As the internet connection here is a bit dodgy - we sometimes are able to pick up a signal from a neighbor - I'm unable to upload photos to my blog, but they will be forth-coming; I promise (Jess, that semicolon was for you). Training has been, in a word, intense. The curriculum is very structured (which I'm not at all used to), and the daily schedule is packed so full that by 8pm when training ends, I'm exhaused (we work from 11am-8pm). I'm here with fifteen other teachers - One Brit (Wales actually), two Ozzies, four (I think) Canadians, and the rest Yanks. They're a great group of people - very fun to talk to and hang out with.
Last night I taught my first class to actual students. At about 5:15 a bunch of Japanese students began arriving at the seminar house in taxis and were shown to their classrooms. As space is limited, each class had three or four teachers each of whom led a short, 15-20 minute portion of a lesson. As the students arrived, they were shown to their proper rooms and we greeted and talked with them before class - we call this lobby talk here. It's a time when teachers can assess students' speaking levels and stuff like that. I had three great students and I taught them how to form indirect questions and statements. I was surprised at how well everything went - MSU folks and high school teachers reading this, please note: Japanese students are some of the best you can work with. They were with me the whole time, very attentive, eager to learn and anxious to practice. Not once did I have to tell a student to put away a cell phone, or wait quietly for the room to get quiet - everyone was ready to learn.
I have to go prepare my lesson - we're teaching students again tonight - and be ready for training in an hour so I'm gonna sign off here.
Oh, what am I eating? Lots of triangles of sticky rice wrapped in nori (seaweed paper) with a soy and seaweed filling. I'm drinking a lot of tea and had a great adventure at a ramen shop with huge bowls of noodles and big bottles of beer. Languagewise, I'm completely baffled and have no idea how to read kanji - this makes train and subway travel a bit tricky.
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4 comments:
It sounds like such a pleasant atmospere for teaching! I hope it stays that way and doesn't get all high-stress and burnout-inducing. Do you have a business card?
Also, what's the time difference between here and there? I suppose I could look it up, but you're over there - a perfect resource.
Liz
I felt the exact same way after teaching actual Japanese students for the first time. Basically, they know what the lesson flow is like, you're just there to guide them through it. They are in fact quite amazing to teach, and with what they're paying for lessons, extremely motivated in most cases.
Keep plugging away out there, we'll see you in 6 days!
Thanks, SpSp!
Matt, I had a delightful dream last night about you. No, not like that. It was pretty complex, so I’ll skip the whole part where Eric left his Valley of the Dolls book at an adjoining table and get to the meat of it.
A bunch of us were at a restaurant – I think in the Twin Cities. Definitely you, me, Chad, some strange combination of BloodyP and SpoilSport, and possibly another girl – maybe Jean or Panko? Or maybe just the four of us. We were just having dinner and goofing around, and I remember thinking, “Holy shit, Matt’s back from Japan!” We were all in very high spirits because you were here for the weekend.
After dinner, we went somewhere else for coffee/dessert, and I said something like, “Matt, I was thinking this before, but I have to say it: Holy shit, you’re back from Japan! What happened? Why are you back so early?”
You replied that the place where you were staying had had an accident with its bunks. All the teachers slept on narrow bunk beds, about fifteen high. They had collapsed, so AEON sent you home for a couple of days while they fixed it.
Chad and I were questioning why they would send you on an expensive thirteen-hour plane ride rather than just putting all of you up at a hotel for a few days. You explained that your company was so ashamed of what had happened that they wanted to hide all proof of it. They sent you off and asked you not to talk about it – they were worried about the company being publicly embarrassed.
Some more stuff happened, and on the whole it was very pleasant. I woke up and knew I had to write it down, so I asked Greg to bring me some paper, but he took too long and it was gone. The skeleton remains. Too bad – there was some great dialogue, and the annotations in Eric’s book were highly amusing. Then I had another dream about buying boxed sushi and Easter toffee from a high-end store in a mall and getting shot at by a Mexican gang (?). So be careful – only buy sushi fresh.
By the way, I have a quick guide to kanji and hiragana (via my old Japanese notes) if you think you’ll need one, but I wouldn’t be able to send it out till spring break (probably the next time I’ll be in Michigan) – you’ll probably have a copy of your own by then, but if I can offer any help, please let me know.
You’re about to head out to your permanent school soon, right? Have a good journey. Sing Sinatra at your party!
Sorry so long a comment. –Liz
You said "assess". That's funny.
God, I'm 11.
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