Love short days!

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I love Fridays. I work a short shift from 10-2 so it almost feels like I have the day off! I just got back from work today which was great. I had some of my favorite students which always makes the day more pleasant. And I only had to teach 5 lessons instead of the standard 8 lessons so it flew by!

Here is what my schedule looked like today:

I started off the morning teaching a Level F student. The highest you can get at Nova is Level G. So needless to say she can communicate pretty well in English. She is a university student in Shizuoka studying Opera and just got back from traveling in Vienna for a couple of weeks. Our lesson was about inviting and persuading people to go places.

After her I taught 4 level D students. A retired woman who I LOVE, so sweet and friendly--reminds me of my grandpa, a middle aged working man who usually tends to be a bit grumpy or hung over from drinking the night before but was in a good mood today so that was nice, a highschool student who lived in Canada during junior high and a guy in his mid 20's who works for a music company via the internet. This lesson was about major life events.

My third lesson was supposed to be a preschool student but unfortunately the poor thing was sick so his mother called in and said he would be absent. I adore this little boy, he is as cute as a button so I was a little bummed, but it was nice to have a free lesson to get some things done in the teacher work room.

My fourth lesson was with three Level E students. One woman who is a Caligraphy teacher and is apparently pretty good at caligraphy...she has some work on display at the Shizuoka City hall and I am going to go see it after I finish writing this, another woman in her 40s who is a piano teacher and sings in a band, I always look forward to lessons with her because she has such a bubbly and energetic personality, and a woman in her late 20s who is a nurse.

My last lesson of the day was with one Level F student. She just recently retired and has been traveling all over the world. She just recently got back from Vietnam and brought the teachers some Vietnamese treats. She is currently applying for a visa in the US so she can go study English. We ended up having a great conversation about our life dreams. She would like to start her own company in the future and I found it really inspiring that she had so many dreams and so many more things she wanted to do even though she just retired.

People never cease to amaze me!!! I have had so many moments in the past couple of months where I just have to pinch myself to make sure that I am not dreaming, don't get me wrong, there are many challenges and frustrations in teaching, but there are also so many moments when I am just so happy to have the opportunity to meet and work with so many interesting people. And seeing as how I don't speak enough Japanese to have a conversation in Japanese with the locals yet, in a way they are my teachers too! Often, I feel that my students teach me more than I teach them. They share as much as they can with me about Japan, the culture, the history, the food, places to travel etc. Its wonderful.

There are some days when I do get frustrated trying to explain how to speak a language that is native and therefore completely natural to me, but at those moments I try to remember that English is a SECOND language for these people and how incredible it is that they can communicate as well as they do in a foreign language. If I could speak Japanese just a small fraction as well as they can speak English, I would be so happy.

I've been thinking a lot about language since I started teaching English, and its becoming pretty fascinating to me. I think that if I continue to teach beyond this year, I would seriously consider continuing to teach English as a foreign language. Its such a powerful communication tool and the different systems that different cultures have developed are so intriguing. When I was teaching civics and history classes in grad school I burned out pretty quickly and I think its maybe partially because I wasn't that passionate about what I was teaching. I think I am the kind of person who needs to be passionate about something in order to want to make the effort to teach it, because for me teaching I have learned is not necessarily something that comes naturally. I think some teachers could teach any subject because it is working with students that they are truly passionate about. That is partially true for me, but I also need to be teaching something that is interesting to me or that I really believe will be useful for students. English (along with my other big passion bball, which maybe I wil return to one day) may be that, at least at the moment. I see the power of language every day, its hard not to especially living in a foreign country. I see the way that speaking a common language can open so many doors and how not being able to speak a common language can close so many doors as well. I think of all the people I cannot communicate with (besides in sharade like gestures) because I cannot speak Japanese and it makes me a little sad. I guess I kind of feel like, what am I missing out on??? I also am so thankful that the Japanese students I have are so eager to improve their Language skills because that gives us the opportunity to communicate and share our lives and cultures and maybe come out with a better understanding of one another and to me that is very simply a beautiful thing. (I know, I know, I may be in a foreign country but that doesn't mean the cheeziness has stopped).

Okay, I have been rambling on and on for too long now, so I will wrap this up and say sayonara and thanks for reading about my day and some of my random thoughts.

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Comments

[sister sledge and harry hanukkah]

meep meep
dad and i loved reading about your day and random thoughts, where are those emails that you said you'd write now that you have internet?!??! haha just teasin, love you lots!!!!!!!!!!! jess and dad

[Lindsey Hahn]

Hi sarah, I love reading all your posts, but I especially loved this one so much hearing about a typical friday teaching in another country and all your insights on teaching. It just touched me! I loved it!