Tales of Kyoto

Hello beautiful darlings,

So I need to explain a little bit about the positions in a public school in Japan.  It's pretty similar to most American schools, but I want to provide some different label names and some information on the hierarchy.

Okay, everyone who teaches at the school is called sensei.  Sensei means teacher.  So we got our Tanaka-sensei, Kimura-sensei, Hashimoto-sensei, A-sensei, B-sensei, C-sensei, etc. etc. etc.  And they basically equate to our Mr. Smith and Mrs. Gomez and Ms. Brown of American schools.  (I'm seriously just using any name that pops into my head.)  Anyways, so sensei is reserved for teachers in a school setting (and also doctors, Ph.D's, and other positions, but that's a different story for another time).



Thus, sensei is the respectful suffix to attach to someone's last name when they are a teacher.  However, you can also add sensei to titles as a substitution for the last name, and it shows even more respect, especially since the position title is usually much higher than a normal sensei.  For example, (and here's what I've been trying to build up to in order to explain this post title, lol), the principal of a school is called Kocho-sensei, with Kocho meaning principal and sensei meaning teacher.  You usually should call your Japanese school principal Kocho-sensei, not by his/her last name and then sensei.  Then the vice principal is called Kyoto-sensei, with Kyoto standing for vice principal.  Again, you should use this title plus sensei combination, buuuuut I have heard some teachers and Board of Education employees call my vice principal by his last name and sensei.  These people seem to have much more of a history with him, so it's appropriate.  That's what's kinda cool, although sometimes complicated, about all this formality and title stuff.  You can learn a lot about the relationships and current feelings between people just from how they address each other and talk about each other.  Although sometimes I feel like "f-ck the system! we're all equal!  this is all bs!"  But I get it.  I get it.  And it does have its benefits.

Anways, after blabbering on about all this, what I'm trying to do is give a little background information for a series of posts I may call "Tales of Kyoto" because my Kyoto-sensei is quite the jokester, and he loves to mess with people and just be silly.  When I happen to catch his gaze across the staff room or as we pass each other in the hall, he'll make funny faces at me just to see my reaction.  He likes to teach me Japanese that'll get me in trouble or just get a laugh out of hearing me use.  He likes to practice using his very limited English with me, and he likes to bully the children (not in any malicious way) into practicing more English with me and so on.  He's a really nice guy.  And he's a troll.  Yes, he is a troll.  However, he's not the only one.  A lot of these teachers like to make jokes, and you know what, I love it.  I work in a school full of trolls with Kyoto-sensei as head troll.  It's great, lol.  I fit right in.  :P


Okay, so here's one Tale of Kyoto for today:

Yesterday, as I was walking down the hall towards the bathroom, Kyoto-sensei was walking towards me in the opposite direction to the staff room.  Then before he passed me, he stopped and curtsied.  He curtsied!  So I did a little curtsy back, and we laughed.  Then he asked me if I knew who Goriki Ayame was.  I had no idea, so that conversation ended quickly, but then we both went on our way like normal.  These interactions have become very normal, lol.