idiot boy!

So I got to video chat with my family in VA for two hours and reconnect with some other friends on skype. It was a wonderful experience and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to see everyone smiles in real time and “catch up.” I am looking forward to a lot more video chatting in the near future ^_^

Work was a bit bothersome for me today though. I was a bit on the tired side and it affected my last class. The teaching point for that class is kind of tricky for me to teach because I don't often use the “present perfect for continuation” that much when I speak, and I let myself get confused over a particular part of the lesson. I felt very ashamed because I think it looked really bad in front of the students. I hope that they didn't mind too much about my goof up. I did recover, but I still don’t like making mistakes like that. They are steps in the wrong direction -_- I will try to make sure THAT doesn’t happen again.

On a different note, I have come to a funny realization. The gym I frequent here is like my own personal version of that local bar where everyone knows eachother. It’s really like that show “Cheers.” Every time I go in there, the same group of older men is there talking amongst themselves between sets. They are pretty impressive though as a few of them actually out lift me. There are some other folks I see there often also and everybody is starting to be friendly with me. Today one of em even went out of his way to talk to me as I left. It was a good moment ^_^ It’s actually kind of comforting in a way.

Now I am off to bed to face a hopefully fun weekend . . .z z z ZZZ z z Z

None of my business

Today went fairly well! Once again I was able to get a lot finished due to the fact that I only taught two classes. My life up until April will be a lot more manageable at work since there is a lot less prep and unnecessary busy work I have to do around the office. Feels good to have so much done.

The classes I taught today were pretty interesting. It was actually the first time I taught them ever (formally). My head teacher had business at the head office and I took over his low intermediate and high beginner classes for the day. They went fine, but I had to slow down my speech some and simplify my words a bit. I’ll be good if I ever have to teach those classes again though.

A funny thing has come to pass at work. I taught my manager and assistant manager the meaning and different ways of telling someone “its none of your business.” It was a humorous event as they got it, but what is even funnier is that they have been using the phrase on me (accurately) ever since I taught them lol. I guess they learned too well haha. So, if you meet them, be sure to mind your own business =P

GOAL!

Tis the end of my second day of the workweek and things are going pretty well. The weekend ended up being great and I had a good time of it. On Sunday, I went to the soccer game and had an absolute blast. It wasn’t too crowded, my head teacher and I had good seats, and the weather wasn’t too cold. Not only that, but the crowd seemed in high spirits also. As with baseball games, Japanese fans have a lot of chants to help bolster their team’s confidence. Loud rhythmic drumming, clapping, and a good portion of the crowd jumping to the beat accompany these chants. There are also a lot of giant flags being waved around. It is a wonder whether most of the fans even can see the game amidst all the activity. It was really cool to watch (my section wasn't at all involved hehe) though. Unfortunately, my town’s team lost, but the game wasn’t a wasted outing. I will definitely catch another soccer game should the opportunity arise.

On Monday, I was able to take care of cleaning my pad, running errands and doing some shopping with my coworker. It was a good time as we chatted away a big chunk of the afternoon picking up things we need and a gift for another co-worker. In the evening I was able to work out and then go rock climbing at the rock-climbing gym near me. It felt good, but I did a thorough job of exhausting myself and slept REALLY hard that evening haha.

Yesterday started off my week well. This week is counseling week and many parents will be coming in to talk about how their kids are doing, if they will be coming back for the next year, and if they want some extra study materials. I had two of these counseling sessions yesterday. I have to let you know how funny it was to me, that one was for my best student and the other for my worst. They both went better than I expected actually and the mom of my worst student even gave me permission to discipline her kid. I don’t plan to get any stricter with him though, but . . . it's a nice though lol. He isn’t a bad kid, just an uninterested student.

Classes went well enough. Though I kinda goofed in one of em -_- (mixed up my lesson days and did the review lesson a week early). It's a complicated explanation as to why, but the mistake was caught early enough to where I was able to catch them up on what they needed to know and they did fine up to that point in the lesson anyway. The rest of the classes went as usual and one of my adult students even bought some self-study material (makes my life easier in terms of “business”).

