Hello everyone! I'm Meg, living in Taiwan.
Following last time's funny story, today I'm sharing what happened after my time in grad school!
After finishing grad school, I naturally began my journey as a full-fledged Japanese teacher. I started out working at a language cram school!
This time, my target audience was "adult students."
Unlike teaching kids, I couldn't just say, "Let's play and learn together~♪" ...On the other hand, if I stuck strictly to serious textbook lectures the entire time, I'd end up facing a storm of complaints again (tears).
Why? Because at that first school, a single class session lasted for a whopping "3 HOURS"!!!
To make matters worse, the subject assigned to me was... "Listening Comprehension."
...Just try to picture it. "3 continuous hours of listening class" (haha)!!
Making students listen to textbook CDs and answer questions for 3 straight hours was absolute torture—not just for the students, but for me as the teacher too!! (crying)
Not to brag, but even with my fast-talking skills, surviving 3 hours of that was IMPOSSIBLE!!! (LOL)
So, here is the clever workaround I came up with??
For example, "Fill-in-the-blank quizzes using popular Japanese songs"! I would hand out worksheets with certain words missing from the lyrics, and students would fill them in while listening to the song. Afterward, I'd briefly explain the singer's background and the meaning of the lyrics, and then chat with the students about it.
By doing this, I naturally incorporated plenty of "Conversation (Free Talk)" elements into a "Listening" class!
In fact... regardless of what subject I teach, I "always make sure to include time for conversation in every single lesson."
Why am I so obsessed with conversation, you ask...?
The reason for that... I'll dive into next time! Stay tuned!
☕️ A Little Note from Meg "3 straight hours of listening sounds like torture! (haha)" "I cracked up at 'even with my talking skills'!" I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments! In my lessons, I prioritize real, living conversation over just reading out of a textbook. If you want to improve your Japanese while having fun chats, come join my Free Talk lesson!
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