Archive for category Teaching English
November 14, 2004 – Hurting
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on November 14, 2014
I am hurting today from the party last night. Fortunately my streak of not having a single NOVA kids class since moving to Mishima NOVA continues. A kids class today would NOT have been enjoyable.
October 29, 2004 – Demo lessons
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on October 29, 2014
Today I had 3 demo lessons. A demo lesson is a free sample English lesson provided to prospective students. The lessons are half the usual length, and the idea is to show the students what a NOVA lesson would be like.
Since the demo lesson is a sales tool, the teacher has an important role in giving a fun, successful demonstration. This makes the sales staff’s job easier when they try to get the student to sign up for an expensive, long term lesson plan. Not all teachers are chosen to give demos. The fact that I got three in the same day is a bit of a compliment to my skills. In addition to the compliment, which is always appreciated, demo lessons have less preperation and paperwork which makes for an easier day for me. What’s not to like?
October 27, 2004 – One last night with the good kids
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on October 27, 2014
Most of the teachers at Kawasaki NOVA are sick, so the schedule keeps changing. I ended up getting one more lesson with my former Wednesday kids class. They were all surprised to see me. It was a nice surprise for everyone.
October 23, 2004 – Massive earthquake
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Life in Japan, Teaching English on October 23, 2014
What started off as a regular Saturday late shift turned a little more exciting. During one of my voice classes in the evening, the building started shaking. At first I was playing it off like a joke, standing and wobbling back and forth. My students asked me to sit down, which I did.
Then the shaking got stronger.
Most of the earthquakes I have experienced in my 13 months in Japan were over quickly. This one kept building in intensity and the shaking didn’t stop. One of my students, seeing that I was no longer enjoying myself, tried to reassure me.
“Don’t worry Andrew” he said. “This earthquake is… how do you say…” and then he moved his hands left and right.
“Side to side?” I responded.
“Yes, this earthquake is shaking side to side. Don’t worry.” he replied. “If it’s shaking…. how do you say…” and then he moved his hands up and down.
“Up and down?” I answered.
“Yes, if the earthquake is shaking up and down then we will all die” he explained in a very matter of fact manner. The other students sitting around nodded their agreement. It didn’t do much to make me feel better at all.
The building where Kawasaki NOVA is located is a tall, modern building near Kawasaki station. Like most modern buildings, it is built to flex during an earthquake. This helps keep the building from falling apart, but it provides a very unsettling feeling. The worst part for me was the sound of the window frames and door frames creaking as the building gently flexed back and forth.
During the rest of my shift, I felt no fewer than 5 aftershocks. Some of the aftershocks were the size of the normal earthquakes that I had previously experienced. I kept mentally reassuring myself that the aftershocks were side to side, so everything was fine.
After work I had several beers at Kiosk to calm my nerves. I took the train back to Noborito, and began a slow, slightly stumbly walk back to Hello House. About half way home my phone rang – it was my mom calling from Canada.
“Are you okay? I heard there was a big earthquake in Japan!” my mother exclaimed. Trying my best to sound sober and calm, I explained that the earthquake was in Niigata, which is about 300km north of where I was. I told her that I felt the earthquake, but was fine and there was nothing to worry about. After several reassurances, I managed to convince her that everything was okay and I didn’t need to move back to Canada immediately.
I learned later that the earthquake was actually much bigger and scarier than I had originally thought. 40 people died, and over 3000 were injured. One of the shinkansen trains derailed due to the shaking, fortunately with no injuries. When you are traveling over 200km/h, a derailment is not a pleasant thought.
Earthquakes are a part of life in Japan, but I don’t think I will ever get used to the ground moving. By the way – I am moving to one of the most earthquake prone areas of Japan. At least they will be the most prepared, right?
(2014 Update) The exchange with the student about side to side vs. up and down is still one of my favourite teaching stories in Japan. The conversation was so absurd compared to the terrifying earthquake that was happening. My original post had a lot less detail, mainly because I didn’t want anyone back home to worry.
