Student stories

I wanted to share some of my students with you.

Tsuneko: my first request. An older lady in her late 60s, who I met in November and have seen regularly every Wednesday since. Its a great way to start my work week. She reminds me of Baboo- the jewelry, and accessories and her floral blouses. Her laugh is absolutely adorable! She's a beginner and her daily activities include working in her garden in the morning, house keeping and having lunch with her husband. She always attends calligraphy class after our English lesson. We move slowly through the text and there are some errors she consistently makes, but its such an enjoyable hour for both of us! She brought me back a small treat when she visited Hokkaido (northern region of Japan) and we enjoy each other's company.

Taiki: He's four years old and always sniffling! He definitely needs routines. So I always greet him in the hallway when he arrives and after he has taken off his shoes, he comes running to me and grabs my hands. We head off to wash hands and then start our lesson. He is incredibly stubborn and gets obsessed with certain activities and couldn't care less about others. We once spent 15 minutes with a small plastic clock practicing telling time and he loved moving the hands of the clock around to change the time. As he moved the hands, I would repeat in a rhythm: "what time is it? what time is it? It's ___ o'clock!"
He loves letter writing and I'm trying to get him into reading 3 letter short vowel words by having him write them letters out and then say the sounds with me. He is slowly learning that he can't dictate the lessons completely and if he wants something, he must first ask for it in English.

Taku: a six-year-old genius! haha. He's awesome! His mom loves me and we usually have a double lesson (two 50-min sessions back to back). She stays in the room taking notes with his baby sister too. Taku keeps me on my toes and I'm always trying to come up with new things to fascinate him with and pique his interest. Hs lessons are always entertaining for me! He's got great writing skills, an incredible vocabulary base, and a keen interest in science and how things work. He is the very definition of the kind of student all teachers want in their classrooms.

Tiny Tots: This is what we call our 40-minute pre-school lessons that can have as many as 6 students (ages between 2.5 and 5). I usually teach two groups on Saturday mornings- that's one way to wake you up!!
It takes a while for them to get used to the routine- especially since its only once a week. As long as each activity is no longer than about 5 minutes- I've got them eating out of my hand. They listen quite well, and love to sing and dance. Exhausting, but fun! They love to make me laugh too! Tickling, or looking for praise for something they did. They often jabber away to me in Japanese- and I pretend to understand them...I'm pretty sure they know that I don't

Yukina: My favorite 8-year-old girl. She is so eager and willing to try anything and her effort is always 100%. I like that I can challenge her and she rises to the challenge. She cocks her head to the side in typical Japanese fashion when she doesn't understand something. Her reading is improving dramatically and I always look forward to working with her!

Naoya: Thank goodness another teacher and I share this moody 9-year-old boy! I am always trying to get him to smile or get excited about something- but he drags his heels on just about everything! He does love using the small classroom whiteboard and is fascinated by geography. So when all else fails, and he wont do the required textbook (mom requested) we look up information about Antarctica and wild animals- which he finds very interesting.

The Fukushimas: (Shuji and Atsuko) This couple- in their mid-50s, have become my regular semi-private lesson after their previous teacher left. They love chatting, and teasing each other and learning English. Their lessons are always light-hearted and fun, and they ask me questions about my life and are always super interested about learning new words. They are off to Vienna for the next week, and our last lesson before their trip consisted primarily of role playing the hotel check-in process and how to send an email to reserve tickets for the Vienna boys' choir performance. I can't wait to hear about their adventures when they get back!

More stories to come...