Archive for category Teaching English
July 16, 2004 – Return to Gyu-Kaku!
Posted by Barniferous in Lux, Teaching English on August 11, 2014
I was working with a slight hangover from last night’s karaoke. Working with a hangover, no matter how small, is not fun.
After work I took Lux to Gyu-Kaku. Once again, the food was fantastic! Lux is a smoker, and usually I don’t enjoy eating in the smoking section of restaurants. However, the ventilation at Gyu-Kaku is very good due to all the smoky grills at each table. The fan above our table sucked up all the cigarette smoke and I didn’t notice it at all. Just one of the many reasons why Gyu-kaku is great.
July 15, 2004 – Return to karaoke
Posted by Barniferous in Karaoke, Keikyu-Kawasaki NOVA on August 11, 2014
Today was notable for three reasons:
- I got my first full time paycheck! Much nicer than my part time paychecks! Yay!
- It was my first shift at Keikyu Kawasaki NOVA in 2 months. Keikyu is always more relaxing than Kawasaki NOVA. Also, most of the students actually remembered me and asked where I had been.
- It was my first time at Thursday night karaoke in a few weeks. Karaoke and beer = good!
July 14, 2004 – How big is Uranus?
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on August 11, 2014
Every month the lesson plans for NOVA kids change. This month’s topic is outer space. The senior class (9-12 years old) is learning the names of planets and comparison words.
Today I had to teach the kids “Uranus is larger than Earth”. If I tried to get kids to say that in Canada I would have been arrested.
July 11, 2004 – Returnee student
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on August 10, 2014
Like most Sundays at NOVA, today was a very busy day, but I got to finish in the afternoon instead of the evening. I am now spending way too much time at the internet cafe, catching up on the internet time I missed when my family was here.
Today I had a man to man lesson with a 6 year old returnee student. Kids students who have lived in English speaking countries are usually taught separately from the rest of the NOVA Kids so they can have more challenging material.
Today’s lesson material was animals. Regular NOVA Kids would get a lesson with “It’s a bird, what is it?” to which they would respond “It’s a bird!”. They would learn about 5 or 6 other animals and then the rest of the class would be spent playing games to reinforce the new vocabulary. For this returnee student, I brought in a whole pile of different animal flashcards. She knew all of the names already, so I tried to come up with a new challenge for her. I set up the flashcards around the room, gave her a paper ball, and asked her to throw the ball at various animals; animals that ate meat, animals that could fly, animals that live in Japan, etc. The lesson turned out well and we both had fun. I feel bad for this kid if any teacher goes into the classroom and tries to stick to the lesson plan.
July 9, 2004 – New Voice Co-ordinator
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on August 9, 2014
Today was my first day back to work after my family left. I had 3 kids classes to welcome me back to the office, but they were all pretty good. I also learned that I am the new Voice co-ordinator at Kawasaki NOVA. The Voice room is a general conversation area for students of all levels. Occasionally the school will offer some specialized topics, including Club 7 (for low level students) or special topic Voice. The special topics are usually something related to one of the teacher’s countries, or teaching language for a particular task. My job as Voice co-ordinator will be to schedule the special Voice topics, and ensure that they are evenly distributed among all the teachers. I am pretty excited about it, even though there is no increase in my pay.
After work I went for Kiosk beers with Anzac. Usually we will get a can of Asahi or two and watch people in the station. Our highlight of the evening was a really drunk middle aged businessman in a suit who had peed his pants. When I say “peed his pants”, I don’t mean a few drops; he literally hosed down everything. I don’t envy the people next to him on the train.
June 11, 2004 – Avoid 50% off sashimi at all costs
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Teaching English on June 24, 2014
After work last night I once again found myself at Daiei’s supermarket looking for some discount food. I decided on a delicious looking rice bowl covered in sashimi (raw fish). It had been marked down 50% because it had been sitting in the deli section unsold for the entire day. 50% is the maximum discount that Daiei gives, so I was pretty excited to dig into my giant fishy rice bowl.
I woke up this morning feeling terrible. My stomach was not happy with me, and after making three rapid trips to the bathroom I decided to call in sick and go back to bed.
After a day of sleeping and running to the bathroom, I finally felt well enough to get out and rent some movies. I spent my evening watching Terminator 3 (not nearly as good as 1 and 2) and Dreamcatcher (not as good as the book).
(2014 Update) Calling in sick at NOVA was fairly easy and painless. An English speaking operator answers and asks for your name, your branch, and the reason for missing work. If you sound particularly sick they also ask if you need any further assistance. As long as you call before certain times (8:30 for early shift, 10:00 for afternoon shifts) there is no penalty for missing your shift, other than not getting paid.
When I told them that I wouldn’t be showing up due to discount sashimi, they didn’t sound impressed. I found out later that sushi and sashimi were by far the most common reasons that teachers would give for missing work. Japan has fairly high food safety standards, so it is likely that some of the sushi and sashimi calls were actually booze related.
June 8, 2004 – Back to work
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on June 22, 2014
Today was my first day back to work after my friends returned to Canada. Kawasaki NOVA is just the same as when I started my vacation. To cover the shift swaps needed to accommodate two sets of visitors, I will be spending a lot of time at work in the near future.
June 5, 2004 – The Strip Club
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English, Team Awesome Sauce, Tokyo on June 17, 2014
I had to work today, leaving my visitors to their own devices. At work I had a one on one class with a kid known around Kawasaki NOVA as “Notorious”. I expected the worst and was pleasantly surprised.
When I returned home, I found the guys drunk and grumpy from a bad experience in Kabukicho during the day. Apparently they went out to see strippers. In the strip club they ended up having some drinks and singing karaoke with one of the dancers. When it came time to settle up the bill, there were charges for singing with the dancer on the bill. Some of the guys didn’t want to pay, as they were not told in advance that there would be any charge. To avoid an argument with the establishment, Flounder settled the bill and then tried to get the rest of the group to pay him back.
The money was the main reason why everyone was grumpy, however we were all at the point in our vacation where we had been spending entirely too much time together. Being with the same people 24 hours a day for two weeks is a whole lot of togetherness.
In the evening, Code Red and Hippie stayed at Hello House, while Flounder, Blue and I went out with Lux and some of the other Hello House residents to a nearby izakaya for beer and grilled mochi.
(2014 Update) I have heard a few different versions of what caused the money dispute at the strip club, but this version seems plausible. Since I was at work and all of the participants were drunk, it’s possible that I will never know for sure. Not surprisingly, there are no pictures from that day!
May 19, 2004 – Good kids class
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English, Team Awesome Sauce on May 19, 2014
With the impending arrival of my friends I decided to use my time before work in order to get prepared. Unfortunately, sleeping in extra late is not the best way to be productive. After I finally woke up I rushed to do a bunch of laundry and tidy up various messes in my room. Just before I started writing this blog entry I looked up train times to get to Narita airport for the pickup.
I have a regular group kids class on Wednesday now that is actually really good (unlike my Friday class). I like the kids and they actually seem to like me as well. At the end of our lesson I wrote on the whiteboard that I was going on vacation for 2 weeks, and then somehow managed to explain it to them. They all looked sad and actually lined up to shake my hand on the way out. Sometimes being a teacher can be pretty cool! These kids are not getting any homework when I am back to work.
May 15, 2004 – Free lesson
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on May 15, 2014
I actually got a free lesson today (no students showed up), which is EXTREMELY rare for a Saturday at Kawasaki NOVA. This helped make for a better than average Saturday at work. Only 3 more working days until DU Invasion!
Drinking in Japan 
Recent Comments