Teaching Practice

Today is the first day we will teach a sample lesson to real Japanese students. This means that we will have to teach for 50 minutes and try to cover a whole lesson correctly! I’m pretty nervous about it, but I guess we’re ready. My lesson is about tag questions, which we use to check information (i.e. “You’re a doctor, aren’t you?” or “You haven’t climbed Mt. Fuji, have you?”). It’s hard for non-native speakers to know what words to use at the ends of those kinds of sentences.

Today we are also going to be introducing ourselves to our bosses at our division headquarters. Apparently they will introduce themselves to us in English and then we have to introduce ourselves in Japanese. Fortunately, Marcus and I both know enough Japanese to get around, and most people do not know any when they get here, so the intro they have for us won’t be very difficult. I’m sure I will be nervous enough, so knowing a little Japanese is a big comfort! And I don’t think you can get deported for bad Japanese, so I should be ok.

Thanks for reading!

Cate