Well, I’ve now finished my first two days as an Assistant Language Teacher in a Japanese Elementary School. Before my first class I was quite nervous as I’d prepared an introductory lesson as the school hadn’t told my company what they wanted me to teach, but when I got there, about 10 minutes after I explained my lesson plan, they suddenly showed me some other topics to teach, as though it had been planned. Anyway we went with the introductory lesson and focussed on Australian animals (Kangaroo and Koala were easy, platypus, wombat and echidna were all new to them). Unfortunately I didn’t have any other stuffed animals to use for a feely-bag-guess game, but used the whiteboard as a drawing game for the students to draw and guess what animal it is.

Working in a Japanese school is very interesting. I never imagined it to have such a relaxed atmosphere. About two minutes before the breaks finish there’s some classical music put on the PA system with a recording of a kid cutely saying something along the lines that break time is nearly over, let’s get ready for the next class (probably a bad translation guess - he speaks so fast).

The kids are really fun. Some classes are really shy; some are more inquisitive and will ask the Japanese teacher questions for me to answer, and some love repeating everything.

I’ve been invited to a meeting to extend my contract from April, working in Anjo. I’ve only had two days of work (8 lessons), and they want me to do a demo lesson (as though I’m a pro). Oh well, I’ll do my best

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