More events
Hmm. There's been a few things happening to be and I haven't gotten around to posting them yet. Here we go.
The interview in Hiroshima went well, and now they want me to come in and teach a demo lesson involving the class reading and discussing an article from The Economist. That'll be either this Saturday or next Saturday, presumably next since they haven't gotten back to me yet.
While I was in Hiroshima, I went to an Indian restaurant called Spicy Bar Lal's for lunch. After I order my food, I pull out my iPhone to look around on the internet while I'm eating and the Japanese businessman next to me, who's probably in his 50's or so, sees this as his opportunity to practice his English and starts a conversation about it. I make a few offhand remarks about the iPhone, and noncommitally ask where he lived when he was in America. Then he says Chicago, which piques my interest a bit more. It turns out that, 20 years ago, he lived in Chicago for two years when he was attached to the consulate there. So we talk about the importance of English, how Japan's population is declining so domestic companies need to look at foreign markets, the benefits of living abroad, teaching, and so on. He gave me some advice on looking for a job, since he currently works for the Hiroshima-ken Bureau of Labor. If I do get the job and end up teaching at any companies, maybe I'll see him again?
Tonight, we went to visit our future Japanese tutor--Hirata-san, the wife of a priest (Buddhist, I believe, judging by his clothing, though Hattori-san mumbled jinja under her breath when she was trying to tell us where they lived, so I could be wrong). She served us a very good meal and we talked a bit. She told us about how speaking English was one of her hobbies, so she made friends with a lot of the foreigners in the area, and told us some stories. Apparently a college in New York (I don't remember which one) had a branch in Chiyoda in the early 90s, but it closed after only a couple years. She agreed to tutor us in Japanese conversation if, in exchange, we would help her practice her English. Not exactly a hard bargain there, and people who know English well enough to teach it and who don't already teach English in high school are pretty rare up here in the mountains.
As a random side note, one of her stories mentioned her grandmother, and how she was a "daughter of the shrine." Apparently her family has been priests at the shrine for at least a century, and possibly longer. Kind of neat. ^_^
The interview in Hiroshima went well, and now they want me to come in and teach a demo lesson involving the class reading and discussing an article from The Economist. That'll be either this Saturday or next Saturday, presumably next since they haven't gotten back to me yet.
While I was in Hiroshima, I went to an Indian restaurant called Spicy Bar Lal's for lunch. After I order my food, I pull out my iPhone to look around on the internet while I'm eating and the Japanese businessman next to me, who's probably in his 50's or so, sees this as his opportunity to practice his English and starts a conversation about it. I make a few offhand remarks about the iPhone, and noncommitally ask where he lived when he was in America. Then he says Chicago, which piques my interest a bit more. It turns out that, 20 years ago, he lived in Chicago for two years when he was attached to the consulate there. So we talk about the importance of English, how Japan's population is declining so domestic companies need to look at foreign markets, the benefits of living abroad, teaching, and so on. He gave me some advice on looking for a job, since he currently works for the Hiroshima-ken Bureau of Labor. If I do get the job and end up teaching at any companies, maybe I'll see him again?
Tonight, we went to visit our future Japanese tutor--Hirata-san, the wife of a priest (Buddhist, I believe, judging by his clothing, though Hattori-san mumbled jinja under her breath when she was trying to tell us where they lived, so I could be wrong). She served us a very good meal and we talked a bit. She told us about how speaking English was one of her hobbies, so she made friends with a lot of the foreigners in the area, and told us some stories. Apparently a college in New York (I don't remember which one) had a branch in Chiyoda in the early 90s, but it closed after only a couple years. She agreed to tutor us in Japanese conversation if, in exchange, we would help her practice her English. Not exactly a hard bargain there, and people who know English well enough to teach it and who don't already teach English in high school are pretty rare up here in the mountains.
As a random side note, one of her stories mentioned her grandmother, and how she was a "daughter of the shrine." Apparently her family has been priests at the shrine for at least a century, and possibly longer. Kind of neat. ^_^