I received the class list for my next course starting in October, and it held a couple of surprises for me. Most of the members are taking the course for the first time, but three of the members are taking it for a second time. And I was scheduled to meet one of these guys that very evening at a drinking party.
Getting a second shot at my course is a pretty tricky deal. You have to have either some pretty compelling reasons to need an intensive English course, or you’ve got some pretty good connections in the HR department. I’m not sure which of these categories my repeaters fall into, however. But it’ll be nice to see some familiar faces this time around.
After work I met up with two of my students – one current student and one former/future student. We met up in Tarumi, and they took me to an izakaya that they apparently frequently visit. Since they both live in the employee dormitories that are in Tarumi I guess they know the area pretty well, and they picked a pretty good place to eat and drink. We talked mostly in English at first, and as we drank more it kind of shifted into a combination of English and Japanese. Speaking a couple of languages is a funny thing – if you ask me today what subjects were in English and which were in Japanese I couldn’t tell you. We each just kind of used whatever seemed the most appropriate to get our ideas across.
We called it an early night since it was only Tuesday, but it was fun to hang out with these guys and chat. I don’t usually spend time with them outside the classroom, but I hope we have a chance to do it again in the future.
