my last day of school

Today was my last day as an English teacher in Japan. I said goodbye, handed out books, took pictures, and received scribbled thank you notes in green crayon. It feels good to be done, but it was sad to have to explain to the little kids why I wasn’t going to be there next week to tell them to color the elephant blue.

Aoi, Rin, and Nozomi

I prepared little booklets of many of the things we had studied and gave them to my younger students. On the last page I wrote a letter thanking them for their hard work, and gave them my address to write me a letter. I’ve given out my address to many people over the years, and I hope this year I get more responses than I have in the past. I promise to write back!

Haruka, Jennifer, Hotaru

I have learned several things over the past six months as a teacher in Japan.
1. “Ant” is the hardest word to remember, followed by “ostrich.”
2. The drastic shape change between most upper and lower case letters is really confusing.
3. Reading aloud is not effective when your students only understand two words of the story.
4. The ABC song in Japan pauses in a different place than in the US.
5. There is no reason why you shouldn’t make a fool of yourself in front of little kids. They appreciate silly faces and funny songs.
6. When all else fails, “Go Fish.”

Saki