Jan 13, 2014 - Teaching again!

Soon after we landed here, I thought about teaching a Japanese Conversation course through some Continuing Ed program.  Last Fall, I decided it was time to pursue it.

I've been teaching for the huge majority of my life - helping other kids in my elementary school classes with math, the high school drama kids with whatever I knew about theatre, etc.  And then I went to Japan.  And I was teaching all the time.  I learned a ton.  Maybe 7 tons.  A lot.  And I taught the Gospel.  And I taught English.  And whatever else I knew and could share, I did.  And I realized I was good at it.  And I loved it.

So when I returned to the States, I went to college and naturally started tutoring everything I could.  And then as a freelance interpreter/ESL instructor, I did the same for a year.  And then I took time off to be an engineer, have a bunch of kids, and start a career.  And then I wrote a Japanese Conversation course.  And it went well.

So now we're here, and I finally interviewed with the head of the local Continuing Ed program in early December.  And she green-lighted me!  The flyer arrived in area mailboxes last week (20,000 copies), and there I am!  I'm really excited.  The last few days I've been mulling over how to approach the class: language-centric?  Culture-centric?  How-to-get-along-as-a-traveller-or-business-person-centric?  I'm no longer concerned about any of the directions.

I have recently decided to poll the class on the first night and understand where they want to go with it.  But regardless, we'll start with a full session of written language introduction.  And they'll all leave being able to say 'hello' and 'what is that?' and 'this is a book'.

It should be a blast.  I'm going to put a copy of the flyer up in the break room at work later this week.  I want to get at least my 6 minimum students to get the thing off the ground.  And then I'm committed.  I'd like to eventually be running a Japanese 110 and a 210 series concurrently, just one night a week, 3 hours in a row.  So class starts in March, and I've got about 6 weeks to take the materials I've written over the past 20 years and coalesce the textbook out of it.  I've already got a language textbook - it's the other stuff I have to build.

Lots o' fun and lots o' work for the first time, and then just fun afterward.  And I do expect to eventually leave the semiconductor industry.  Best to plant the seeds of the second career earlier, gain relevant experience, and make a little extra cash now.