Today was really productive as I only had two (instead of up to 5) classes and got hella prep and things around the school done that will make life easier for me in the future. I also had a good time talking and goofing with my coworkers here and there. Work is pretty nice when it is quite and everyone still has a lot of work to do. Even though there were no kids’ classes yesterday, one of my cutest students came in. She lives one or two stations away on the subway and came in all by herself. Big brave girl eh (she’s ten)? We all felt really bad and I ended up hanging out with her for an hour till her dad came into pick her up. It was fun ^_^ The rest of the day went well enough and I even helped make another sale. I’m resting easy this week. I hope the rest of it goes well.

かわいい！

The cutest thing that has happened to me here probably happened yesterday at work. So on Saturdays, I have nothing but adult classes, but one of my students brought her two-year-old daughter in with her. Some of you ought to know this girl I speak of as I have mentioned her before in the recent past by the way. Anywho, while Mom went to class, the assistant manager and I played babysitter and hung out with the kiddo. I didn’t really have to, but because I really adore this little one for some reason, I couldn’t resist hangin out. The assistant manager and I sat on our couch while she played with the toys and interacted with us. She did a lot of laughing and excited screaming and seemed to be having fun. She soon decided that she wanted to go to our kids’ room and wanted me to come with her. Since she speaks no English and very little Japanese, her method of beckoning me to come with her was to grab my hand and lead me to the room. Imagine a two year old leading a 26-year-old man by the hand to go play . . . cute huh?

After that, the manager asked me to take care of her by my self. We had ourselves some fun in the room until she decided she wanted to go back out to the lobby. We were out there for about 15 minutes before Mom’s class was over and while we were playing, I overheard my head teacher (in Japanese) say that I look like a dad. I liked the sound it. Hehe, all in all that hour totally made my Saturday. I hope Mom brings her in again sometime soon ^_^

The rest of work went really well and I joined my manager and a couple other students for dinner after work and nearby restaurant. I got a lot of Japanese listening practice (LOL), but was encouraged by how much I actually understood. I guess I am improving slowly but surely.

Today I am off to Nissan stadium (location of the 2002 world cup) to catch a Japan league soccer game. I have been looking forward to this since June and am excited to finally experience the place. I am considering whether or not to paint my body in the colors of the home team and just wear a speedo . . . just kidding . . . but seriously.

The rest of the weekend is looking like it will be nice and I am ready for what it has in store. I’ll let you know ^_^

金曜日

This entry marks the beginning of an attempt to change my daily routine here. On the days that I have no pressing plans after work, I will stay in the office until the Japanese staff leaves (which is consistently a pretty long time), and study Japanese or write an update . . . as I am now doing. Reason being is that I get no internet here and the staff is busy trying to close up, so I won’t have any distractions from taking care of things that require more attention than facebook and internet antics.

Life since my last update, life has been pretty good. Last weekend I got to enjoy a three-day weekend and made good use of it. On Halloween I went to another school’s Halloween party and had a great time. I enjoyed meeting different staff and students and getting to know them a bit. Most of them were really nice and helped me have a good time. It was also cool to see what another school looked like and I was made really jealous by how much bigger a lot of the classrooms were than ours at Nakayama and that their AC was stronger. My envy isn’t very far reaching though. I like my staff and students too much to care bout room size or AC output.

After the school party, some friends and I headed to Tokyo to meet up with other friends and do some partying there. It was a pretty good time as ended up in a club that had good music, but was packed like sardines. I have to be sure to avoid clubbing here for big party holidays. Its as if there are no fire capacity laws here and I am getting over the fact real quick -_-

On Monday I headed to a city at the base of Mount Fuji with my head teacher to catch some different views of the fall leaves. It was absolutely breathtaking. I have never experienced the sight of fall leaves on this grand of a scale before. You know the colors I’m sure, and the sight stretched on for as far as the eye could see from the spots we stopped at. I will never forget the beauty of that day. I hope to share it with you sometime in some way.

On Tuesday, I went to Kamakura once again and was able to catch the “Grand Buddha” amidst perfect weather this time. I got some great pics and it was a good afternoon. Walking around the town afterward and having dinner was nostalgic for some reason though. I felt the same way I did as the times I walked the streets of Julian or Colonial Williamsburg. It was kinda cool. Imma have to go back next month to see other shrines and see how that feels lol.

