Dancing bear, A.K.A. Genki

For those not in the know.
Genki, is a Japanese term which translates roughly into "High voltage" It is used in reference to people who are highly active and animated. As a English Teacher your going to be told that you need to be Genki.

Now that being said, if there is one term you would use to explain me, it is not "High Energy" Maybe Animated but certainly not high-energy. I can be charming, authoritative, intellectual and funny but for the most part I don't go into high-energy. Throughout my first few months of teaching English my only criticism by my peers and fellow teachers was that I wasn't high Genki enough.

Now why is it important to be Genki? Two fold, #1 they expect it of you to keep the interest of the students. #2 they expect it of you because... your a Giajin, It's simply a stereo-type. So much so that my Japanese co-workers constantly thought I was actually British. (Because of this and my love for long sleeved shirts and suit vests)

We in the ALT group refer to this stereo type as. "Dancing bears" but on the up side, I can say this. After a while the Japanese English Teachers I worked with got over it. Or rather my personality grew on them enough that they understood that my lack of near manic energy was not a problem. If anything I was told by some of them that it helped that I could keep children attention while not having them super hyped up.

And it seamed to be much less of a problem with Jr. High and High School students.
The down side is that, if you cant convince them that it is important... its going to be a sticking point.
To the extent that it caused one of my co-workers no end of trouble.
Now it does not hurt if you actually like your job, and enjoy the time you spend with your children. If that is the case then for the most part your going to do fine.