Entries this day: AWAKE Are_you_English_teacher Coat_purchase Computer_drop Work study_with_Morag

AWAKE

5:05am JST Friday 12 December 2003

Bang I'm awake.

I went pee, went back to bed, no sleepy sleep, so fine I'll get up and study.

I was lying in bed thinking about Nova (not surprising) and the new level up criteria. I'm not sure why Nova is reducing the requirements for the different levels, but I've heard "there weren't enough level ups," which is just about the worst reason I can imagine for such a change.

At the same time, the change makes me interested in staying with Nova a bit longer just to see what life is like on the other side of that fence. And a student said she liked my lessons best (and the lesson in question was one of my go in there and wing it cause I have no idea what I'm doing lessons). Is working at Nova all that bad? Yeah, I still hate it. But why? why do I hate it? Cause I feel inept in the lessons and students ....... I had a good lesson last night - it was one that I thought went over pretty well. I had drawn a map and had students give directions to various locations on the map. I did not once open the book. They were Level 6, and one of the lessons in the book is an Everyday Conversation (by far the least popular lessons in the book, with quality conversations such as

            Would you like a cigarette?
            No thanks, I'm trying to quit.
            Oh, come on, have one.
            No really, I have a terrible cough and sore throat.

which is a good example of why I think the book bites) for giving directions. (( d'oh; it's raining. cold and rainy = ewww )) Anyway I just thought the lesson went quite well.

A previous lesson was with four level 4 students, including disruptive pen-slamming Makoto, huge vocabulary Terumi, flight attendant Ritsuko (?), and one other student. Ritsuko and the one other are quite capable, but wouldn't say anything during the warm-up ("what are alternatives to cars?" which I was just embarassed to ask because I couldn't think of any other way to get them to use the language "instead of" besides saying, "class, I want you to make sentences using 'instead of'," which I've tried before and it rarely works) even after Makoto and Terumi started talking and so I gave Ritsuko and the other a much broader question, "why do people use cars?" and this got them talking.

So I had four students and two different conversations going on (not unusual), and it was a bit of a trick for me to keep track of both of them. Realistically I didn't; Makoto rarely takes the lessons seriously; I just heard Terumi saying "why do you think so?" over and over... what chaos. But I left the lesson feeling like I had actually helped.

I had a lesson with I forget-her-name Level 2 student. I had read in the comments that she's a solid level 2 (Scott said that) so I was like, fuck the book, and I went in there "HI I'm Rob. I'd like you to drive this lesson."

"What do you mean?"

"First, you decide if you want to use the book or not."

"Either way is okay."

"Please choose."

"No book."

"Okay," and we just talked, which was great for me; I was able to give her maximum talk time and help correct her errors and see her using the corrections correctly. It felt like a good lesson to me.

So that's three lessons that seemed to go well yesterday. Even though one started out like crap. Do I think I'm a good group teacher? No, but I'm getting better. Do I know all the students' names? No, but I'm learning more. For a brief instant yesterday, I thought I could settle in to this or something like that.

brain is gone; maybe I'll sleep. 5:41am

Are you English teacher

8:49am JST Friday 12 December 2003

Got to Starbucks around 7:30am and have had just the snottiest nose ever. All clear snot, so it's not contageous; it's just allergies. janette (I think!) called my cellie a moment ago and I tried to zip outside to talk to her (bad reception upstairs here in SB) and she was all, "if you can hear me, call me back if you can," and hung up just as I was outside. D'oh! So I emailed her back and wonder if she'll call me again.

As I came back inside, I bought another ホトココア and the cashier was all, "are you. English. teacher?"

I'm like, "はい、" and then "毎しゅうここに"

And she goes, "I know," thinking she knew that I was saying I come here every week.

But I continued, "。。。日本語を勉強します。"

And she's like, "oh.　私もここに英語を勉強します。"

"ほんと？"

"でも、ぜんぜん英語をはなします。" (*)

(*) I think this is the conjugation she used.

And I was like, oops; I don't know what to say, so I just made an "eeeeek" face like, "yikes stripes."

Wow, janette was right; I can become a regular somewhere and make friends that way. It's only taken 6 months. ;-)

Coat purchase

12:39pm JST Friday 12 December 2003

I bought a coat today. Black with soft fuzzy interior and soft-leather-ish fabric outside (not leather though). With a hood.

- - - -

Morag is a great liar or she really likes the coat.

Computer drop

12:40pm JST Friday 12 December 2003

My backpack fell from a hook a little while ago. No problem of course for the backpack, but I felt a bit concerned about my computer in the backpack. My computer, apparently, is tough enough to handle such a shock. Sweet.

Work

5:19pm JST Friday 12 December 2003

Had my Aries twin in a lesson today. She's my twin only in sign; she's in HS I think and she drinks. She did pretty well in the lesson. We didn't totally bond cause there was another student this time.

Then I had a 7C cat who was totally hard core. He knows more noun vocab in English than I do in Japanese and he could correctly distinguish and use "am" vs "do" two words which often vex Japanese learning English.

Just had Sachiko level 5, who has been here for about 10 lessons. She asked about "a" vs "the" and I gave her some examples and then she was like, "okay; I'm sorry to have interrupted the lesson."

"I have no lesson."

"Really?"

"Really. Nova Usagi thinks I'm the worst Nova teacher ever."

"No..."

"Yeah. But, I was going to look at #66. It's past passives like, "Koizumi was seen at George Bush's ranch." Past because it's in the past and passive "

"And passive because someone else looked at him."

"Exactly. So do you want to do this or more A and The?"

"Articles."

"Excellent."

And that's what we did.

She's going to her friend's wedding tomorrow and wants to wear a Korean somethin' and her husband wants her to wear a kimono. But she can't put on a kimono by herself (すみか agrees that it's not easy) and her husband doesn't know how to help her put it on either.

I was like, "you should tell him if he can help you put it on, you will wear it."

"You will make a good husband some day."

wow, "thank you."

study with Morag

12:24am JST Saturday 13 December 2003

Tonight Morag and I went to Starbucks to study. We really really had fun!! We've scheduled to do it again next Friday.

I wrote:

金ようびスターバクスに行った。　たくさんの人はいた。　
たくさんの人はよんだ。　ほかの人は食べて話さった。
それモラグと勉強した。　ホトーココアを飲んだ。
金曜日に新しコト買った。

I see that the last three characters should actually be four characters: を買った。 But it's a pretty good set of sentences for me. I'm going to email it to あやな for correction.