Why, hello there! It sure has been a very, very long time since the last time that we talked! Well, needless to say, by looking at the title of this blog post, you can tell that I have been a busy woman, not including taking some time to travel a bit and my little side hustle of tutoring students at a small English school. Well, I’m back and I hope that I didn’t keep you waiting too long, but I’m really excited to share with you my experiences at my 10, well, technically 9-day internship (but I’ll get into those details later) at a local elementary school.
So, prior to coming to Japan, as many of you know, I was studying Middle Grades Education at my home university. Well, when I decided to come to Japan, one of the main things I wanted to accomplish during my time here was to gain some experience working in a Japanese school, but mainly an elementary school since I will be certified to teach Kindergarten through 8th grade. Talking with one of my friends who completed the internship here at NUFS the semester before had nothing but good things to say about it and I knew that I made the right decision, although my internship started during the first 2 weeks of our long 3-months break ~_~’.
To get enrolled into an internship here at NUFS, I had to attend a meeting for all students that were interested in one during the Fall Semester, a few months ago. There were literally only 2 students at the meeting, another girl who was looking into the same internship and myself, but in the end, it was only me. At that meeting, I met with the director of NUFS International Department and learned about the different opportunities that were offered, internships ranging from hotel and travel management to daycare services, learned about how to conduct myself in a professional Japanese setting, and what I needed to do to complete and earn my internship credit. A few weeks later, I had another meeting with an advisor who set up my placement at a local school called Nagakute Minami Elementary School, which is located about a 10-minute bike ride away from I-House. My advisor then informed me that I would have to go with her during a day in January to give my あいさつ (aisatsu) “self-introduction” to the principal of the school.
So, on the day of my self-introduction, I met with my advisor and walked to the school. I met the principal and a few other staff members and teachers, had my picture taken for my name tag, and gave my あいさつ in Japanese. I basically just told them my name, where I came from, what I am currently studying, and thanked them for the opportunity…and then I was done. My advisor did some information/paperwork exchange and then we were on our way back to campus. During the trip back, she informed me that I was very lucky (at least in her eyes) because the principal was going to prepare a desk for me that I could work at and observe from in the teachers’ office! I felt a little special because I knew that would help me feel a bit more like a part of the working dynamic of the school.
(My desk, where I practiced a lot of Kanji…)
Just 2 weeks after my self-introduction, my internship started on January 21st! After a slight mishap of accidently going to the junior high school rather than the elementary school that was just located a street over, I arrived at Nagakute Minami, parked my bike, and was greeted by a staff member who showed me to my shoe locker and brought me to the teachers’ office, where I met with the principal again. I was given my schedule and asked to wait in the office until all of the teachers arrived. Once all of the teachers were at their desks, the principal led me into the office and began to introduce me to the staff…and then he asked me to give an あいさつ, which I had prepared the night before throughout my restless night because of the excitement and my bad nerves. Well, let’s just say that it was a partial success. This is what I wanted to say:
おはよございますみたさん。私はラシダバカールです。アメリカからきました。日本へ九月一日からきました。今、名古屋外国語大学のりゅうがくせいで す。日本語の勉強をしています。ありがとうがざいます。Translation: Good morning, everyone. I’m Rashidat Bakar. I’m from America. I came to Japan on the 1st of September. Now, I am a international student at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. I am currently studying Japanese. Thank you very much.
Well, let’s just say that I said about half of that and with a lot more あの。。。(Ummm’s), but I got my point across. After my ill-performed introduction, the principal showed me to my desk and gave me my name tag. I was then greeted by my internship advisor and teacher that I was mainly going to be working with, Marie 先生(sensei – “teacher”). To my surprise, she was another 外国人 (foreigner) and taught the majority of the English classes at the school for all of the grade levels. She informed me about the lessons of the day – body parts, and that I should be prepared to sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes a million times during the next week. Right after she explained all of that, 2 二年生 (2nd grade) students arrived, introduced themselves at the door, and called for Marie and myself (Side Note: I noticed that every student that needed to enter the office had to introduce themselves, state their purpose, and excuse themselves for entering, then when they were leaving, they would have to say: しつれいしました (shireishimashita), which basically means, excuse me for my rudeness; a very polite, Japanese phrase.)
(The students loved watching me use chopsticks during lunch…)
So, all day and during the rest of my time at the school, I worked with Marie 先生 with various grade levels, introduced myself to each new class that I attended, and helped with any of the activities that they were doing for the day. While I was there, the classes sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”, played various games, completed listening activities, learned about what animals live under the sea, asked me questions, and gave tons and tons of high-fives and hugs. I also observed other science, music, and math classes, attended 2 festivals at the school, and even practiced with the cheerleading club!
(Brought me back to my Varsity Cheerleading days in high school. Go Warriors!!!)
Overall, it was an amazing experience and I’m glad that I took time out of my break and travel time to help out at the school. I met some really awesome teachers, worked with some of the sweetest and funniest students that I have ever met, learned a lot about the differences between American and Japanese schools, about an elementary school’s setting, and even learned/practiced some Japanese with the students. I honestly won’t forget about my time at Nagakute Minami Elementary School, but I wish I could forget about the day that I had to call in and had the most miserable weekend of my life.
Here’s the story. So, for lunch, they serve only milk to drink…the problem there is that I am somewhat lactose intolerant, well, in America, I was very lactose intolerant as in I only drank soy milk, couldn’t really eat ice cream, and luckily cheese was my only dairy ally. Here in Japan, I’ve been able to eat yogurt (like I currently am while writing this post), eat the best parfaits at Cat’s Garden, and so, who would have thought a little milk would have done anything??? Yea…terrible idea. I had the worst stomachache amongst other symptoms that night, had to call into my internship on only my 2nd day, explain all of this in Japanese, then call my advisor and explain it all in Japanese again, and then endure the worst weekend of my life. Obvious lesson learned.
(One of the best lunches I had there…w/o the milk!)
So, I hope that was an insightful and interesting look at participating in an internship in Japan. If you have the opportunity to study abroad and if an internship is right up your alley for your major, I hope that you go out on a limb and do one because it is an experience that I don’t think that you can have unless you come to work here in Japan. If you do end up doing an internship here in Japan, let us know about it, I would especially, love to hear about what it was like for you and what you did!
I think I’m meant to be a teacher <3)
Thanks again to all of our readers and subscribers to our YouTube channel! As you can probably tell, our channel has been taking a lot of our time, but we have a ton of footage to share, so I hope that y’all have been enjoying it all. Don’t forget to send us a line or two here on our blog and YouTube channel, add us on Facebook, check out what we do on a daily basis through Twitter, and browse through our millions of pictures on Flicker, all linked on the sidebar of this page!
Thanks again and see you sooner than in a few months from now!
>____<
Nagoya G.A. 