Moving to Fukuoka

 I got a job in  Fukuoka in November of 1990 as I needed a visa. I was very sorry to give up full-time Japanese study. I worked at Encyclopaedia Britannica (remember encyclopaedia?), which had an English teaching arm called IMA. My boss and another colleague were from Adelaide and there were other teachers from all over, so we had a lot of fun times together. I still stay in touch with some IMA friends to this day. Our classes were all conversation classes only. We used to post a topic for our class and that was it. There were no text books and students didn't do any preparation or homework for lessons. It really tested my imagination coming up with new topics for every class. 

The students were adults from uni students to Nakamura san who was a delightful 65 year old with stories of his experiences of World War II. I soon learned that Japanese adult students are very shy and not inclined to offer information. I was often greeted with a sea of motionless faces and blank looks when I asked if anyone had something to say. The Japanese saying "The nail that sticks up, gets hammered down' was very evident in classes. No-one was willing to stand out in the crowd. I became aware that I had to directly ask students to give me answers. I also found out that hypothetical situations didn't work too well either. One of my lesson topics was, 'What would you do if you won a million (U.S.) dollars?' I was greeted mainly with blank stares but some brave souls offered answers such as buy a new TV or car. The next 55 minutes went rather slowly! Didn't try that one again!

I commuted from Kumamoto to Fukuoka which was a 1.5 hour trip on a lovely train. My train Japanese became quite good. I then decided to move to Fukoka in January as the commute was a bit long. I lived first of all above an old lady's house. She would often come into my house and creep around when I was in the shower etc. I would come out wrapped in a towel which gave us both quite a surprise! I left that place in May and found a great apartment which I lived in for 2 years.

I became a gym junkie ( I know that will surprise some, if not all of you!) I also had three Japanese lessons a week. It was a charmed existence with my work day starting at 4 o'clock most days and finishing at 10. I loved those hours.

I did a lot of travelling when I lived in Japan and I'll tell you about some of those travels later.

Here I am in the office in Fukuoka in 1992 with the lights of Hakata behind me.

じゃ　また　ね！Bye for now!

My first Asian adventure

Kumamoto Castle

 Living in Japan

My first teaching and learning venture in Asia was in Japan in 1990. I went to Japan primarily to learn Japanese because I thought I would get an exciting job when I returned to Australia. Unfortunately, my Japan skills only reached the level of being able to teach Japanese once I returned home!

I first lived in Kumamoto in Kyushu. It was such a huge culture shock.  I lived in a semi-rural area and I was quite a novelty. I used to ride a bicycle to school through the rice paddies and I thought I was Shirley Valentine living a kind of dream.

I went to Japan unable to speak, read or write one word of Japanese, which was a really good incentive to learn the language quickly. I truly believe necessity is the biggest incentive for learning a language. I lived with a Japanese family so had to learn quickly to express my basic thoughts and needs. I studied Japanese full-time and worked part-time and was really busy. I taught very young children, teenagers and adults so experienced teaching every age of student there!

Mount Aso

Catching buses was a challenge. My home-stay mother would write the Chinese characters (kanji) on a piece of paper for me. As the bus approached the stop, I would look up and down from the paper to the bus to try and match the characters up and.........the bus would be gone. I eventually learned that the bus to school was the 'Christmas tree bus' with the character　杉　and the bus home was the 'fish' bus with this character  交.

There were so many amazing moments in Japan ...I had a real live volcano close enough to my house that my bedroom was often covered in ash! I learned to eat raw fish. The shops were open on Sundays!! Japanese red wine tasted exactly the same as Japanese white wine! Japanese summers were hotter than Australian summers! Kumamoto ramen is the best ramen in the world! Shop assistants seemed to be origami experts when it came to wrapping your goods. Everything was so beautiful including the dishes served to you in restaurants, and on and on.

I studied full time for six months and came to love Japan and the Japanese language very much. It's a really difficult language and a lot depends on pure memorization of the characters, which helps me understand my Asian students' need to memorize things and see things written down. I've noticed that all Asian students 'write' new words on their hand with their finger to visualize the word. Japanese and Chinese are very visual languages as each character tells a 'story'. So much more meaning seems to be packed into a sentence with characters than an English sentence.

I had never ending visa hassles with several visa runs to Korea, and had to get a job with a visa as I couldn't seem to get a student visa. Thus, my period of being a full-time student sadly came to an end. I was very broke and had to work a lot to survive the cost of A$5 apples etc., so was always busy and tired.

The next phase of my Japanese life took me to Fukuoka, which I'll tell you about next time.

My experiences teaching English in Asia

Hi,

This is a new blog and I'm writing to let you know about my experiences teaching English in Asia. I've been living in Asia for 17 years now and have lived in Japan, Korea, China and now Hong Kong. I have taught every kind of student you can imagine and every form of the English language that you can imagine!

I've taught students from 4-75 years of age! I've taught conversational English, business English, IELTS preparation, Primary school literacy, English to English teachers, TOEFL preparation and more.

I lived in Japan for three years, Korea for five years, China for 16 months and now Hong Kong for seven years. I think I have a really good understanding of the different cultures and of their education systems. 

I've also studied the languages of the countries I've lived in, so I understand how language learners learn and how they feel. 

I have a teaching degree, an MA in Applied Linguistics and a Certificate in Proofreading, so am well-qualified in many areas of English teaching.

I have made lots of fantastic friends in each country and count myself lucky to have these friends teach me about their culture. 

That gives you an overview of my teaching and learning experiences so far in Asia. Next time I'll start telling you about some of my specific experiences and adventures while living in Asia.

Bye for now,

Angela