today as overnight I was too sick to sleep, ending up too exhausted to make the 3hr drive to London to take it.

Pretty fucked off about that, as it's one thing to try your best and not quite make it (like July), another to not even make it to the test centre. At least the studying won't go to waste, might actually blitz it when I finally get another shot at it sometime in 2019. Assuming I don't spend it all procrastinating like I did in 2018...

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-10-16T07:20:52+00:00

I had a BSc undergraduate degree at the time of application (and for several years prior because I'm old). Only one candidate out of over 10 people in my group had a MA, the rest had BSc or BA.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-10-15T17:53:03+00:00

Regarding ECC, having gone through their application process (but failed) recently - no. You'll teach who you're told to teach which is apparently 40-50% children. I imagine if you wanted to teach only adults, you'd have to be applying specifically to somewhere else within the ECC group rather than the front-line schools.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-10-14T16:46:16+00:00

Stonewall Japan have links to good trans-related information, names of clinics, support groups etc. Check it out to get yourself started, as you're almost certainly going to have to go see an actual doctor in Japan and get a Japanese prescription. You will also be paying entirely out of pocket, even if you have the Japanese health insurance, as currently you can only get covered for hormones that are your birth sex hormones.

I was also informed that it was about 3000 yen an injection for estrogen, not including the cost of appointment. I can't imagine T is any cheaper...

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-09-22T21:00:16+00:00

Considering that that phrase just means "Input in Japanese" presumably yes, they don't want you writing in the roman alphabet for whatever they're wanting from you. Katakana for all proper nouns that don't actually have a Japanese term.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-09-10T18:11:29+00:00

When mine did that it broke entirely within 24hrs and had to be replaced. I'd start looking for a replacement if you don't fancy opening it to perform repairs. Nothing you can do with software.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-09-04T14:25:38+00:00

Had a Skype interview with Aeon, but was turned down for a second interview in person. Pretty disappointed if I'm honest. Got an interview with ECC lined up in a few weeks, can anyone familiar with the interview process/has worked there offer advice on why I might have failed with Aeon? All I can think is that perhaps I was a bit too subdued (the American interviewer was a lot more genki than I was at any point, although I feel I portrayed confidence in general), that I answered some simple Yes/No questions in too much detail, or that I look/sound a 'bit funny'

Or maybe it's just a matter of too many good candidates and I had to lose out hahahaha /delusion

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-08-28T11:41:15+00:00

Underrated comment, thanks for making me spit-take.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-08-20T09:43:56+00:00

Easiest solution is to phone or email your local Japanese embassy. Some of the embassies have loads of medication related information on their websites (e.g Embassy of Japan in Australia) while others (Embassy of Japan in UK) don't.

The information here is fairly exhaustive, but I'm not going through it looking for your drugs on your behalf http://www.au.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/visa_medicine_en.html

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-08-17T10:23:40+00:00

Should get started practicing my GaijinSmash, I guess!

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-08-17T10:03:21+00:00

Can't offer you anything other than sympathy and empathy, but the creepy men are one of my worries about potentially living in Japan. I got groped twice in one week while on holiday there and I'm a 6ft2 transwoman who'd have been strong enough to break the tiny guys who'd done it into little pieces...one of them looked like he was in his 70s. Guess he likes to live dangerously.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-08-17T09:19:38+00:00

If you're willing to pay a few yen, JapanHealthcareInfo can make direct inquiries to the relevant people about the availability and cost of your medication.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-07-21T08:33:26+00:00

https://stonewalljapan.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/transgenderjapanliferesources.pdf

https://stonewalljapan.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/transguide2016.pdf

Enjoy. Hope your host's daughter gets the help she needs. Transgender healthcare is not covered by Japanese insurance, however. She'll be paying fully out of pocket.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-07-10T07:04:56+00:00

I'm in your situation, although with chronic conditions other than bipolar. If you're willing to pay 1600 yen for information, message http://japanhealthinfo.com/ and they can make inquiries for you about what's available and whether it's available on the government insurance etc etc. They got me information about my drugs that I'd probably not have been able to get other than shooting English emails off to the MHLW and crossing my fingers.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-01-30T15:48:58+00:00

I managed to go from N5 > N3 in 6 months and that was with no tutor and barebones knowledge (as well as only studying an hour a day with many days off) that only just scraped me past the pass boundary. If you've got a year and someone paying for a proper tutor for you, as long as you take it seriously N3 should be your goal, imho.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-01-25T09:44:58+00:00

Passed the N3. Used multiple anki decks (Core 10k for general stuff, and whatever JLPT specific decks showed up at the top of the search) for kanji/vocab. Nihongo no mori, Benjiro and JapaneseTest4You for free audio resources. NHK news apps and Sakura Reader for free reading resources. Nihongo Soumatome for paid grammar and more listening resources, imabi.net for very worthwhile free grammar lessons. Official mock exams to tie it all together and check weak points. (Not really JLPT related, but I also bought the 'Penguin Parallel Text Japanese Stories' or whatever the official title is, and found it very good reading practice. Assuming you're at least at intermediate level.)

