Japanese People are so Polite . . .

So just when does it happen? The politeness I mean. When does it kick in and how can I get it to kick in faster?

My one 4/5 year old today was a bit of a terror. He drew on the floor while my back was turned, he called me an idiot, pulled down his pants at one point (that was when I played dumb and told him to go to the bathroom) and started spitting. Thankfully not at me, but he was hocking big ones on the floor. I picked him up and put him in his chair and said no. So he sat in the chair and spat. I actually left the room and got a Japanese teacher to come help me. Thankfully she didn't have much more success than I did so the sense of defeat wasn't so great. But a second pair of hands let me focus on the other three boys. I still failed to really do the lesson and that I regret.

My little helper last week was a bit of a handful today. One boy wrangled my trouble maker last time and its sad but I was glad the four year old was scolding him. He ran around grabbing my things, erasing anything I wrote on the white board, and basically imitating my habitually naughty child. It seems my one children's class is going to be very Jekyll and Hyde. Even the manager offered to have the teacher sit in again. So as polite as she was being she was sorta disappointed that I was acutally having more trouble that with Sakuya. One boy I had enough arms to hold on to. I could put him under one arm and hold the vocab cards in front of him. Not letting go to he stayed in the class room. But with four boys, there is not enough me. And one boy cried, I think, because the others weren't paying attention so we couldn't play games. That was what made me feel awful. That I couldn't keep enough control to make it fun for the other two.

But I don't want to put another teacher out and have to help me babysit. I should be able to control 4 four year olds right? Thought I'm not sure why they think they can go wild with me and climb on things and crawl under tables . . .or spit. Possibly because I don't scold them in Japanese and I may not understand exactly what they are saying but I can understand their intent.

But I'm just not scarey enough I guess. I don't want to yell. But my firm is not cutting it. Grrr. I guess I am doomed to fail that level of class. I am also considering becoming very unfun and making them all sit at the table. We will see if stickers will have any effect. But I feel doubtful.