Calling in Sick

I called in sick to work today. I know this actually doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but it IS here. The reason is that PEOPLE JUST DON’T CALL IN SICK HERE. I guess it’s part of the whole Japanese work ethic and “losing face,” since your colleagues will have to do your work for you in your absence. (They don’t have substitute teachers here unless it is a longer-term thing. That means that maybe another teacher will take your class if he/she free, but usually the students just have to study by themselves for the class period. This may be different in junior high & elementary, but I'm not sure.)

The last time I called in sick… get this… my supervisor actually came to my apartment an hour later to pick me up and bring me to the doctor. I guess that is the usual reaction, because the Japanese believe if you’re calling in sick, you must nearly be on your death bed. (So it’s a good thing that I really WAS sick that time… because I have taken at least one “mental health day” from the stress of my school when really needed!)

I get 10 days of sick leave a year (and I believe other teachers do, too) but I can assure you that I’m probably the only teacher at my school who actually uses days from that "sick day" pool. Most Japanese teachers will instead actually use their “vacation days.” I know… it sounds crazy! I think it comes down to a matter of “personal business,” though, as we actually have to fill out a special form to get our sick leave day and write a pretty detailed description of our symptoms, which most teachers don’t want to deal with. Not me, though… No way I’d give up any of my precious vacation time! (That's one part of Japanese culture I refuse to adhere to!)

Today I had a fever, and that is usually a good deciding factor of whether I’m “really” sick enough to stay home. I think I’ve been fighting something off for quite a while. You know how, as soon as the semester at college always ended, you’d get sick? Like your body knows it has to keep fighting til the end of exams, and when that’s over, it kind of grants itself permission to finally get sick? Well, I think that’s kind of how today was. Last week was possibly one of the busiest and most stressful work weeks of my whole time in Japan. I stayed at school until 7 every night and then I’d go home and still do even more work. I was marking all 420 “Show & Tell” presentations for students, as well as doing extra classes at school, planning two teaching demonstrations and an upcoming presentation.

I kept thinking if I could make it til Monday, I would be fine. And I made it to Monday and then boom… Tuesday night I started to feel sick. I’m sure the weather was also a contributing factor as just last week, it suddenly became “winter.” (There really ARE only two seasons in this part of Japan… summer and winter.) I seriously went from wearing t-shirts and sandals to sweaters and SOCKS! (I suppose it was time, now that ‘s November…) Oh, and probably another all-nighter on Saturday night with my friends (drinking, salsa dancing, karaoke, and more dancing) probably didn’t help either (getting way too old for this kind of lifestyle... I know I'm not getting too much sympathy here, nor should I be!)

Anyway, I spent my “sick day” doing something I hardly ever do… which is watching American TV shows. Even though I have sattelite TV now, I mostly only find myself watching CNN (very pleased about the results of last week’s mid-term elections, might I add!) However, I’ve just recently come across this great website that has links to season after season of many popular American TV shows that you can watch online. Here is the site, if you feel so inclined… But I warn you: it’s dangerously addictive! I watched the first four episodes of "24" (OK, so I'm a little behind on things) and now I'm hooked. http://tvlinks.voodeedoo.org/index.html

I even made myself some chicken noodle soup. Incidently, a few weeks ago in class, we were talking about Health & Visiting the Doctor, and my students were very surprised to learn that Americans often have chicken noodle soup when they’re sick. (I guess the old traditional Japanese remedy is drinking ginger with hot water.) They also thought it was amusing that we call “influenza” (which they also say in Japanese) “the flu.”


By the way, my teaching demonstrations this past Monday and Friday both went well. They sometimes have these “open classes” where the principals, teachers, and teachers from another school were welcome to come and observe your classes. It was a bit unnerving to have such a class when I first started doing them, but usually only a few people end up coming and they don’t always stay for the entire class. The funniest part of one of the demo classes was during one of the “Show & Tell” Presentations (when there happened to be two teachers from another school observing) and one girl was showing her “French Barbie” (straight out of Moulin Rouge) that she had received as a birthday present from her pen-pal in France. We had the other students ask some questions after the presentations, and one boy asked her, “What’s the name of your doll?” and she just gave him a strange look like, DUH, but she answered politely, “It’s…. Barbie.”