Well, two nights ago I had a pleasant surprise. One of my students who has been on leave emailed me to say that he wants to start back as a man-to-man (Private lesson) student from next week. It was a pleasant surprise. He is a cardiologist and is planning to go he US next year to do research on atherosclerosis. He will have some interviews by phone and may fly to the states next month for an interview with a hospital research laboratory. In the past he and his wife were my students but with the birth of their son in March, they had to take a leave of absence. They are a lot of fun to teach and are enjoying their experience as new parents.
It is always a pleasure when a previous student decides to come back and study at my school as it proves that we are providing a valuable service to our students and they recognize this. It is the best validation of the value of the coaching that we provide. This makes us want to work even harder to assure out students’ success. I cannot think of any job which rewards you more especially in terms of the self-satisfaction that we enjoy by knowing that we are really helping people. It is great!
Al Bartle (Smith’s School of English – Okamoto)
Update: I had the first lesson with the student last night and it was great. We practice a mock interview in which I asked questions about his experience in research on arteriosclerosis and why he wanted to conduct research at “our” laboratory. He did well but we realized that since most of the top people heading laboratories in the US are originally from countries such as India and China that the ability to understand their accent and for them to understand his accent is an inevitable unknown. So we also went through some ways to ask the interviewer to restate or rephrase his question and perhaps to speak more slowly. It’s funny but the ability to make such requests in many different ways has the added effect of making the interviewee seem better versed in English. I also recommended that he prepare a list of his questions for the interviewer since it is important to demonstrate his interest in the work that is going on at the targeted laboratory. He seemed to appreciate this lesson and we are looking forward to the next lesson and further practice.
Al,
Return students are further proof of this great system we work in and how much your students like you and your lessons. Great job!
Edward, SSE Ohtsu