Today was my last day of Japanese class. I freely admit to being sad by this. I was really enjoying it! I think I kind of miss the life of a student. I suppose I truly am ever an Oxford Cleric.
I was in the beginner class, which was five-by-five with me because I need to refresh my Japanese. I think maybe I retained more this time around.
Since it was the beginner class, we also had a kind of student teacher once a week. It was a little strange for me to be experiencing it if anything because I remember what it was like to be in his position. His name was Asada-sensei, and you could kind of tell he was a rookie. It was kind of endearing. Take his homework and tests for example; the instructions aren’t overly clear, like his intentions didn’t quite make it all to paper. I can’t say that I’m an expert teacher or anything, and my experience as a “professional” teacher is incredibly different considering I’m not even in a school, but I can relate to what Asada-sensei is going through ‘cuz I went through it myself.
Yesterday, Kawasaki-sensei stepped into class to say good-bye. I was mildly perplexed by this. Her English is actually really good and we’ve chatted a bit during breaks and stuff. She always let us, the English-speaker I sat next to and I, get away with speaking English. I wonder if that’s because she was able to understand us, whereas with the Korean and Chinese students, she doesn’t. Anyway, I liked Kawasaki-sensei. I thought she was a good teacher.
Backing up for a sec: when you come to class, you drop off your student ID in this box thing, and at the end of the session they have them all lined up on the counter for you to pick up. Well, I went to pick up my ID like alway, figuring it as a souvenir or something, and mine wasn’t in the row. I was just gonna shrug it off when Sumitani-sensei, our Tuesday teacher, stopped me. It turns out they had a certificate for me. The headmaster was even there to present it to me, and I was really thrown off. If I had been thinking properly, I would have thanked him in Japanese, but when the other teachers around started clapping and stuff, I panicked and answered in English. Still, it’s a really shiny certificate. I asked Sumitani-sensei if this meant I didn’t have to do today’s homework, which was a pretty thick packet of material.
Of course, I’ll do it anyway, but still. I coulda gotten away with blowing it off, hey.