I was getting the lesson plan and picture cards ready for my 7pm class when the door bell rang once and in came the cheerful lady.
“Hey, how is everything going?” I gestured her in and moved to the fridge to get her usual glass of orange juice.
“Pretty good! I had a very rewarding afternoon!” She replied, “do you remember the direction lesson you taught me here a few months ago?” she asked with a big grin on her face.
“Yes, of course! I remember you came in once very disappointed that you couldn’t give detailed directions to one of your English-speaking customers and asked for a whole 45-minute class of direction-giving practice. Why?” I wondered if she wanted to do the same lesson again.
“Well, I finally used it to help a foreigner this afternoon! He looked really lost so I went up to him and asked if I could help, it turned out that he was looking for the ward office in my area. I was so nervous at first, but I remembered the time you practised with me here and all the direction words came back to me. He was so grateful and told me that he came to Japan for work and needed to go to the ward office for a Gaijin card. I am so happy I could help him!” she gushed with excitment and pride, ” with my English!”
It was a great experience for her to apply what she learned from our school to a real life situation and help a foreigner in need. She was an intermediate level student, it wasn’t so much that her English was not good enough to give directions the first time, it was more of a matter of confidence. The practice she had at Smith’s greatly improved her confidence to communicate with foreigners, which is exactly what we started out to achieve. Her rewarding experience just made my day as well!
Wendy
Smith’s School of English Horie/Yotsubashi
月謝制のスミス英会話堀江校 / 四ツ橋校
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/school/horie.shtml 大阪市英会話
Smith’s School of English Fuse
月謝制のスミス英会話布施校
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