Communication, the key to happiness

A few months back I attended a meeting where ALT's were discussing problems at work and I was shocked. It wasn't so much a discussion as a whine. For example more than one ALT had asked to book holiday over the school vacation period. Two months ago. And they still hadn't heard anything back. Now forgive me if I'm wrong but if this was back home in the UK or USA or Australia or wherever these ALT's are from, don't you think you would have asked again if taking holiday would be possible after a week or two? Why should it be any different here, all you have to do is ask 'excuse me, did you get a chance to discuss my holiday with the head teacher?' and they will tell you yes or no, but at least you have reminded them that you want to take holiday. After all Japanese teachers (and all other teachers I have met) are busy and they may have forgotten that you asked to take holiday, and it is not pushy or rude to remind them as long as you do so politely and give them a decent amount of time to have tried (i.e. a week or so).

This is genuinely how I interact with my teachers and I have never had any problems resulting from bringing subjects like this up because I always try to do it in a non-offensive way. For example never criticise the person you are talking to, or another coworker, and always place the blame on yourself for something not going right. Hopefully, if you follow these guidelines you will have a stress free a work environment.

It may or may not be news to some of you to hear that the Japanese government is aware that Japanese people sometimes have trouble communicating with each other as well as with foreigners. Recently they have started trying to develop strategies to improve communication between people, so why not as an ALT try to help the process and figure out ways to better communicate with your teachers? Just always remember to be polite, sometimes unnaturally so!