Sunday, 17 October 2004

Speachless

Well, I've lost my voice! Apparently it's a pretty common occurence for English teachers in Japan. In my first few weeks here I'd heard stories of about 10 or so different teachers who had lost their voice. In fact one guy had to move back to Australia, and 2 months later he still hadn't gotten his voice back!

Anyway, yesterday afternoon, I mentioned to a few teachers that my throat was dry and a little hoarse, then after work we went out for a teachers farewell party at a karaoke place in Shin Koshigaya. After 2 hours of singing, I really couldn't sing any more. My throat was so dry, I was constantly drinking liquids.

This morning I couldn't speak at all. All I could do was make grunt-like noises. Tim called in sick for me and the staff at Foriegn Personel ask to speak to me, even after he had told them I couldn't speak! Eventually they asked him to tell me to ring them this afternoon. I just did then and all I got was a sarcastic "Wow, your voice is all better NOW". I couldn't believe it! I was sincerely sick, there's no way I could have worked and I get accused of faking it! The last sick day I had must have been at least 2 months ago. I've only had 3 in the six months I've been here. What's more, my voice is obviously still croaky and hurts when I talk. I told her that I rang up to confirm that I really was sick this morning and I got a really fake phrase of concern "Yeah, the polution's really bad here isn't it?".

I've got half a mind to speak to her manager about this.

The karaoke party went well though. We all had a great time!