Last night after work I had several students drop by for some extra chatting and a couple of extra work assignments, so it looks like I’ll be a little busier today than usual. It was good to see these students again – for some of them it had been two or three months since I’ve talked with them.

Once traffic died down in my classroom I was off to meet Kuniko in Tarumi. By chance we both caught the same train, so we met on the platform of Tarumi station and then went out the the restaurant. We ordered a bunch of stuff – mabotofu, sweet/sour pork with black vinegar, steamed shumai, seafood yakisoba, roasted cha-shu, and breaded chicken ankake. The food was excellent, although we were a little disappointed with the sweet and sour pork – they didn’t include many vegetables, only pork. I hate to complain, because pork is probably the most expensive part of the dish, but the balance of veggies and meat is fairly important I think.

While the dishes were coming out of the kitchen, the lady serving us looked a little concerned that we could eat all of it. Finally, with just one dish left to come out of the kitchen, she stopped by our table and confirmed that we still could eat it when it arrived. Not the joking/smiling/friendly confirmation, but more like “You are aware that you have an entire dish still coming, right?”

Despite her concern we did manage to eat everything, and it was two very stuffed people walking out of there. We definitely skipped dessert, and we’ll probably both skip lunch today as well. But it was good to have Chinese again.

We’re in the middle of the work week and things are starting to shift towards the weekend. Kuniko and I are going to end the week with a little change of pace – we’re going out to dinner tonight at a Chinese restaurant that my friend Yoshi introduced me to. Called “Sacred Dragon” (聖龍), it is a tiny little place in the quiet neighborhoods of Tarumi. For some reason we’ve both been craving Chinese food recently, so we’re scratching that itch today.

Despite a full work week things are going pretty smoothly at work. The classes are going fairly well, and I have a larger diversity of skill ranges this go-around. Student motivation remains high, and a lot of students are sent off on business trips fairly soon after taking my class. The realization that the English that they learn today will be needed tomorrow really makes a big difference in how the classes (and the students) progress.

Still, there are some students that fear wide open communication – and will go to great measures to avoid it. Often this is due to low confidence, and now one of my tasks is try to get these students to open up and have a natural conversation. It is not an easy task, because these students probably feel like they are great speakers of English under their controlled conditions – but I have to slowly and carefully knock them off their track and try to push the conversation to different areas. They’ve got to realize that real conversations rarely follow scripts – and sooner or later they’re going to have to get out of the kiddie pool and head to the deep end.

OK – off to work and then Tarumi for Chinese. We should have a fun weekend ahead of us, but more on that later.