I did a shift slide today for reasons I cannot quite remember. It was kinda nice to be able to have the afternoon and evening completely free.
The last two lessons of the day were weakpoint courses, which are pretty much the majority of what I teach. The first one was Intermediate Listening Comprehension and the second was Grammar Advanced Third Conditional and the Wish.
Kenichi was a really amiable guy; we had a nice chat about his company (3M) and about how native speakers generally talk too fast, even after they’ve been asked to repeat something or slow down. I don’t know if I qualify in this category, though, ‘cuz I really feel like I speak a lot slower than I had before. Anyway, we got on with the lesson pretty smoothly and I helped him out where I could.
The bell rang, but there was still a question that he had about the listening task, so I took the time to answer. He seemed to really appreciate my explanation and said as much. He said he enjoyed the class and he hoped to have a lesson with me again.
I left the booth smiling.
Kao was a Level 3 student, which translates to pretty damn good. We also had a nice little chat in the beginning of the lesson and he explained how when he was in junior high school he lived in New York for a time. He had no problem with the Third Conditional and pretty much breezed through the grammar, with only a slip here and there in word choice. I told him honestly that when speaking, native speakers aren’t concerned or thinking about whether or not they are using the conditionals grammatically correct but that it usually mattered in formal writing.
I don’t exactly know how or why, but he seemed to appreciate the class as well ‘cuz he also complimented me on my teaching after the bell rang. He also said he hoped to take a lesson from me again.
What’s that all about?