October 21, 2004 – Halloween Voice
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Keikyu-Kawasaki NOVA, Teaching English on October 21, 2014
Today I had yet another special topic voice session, this time at Keikyu Kawasaki school. The topic was Halloween. Japan doesn’t really “celebrate” Halloween (I don’t know if celebrate is the right word), but they know what it is. My personal highlight was getting the students to play pin the tail on the donkey.
(2014 Update) The NOVA Kids curriculum during October is usually Halloween related. One of the American teachers at Kawasaki NOVA went above and beyond with one of his kids lessons. He took the student (a 5 or 6 year old girl) to all of the other classrooms to go trick or treating. We all gave her flashcards with pictures of candy and other treats on them.
When both students and teachers are having fun in the classroom, it really helps a lot with learning English and job satisfaction.
October 18, 2004 – Daytime cold medicine to the rescue
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on October 18, 2014
I had to work today to repay a shift swap. Daytime cold medicine got me through my shift. Hooray for generic brand DayQuil!
(2014 Update) One of the good things about working for NOVA was the ability to trade shifts with another teacher, commonly referred to as a shift swap. NOVA was also very accommodating about teachers calling in sick – as long as you called before a certain time in the morning, NOVA would try to find a replacement for your lessons. The teacher calling in sick does not get paid.
Calling in sick on a shift swap causes a lot of problems. Since the sick teacher doesn’t get paid it would cause the staff a lot of extra work to make the payroll work out. The worst situation would be calling in sick on a shift swap where the shifts being traded are in different pay periods. No matter how sick the teacher is, the staff would NOT be happy.
October 17, 2004 – No voice = no work
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Teaching English on October 17, 2014
I woke up with no voice due to the nasty cold that’s making the rounds. For an English teacher, no voice means no teaching.
I spent my day chugging orange juice, sleeping, and playing Playstation.
October 16, 2004 – Catching cold
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Life in Japan, Teaching English on October 16, 2014
There is a nasty cold making it’s way through the teachers at Kawasaki NOVA. In the morning I started feeling the cold. By the time I got through four lessons, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I took some daytime cold medicine from Canada on my break, and made it through the rest of my shift with my brain swimming around somewhere above my body. This was actually less fun than it sounds.
When my shift ended, I immediately went home and directly to sleep.
October 12, 2004 – Short shift
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on October 12, 2014
I worked a part time shift today to pay back Georgia for working my Sunday shift. When I first started teaching, five lesson shifts seemed a lot longer. Today, the lessons simply flew by.
October 9, 2004 – Sideways rain
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Life in Japan, Teaching English on October 9, 2014
Today was my last big topic voice class. I woke up early to transfer my resume presentation files to a disk. I then went through my usual routine of eating, showering, visiting, hanging out, and getting to work. When I got to work I realized that I had left my disk at home, and didn’t have enough time to go back and get it. Time well wasted.
Fortunately, in the 3 hours of preparation time, I managed to remember the key points. Without my visual aids I pulled a 90 minute presentation out of my ass. Overall it was well received. Resume voice allowed the students to practice past tense sentences for their accomplishments, and there was a lot of work with adjectives. The students were really surprised to learn that in Canada, you aren’t supposed to put information like your age, height, weight, and marital status on a resume. I was surprised that such information was common to include in Japan.
The other notable event today was my first typhoon. My students were explaining that it was the worst typhoon to hit the area in about 10 years. It was raining and windy when I got to work, but I had no idea what a typhoon could do until my dinner break came. I went outside with my umbrella into crazy winds so strong that the rain was coming sideways. My umbrella was instantly turned inside out and nearly pulled from my hands. When I walked around some corners, the wind was so strong it almost knocked me over. I had never experienced a storm so intense before!
Due to the strong winds and rain, several train lines shut down. This had a positive effect on NOVA, as students couldn’t really go anywhere, so they booked into any lessons that had space or hung out in the Voice classroom. Fortunately for me, Nanbu line was not affected so I could go home on my regular train.
My experience with the typhoon was relatively mild compared to other parts of Japan. There was property damage across the country and reports that two people died. Nature can really be terrifying at times!
Drinking in Japan 
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