Monday:
I draw a draft of four pictures on sheets of paper with pencil. They were a kind of comic of four pieces that I wanted to use in my Japanese composition class. So far, I made my students write Japanese compositions with the following titles; Self-introduce, Things that I like, What I will be in ten years from now, Travelogue, E-mail to the teacher, and Memo to the manager. The first four are just writing about him/herself. Students could write just what they think about themselves. The last two compositions had functions for communications to others, especially persons who were in higher position than students. Now I am thinking about compositions to describe anything in this world. It can be a description in chronological order, a description with spatial configuration, or a description of commodities like vacuum cleaner. Not only for description, I want my student make a story. So I was preparing a draft of four pieces comic. I had made a draft by pencil. The next step is to write it with pen and scan to make digital image.
I went to the teachers office at 10a.m.. I talked to the teacher who was of this country there. Yes I am a foreign teacher here. Ate my lunch in the restaurant for the teacher, and then got back to my residence. Whole of the afternoon was spent for evaluation and correction of my students’ compositions
Tuesday:
In the early afternoon I had finished the evaluation and correction of compositions of two classes. And then I started to make PPT slides for the composition class for Thursday. I stopped working at 8 p.m. Cooked my supper, ate it, then went to bed.
Wednesday:
I finished PPT making at around 3p.m.. Then I wrote a long email to a young person who I met recently. Once I sent the email, I started proofreading and correction for a student’s draft that was to be submitted to Japanese composition contest. I was asked to do it for three students. Each has two thousands letters of Japanese. I finished the first one spending three hours on Wednesday.
Thursday:
I tried to finish the second composition draft. It took more hours to finish because there were a lot of things to make comments on it. I spent the whole morning hours for that. After the lunch I practiced for my class. I use three voices when I prepare and practice my Japanese class. One voice is, of course, me as a teacher. The second voice is pseudo Tohoku dialect for students. The third voice is, also for students, counter tenor with Kansai accent. This Thursday I found another –the fourth- voice that sounds like an Englishman speaks funny Japanese. If neighbors listen to my voices while I am practicing, they would certainly think that I was crazy.
My Thursday composition class starts on 3:30p.m. Every time I start my class with shouting “Do not use your mobile phone during the class. Put it in your bag”. But this Thursday, one of the students on the first row seemed to be reluctant to put it into her bag. She put it down on the sheet of next chair. Her phone was on a hard disk. I understood that she wanted to record my voice. I thought they don’t have much opportunity to listen to spoken Japanese in the real situation, although there are a lot of video clips on the internet. So I just let her do that.
Friday:
I proofread and corrected the third draft for Japanese composition contest. I started it as soon as I got up from the bed in the morning and finished it in early afternoon. I had the same composition class for the second grade as Thursday, but it was for another class. In the evening I went to a restaurant to join a party of the student group who write monthly Japanese newsletter. All the dishes on the table were oily. Students ordered for me several vegetable dishes with less oil because I looked I couldn’t eat anything. Went back to the resident around 10:30 p.m.. Probably it was midnight when I fell asleep.
Saturday:
I got a problem with proofreading of Japanese compositions for the contest. But I should not write about that in detail here. One thing is certain that there are always some people who exploit others hard work.
Funnily enough, another Friday class would be held on coming Sunday. I got twenty and some Japanese compositions that were submitted on Friday class. This Saturday was the only day for me to evaluate and correct those homework assignments. It took whole day.
In the beginning of this semester, I worked in my room sitting on a chair. Soon my hip started aching. I change the chair, I sat on a sofa and worked. Since I have sit on it for so long, the cheap urethane of the sofa was soon squashed by my hip. My thigh was aching too much to sit on the sofa whose wooden frame directly pushed my thigh. So this week, I started working standing. It looks funny. I put a chair on the table and put my computer on the chair sheet. I checked twenty-some Japanese compositions and record scores on my computer. I had been standing all the day. But it was better than sitting on the sofa.
Sunday:
Yes, it is today. I made some minor correction on my PPT for the class in late afternoon. And then I started evaluation and correction for Thursday class. It couldn’t be finished by the class. In the class I made students do pair-works to compose seasonal greeting so that they could use them in the letter composition that is a new homework assignment. I revised and put those greeting on this blog. It seems like endless work and teaching. So far since the beginning of this semester I just have done two classes a week. But in October it will be nine. How can I get through the semester? I am not sure.
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 