Musings of a Drunken Monk: Individual Entry Archive

I have over the past year been reading, with increasing irritation, the regularly-released promotional material that is produced at my school. The purpose of these pamphlets/books/etc. is to promote our school to parents and students of junior high schools. Students in Japan have a choice of which high school they may go to, as opposed to simply being relegated to whatever school is in their district.

The problem is that despite the fact that I have been here for two frickin years, they keep printing pictures of my predecessor. Perhaps they haven't figured out that there is a huge difference between the two white dudes who have been at their school, but he left years ago. It's a real nice way to be reminded that to the people designing/deciding/editing these things, I am just a faceless foreigner. Every time I see his face once more plastered across something describing their great English program, I get more annoyed. I know there are pictures of me teaching class, because God knows every 2 weeks someone is sneaking around taking pictures in classes. I know I'm not exactly the most photogenic ALT ever to grace the JET program, but come on, sadly the picture they chose for him isn't flattering either. Get with the times, people! Grr.

I am given respite in knowing that my fellow English teachers also think it's stupid, and that probably they will do this to whoever my successor is. But at times like these, you really do wonder about what kind of value you have for the people you're working with.