Teaching English

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Hello all. So this semester I've been teaching English a little bit... it's quite an interesting experience and I never really anticipated doing it before coming here, but I have come to love it! I have several friends who have private students, and with their guidance I found a service online that matches potential students with potential sensei (teachers). Basically native-English speakers post a small profile on a website and then note the locations in which they are willing to teach. The locations are based on the train system, so students living in one part of the city look for teachers living in the same area. These teacher-profiles are then available (for a small registration fee) to Japanese people. It took a few weeks for anyone to respond to my profile, and just when I was about to give up I got a few responses.
My first, and favorite student, is Kunio, a 45 year old salaryman. Every Wednesday and Friday I go to his office in Minowa, which is only 3 stops (about 20 minutes) from the Ayase train station. It is very convenient and the station through which I transfer has a Starbucks! The first time I spoke with him on the phone was very awkward as I wasn't expecting the call and I didn't really know what to say. I did my best to put together elementary sentences in Japanese, and he did his best to piece together English phrases, and somehow we managed to pick a day and time to meet. He is the "big boss" of a distributing company (I'm not exactly sure what he distributes), and I have a feeling he is pretty well off because he drives a Saab (only wealthy Japanese people drive imported cars) and because he can afford to hire a private tutor.
Our "lessons" are basically two hour conversations. They are so much fun. I feel guilty taking money at the end of the evening because I enjoy our time together so much, and it feels more like an exchange, rather than a lesson. Sometimes we work on grammar worksheets, going through the exercises together, practicing verb conjugation, etc. I am by no means a good teacher. In fact, I am probably a bad teacher because I know next to nothing about English grammar. Past participle? Present perfect? Modifier? It is all Greek to me. But I use the English learning resources at my university's libraries to put together basic lessons and to obtain materials that Kunio can read. Usually, though, we just talk. We draw a lot of pictures, do a lot of body language, make a lot of noises to get the point across, and we end up having the most entertaining and interesting conversations. Kunio often makes up new words, such as "One-package Korea" which means the old Korea before it divided into North and South. One time we talked about Mariah Carrey and potatoe chips in the same conversation. Another time we talked about Tom Cruise and dyslexia. The lesson rarely runs in a linear fashion as Kunio always says "I have a question to make to you" and then asks something completely random (for example, "What does #1 and #2 mean in English??" referring to pee and poop).
Kunio really likes learning little phrases like "C'est la vie" or "When I was little..." and his approach to learning English is perhaps more realistic than any of my other students; rather than trying to master grammar and sentence formation, he is collecting as much information and vocabulary by using me as a kind of American library. And likewise I have been learning quite a bit from him (for example, how to say "I'm a lazy person" in Japanese). Several times Kunio's co-workers have come into the conference room to give me a beer on their way out. It is quite a laid back environment and the two hours go quickly.
My other private student, Hitoshi, lived in England for 9 months, so he is all but fluent. He even has a British accent on top of his Japanese one. Hitoshi works in the research and development department of a very big food company here... one time he came to our lesson with his hand bandaged in gauze because he had burnt himself at work. He explained that his assignment had been to cook pasta for a few days and perfect a dish that the company had tried at a popular Italian restaurant. He said that in a few months his company may send him abroad to work.
We go through a very advanced workbook together. Mostly I think he just wants to keep his skills up, and perhaps improve on listening to an English-speaker with an American accent. We are also reading my sociology class articles (very advanced, academic reading) and then discussing them. One time we went to an international foods store because he was interested in learning about different kinds of cheese. So my "lessons" with Hitoshi are also very non-conventional.
My other lesson is actually a class with three middle-aged people. Well, one old lady, one middle-aged lady, and one middle-aged man. This class is run by another Japanese man named Kenji who is fluent (kind of) in English and just wants to have a native-English speaker in the room with him while he goes through the lesson. This class is quite easy as the lesson plan is prepared for me each week. This is the class in which the most grammar and structured learning takes place. Sometimes, when Kenji is not in the class, I teach them fun stuff. The students are all very funny. Today at the lesson one of them told a story about how he was at the sports gym and he went into the sauna and he stayed in too long so his hands had numbness.
So those are my English students. It is very interesting to develop relationships with them because I am getting a sort of insiders view of Japanese life. Through my interactions with Kunio at his office, I am seeing what a traditional Japanese company is like. And through my interactions with Hitoshi (he is only 25), I am coming to realize the ways in which young Japanese people enter the working world. Etc. There are tons of things that I am picking up as a biproduct of our "lessons." I think that leaving might be hard, I'm not sure what it will be like to say goodbye because even though it is a professional relationship, I am becoming good friends with these guys.
I don't have any photographs of teaching (I don't think there is a tactful way to ask my students if I can take a picture of them to put on the internet), but I'll post some random pictures from this semester.

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