Today at work I had only two classes. Both classes were with physically disabled students. They are fun classes. The level of English is quite low, but the students’ interest is quite high. Today with the deaf students my teacher told them that I had been studying Japanese for about the same amount of time as they had been studying English. They demanded a writing sample, and so I wrote a little bit in Japanese on the board. Then they tried to write it in English. They had mixed results, and I think they were really feeling like they needed to study a little harder.
I didn’t mention that I could limit my studies to just Japanese – they have to study a ton of stuff. Also, I’m living in Japan, and they aren’t living in an English-speaking country. Still, they really wanted to do better.
Other than my two classes I didn’t really have a lot to do. I did some studying, and I planned a lesson that I’ll do with Kuroda sensei starting on Wednesday. Matsunaga sensei had made a trip to Costco over the weekend, and she bought me a big package of bagels and a refill of cheese.
I was supposed to meet Antoine after work today, but due to a strange illness, I had to cancel. By pure chance I met Kuniko on the same train home, and together we did a tiny bit of shopping in Sannomiya before coming home. Kuniko cooked up a bunch of leftovers into a really good soup, and we ate that while watching TV and staying warm in the kotatsu.
School tomorrow will get much busier it looks like. At least we’ll get to start our morning with some bagels tomorrow, though.
