An impasse

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In my ongoing struggle against sameness I have found myself all tied up in knots. Knots comprised primarily of frustration. My big idea for "culture day" was nay-sayed due to my goal of collecting a donation to better the lives of poor people. The donation would have been 50 yen each, or about 45 American cents.

Remember that amount of yen wont buy you any kind of useful item. But multiply that by hundreds of upper-middle class students and some genuine capital could be generated. The funds would have gone to buy cement bricks, plywood and plumbing supplies for hard working, yet impoverished Malaysian Borneans. I am using my precious 10 days of holiday to volunteer. The activity was like a copy of jeopardy! But using hint cards and colored flags to put the world map into relative perspective for my students.

The reason given for the rejection of my plan was that giving money is against the rules. Well my employer dislike change and the powers that hanko (Japanese name seals) have not used the chance to teach philanthropy to the students. With the buzzword in Japan being internationalization, they have far to go to actually follow through in a genuine way.

I just hope my school reconsiders. By not liking or using my ideas at such events and in class, aren't they just future marginalizing my purpose for being here? Japan is after all the richest country on the planet, but surely not among the most generous, worldly or flexible.

Part of a language is having the cultural background to teach it properly. Japan's Ministry of Education needs to take a long, hard and focused look at that; otherwise it is just going to be business as usual. The method of accentuating differences between Japanese and non-Japanese and the practice of hiring English teachers who can only speak Textbook should end.

If you want to be inflexible and fundamentally against making compromises, Washington is hiring.