My 1st Teaching Experience!

Last night I welcomed 6 Japanese students (and a translator) into my home. I was so incredibly nervous beforehand...wondering if they'll be interested in my questions, if I'll make them laugh (in a good way...or even worse, in a bad way), if they will really get anything out of the experience, etc. All of that worry was for nothing. They were the most gracious, friendly, genuine ladies! They brought gifts for me, a cantaloupe (which I love!) and some amazing jelly-type candy called mochi...very awesome! Some of you may have had it frozen in the states; it is SO much better warmed! Yummmmmy!! Or, "oishii" which means delicious. :) (Side note: every time I say "oishii" I am reminded of Kill Bill and O-Ren Ishii. Random, yes. You're welcome) Anyway, we all gathered around and just got to know each other for an hour...the usual "where are you from, what's your favorite food" type questions. Then we played 2 rounds of Hang Man and THAT was fun. They are so very animated when they laugh, it is so cute. It's almost as if they laugh with their whole being if that makes sense. It is a great sound and there is something about making someone from another culture genuinely laugh....or maybe it's just me? I mean, I love to make anyone laugh but I figure if I can cross a semi-language barrier then I must be really funny in that moment. That being said they were all very good English speakers and I only had trouble understanding a couple of times. I'll get better. Like J pointed out to me this afternoon, I haven't had the opportunity to listen to many native speakers as of yet, so I'm sure I will get better.

One thing that really struck me about the experience was the overwhelming sense of family that I had with these ladies that I had just met. We were varied in ages from 16 to older than myself (funny side story about that in a moment) and yet everyone was very friendly with each other. I know they have all been in classes together that are similar to mine, but it was a great feeling and really helped me feel less nervous pretty much instantly. Also interesting to note was that there was absolutely zero sense of competition between them. I dare say that if I had met with a group of American women in the same varied age bracket it would have been different...it seems when you first meet a group of people in our country you size each other up almost instinctively...clothes, shoes, hair, jewelry, etc. There was none of this. They helped each other when one of them struggled with finding the right word, which I thought was so awesome. I don't know if was simply the humbling effect of the scholarly atmosphere putting them all on pretty much the same level or if it is something with Japanese women in general. I can't wait to explore this with them and to discuss it.

Funny story: As part of the "getting to know you" beginning session I asked each lady their name, how old they were and their birth date. I started going around the room, beginning with Yue on my right. We had two 35 year old ladies next to each other (one of them with the exact same birthday as Jonas!) and then I reached Shizu (the oldest in the group whom I guess to be maybe 45) and I saw the look in her eyes of "I'm not tellin' you my age" which I thought was adorable and not unlike the look I would get from an American woman in mixed company. I kindly asked her simply "What is your birth date?" and she told me the date and I said "I'm guessing you are 35 as well?" and she smiled hugely and said "I love you!" Everyone in the room laughed and it was the highlight of the night for me. :)

The other highlight of the evening was when I asked the ladies to simply tell me what they did today. The very last girl in the group (she's 20, not really a girl but nevertheless) said that she had gone to several boring college classes and she was very tired but "this class is very good and I'm having fun." I don't think my smile could have been bigger.

Teaching English in this format is just speaking English. Yes, I have a degree, but it's in Biology for starters and more importantly, these students are not interested in a college course. It is conversational. Just talk to them and help them with their sentence structure. I am not droning on and on about adverbs, subject/verb agreement, etc. So I really think I have the most incredible opportunity here and I feel very blessed. After only 1 class!! Imagine how full my heart will be after 4 years. I can't wait. Please enjoy the pics below. The first is of my lovely gifts from my students and from Tamae (our translator and their teacher as well) and the second is the whole group. They are too cute! Note the inclusion of Pepe in the picture...they were crazy about him!