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Ex-teachers struggle to readjust back into society

Adjusting back to pre-Eikaiwa life creates hardship for many teachers

OTTAWA, Canada (GTA) -- Cindy Astettler returned back to her family home in suburban Ottawa hoping to rediscover the same life she had before spending two years in Japan as an English teacher.

Getting back to a state of "normalcy" is not always as easy as one may think for returnees. According to her mother Mrs. Astettler, the Cindy that came back from Japan is not the same daughter that she sent over there just two years-ago.

"When Cindy came back two weeks ago, I mentioned that we were planning to have Grandma Beatrice and Uncle Bill over for dinner on Sunday after church. But Cindy looked at me and laughed while saying, 'Oh, your grandmother sounds absolutely wonderful. I would totally love to meet her someday!'"

According to Mr. Astettler, life has been very hard on the Astettler family, who have been trying to cope with their daughter's obsessive questioning.

"Whenever we sit down to eat now, Cindy inists on doing something she calls 'freetalk,'" Mr. Astettler explained.

"Even in the middle of the night. I wake up and Cindy is talking in her sleep loud enough for the neighbors to hear. 'What are you plans for summer vacation? Great' 'What would you do if you had a million dollars?' 'Have you ever eaten a sandwich from a New York deli?' 'Would you like to go skydiving?' I just want my old Cindy back."

Even friends have become disturbed by the changes in Cindy's personality.

"We went to dance and hang out at Synergy 3 downtown and I guess Cindy had had a few drinks. She suddenly became quite agitated and upset, telling me that 'it was hopeless' and everything was 'just a scam' because 'THEY' would never learn. I asked her who 'they' were and Cindy just started laughing hysterically while repeating the words 'I go to shopping' over and over."

Former Gaba teacher, Seth Hamilton, who now works as an part-time asbestos remover near his home town in Christchurch, New Zealand has spent the previous four months unable to keep a steady job.

"I had a job waiting tables at the Cobb and Co for a while. I tried to adjust but forty minutes would pass by and I'd start waiting for the bell to ring. Only there wouldn't be a bell to save me. The bell is NEVER there, you know."

"I would start to shake and begin sweating. Eventually one day I ran out into the parking lot and drove 50 minutes out to the middle of nowhere where I sat in my car and cried and cried."

Adjusting back to life in New Zealand has not been easy for Seth.

"Forty-minute blocks of time, blue-booking, working in a relaxed environment with uniquely designed studios...that's all I know. Now that I'm back in the real world, all I can think about is getting back out into the booth. Back to Gaba where things make sense. Where life could be easily organized into perfect forty-minute blocks."

"In Gaba, I was somebody. A teacher with ten to eleven blue-booked lessons a day, six days a week. Now, I'm just another 27 year-old bloke with a double-major in philosophy and theatre arts. I don't know what to do."

Friends have noticed that his years spent as an English teacher continue to hover over Seth, controlling even simple decisions from his everyday life.

"The other day we wanted to go see a movie but Seth was really angry shouting, 'Movie? Do you understand that is going to be 1.5 lessons I'll have to do to cover the balance!'"

The Gaba Teachers Association: Serving teachers at Gaba Japan, Nova Japan, Geos Japan, Aeon Japan, ECC Japan, and Berlitz Japan since 2005. The Gaba Teachers Association is dedicated to reporting the latest news from the English school industry. This is a site for that covers all news that impacts those who teach English in Japan. If you are teaching English at NOVA, GEOS, Berlitz, ECC or any other Eikaiwa school, check us out.
The GABA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION is the most provoc-ative name in eikaiwa news today. Since 1994, the Gaba Teachers Association has been dedicated to reporting the latest news from the English school industry in Japan.