Spring Break

Time to say "Goodbye," time to say "Welcome!"

It is now spring break, the two week off period that also serves as the transition between school years in Japan. Here the school year starts in April and ends with graduation in March. Even though school is out teachers in Japan (including myself) still work every day. Our only vacation time is the vacation days we take out of our yearly allotment.

I have noticed that the teaching staffs really prepare for the new class of first year students at the junior high level. A couple months ago, groups of the junior high teachers would visit the elementary schools to observe the sixth grade classes to get a feel for the class personality and how to prepare for them. Also, the week before school starts, the sixth grade home room teachers visit the junior high to have a meeting with the whole staff to tell them all about the sixth grade (soon to be JH first year) class. For the last couple months the incoming first years have been a frequent topic of discussion in the junior high staff room. It really impresses me how much the teachers prepare for the new class. The teachers seem very invested in creating an education experience that is tailored to helping the students succeed at their junior high.

These couple weeks have brought big changes at the schools. The Japanese school system has a practice of transferring teachers around to different schools in the area (I heard this practice may also be common in corporate and other contexts as well).  I have been told this is to keep the teaching styles and ideas fresh within the schools. Generally the teachers are placed at a school within an hour of where they live, so here our teachers bounce around the four towns of the deep Noto. However, a few teachers were transferred all the way to Kanazawa, the capitol of our prefecture which is two and a half hours away. So, shocking and sad for me at times, I have had about three or four teachers change at each of my schools. I was sad to say goodbye to teachers that I was friendly with, but like everyone said it would be, many of the new faces are fun people too!

Accordingly this has been a time of farewell parties for old staff members as well as welcome parties for the new.  They have wonderful Japanese style banquet parties with lavish arrangements of fine food and there are many speeches in honor of the leaving teachers and of course those teachers give their own remarks as well. There are always many tears and chats about fond memories of their time working together.

This morning, at one of my junior high schools, we had the introduction of the new teachers to the (now) second and third year students. It was a little assembly in the gym and fairly ceremonial with much standing at attention and bowing when appropriate. The new teachers gave their short speeches to introduce themselves and a representative of the students also gave a speech of welcome to the new teachers. During the ceremony I was thinking about how many foreigners miss the opportunity to appreciate the meaning behind Japanese ceremonial functions.

Certainly, there is lots of ceremony but I think its full of underlying meaning. For example, the welcome parties, like the introduction ceremonies, certainly have their ceremonial aspects but they are also an integral custom in Japanese culture that I count myself lucky to have participated in. The purpose of welcome parties is to establish the importance of welcoming their new members, which they successfully do.

Japan is a group based society, so of course membership in a group is very important. That is the reason they have such lavish welcome and farewell parties. At the farewell party, they are telling their leaving members that they appreciate that person's membership in the group and will miss them. Then at the welcome ceremonies they are extending a warm acceptance of their new group members. The welcome party is always held very soon upon the new member's coming, even as soon as the first night after their first day of work.

The welcome party is a chance for the staff to sit down for a merry dinner together, to chat, have a few drinks, and get to know each other. I have noticed in the staff rooms, after introductions have been made and certainly after the welcome party has been held, the staff interacts with the new members just as frequently as the old members interact with each other. There is no awkward "this is the new person and they don't know anybody yet" period that is so frequent in other cultural contexts, like America for example. Not to say that there is anything wrong with America, but I would definitely say the warm welcome and goodbye parties that are customary here are certainly something that Japan gets right!

Even in my own personal experience the welcome and goodbye parties  I have received made me feel much more accepted in the Japanese groups of which I have had the privilege to become a member. Last year when I interned with Toshiba I was treated to multiple welcome and farewell parties with differing groups within the company. The welcome parties helped me feel like it was important to them to accept me into their department, even though I was only to be there for a short time.

By the time my farewell came upon us, I knew that they valued the time I spent with them and wished me the best in my future and how much they hoped to meet me again. Upon coming to Japan the second time to work as an English teacher, my Board of Education took me out for a welcome dinner. Everyone on staff made the effort to pour me a drink and spend some time talking to me and getting to know me.

These welcome parties certainly help lay the groundwork to establish good relationships among the people who will be working together. It's a "ceremonial" excuse to give everyone the opportunity to get to know each other, removing the hindrance of personal inhibition that can hold everyone back and slow the process of creating a staff with good relations.

A throwback to my farewell dinner with Toshiba- I miss them!