Posts Tagged Teaching English
March 30, 2004 – Catching a cold
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on March 30, 2014
Starting to get a cold. Colds suck.
(2014 Update) It is pretty common to get a cold or sore throat as an English teacher. The NOVA classrooms are little glass boxes where you are always in close quarters with the students. Students will rarely miss a lesson when they are sick.
6 months in Japan – State of the Union
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Hello House, Life in Japan, The Ex, The Penpal on March 25, 2014
Hello to my regular readers and new followers. I am writing this post in March 2014, exactly 10 years after my 6 month anniversary in Japan. Posting and updating all of these blog entries has been a fun project so far, and a great trip down memory lane.
For anyone who hasn’t been following from the beginning, this is the story of the 3 years I spent teaching English in Japan from 2003-2006. I had a blog at the time, and am reblogging all of my old posts 10 years later, usually with a lot more detail.
To catch you up so far, in 2003 I was finishing University in Winnipeg, Canada and looking for an adventure before giving my life to the exciting world of corporate accounting. Thanks to an elective Japanese language course, I had an interest in teaching English in Japan and managed to get hired by a conversational English school called NOVA. I left a strained relationship behind in Canada and moved to Kawasaki, Japan to live in Hello House, a dormitory style residence with other English teachers.
In my first 6 months I had some memorable adventures, including:
- My first all nighter in Tokyo
- Some failed attempts with the opposite sex
- My first Christmas away from home
- Strange Japanese TV
- Getting a haircut with a language barrier
- Many opportunities to poison my liver
As distance and disagreements about the future put more distance between my ex girlfriend (The Ex) and I, my friendship with my penpal (The Penpal) had just recently and somewhat unexpectedly turned into a boyfriend / girlfriend type relationship. At the time I was living in Kawasaki and she was living in Numazu, so we were only able to see each other 1-2 times per month.
As I entered the second half of my first year in Japan, I was preparing to switch to a full time schedule, as well as getting ready for potential visits from both family and friends. Trust me – the upcoming friend visits are fantastic.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you continue to enjoy reading about my adventures as much as I enjoy reliving them through this blog.
Andrew
March 20, 2004 – Time flies
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on March 20, 2014
I think the 10 minutes between classes is getting shorter every day. Today I had my ass handed to me by a very busy schedule.
(2014 Update)
Typical NOVA lessons were 40 minutes long with 10 minute breaks in between. In the 10 minutes between lessons teachers had to return to the teacher’s room, give rankings and write comments on all students, pass along the files to the next teacher or refile the student folders, check the schedule for changes, and then get ready for the next lesson. Bathroom breaks usually meant writing up comments or refiling student files later.
Most teacher’s rooms were narrow closet like environments with a bunch of people moving around quickly trying not to knock each other over. In large schools like Kawasaki there were not enough seats for all teachers to sit down between lessons, so many comments were filled out while standing and trying not to be in the way.
I liked most of the people at Kawasaki NOVA, but hated the pace of work some days.
March 14, 2004 – Too many foreigners in Japan!?
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on March 14, 2014
I worked overtime at Oomori school today. This was my first time teaching outside of Kawasaki (not counting a few post training classes in Yokohama). It is amazing the difference that a more relaxed schedule and less teachers makes in creating a totally different work environment. Seeing different students is a nice change too.
Since NOVA schools are basically just glass boxes next to each other, it is easy to see and hear what is going on in nearby classrooms. During one of my lessons, the neighbouring classroom’s teacher was doing a lesson about good and bad things about Japan. When asked “what is bad about Japan”, his student responded “There are too many foreigners”. She was also of the opinion that Japan was a dangerous country, but did not offer an opinion if the danger was due to the abundance of foreigners.
To be fair, there are likely about 1.5 – 2 million foreigners living in Japan. Most people would consider that number to be “a lot”. If you asked me to make sandwiches for 2 million people, I would say that the number is “too many”. However, compared to the 125 million ethnically Japanese people living in Japan (98.5% of all residents), 2 million is a pretty small number.
I also question the wisdom of complaining about foreigners while you are talking to foreigners in an English school that proudly advertises that all of it’s teachers are foreigners. But that’s just me 🙂
March 13, 2004 – The Great Sasuke is not always a great topic
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on March 14, 2014
The Great Sasuke
Yesterday in voice class I had some success with the topic of “The Great Sasuke”. Masanori Murakawa, aka The Great Sasuke, was a Japanese professional wrestler turned politician. Sasuke was elected to the Iwate Prefectural Assembly in 2003, and refused to remove his mask when serving in office. In fact, he rarely (if ever) removes his mask in public at all. I got the students to discuss if they thought it was okay for an elected official to wear a wrestling mask while on the job. From there the students came up with a list of appropriate and inappropriate accessories for a politician, including jeans, sombreros, Elton John glasses, etc. The topic went well and the students got some good practice agreeing and disagreeing.
Today I attempted the same topic again with four different students. 3 out of 4 were really enjoying the topic, and the other student started giving answers like “I don’t care”. At one point I asked him a question and he looked directly at me, didn’t say a word, then started playing with his cell phone. I have never had such a strong negative reaction before. Maybe my student was actually Sasuke without the mask?
(partial rewrite of original post)
March 12, 2004 – (not the cat)
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on March 12, 2014
My kids class wasn’t terrible today for a change. Also, the boys managed to finally win one of the group games. In a class of 9-12 year olds, the girls usually do much better with everything.
Somehow the boys learned the word pussy (not the cat) and were using it in class to try to get a reaction from me. I can assure you that I didn’t teach it to them!
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)
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”.
Drinking in Japan 
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