Jeff and I have discussed many times how perfect it is that I was placed in a high school. Although I maintain I was getting better at playing with little kids (not without work - playing with small children does not come naturally to me!), there is no doubt that Senior High School is the best place for me. In that vein, my third year (last year before Uni) class was my favourite because I could really have a conversation with them and I didn't have to behave like a teacher. So I was really really sad when my teacher told me on a Friday, a couple of weeks ago, that the next class would be our last lesson with them! From here on, they just have special study sessions preparing for the entrance exams for the university(s) of their choice. I had no idea and I was so gutted! I put together a class revolving around music (Harry and Laura's Cabaret performances and a Brooke Fraser music video) and photos (pictures from our Singapore and Malaysia trip). I think they really enjoyed it, but it was only half the class because some were already busy cramming. Also, being caught unawares, I didn't think to prepare any goodbye message or anything, or hand out my email address which I intended to do in the hopes they would be encouraged to keep up the communication and travel.
However, just now I had a student come in with a green polkadot envelope. Inside was a really cute card with a message for me:
Dear Charly
Hi! I'm Mina Sato.
Thank you very much for a year. I enjoyed playing Charly's class very much.
I am sad to graduate from high school.
But I am looking forward to going to university.
I will study English harder in university and I want to be an English teacher.
Good luck to Charly! I love you <3
Mina Sato
Aww!!! No wonder I miss that group!
Also... can I just point out to all those who suggest I am a mean teacher and am always hard on my students (Jeff and parents!), she likes 'playing' Charly's class! See, I knew I was a fun teacher. Sometimes. If you're not 16 and talking when I'm talking. lol.
In other news... tonight I'm meeting my potential 'new friend'. It feels about as lame as it sounds, but it's a woman we met at a restuarant who happens to live close to my apartment. She teaches English at a community centre and was trying really really hard to talk to us when we were at dinner, so when she gave me her business card (standard practice when you're introduced to someone here), I felt bad for not having anything to return and gave her my email address. Later she contacted me and although the organisation has been super awkward (when I said I was free all week I forgot to explain that I'm in Jinseki at the weekends, she understood 'not busy except for next week' to mean I was free next week, she wanted to meet at 2:30 when I am very very at work, etc), we finally settled on this afternoon, 4:30pm, at the McDonalds by my apartment. From our previous conversation I have reason to believe I will be inundated with vegetables from her parent's vege patch - whoop whoop!
I felt a little like I was just going to be helping a stranger practice their English when their are plenty of other people I would like to spend time with, both ALT friends and teachers at school I would like to be friends with outside of school. But as Jeff pointed out, I should make the effort because it would be great for me to have a local friend. Which sounds stupid, but in winter we are spending about three nights a week apart, so he's right, it would be good to have someone local in case I'm bored, lonely or have a problem. Plus, if I can muster up the energy and courage, she might be willing to let me practise my Japanese on her, too.
Jeff and I had a big talk last night about how hard it is to actually get the spoken practise because it's really nerve-wracking trying out new language when you have no idea if you're saying the right thing or not, and most of the time we work with English teachers so we can get away with only using English. If anyone had told me I would almost never practise my Japanese while living in Japan, I would never had believed them!!
Hope you're all doing well and that you are getting some nice weather.
Two months till NZ, yay!
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