3 Things I Learned From My Students This Year

1: What to eat
I started teaching on Cafetalk not long after I arrived in Japan, and one of the first questions people tend to ask in a conversation session is "do you like Japanese food?" which always leads to surprise and amazement because I don't eat seafood! I love the Japanese food that I eat, but there are also a lot of things I've never tried because they contain fish. However, many of my students have come up with great recommendations for varieties of things to try, or alternatives, so that I can still enjoy the experience. When I was looking for a casual restaurant to visit, someone introduced me to Torikizoku, which is now one of my favourites. When I stayed in Kagawa, I learned about kamatama udon, which generally doesn't have fish stock. An of course I found out you can never go wrong with tonkatsu!

2: Where to go
Similarly to number one, people love to ask about where I've visited in Japan, which is always one of my favourites since my aim is to visit every prefecture! Meeting students from all over Japan with different upbringings and careers and travels of their own has meant plenty of opportunities to learn about new places to visit, so that I can see the best of every prefecture! Through students I've learned about dinosaur playgrounds, historical villages, beautiful hikes, and so much more!

3: What to say (sometimes)
My Japanese is not great. I always tell people that the only phrases I know are 私の日本語は下手です, トイレはどこですか, and ファミチキをふたつお願いします (which usually gets a laugh out of them). But sometimes, my students teach me a fun new word - especially more slang or colloquial terms - that I absolutely love. My latest favourite is 怠ける which I do a lot now that the weather is getting cold, and I'm a big fan of 脊髄反射 to explain away my terrible mistakes. One of my students even kindly offered to talk with me in Japanese to help me practice, but life has been so busy lately that I can never seem to find the time :(

Of course, there are plenty more things that I learn every day from teaching, but these seemed like some fun ones to share with you all! Soon I will be updating my availability for the holiday period (Mid-December to Early-January) and I hope to have some more time open up for lessons, so if you'd like to do some English practice over that time, I'm always happy to help!

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