Teaching Practice

Introductions yesterday were just fine, so that’s a relief. It was fun to see our division's headquarters and meet some of the important people there. After a short tour of the building, we waited for a minute in the hallway before being led into a room where a line of people were waiting and applauding as we walked in. Then they went down the row saying a few sentences in English (“My name is Mr. Suzuki, I hope you enjoy your stay…” etc). Then it was our turn and I said, “watashi wa keito (Cate) desu. Fukuyama kou ni ikimasu. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” That means, “I am Cate. I am going to Fukuyama school. It’s nice to meet you.” Then I bowed and they all clapped. It was nice.

After that we had a short introduction to the company from the head of the education department. Her English was flawless and she didn’t say “eh” once, despite having studied in Canada. Next we practiced interviewing, which is something we’ll do at our schools to help assess the level of new students and also to try to convince them that our company is worth the money (close to $2500 a year for one 50-minute class per week). We practiced on two Japanese people who pretended to not speak English as well as they do and that was pretty fun. Since half the point of the interview is convincing them that our classes are fun, we get to make some small talk and just generally be as welcoming as possible.

After lunch we had a few more hours to prepare and then our first real Japanese students started showing up! They were very nice, although most of them seemed nervous at first. We practiced “lobby talk,” which is just the term for conversing with students outside of class and making them feel welcome as soon as they walk in the door and helping them switch to English mode. After a few minutes of that I got to teach a class! Fortunately, my students were just about the right level for my material and I think they actually learned something from the class (I hope). It was nice to get their feedback and I feel so much better about teaching now that I’ve tried it out.

Today my sample lesson was about reported speech, and it’s framed in terms of a break-up (“my boyfriend broke up with me. He said he needed to focus on his career. He said he doesn’t like my friends” etc). So it’s a little more advanced than yesterday’s class was and I was lucky to have students who were about at the right level for that grammar. Today’s class went well, too, though it was harder. I guess it’s good that I’m starting to feel ready to teach because I only have two more days of training!

Thanks for reading!
Cate