Archive for category Teaching English
December 3, 2005 – Vitamin drinks
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on December 3, 2015
My voice recovered enough from yesterday to the point where I could make enough intelligible sounds to teach English. To ensure I made it through the day, I drank nothing but hot tea and vitamin loaded energy drinks. Fortunately in Japan both of these are very easy to come by.
December 2, 2005 – Dolphin squeaks
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on December 2, 2015
I had absolutely no voice today, so couldn’t go to work. The only sounds that I could make sounded like weak dolphin squeaks, and there is not much demand for squeaking English to dolphins.
I did feel pretty good otherwise.
December 1, 2005 – December already!?
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on December 1, 2015
How is it December already??
I have been fighting a cold lately, which seems to be a common ailment for English teachers. I was starting to lose my voice at the start of the shift, and the 3 kids classes on my schedule pretty much finished me off.
November 5, 2005 – Open Lesson
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on November 5, 2015
In the English conversation teaching world, an open lesson is when you either have no students scheduled or none of the students show up. This leaves the teacher free to catch up on files or other office tasks.
An open lesson at the end of the day before my weekend is particularly good.
November 4, 2005 – Feeling like crap
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on November 4, 2015
I was feeling awful yesterday and stayed home from work. I was feeling slightly less awful today and went to work. Despite not being at my best, I still tried to give fun lessons to my students. Most days I genuinely enjoy teaching, and I want the students to feel like they are getting something for their money and time.
November 3, 2005 – National Holiday
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on November 3, 2015
This morning I was feeling awful. I tried to get moving but realized that there was no way I was going to work.
NOVA has a phone number to call when you are unable to attend work. If you call before a certain time, there are supposed to be no repercussions for you, other than a day of missed pay. The cutoff time allows NOVA to find a replacement teacher and adjust the schedule accordingly.
Usually calling into the sick number is a short conversation “Hi I am x from branch y. I am sick and can’t go to work today”. They take the info, ask if you need any additional assistance, and the call is over in 30 seconds. Today they made a point of letting me know that it was a national holiday, which would mean a very busy day at the branch. I don’t know if they were trying to make me feel bad about calling in sick, trying to see if I was faking, or just expressing frustration at trying to replace a teacher on a busy day. Regardless, there was no was I was going to work.
October 30, 2005 – Missed a good party
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Teaching English on October 30, 2015
After a very busy month of parties and after work beverages, I am taking a break and let my liver and bank account recover. With that in mind, I decided not to attend last night’s Halloween party.
I usually don’t work Sunday, but thanks to a shift swap I was at work with a bunch of very sore looking English teachers. It sounds like a missed a really good party, but I am still glad I took the night off.
October 27, 2005 – Return to Fujinomiya
Posted by Barniferous in Shizuoka, Teaching English on October 27, 2015
Today was my second time working in Fujinomiya. You can read more about the first time here.
The Nova branch is in the middle of a mall. It serves both as an English school, and cheap babysitting so you can get your shopping done uninterrupted. Instead of telling you about my day, I present some haiku inspired by the Fujinomiya teaching experience.
Fujinomiya
Foreign teachers watch your kids
You can shop in peace
Fujinomiya
You can sing the alphabet
20 times a shift
Fujinomiya
Long train ride from Numazu
But the food court’s great
The front of the branch is
Open so everyone can
See how bad you teach
What am i doing
This isn’t my usual
School – no more shift swaps
October 15, 2005 – Only NOVA teachers can badmouth NOVA
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Teaching English on October 16, 2015
In what seems to be a very regular occurrence, I went out after work AGAIN. As per usual, beer, sushi, and karaoke were on the agenda for the evening.
At karaoke we ran into a group of other foreigners, most of which were English teachers for other schools. When they heard we were working for NOVA, they started talking trash about how terrible NOVA was. For the record, only NOVA teachers are allowed to talk crap about NOVA. We alone have earned that right thank you very much.
October 13, 2005 – Emergency beer
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Teaching English on October 13, 2015
One of the teachers at Numazu NOVA cancelled on their shift at the last minute. During the rush to rearrange the schedule, Super Dave got stuck with 4 voice classes out of his 5 lessons.
Voice is the open conversation room where students of all levels can attend. Depending on the group of students, sometimes the classes just run smoothly by themselves. Other times the teacher is required to keep things moving and entertain the students. 4 voice classes with largely the same group of students would be exhausting!
Palmer and I decided that Super Dave needed some beer for surviving his crazy day, so we went out for a few after work. Beer doesn’t always solve problems, but it can help occasionally!
Drinking in Japan 
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