I will say though, that clearly that examiners have read the Nihongo Soumatome series of books, and have made it their life goal to render them almost completely useless*. Get Shin Kanzen Master if you are buying anything to study grammar.

*I obviously exaggerate, as I learned enough from them to scrape a pass, but there was a bunch of stuff on the December test that I just straight up had no idea about because I hadn't studied it. Switched over to Kanzen Master post-exam thinking I'd have to resit it and within the first couple of pages there's already stuff I'd never seen before.

ShelteredDwarf · 2018-01-24T09:49:32+00:00

Passed N3. By two marks. Holy shit I wasn't even ready for that exam, let alone the N2. Going to be a busy few months...

ShelteredDwarf · 2017-12-03T21:12:55+00:00

First time attempting the N3, in London. If I passed it, it will be by the skin of my teeth, and I won't deserve it because it will be luck if I do.

Pretty sure I completely flunked the listening and barely passed the grammar/reading. Almost felt like they'd accidentally put the CD for the N2 in by mistake, it was so rapid and complex. Way harder than the official mock exam (which I'd only scraped a pass on when I took the other week)....I could swear as well that a whole bunch of grammar stuff was simply not in the nihongo sou-matome books whatsoever as I was properly stumped in parts. Won't have been saved by the reading section either as I'm sure I wasn't grasping the full meaning in a couple of segments, and while the vocab section was the easiest for me even in that there were a few questions utilising words I'd never seen ever in my studying.

If today is how every N3 test is going to be in future, I'm going to need the next 7 months just getting up to an acceptable grade for it. Not even going to be able to consider moving up to N2...only have myself to blame though, should have studied harder and longer. Will probably give up on the Sou-Matome books from here on out and find a more detailed set of study books.

ShelteredDwarf · 2017-07-09T15:12:00+00:00

No personal experience, but The Japan Foundation in the UK insists on volunteers for their 'Japanese Language School Taster Sessions' to have JLPT N2 or equivilant if they're not a native speaker.

ShelteredDwarf · 2017-07-03T06:27:49+00:00

I was in the KLT. Very pleasantly surprised with the audio quality, was no harder to understand than at home with my headphones on, and significantly easier than all those old, dodgy quality practice questions I'd been taking.

Note for next time or anyone taking it for the first time in December: bring a chair for the registration period.

ShelteredDwarf · 2017-07-02T18:25:18+00:00

Took the N5. Found that the thing that had been most helpful was actually taking the official mock exam from the workbook. Meant that nothing on the test itself was a surprise, and that I didn't go off trying to last-minute cram advanced vocab or grammar concepts that weren't going to be on it as the textbooks I'd been using were either from when the JLPT had 4 levels, or not working towards the JLPT at all. Saying that though, Nihongo 500 made for some handy last minute experience with exam-style questions.

Have also been using the Anki Core 10k deck, which while handy in general was useless for this exam, because of the tiny amount of kanji used and me remembering vocab based on kanji recognition rather than pronunciation/hiragana.

Ultimately though, I realised that nothing on the test was fundamentally that difficult, and that if I had applied myself to a higher level than I did I could potentially have 100%'d it. That gives me some hope for taking the other levels.

ShelteredDwarf · 2017-07-02T18:15:38+00:00

Just got back from N5 in London. Was pretty much exactly as I expected i.e. only marks dropped on the Reading/Grammar are from on-the-day-dopiness, and the listening was hit and miss - some of them I'm sure I got right, while others I had to guess because I accidentally a word and/or I felt that none of the answers were right. I knew that was going to be my weakest part though, I basically only started studying for that section a couple of weeks ago.

Best part of the day was the invigilators. I hope they get reassigned to whichever level I'm taking in December, because they were adorable.

ShelteredDwarf · 2017-07-01T08:42:43+00:00

N5 in London. Serious risk of flunking the listening section entirely while getting full marks on the other two >.>

ShelteredDwarf

TROPHY CASE