AI-generated transcript:
Hello, I'm recording this on my way home, and I wanted to do sort of like a day in the life, but I don't have time for it, and it may be a bit absurd to be recording this.
It's now 11 o'clock at night, I'm just after, and really I've done a 12-hour day.
So, filming on the way home in the dark, lit up a bit by streetlights, maybe not very...
I'm maybe not selling the life of a, what am I, a very tired, not freelancer, self-employed English teacher.
But in Mitigation M’Lud, I would say, actually, no, I started at 11 o'clock today and it was online.
So from home, I just did an online lesson.
With a retired lady.
For 45 minutes.
And then.
Had my lunch.
With my wife.
And then.
At 12.30.
At school.
I had another retired lady.
A different retired lady.
We had an hours lesson.
Face to face in person.
Which was very pleasant.
So that took me to half past one.
And then.
I didn't have another lesson until 4.20.
I had a year two elementary school and that was six kids.
And we had two trial kids came in.
They were very pleasant and hopefully they'll sign up for lessons starting next month.
We'll see.
But it went as well as it could do.
And I team-taught with my wife, so I spent an enjoyable time there.
Relatively enjoyable.
It was a bit hectic.
I had, how many kids was it, eight kids running around.
And they're eight years old.
Then the next lesson was Year 5 Elementary School.
I had four kids there in that lesson.
Then I had my dinner.
A bento meal, lovingly prepared by my wife.
A bit of fried rice.
That's very pleasant, very nice.
And then in the evening, I had a junior high school class of three year one junior high school kids, followed by year two junior high school kids, then a one-to-one with a high school year one, and the final lesson was a...
salary salary woman i mean a business woman um that i did online and so i finished about actually i finished about 10 o'clock it's now i'm nearly 11 i'm just i watched a few videos and a cup of tea and now i'm on my way home and i'm just making this video um just to explain the uh i don't know why i'm making this video why am i making this video it's sort of a day in the life that's right um
You know, although it's late at night and I'm recording this video and I'm walking home and it's beginning to rain, I actually really enjoy, not this particular moment, my hand's a bit cold, but, you know, I mean, essentially, you know, yeah, I worked in the morning, but then I had quite a long break in the afternoon and then, yeah, I worked in the evening, but I had my dinner.
I managed to see my wife.
I worked with my wife for a bit.
We had lunch together.
I saw my daughter in the morning.
Saw my elder daughter in the evening.
So I was present in the lives of the women in my life.
Yeah, I don't know.
Was it that much fun today?
I don't know.
But...
yeah it was okay and this was a sort of typical day and between lessons I did a bit of reading and watching lots of videos been watching some Mark Manson videos he's the guy that did the whatever it is how to not give a fuck or something something like that I can't remember that he's like a self help guru type but he's quite amusing sometimes he has good ideas that I can use that I can rip off for making lessons from so I watched a bit of that
so it was a mentally fairly stimulating day emotionally quite good made a bit of money today possibilities of new students coming in that was kind of fun I like all the students we had today I don't have any students I dislike if I dislike students I find a way to not have to teach them so it's not a problem um
And yeah, OK, it's 11 o'clock and I'm walking home, but, you know, I don't have to go to bed early.
I can... I might try watching Netflix, chat with the missus, whatever.
Got a couple of beers in my backpack that I picked up from Kasmi on the way home.
I'm there, you know, tomorrow I don't have an early start.
I think the first lesson tomorrow is at half past four.
I may get up in the morning and do a bit of writing or...
I've got various things I've got to prepare for.
We're going to England.
We're going to England with some kids at the end of the month.
So there's lots of things to prepare for that.
But one reason why I'm doing this crazy video recording on the street.
I'm just coming off the busy street here.
It'll be a bit quieter in a moment.
One reason I'm doing this is because I want to get a whole bunch of videos done.
so that I can post them while I'm off in England and I maybe don't have access to the internet or I won't feel like thinking about English.
I'm on holiday.
I mean, for the first week I'll be chaperoning kids around London and then the second week I'll be spending with my family.
So it's really nice.
all paid for by being a self-employed English teacher in Japan.
Right.
Okay, so now I'm walking through my neighborhood in Abiko and I'm keeping my voice down because it's actually, yeah, it's quite late and as now we're away from the traffic, people will wonder, what's that strange foreigner?
talking about I hope you're not worried about that I hope you're not thinking what a strange foreigner but anyway this is the this is the life it is it is pretty good I mean I was just thinking yeah if I was working for a corporate Japanese company if they would have me or you know if I was still working for the Yomiuri Shimbun which if again if they would still have foreigners I don't know they've got rid of most of them but anyway if I was in that world
I don't think I could.
I don't think I could be.
And although this is a bit of a pain, not, you know, staying up this late, coming home.
It's often the way in Japan you'd be coming home this late, but probably a bit sozzled after having massaged the egos of your boss or whatever.
I don't know that.
You know, I do my job and I come home.
Yes, it's funny hours, but...
I get to see my family and I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who said it's only when you get towards the end of your life and you realize all the things that you thought were not important are actually
The only things that were important, things like spending time with your wife, with your children, teaching people stuff, the non-money related things.
It's not particularly enjoyable walking home in the rain, but I enjoyed walking to work.
It was a sort of almost springtime warm day.
Perhaps I should have filmed myself then rather than late at night, but anyway.
Anyway, thanks for bearing with me and I do hope you have a nice weekend and all the best.
And if you find yourself
thinking that actually this is not such a bad life, what I have here, you could have it too.
Okay, right, I'm going to get home, warm my hands up, have an Aoni IPA beer.
Sounds good to me.
Okay, have a good weekend.
44. What’s life really like as a self-employed English teacher in Japan?