Sunday I got up early (for me) and left Kuniko conked out in bed to head to a conference in Osaka. The conference was on “Teaching English in the Japanese Classroom” which is a very broad topic indeed. In certification-crazy Japan the organizers made a very clever play and offered a certificate if you write a paper after the seminar is over. For this reason alone I expected a lot of attendees.
It took me an hour to get to Osaka on the second-fastest train and then I transferred to the loop line and rode a local train to the bottom of the loop at Tenouji. I’ve been there before, but only to quickly transfer somewhere else – this was my first time to look around the area. The station was pretty big, and the surrounding area had lots of stores and restaurants. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard, so I hurried over to the seminar venue and registered.
The organizers were also quite clever in not only charging the attendees for the seminar, but they also had three different textbook publishing companies there with booths overflowing with books. No doubt they helped sponsor the event, because they often would make announcements about this book or that book now available.
I sat towards the front and center and looked around at the other attendees. It seemed like about 70% foreign and 30% Japanese. I was sitting next to a Japanese lady who I chatted with for a while. Her name was Naho, and she teaches at home to young kids (kind of like what I’m doing). Her husband was at home taking care of their baby boy while she came to the conference and she seemed a little worried that he might not be up to the task.
As for the conference itself, it was all in English and really well done. The speakers were all professors at various colleges in Japan, and since teaching at that level is one of my long term goals it was interesting to see them in action.
First, I was really impressed with the depth of their knowledge. Everyone not only knew their field and the current trends, but they also had a really good sense of how things applied to their Japanese students. I also noticed that their vocabulary tended to be much better than mine. I guess it’s high time I went back to school and got a vocab upgrade.
There were four speakers throughout the day, each one lecturing about 90 minutes. All the topics were about helping students learn to speak English better, and they gave study tips, teaching advice, and lesson ideas. Very practical, useful stuff. On another level, almost all the tips can be applied to your own situation studying Japanese – although I didn’t mention that out loud. Now I have some new strategies for my own studies.
During the day I spoke with most people in English, but Naho complained that her head was getting tired from all the English so we mainly spoke in Japanese. We had lunch together and some coffee afterwards, and it was a good exercise for me to speak about more technical stuff than the weather and travel plans. She was really nice and we’ll try to stay in touch.
After it all wrapped up I found a couple of textbooks that I ordered, and then hit the road. The weather was still pretty crappy, so I made it to the train station and then rode the train through the big storm to get get home to Okubo. Overall it was a good day – I learned a lot and was inspired to work harder on my own Japanese and college studies.
Kuniko had dinner ready for me when we got home: a tofu salad and some nacho potato wedges that she made from a kit she had brought home from New Zealand. Dinner was great, and we just relaxed at home and stayed dry. Tomorrow it’s back to work…
