Well, it’s now been a week since I started teaching English here. I’m impressed at the ardor of the students. They buy lessons and many come for 2-5 lessons every day. There is also a thing called “voice.” This is a sort of conversation lounge and these folks frequently stay for many hours. It is far from cheap for them and their dedication is obvious. It’s quite exciting to be able to help them to better their communication skills. It is, however, exhausting for me to maintain the requisite bubbly jovial (“genki”) demeanor as my past has been generally solitary in the computer field. So far my students range from Jr. High School age to Seniors of varying abilities in English and obviously EXTREMELY diverse personalities. I hear that next month I am to go for training in teaching children so that will be added to my schedule at that time. I’m doing 6 lessons a day and one session of voice and it’s all quite interesting, despite the drain on my personal energy. I’m still on probation as a teacher until the end of January so the pay is worse than it might be, though even after probation it’s not much at all. Hopefully it will be sufficient to make up for the financial deficits of the moment (less than rent + less than living = nasty). Those US school loans are … a necessary yet onerous burden. This is particularly because of the difficulty in international transactions which I have yet to fully understand, much less master. Suggestions?
I wish I could give you some of my personality. I am probably perky enough for 4 people.
I study Japanese a little bit every day. I am using that pict-o-graph kanji book you had and it is making a difference. I can now look at hiragana and recognize the image an the sound to make. I wish I could take lessons like your students do.
I use Easy Hiragana, the pict-o-graph book, singing to J-pop, listening carefully to the Japanese as I watch subbed anime and movies. I also have Learning Japanese through Manga and now a 2 CD set, plus the programs Mark downloaded for me.
I am sorry the money situation is still so tough for you, but I am glad you seem to be enjoying your job.
Much love,
Kitty