I’m still trying to get used to this really weird schedule. I get up early with Kuniko, say goodbye to her, jump in the shower, and then have until about 2 in the afternoon to do whatever I want. Then I head over to the school and do three classes and get home around 7:30 at night. I just work a few hours every evening and in the end I get paid the same as when I took the train to Nishinomiya early every morning and worked all day long. I like both jobs, but having the free time is nice. The only problem is I feel guilty having all this free time during the day. It’s as if I’m getting away with something….
Anyway, today I headed over to the school and got set up. Nozaki sensei has a big whiteboard in the classroom and she leaves messages for me about the day’s classes. Today she said that one student in the second class was “afraid of Westerners” so she would try today’s class, but probably stop coming after that. Of course, I saw that as a challenge – I want to be the Westerner that makes her realize that they aren’t all so scary. I also don’t want to be to reason for Nozaki sensei to lose students (and money).
So the first class was with the youngest students. There are five students – one boy and four girls. The four girls came all together – their mothers delivered them in a convoy of bicycles. The boy, Kento, came a little later with his dad. I greeted them at the door, but Kento’s dad was having a little trouble. Kento was crying like crazy, and dad tried to leave him crying and take off. Kento freaked out even more, and dad realized that he was going to have to step up and do some parenting. I looked back into the classroom and the four girl students were staring at the little boy freaking out like they were watching a monkey at the zoo.
Kento was nowhere near being under control, and crying so hard that snot was running down his face. I gave dad some tissues and invited them both in to at least watch the lesson.
Once they settled in I started the lesson, and played some games and sang some songs with the girls. Kento watched from the safety of his dad’s lap, and quieted down a lot. Every once in a while I’d try to get him a little involved, but he wasn’t interested. At all. Kento’s dad was a good sport and sang along, tried to get Kento to say things in English, but no luck.
The last game I did was one where I hand out a fly swatter to each student. I gave one to each girl and one to Kento, too. He took it from me and held it reluctantly. Then I showed them how to play the game. I put a book, a ball and a pencil on the table in front of everyone, and then called out “Ball”. All the girls touched the ball with the fly swatter. I would call out ball, book, pencil, and they would touch the appropriate object.
Kento started to participate – and dad and I shared a look of triumph. I also noticed that the youngest girl in the class, Yuzuha, was not only hitting the object but also waving around the fly swatter and hitting other girls accidentally. I told her to be careful, but she kept hacking away like a little three year old samurai. Normally I’d wrap up the game but Kento was actually participating, and I wanted to let him have some success. So I let the little samurai go nuts for a little longer, and then finished it up.
Kento was very happy to grab a snack at the end of the lesson, and then everybody left. I guess it could be called a success. Maybe.
As for the girl afraid of Westerners, she was very quiet today but she didn’t seem like she was going to freak out. There was another shy girl who froze up when I asked questions and looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The other three students did just fine and were my pals by the end of the lesson. I guess that some students will take longer than others to get used to me – it is only the first class.
In the evening I did a junior high class – and that was really fun. I’ve been teaching junior high level students for the past six months, so it was just perfect. The students are all interested in English and I think everyone had a really good time.
I got home at the same time as Kuniko – we met at the station and walked home together. We were a little lazy and bought some pre-made healthy dinner at the supermarket and brought that home and ate it. I was really tired for some reason, so we crashed out on the early side. I’ll have the whole morning to recover tomorrow.
