How to Teach English
My last post about my Adventures in Japan left off as I was just starting to work at my branch school. This will be a fun and maybe quirky summary of my first month as a teacher.
After three days of adjusting to being at my real school it was time to begin teaching full time. This was easier said than done. Because of some shuffling that needed to be done between the teacher I had been living in the hotel near our home school during my adjustment period. So I had had about one day in my new apartment before going back to work. I was a little frayed around the edges to say the least.
I wanted to make sure and be a model employee my first real day. To do that I made sure to show up early, very early, really very early. And despite what everyone says about the Japanese and being on time to things, that means they are on time. I got the nice treat of waiting in the hallway of our building for about a half hour before anyone else showed up. Oddly enough the next person to show up was Steve. He was a few minutes early and I claimed to have been standing there for about two minutes. There were now two gaijin in the hallway waiting for work.
Our manager arrived soon after that (about 2 minutes until opening time). I was a little freaked out that our school wasn’t open earlier so that teachers would have more time to get ready. Actually replace “a little freaked out” with near nervous breakdown. What can I say, I was new.
Luckily the day started very smoothly. I started getting lesson materials together, and got to know my classroom a bit better. Then students starting showing up and damaged my calm.
Before lessons teachers go out to the lobby for aptly named “Lobby Talk” with students. Trust me when I say you should probably experience travel abroad before deciding to work abroad. Students usually show up to AEON classes on their day off from work or after work. So typically they aren’t exactly in “English Mode” and lobby talk is a god way to both learn about students and ease them into class time. Lobby Talk is also more than just something to do, it is also a method of speaking.
In the lobby you get to talk with all the students. Needless to say, this means that the variability in English level is high. My stellar performance in college and complete avoidance of small children really hurt me in this. For about the first two weeks my lobby talk ability was horrible. I actually felt like I was ambushing students. I just had no concept of simple sentences that asked one clear question. Let’s take a look at good and bad lobby talk.
Bad Example:
What sorts of things do you like to do?
Typically greeted by terror and nodding.Good Example:
What is your hobby?
Any student can answer that, and enjoy the question.
You can probably imagine which of those I was.
Fortunately my teaching was much better than my lobby talk. No where close to perfect, or even good at first, but much better than my lobby performance.
Make sure to check out Part Two, the one that actually goes into teaching!
That’s a great story. Keep up the good work. I’m glad you are writing about these experiences because I have been thinking about going out there to teach English. Reading first hand experiences is the best way to know what your getting in to I think.
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Thanks for stopping by!
Make sure to check out part two (up today and now linked from this article). And if you have any questions please use my contact form or send me a message through Entrecard.
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[...] in Part One, I basically discussed what happens before a class, but I didn’t get into actual teaching. So [...]