Swimming happily in the Deep End
It’s all on! Three days of teacher training and then we were tossed to the sharks. It was fun. Really. NOVA seems to have pretty established resources and lesson plans so it was really just getting familiar with those. Sure, the first couple of lessons were a bit daunting but hey, its English, what do I have to worry about? I’m an expert!
Ok, so there are a few students who require bags of patience and encouragement but so far I’m even quietly impressed by the level of some of the higher students. We are encouraged to improvise a little with the lessons which will no doubt be important to our sanity over the year teaching the same material. Some of the highs of my classes so far have been discussing ‘the pros and cons of genetically modified food’, ‘proposals for a mega warehouse type store to set up in a scenic town’, and ’skeptism and conviction’ where my student taught me about the Kappa - Japan’s Taniwha. That was hilarious coaxing out of my student exactly what a Kappa was and looked like, and her needing to express her absolute conviction in it. It was also interesting to get my student’s perspective on what kind of apples they would buy - the bigger the better, even if they’re white! Genetic Modification was hardly a concern for those students. For the record, apples at the local store costs Y100 (about $1.40nz) and are nothing on the good old Royal Gala. These are the good classes. The worst are the ones that can speak but are too shy to be heard above a whisper. 40 minutes can feel like a long time.
I’ve been posted to work in Ogaki, a few towns away from Gifu which necessitates me getting a bus then a train for a 50ish minute trip. It’s a bit inexplicable why I’d be set up to work in a different town from the apartment they’ve set me up in. I’m far from the only one. So why? As one of my friends remarked - ‘because they can’.
So work was going fine for two days and then I started a new round of training for something much more terrifying - teaching children - those unpredictable loveable rascals. Our training on day one was fun and loaded with activities for keeping the little kids attention. On day two we regressed back further into childhood and trained for Chibiko, teaching English to kids who only just learned to stand and are likely to soil themselves in class. Goody. Imagine, if you like, a room full of grown men singing their abc’s, ‘the name song’, ‘the goodbye song’, ‘heads shoulders knees and toes (knees and toes)’ and all your other preschool favourites. That was training.
It all kind of went in one ear and out the other, so when I turned up to work and saw that my first lesson was a 6 year old I went white. Thanks to Sarah for pulling together everything I needed and bookmarking the stories. I got through it, and I’ll be a stronger person for the experience. That’s all I need to say.
My second week starts tomorrow morning. I’ve just had a sweet two day break which deserves a blog entry of its own.
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