Aya

Aya Tutor Interview

Q. Hello mumusuke sensei! Please introduce yourself.

A. Hello! I’m mumusuke and I offer Japanese, English reading comprehension, and academic tutoring. As I began studying novel translation seriously, I also started teaching on Cafetalk so that I could work from home. Before that I worked as a professional private tutor for about 10 years. I spent many long years with middle school and high school kids who hated studying, so I got in the habit of coming up with fun ways to keep them interested. No matter what subject we’re studying, I try to make sure that the students are always curious for more.

Q. Please tell us about where you live

A. I live in a little corner of Nigata. It’s a 5 minute walk from the beach! I go for walks around there often. One of my hobbies is Tai Chi, so sometimes I do that at the beach too. I love seeing the waves come to shore. It reminds me of a certain production company’s logo (the triangular one!) The Niigata Comic Market, known as Gataket, regularly holds fanzine exhibition and sales, so I used to browse at those events back when I wasn’t as busy. At one point I even sat and sold fanzines that I created myself!

Q. What got you interested in teaching?

A. A very strange memory. I have a little sister who is 7 years younger than me and she struggled with language arts. When I was in college, my mom told me to give her a crash course during summer break. The problem was Fabre’s Souvenirs entomologiques. I asked my sister what she thought after reading about Fabre, who was deeply moved after gazing at beautiful insects all day long and her answer was appalling. She said, “they’re so disgusting I would squash them.” I thought “Are you kidding me?!” and that’s what got me started. Being a private tutor, something I started in my late twenties, turned out to be something that matched my personality quite well, so I ended up doing that professionally for 10 years. I work very hard to make sure my students “get it.”

Q. Do you have any hobbies? What do you do on your days off?

A. Right now I have a lot of other work such as editing short essays for yobiko prep school students, so I don’t really have time off. During my spare time I’m always either reading or doing embroidery. I also have the TV on at a low volume, set to either a foreign drama, movie channel, cooking channel, or anime channel. I just love reading books and I even bring them to the restroom, the bathtub, and to bed. There are books in every nook and cranny of my house. Since I’ve been studying British and American literature, recently all I’ve been reading are ghost novels and gothic novels that fall under my area of research. The other day I was reading a book about someone getting their neck wrung by a ghost while they were asleep and I totally fell asleep in the middle of it!! Haha As for embroidery, I do cross-stitch and Hardanger, which is a bright white traditional style of Norwegian embroidery that I love because the finished product looks like lace. I have taught classes on it before, so I’ve been thinking about offering Cafetalk lessons too one day, but first I’d have to figure out how to deal with the materials, etc. It’s fun to think about all of this stuff! I look at TV guides to find shows that I can watch outside of my lesson times. I love Hikari TV because it shows all sorts of content that I like. I’ll also watch any anime that I haven’t seen before.

Q. We want to hear more about your lessons! What makes your lessons special?

A. My Japanese lessons are created to match your requests. Of course we can diligently study grammar with a textbook, but we can also start with useful travel phrases, reading picture books, reading novels, etc. etc. We start out using class material provided by me, but as we talk more and more, I will add and replace material. If you’d like to study with something you already own, we can do that, or I can also help you find an easy way to study it on your own. As for my anime and manga courses, I’ll start out by asking what you want out of the lesson. We can chat freely about your favorite works, we can translate line by line, or we can buckle down and read. In anime and manga, characters’ lines are often written a certain way to make their personalities more clear. For example, there is “proper speech,” “rough speech,” “Chinese accents according to Japanese people,” “speech habits,” “set word endings,” “strange accents,” etc. I will explain each of the different speech styles and what kind of personalities they are supposed to represent. At the same time, I will help you understand which of the textbook sentence patterns are getting warped and how. Our goal is to get you to a level where all you need is a dictionary to help you read more and more. Well…..the real goal is to be able to go straight into the otaku talk. Being able to come to conclusions such as “ ___ -kun is sooo cool!!” is closer to the real goal.

Q. It looks like you teach everything from ancient literature, Chinese classical literature, and essay writing, to English, to math! Who is eligible to take these lessons?

A. Everyone! I think the sound of ancient literature and Chinese classical literature is just beautiful and there are many interesting plots too. I created these lessons because I wanted everyone to have fun connecting with the text. Of course I take my test prep lessons very seriously, but students who want to have fun with test prep are also welcome! You don’t have to be a native Japanese speaker! The same goes for my essay writing lessons. Normally they’re taken by yobiko prep school students who are aiming to get into medical school, but they’re open to anyone who wants to learn how to write persuasive essays or need someone to take a look at their work. I set up all of my lessons so that once you get the basics down, everything comes easy. Even if you just want to do it as a hobby, let’s enjoy studying together! Especially for English reading comprehension, I have a great collection of interesting and easy novels. I also provide tutoring and homework help for all grades. I have experience helping everyone from elementary schoolers through students who are taking their college entrance exams for the 2nd time, so please feel free to try me out.

Q. In conclusion, is there anything you’d like to share with our students?

A. I think that customizability is one of the many pros to learning online. Lessons can be customized to fit your mood, your goals, and even your negative emotions. After all, language is just a tool. We use it to enjoy the things that we like and to communicate. That’s why I think that learning about the things that you like is the secret to improving. I hope that I can share my sense of curiosity with students so that they will also want to know more, read more, and speak more about the things that they like. Let’s have fun with it together! If you think “studying is too hard, but I have to do it anyway,” there may be a way to make it fun for you! Let’s find a method that will allow you to learn more and more. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

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Aya

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