Every Situation Is Different[]
Ah, ESID, the phrase you tire of even before setting foot into Japanland. It means entirely and only what it says...every situation is different. Some situations may have you sitting in a sweltering office with ten classes a week or less. Some may have you going on school vacations. Some situations may have you pulling twenty classes or more on top of afterschool clubs and lesson-planning and community courses. ALTs may find themselves the objects of xenophobic scrutiny, loving acceptance, or some state inbetween. Some situations have stalkers (!). Some have the victory of getting a drivers' license after the fifth or sixth time. ALTs may make friends in the office, or enemies. Some bosses are unbelievably supportive. Some are, unfortunately, not as professional as one would hope. Sometimes the kindergarteners' day isn't complete until someone gives that silly big gaijin up front a good ol' kancho, sometimes they want to just give you hugs and the amazing runny nose they picked up the other day. You may find yourselves rescuing kids from a snake, or rescuing the snake from the kids. Maybe you'll have broom wars during cleaning time. Maybe you'll have one or two or thirteen schools. You could be placed on a mountain, on an island, in a huge city, in a cockroach-trap in a field, by the sea, in the yukikuni, or thirty minutes from the nearest train station. There's no way of telling before you get there...every situation is different.