Archive for category Teaching English
February 19, 2004 – Learning English hurts your head
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on February 19, 2014
Today in my 5 lessons at work I had 3 good lessons, one lesson where I totally forgot what I was doing half way through, and one lesson where a student hit her head on the table when helping me pick up some flashcards that I dropped on the floor.
Learning English really does hurt your head.
February 7, 2004 – Working with a hangover
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on February 7, 2014
Working with a hangover is no fun. Working with a hangover and teaching kids classes is less fun. Working with a hangover, teaching kids classes and having a completely overcrowded and disorganized work environment is, well, you get the idea.
February 4, 2004 – Worst Case Survival Guide
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on February 4, 2014
The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel
Today in Voice class (open conversation room) I decided to use the “Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel” as a conversation starter. The book gives hilarious, illustrated, step-by-step instructions on how to survive travel emergencies such as stopping a runaway camel, jumping from a moving train, and passing a bribe at customs.
After showing a few examples, I asked the students to think of a few Japanese emergencies. The winning ideas were losing a train ticket, not having enough money at a restaurant, and missing the last train home. I then got the students to come up with step-by-step instructions on how to deal with these situations.
This turned out to be a fun way to teach event sequencing (first do this, next try this, etc) and also some new vocabulary. The students had almost as much fun as I did. Some days I am still surprised that I get paid for this.
Remember kids: don’t get off the camel until it stops moving.
(partial rewrite of original post)
February 2, 2004 – Yay blond hair!
Posted by Barniferous in Marshall, Teaching English on February 2, 2014
Today I worked a shift so another teacher could go watch the Super Bowl and drink heavily. He found a bar that was showing the game (early in the morning) and had Happy Hour until the first touchdown.
Trading a shift with another teacher usually involves simply switching one day for another. However, since I am a part time teacher (5 lessons per day), trading with a full time teacher (8 lessons per day), I ended up with 5000 yen as compensation for working the extra 3 lessons. My day off in return for working today will be February 12. Marshall and I are planning a night out in Tokyo.
Work was interesting. Most of my students were women and I got flirted with in nearly every class. Yay blond hair!!
(2014 update)
It is entirely possible that I get flirted with more often than just on this day, but I am generally pretty clueless.
January 31, 2004 – I need a beers
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Teaching English on January 31, 2014
Yes, yes I do
Another work week finishes. Whee! I guess it is the last day of the month so I should write some insightful and meaningful wrap up for the month, showing how I learned something or how the cultural experience was meaningful or something. However, after an entire day of people badly misusing my native language, I can only say “I need a beers”.
January 27, 2004 – Interesting students
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Keikyu-Kawasaki NOVA, Teaching English on January 27, 2014
(Original post) At work I taught a kid that was really good today! Why can`t all kids be like that? I also taught a member of the Japanese Self Defence force and a woman who designs diamond tools for cutting silicon.
(2014 Update) The location of a NOVA branch will go a long way in determining what kinds of students will show up. Kawasaki City is a largely industrial city full of factories and heavy industry. The majority of students in the evenings and on weekends are all engineers. I have nothing against engineers, but it is nice to have a little more variety in the classroom. Three electrical engineers and one computer engineer who all work and live in Kawasaki is not variety.
Variety of students in the classroom, whether it be people with different jobs, people from different generations, people with interesting hobbies, or the always rare non-Japanese student, keeps things interesting for the teachers. English teachers are responsible for teaching as good a lesson as possible, regardless of who shows up to class. However, it is much easier to stay engaged and excited as a teacher when you aren’t teaching the same lesson to the same types of students all the time.
Variety in the classroom is also good for the students. Not only does it give students a chance to interact with people they might not normally talk to, it also allows for a wider range of vocabulary. As an example, imagine the discussion about weekend plans in a classrom with 4 salarymen as compared to a classroom with an engineer, a retired senior, a university student, and a stay at home housewife with 3 kids.
In my 3 years of teaching in Japan I got to teach a great assortment of different people with different jobs. My highlights include a Buddhist Monk, members of the Japanese Self Defence Force, a game designer, a few doctors, a hostesse, a miniture dollhouse designer, a very opinionated retired ballerina, and an awesome construction worker from Peru who was studying English as a third language.
