Today I was back at my English conversation school in Tsukaguchi, Amagasaki after a nice Smith’s School of English Obon holiday. It was nice to see students again. Teaching English in Japan is great because I have so much fun with my students in the lessons. Take my last lesson for example when I was reviewing the present perfect simple and present perfect continuous tenses with a student. Animals and things that had happened to my student entered our English conversation.
1. I knew from a previous lesson that she had been kicked by a mother deer in Nara, Nara Prefecture when she was 4 years old because she’d approached the deer’s baby. Wow, that’s dangerous, but luckily she was not hurt much. I had already told her how I’d been bitten by one while feeding other deer! It wanted to be fed too! I was fine though, just surprised! (^.^)
2. I mentioned the monkeys in Minoh (Osaka Prefecture) which I’d heard steal people’s food, always a funny thing to picture. I was surprised when she said that she’d had sweets stolen by a monkey there when she was 13 years old! (^.^)
3. I asked her if she had ever seen boars walking around in Okamoto (Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture) and if she’d tried the nabe (a kind of soup) made with boar which I’d heard about. When she said she had, I asked her if she’d liked the taste. She hadn’t liked it so much!
4. She mentioned seeing a raccoon in Hankyu Mukonoso Station! Can you imagine that? Ha ha ha! (^.^)
5. She also mentioned times she’d seen squirrels. She saw one near a train station in Toronto, Canada. It sounded huge! She saw another one in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan which was being attacked by a flying owl! The owl didn’t manage to catch it, though. Wow!
Teaching English in Japan is a lot of fun! (^.^)
Derek
Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話 塚口校)
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