Today, the day before I leave for Hawaii during one of the long holidays afforded by the Smith’s system to its franchisees, I had a message from a high level student who will, unfortunately, be losing her job at the end of May due to the current economic downturn in Japan. She sent me an email to ask advice on what to say at the start of an interview she was to have later in the day. I told her to be natural and just say that she was very excited about the interview for the job and that she thought that the job would be fun and challenging. I added that she should say “So. What do you wanna know about me?” She emailed me back to say that she didn’t think that she could ask that. Then she called me and I asked “are you afraid that your Australian inteviewer will get the wrong idea and start by asking if you were single and so on?” She said “Yes.” I said well, ” I think you are certainly ready for the interview now”. She said she would do her best and I asked to let me know the outcome.
Even such a small experience as this is just another reason that I enjoy teaching English in Japan. It really makes me feel good to have a student ask for advice and the interaction about real life situations is what communication is all about. What job could be more satisfying than this?
So now I’m pleasantly waiting for good news from her.
Update: She got the job! Great!
Al Bartle (SSE Okamoto)
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