I guess one thing I can try and do is simply remain friendly and try and distinguish myself from the hordes of previous ALT's they've seen. For example I decided to attend a PTA dinner outside of school with the staff members. Costly but an awesome opportunity to talk to more teachers outside of a setting where they're used to seeing the ALT. And one of the teachers even said:
"'It's good to see an ALT as interested as you. Most ALT's would say this kind of thing is too expensive and not come. So thank you!'.
Comments like that make it all worthwhile.
And, when you look at the big picture, regardless of how boring classes may get, or how alienated you can feel, this is still an incredible experience. We went to a region meeting of all the nearby ALT's and some are working entirely solo at numerous schools without an opportunity to even talk to their fellow teachers. I have been incredibly lucky with my placement.
While I may still just be a 'foreigner' at this point, I am getting the opportunity to see a new culture more and more every day. Experiencing a culture is not like you can read about things in a book somewhere, it's about the random sporadic differences between this country and my own. A random song sung in the middle of an assembly, a human pyramid being built with all the new teachers during a PTA dinner, a type of food I've never seen before. It's those little traditions that create a 'culture'. The locals hardly remember why they do it, and it's not until they get someone interested and ask that they realize that it's something unique and think about it themselves.
My local train station.
Sunset at my local train station. Rice just been planted
Rice seedlings are grown in-doors in a greenhouse on trays that a machine plants into the mud as the farmer drives through it.
After a while wind can make a green scum on the water. Insects and frogs and ducks love this so much. Occasionally a farmer needs to scrape some of it off.