Work has gone really well this week. It has been pretty “go go go” the whole time, but I am in good spirits and have been getting my rest. Relations with my co-workers and a large proportion of my students feel as if they are getting better and it makes me really happy. I am so thankful for the state of my life right now and I plan to keep working hard in order to feel like I have earned this sense of satisfaction. I know I am far from being a good teacher, and I will continue to strive for being the best I can possibly be. I want my students to be the most accomplished of any that study the language. I will do my best and we shall see how I do.

A freakin cute thing happened today though. I was teaching my 6-7 year old class and I was at the part of the lesson where we were going over letters. For kids that young, we have a letter song to help them remember letters and their specific sound in a somewhat enjoyable fashion. Ex: “I says ih ih ih, I says ih ih ih, I says ih ih ih, I is found in . . . (and choose a word the starts with I).” Well I was at a loss for a word they would understand and as I was searching my brain for a good choice, one of my girls said “igirisu.” Igirisu is the Japanese word for England and the phonetic start is exactly the same as “I”. I was overcome laughter and congratulated her on her creativity. It was an exceptionally cute teacher moment.

For the oncoming weekend I have no plans beyond hip-hop and living life to the fullest. I’ll let you know how it goes ^_^

day n night

I type this amidst one “of those nights” where you get home and you are freakin tired. One of the primary reasons being the kind of day I experienced today, but I will get to that later. Yesterday was a great day at work. I was bummed that one of my favorite kid students was absent, but the rest of her mates did well and the class was a good time. At one point I was doing something that I had to focus on for a bit and I was sitting down. Since I got my hair cut over the weekend, my head must have had an inviting “pet me” look to it cause two of the students indulged their curiosity and commenced to pet me like a dog. I didn’t it mind much and in good “Wesley form” I pulled on of my favorite jokes on them. I snapped me head around real quick and barked at em like a dawg. HAHAHA you should have seen them jump! I love that joke ^_^ Other than that, things weren’t beyond normal really.

As for today . . . ugh. I started off a bit tired and my first class went fine and I even had a great advanced level interview. The prospective student had lived in London for Eight years and her English still retained the English accent. I was diggin it and my assistant manager said that my efforts were very well received. Good thing. My next class just turned my day upside down though. It is a kid’s class and they are usually my biggest nuisance at this point in time. The best-behaved student in the class was absent and the rest of them showed no interest in working with me during class. They would talk over me, interrupt me, and even disrupt activities I was trying to do (more than usual anyway). I m sure it was plain to see how annoyed I was and I think one of the boys even picked up on it. He got real quite and polite halfway through everything. For some reason, that class managed to sap me of my energy stores and I goofed up both of the next classes I later had in some way. I know we all have days like these, but that doesn’t stop them from sucking -_-

Starto!

Yesterday was a good start off for the workweek. I got over half of my class prep done and the teachers meeting was a far stretch from being as stressful or distressing as they can sometimes be. It seems that the feel/attitude of the school has changed with the weather and I am glad for it. Going to work is a lot easier and worry free as of recently. Our Halloween parties are this Saturday evening (adults) and Sunday afternoon (kids) and the staff is really gearing up for them in terms of purchasing decorations, food, and getting as many of the students to come as possible. It should be a fun time.

In terms of classes, they went well as usual. I had my three kids classes and one person in my single adult class of the day. The lessons seemed easy for the kids (though a good few were absent this week) and my adult student caught on just fine. Talking to or playing with the students here there between classes was nice and made the day go all that faster also. Nothing especially cute or “out there” took place though, but I will take a day like yesterday any day.


One good thing I guess that is worth mentioning from yesterday has to do with the business end of things for my school. This week begins what we call our “self study program;” where we offer a variety of short courses and materials that target various English abilities at all levels to help hasten student progression. The campaign serves the purpose of enhancing learning as well as boosting profit for the company. I am getting more comfortable with the fact that AEON is business and that it is necessary for me to support my staff as they try to make sales. Yesterday I assisted my manager in our first sale. The adult student I taught signed up for a course on how to effectively take the TOEIC test (with the highest score possible) that will last for 22 classes. It’s comparable to a Kaplan course or something. Hopefully the class is useful for her and that she ends up feeling her money was well spent. I will continue to be supportive in this program and hopefully maintain being on the right side of that super thin line between offering a good service to students at a price and pestering customers just for the sake of turning a profit with disregard for their personal benefit. I think I will pull it off fine since I’m still critical of how much emphasis on money there seems to be here sometimes.