Good morning! How are you?
You probably think it must get frustrating to say this over and over a thousand times while trying to establish eye contact and smile at those prospective students when I pass out flyers. I would be seriously remiss if I were to say there is never any frustration, but there are plenty of fun times too such as when someone replies with “How are you?”. This never ceases to lead to a funny moment when I reply “I’m good and you?” and the person realizes their mistake, smiles and laughs.
Also, there are times when my current students or previous students stop and talk for a few minutes. They often have something new to tell me and enjoy the chance to speak English. On several occasions I have had student’s mothers stop and introduce themselves, saying that their son or daughter has told them about me and my school. It reminds me that we are much more than teachers to our students. We are their connection with the English speaking world and they appreciate us a lot.
Also I have had several people stop to tell me that it is really nice of me to offer a greeting to someone I do not know. Traditionally Japanese often do this but in today’s fast-paced world this common courtesy is getting more and more rare. So I intend to keep up that tradition….and just maybe this free flyer will turn into a free trial lesson and……..a new student? You never know. But that it what keeps me going.
Al Bartle (Smith’s School of English –Okamoto)
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