MAN-UP HANNAH!!!!!!!!!!

I am currently very much in 2 minds as to whether I can do this!
Ok, I can deal with living in a different country, I've been before and I realise I will probably be the only foreigner wherever I am but it's not like being stared at for being different is a new thing. And the language barrier can be resolved with a phrase book and probably some pretty wild gesticulations.
No, my main issue is the actual teaching. I've been doing some research, looking at people's blogs etc and I have officially terrified myself! My overall view is that the teaching system in Japan is very different to how it is here and teachers don't seem to have half the support they get here. I've read blogs where the ALT basically just stands there and occasionally hosts a game, holds a card and is used for pronunciation but then I've read other blogs where the the English Teacher is harrassed by all the kids and has no help at all from the native teachers. I'd be happy with scenario 1, I don't particularly want a lot of responsibility. I know at our interview the Interac rep there said that we'd be team teaching with the JTE at the school and that they would handle discipline etc and I really hope that's true.
I know that here no-one would ever be allowed to teach an entire class on their own with just a certificate and 3-day course but I'm not sure that's the case over there.

I may be getting over stressed. I imagine for every blog I've read there are hundreds who have had an entirely lovely experience and I really hope that I can rise to the challenge of becoming more of an assertive person to survive but I suppose at least I know the common pitfalls I'm likely to face.

I'm meeting my friend this week who has been teaching abroad for a good few years now (and will also be in Japan when I am,hopefully) so I'm hoping that she can sort me out! I figure it can't be hideous if people can do it for so long but then again, maybe they're different sorts of people?

I will kick myself if I don't do this, and I'm not sure what I'll do with my life if I don't but at the moment reality is hitting hard!

ALT, me?

This morning I awoke to this e-mail...

"Dear Hannah,

Interac Co., Ltd. takes great pleasure in offering you a position as a Language Instructor." 

....meaning that I get to go live in Japan for 7 months. SHIT!!!!!!

This all started just before Christmas when i learnt what TEFL was (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). I like English; it was always one of my favourite lessons at school and I like to think that I'm pretty good at it. Plus, since nothing else was happening on the career front why not use what God gave me? Apparently you don't need to know a foreign language or have prior teaching experience to teach English in the rest of the world! With this in mind I enrolled on a 120-hour TEFL course with TEFLEngland. I completed the 3 days worth of practical lessons and came away thinking 'I enjoyed that but man, I am one crap teacher!'. Teaching is hard, even harder to teach English to people who already know it; you can't really judge how successful you've been but it's good practice.
I then plodded on through the grammar and the video course and every other section over the next few nights. I decided to look at summer schools in Europe to ease myself in and applied for a few.
One night, and I am not proud of this, I really wanted to watch 90210 but I had far too much to do to just sit around watching television! So, I thought I'd have a look at teaching in Japan, my ultimate destination. As well as having a look at the JET scheme, which I missed the deadline for, I found a scheme run by Interac for Assistant Language Teachers. It seemed like a pretty simple profile to fill in, easy enough to complete whilst watching Liam, Naomi and the rest do....whatever it is they do in California. Unfortunately, to complete said profile, I encountered two small essays. Since I'd come this far I figured I may as well battle on. 3 hours later (at about 1 a.m.) my application was finnished and I toddled off to bed safe in the knowledge that it at least looked like I was taking my life seriously.

A week or so later I received an e-mail from Maria informing me that I had successfully passed round one of the selection process and would I please ring her to arrange a phone interview. Well, this was one thing I was not expecting. Apparently doing work at 1 a.m. as a way to kill time works for me so I rang. Maria was lovely and after asking me various general questions about myself things got slightly less general -had I been to Japan before, did I speak Japanese, what qualities did I think an ALT needed. It turns out that 'ring to arrange a phone interview' is code for 'ring for an impromptu phone interview'. Needless to say I was caught completely off-guard and having put the phone down signed off on my dream of a Interac placement.
A good month later, whilst checking my e-mails, I recieved another message from Maria inviting me to an interview and seminar in York in 3 weeks time. For a second time Interac had surprised me with an offer. This time was more hard-core. As well as taking numerous official bits of paper I had to do 2 small pretend lessons, read a given script and introduce myself (using as much Japanese as possible). It took a while to prepare and having got this far with no preparation or thought whatsoever I was a little skeptical of succeeding with 3 weeks prep. But the seminar was interesting, the other candidates were lovely and the day went pretty well.
Shortly after this, reference requests were sent out, sent back and then a wait. Having got this far half my head was already living in Japan but I tried to reign in the daydreams. Luckily for me my references were successful, leading to yet another wait to find out whether I had been given a placement.

And that brings us full circle. I now have to formally accept my offer, fill in lots of forms, sort my visa, have an uber CRB check and arrange an x-ray to test for TB.

Although I'm ridiculously terrified, part of me is pretty calm. I've spoken to a lot of people, some with more experience in teaching or Japanese than I, and it's taken them countless applications to even get an interview. This was my first big application and I got it. It kinda feels like fate and with everything leading to this place I can't help but feel that everything will work out from here.....

Someone just posted this on Facebook, seems like a good way to end!

Jubilations and Celebrations!

It's been a busy an epic weekend this week; International Lolita Day and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (basically an excuse to eat lots and lots of cupcakes!)

Baked goods supplied by The Calverley WI, nom nom!

International Lolita Day was a bit rainy so an indoor picnic was organised courtesy of Michaela.

Masses of fun was had by all derping around and creating new friends.
I got to wear my new Squirrel Party OP and my ears!!!

(pics stolen from Charlotte who has a big posh camera!!)

Rule Britannia!!