If you have an English school and have any control over scheduling of your lessons, do your students and teachers a favour and try to get some variety in the classroom. It will benefit everyone.
January 24, 2004 – 4 months in Japan
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on January 24, 2014
Nova Classrooms – a maze of glass boxes
As of today I have officially spent 4 months in Japan. I celebrated this momentous occasion by… working.
At work I managed to distract two other classes during a man-to-man kids class. “Man-to-man” is the term used when a student specifically requests a one on one class with the teacher, regardless of the gender or age of the student. A “lucky man-to” is the NOVA student term for when they book a group lesson but happen to be the only student to show up.
The first distraction was caused when I needed to go to the teacher’s room to get some teaching material that I forgot. NOVA classrooms are little glass boxes, so you can see what’s going on around you. A student from another class stopped listening to her teacher and watched me go all the way to the teacher’s room and back. It was a little strange.
The second distraction came when I was teaching using the “throw the paper ball at the flashcard” technique. The target language had phrases and pictures from a short story. I would read one of the cards, and the student would have to throw a paper ball at the card and knock it down. Then she would pick a card and read to me, and I would have to knock down the card. This sounds a bit dumb, but it involves both listening to English to identify the correct target card, and reading English to tell me which card to hit. Also, kids absolutely love this.
On one turn, the paper ball took a bad bounce and rolled under the wall into the next classroom. Without thinking about it too hard, I was down on the ground (in my shirt and tie) reaching under the wall into the next classroom to retrieve the lost paper ball. I had just closed my hand around the ball when one of the students noticed an arm grabbing around on the floor and screamed. I popped up and explained what happened, which cracked up the entire next classroom. I basically brought both classes to a complete stop, but everyone seemed to have a good laugh about it.
January 21, 2004 – Avoiding the teacher
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Movies, Teaching English on January 21, 2014
I had a student deliberately avoid one of my voice classes today, which was a bit of a blow to the ego. At the end of each class we have to ask the students if they have another lesson. This helps determine which files we need to get to another teacher. One of the students said no, she didn’t have another lesson, but she would be going into the Voice room for an open conversation class. I told her that I would be teaching Voice next, so that I would see here there.
During the 10 minute break between classes she went to the reception area and booked another classroom lesson so that she would not have to take my Voice class. Ouch!
After work I went back to Hello House and finally got to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. It was good, but could have probably been about 20 minutes shorter. I love movies, but living in Japan makes it difficult to keep up on the newest releases. Most movies take a few months to show up in Japan, and the DVD releases are similarly delayed. The result is that I can’t talk new movies with people from home. Oh well, a small price to pay for living in Japan.
January 20, 2004 – Well worth a pen
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on January 20, 2014
I had my first really good kids class today. I felt good about my teaching, and that the kid actually learned something. However she accidentally stole my pen at the end of the lesson. Hey, if a pen is the cost for a successful kids lesson, no problem!
January 17, 2004 – Pandas speak Chinese, not English
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on January 17, 2014
Nova Usagi – the worst mascot ever
The picture above is of NOVA Usagi (NOVA rabbit), the horrible mascot of NOVA’s language school. It is supposed to resemble a pink rabbit with a bird beak. The idea behind it was that the rabbit ears represented listening well, and the bird beak represented talking well. To me it looks like a mutated Pokemon that needs to be destroyed with fire, but what do I know?
NOVA Usagi is well known all over Japan, and you can’t look in any direction at a NOVA school without seeing it’s stupid face. At work I was teaching Voice class (an open conversation room for students of all skill levels), when I was suddenly inspired with a good topic; finding a replacement for NOVA Usagi.
There were 5 talkative students in the Voice room, and I asked them to come up with ideas for a new mascot. Many animals were suggested, narrowed down, narrowed again, and we finally had a showdown between the two front runners; monkey and turtle. I then broke the class into teams and got them to come up with ideas to defend their animal. After a brief debate, Shelly the NOVA turtle won. It was one of the best Voice classes I have ever taught, and the students seemed to have fun too.
On a side note, I asked why nobody had suggested panda, and all 5 students (at the same time) shouted “PANDAS SPEAK CHINESE, NOT ENGLISH!!!” like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I guess that’s why I have trouble talking to pandas.
Drinking in Japan 
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