It started off as an innocent question: why was the drinking party cancelled? I had waited a few weeks until I had returned to the school to be able to ask the question to my JTE. However I did not have the courage to ask him face-to-face, so earlier that day I had messaged him on Facebook. After classes were over, he came over to my desk and told me the truth: a student had died in a car accident and the teachers didn’t feel right about going out and celebrating that week (which makes perfect sense). Wow. Not what I was expecting. However, he went on to explain that the student had never come to school, so he did not know her and the student’s homeroom teacher had only met her about two or three times. He said that in his few years of teaching at that school, it had happened about five times.
I know that I should not be so shocked, but I am. I know these kinds of things happen, but you never think that it will happen to your students (even though I had never met her, it was still sad to know that it had been one of the students at my school). And I know that more incidents happen like this or other unfortunate occurrences, like suicide, but it is just really sad that a life can be snuffed out just like that. It reminds me of the time when I was student teaching and my cooperating teacher shared with me that one of our fourth year students had tried to commit suicide by overdosing on some sort of medicine. Afterwards, she had recovered and graduated, and will hopefully learn from that experience and never do it again. It is just a thing that never crossed my mind in high school—someone’s death. All of my relatives (except for my grandfather on my mother’s side who passed away when I was four years old) are still living, so I haven’t had to deal with anything related to that. The hardest thing I have had to do was to go to my childhood friend’s father’s funeral. But I know that cannot compare to it being one of your family members (or friends). Which makes me think, what will I do when it is one of my students when I become a teacher of Japanese in the future? Will I hold it together for my students? Will we have a few days off from regular class and have a lesson on the Japanese culture of death? I am sure when the time comes, I will be able to ask other teachers of Japanese and get their opinions on the matter.
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Myself
Video blogger and now a blogger as well. My life in Japan has changed me for the better. However, it wasn't easy... Archives
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