Jo's first sentence!
Hot on the heels of my first crane on Monday, today I came out with my first long, grammatically correct Japanese sentence totally spontaneously (ie wasn't reading from my notes in a lesson, but was at the train station).
Yay me! I'm happy now! Give me another few months and I might be able to come up with some kind of meaningful conversation too..
Today wasn't too bad. I had to do a special class this morning for 8 low level adults. I think we all really enjoyed it, and I feel content that if any gaijin need help in Japan, my 8 adults are out there, armed and ready to help them understand Japanese life. Or something like that anyway.
I finished on a high too - I had to give a test lesson to three adults who may or may not sign up. Their knowlege of English was - well, crap basically but we had a really funny, light-hearted lesson with lots of laughing.
The point of what I've just written? No point. Is there ever? But what I'm saying IS I do enjoy teaching - as long as the students have some kind of personality - which all but 4 of my classes do - and those three are REALLY draining. My definition of 'a personality' - a student who gives ME an enjoyable lesson and walks out smiling. They can have practically no English and we can still have an awesome lesson and I think (big secret here) most students want to have fun and whether they learn is secondary to that. Kids and adults alike. Of course, as I've had some of my students for nearly 9 months, I must be doing SOMETHING right. Naturally, it's also quite nice when they DO learn the target language and use it spontaneously, or even remember it the following week. And I love the informality of the lessons, and the freedom I have in how I teach the language, what extra things I throw in, what games I do, etc.
Actually, I do have another point: this life is so totally stress free it's almost unreal. Well, for me it is. Some teachers are totally stressed out - but they don't know real stress, in my opinion! Before I came here.... Ach. Enough!
Oh, by the way: I seem to blog a lot more that other people. Is this because I blog TOO much or that other people just don't blog enough?
posted by Jo at 22:29
4 Comments:
Congratulations on your first sentence! I am sure you will pick up speed and soon astonish yourself. In answer to your question: other people don't blog enough and as a postscript, if you look at my sidebar you will see a brand spanking gleaming sparkling new link to you.
:)
6:13 am
what was the sentence????
11:26 am
..oh, and i think you blog the right amount..some of us just can't get it together enough to blog more often...i always plan to..i just can't seem to get there.
11:28 am
chamoleon - thank you :D
darth - 'is this the right train to [x] station'.' - it's more complicated in japanese than english, trust me.
josie - nova has the worst reputation of all the schools. i'm not going to make this a public 'let's put down nova' thing - but you're not the first and won't be the last teacher to feel that way. it's a shame you're going. from your blog it sounds like you've been loving japan. maybe after some time in tazzie, think about coming back and try another school? i'm not saying mine's the best, but personally, i'm happy enough with it. anyway, email me if you want more information - japanjo@gmail.com and good luck in the meantime.
1:18 am
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