Today my lesson was in Izumi Fuu-nishi, in which the closest station was JR Izumi Fuuchuu. I had to take JR train from JR Tennoji station, but for the second time this week I got on the wrong train. And this time I was not so lucky. When I was at the train platform at Tennoji, I saw a train saying “to Wakayama” and “Kansai Kukou” at the same time so I was not sure if it is the correct train. I waited for the next train which was a Special Express to Kansai Kukou…… I took that train and it did not freaking stop at any other stations! Worse, I had to pay extra 700 yen plus I was late to work for over 20 minutes. After the express trained arrived at the airport station, I ran to the platform across and hopped onto the right train, and then slowly rode my way back to Izumi Fuu-nishi station. Apparently the regular trains heading to the airport direction actually breaks off into two shorter trains, with the fronted 4 cars going to the airport and the backend 3 cars going to Wakayama. But I found that out too late!
I ran from the station as soon as I got off the train, and for god sake the classroom was pretty easy to locate (very close to the station). And I had an easy time teaching today with the help of a knowledgeable teacher. I missed most of the class for the 5,6 years old so I could only do a short introduction, then played a quick card-matching (picture and words) games with those kids. And I barely had time to catch my breathe from running from the station. Then I had some junior high school students, and we played Guessing the word game and Flip the card game that I designed after the terrible class on Wednesday (I will write about that after the weekend….a long story). I want to elaborate on the Flip the card game a little bit. It is an easy game but I found it very effective way for practicing English as well as being a fun activity that would keep everyone interested. Also, the best thing about the game is that every teacher can make the game in an instant and customize accordingly. How? Well, I will show you what I did….. I basically wrote out easy instructions such as “sing a song”, “spell the word potato” and “name 5 countries in Eur0pe” on a sheet of paper, paste the paper onto a cardboard paper and then cut them out into small cards. As for the rules of the game, students sit around a table and the teacher line up the cards. Each student would then pick a card and do the instructions as written on it. To determine the order for the game, the teacher can ask each student to throw a dice and say out the number loud (or in a phrase such as I threw a Five).
I threw in something unusual for my cards such as “Make a scary face” and “Do 10 sit ups”. Those terms are a bit difficult but the Japanese teacher would help the students out, so in a way the students are learning new vocab. Plus everyone can have a good laugh after playing the game (it happened today in my class) so it is a perfect method to have fun while learning English.
I actually had two high school class today, with one class being more advanced. In that class, besides doing the games, I also did a questions-and-answers section, and I learned quite a few things from the interaction. First of all, I met a student who had cramp school right after the English class on a Friday night! It was already pass 8:30pm when the lessons ended and the his next class finished at 10:30. Japan do have quite a few hardcore students. Secondly, after today’s class and my experience from my past few days, I can generalize that the students in Japan typically are either very shy or talk way too much (I cannot find anyone in between so far). The boys are big sports followers with baseball and soccer being the two most popular ones, and the girls they all like Smap, Arashi, and the Johnny Boys. The girls are big on cute characters too…Anpan man, Doraemon, Rilakkuma, and Disney characters, and they carru whole bunch of accessories with those character printed on. Does anybody agree with my observation?
So after the first week of work, I have learned a lot and I truly believe I can become a really good teacher. I am going to prepare more materials next week so that I have more tools I can rely on in class.
Now, enough about work. My baka friend Ken has arrived in Osaka and he will be meeting me and Dave tomorrow night. Cam will arrive tomorrow morning (he is taking the overnight bus). Osaka is going to explode with stupidity!
