On the Job Training (OJT) in Nagasaki

For the past three days we have been training in the city of Nagasaki. Nagasaki is about a 1 hr. 40 minute train ride south of Sasebo. Our main reason for coming down here was to do the main part of our training with Japanese students. To our surprise it happens to be Festival time in Nagasaki. They are celebrating the Chinese New Year with a Lantern Festival. To commemorate this event, they lined the streets with lanterns, it is really pretty. I wish we were able to download some pictures so that you all can see it, maybe in a week or so. The pictures would look very "Chinesey" so keep in mind it doesn`t always look like this.

Regarding our training, although the first day was a little scary, each day got progressively more comfortable. By the end of today we had each made some very good interactions with some of the students. We both were able to teach students in all skill levels. Personally, I (Steph) had only one lesson that was a real challenge and a test to my patience. I did a one on one lesson with a student that is in the lowest skill level and did not have enough vocabulary to answer simple questions so I had to re-phrase nearly every question. I am still not sure if he learned something which made my confidence drop but other students in other lessons made up for that one. Nick has improved a lot in simplifying instructions for the low level students, this was one of his"weaknesses". However as I mentioned earlier by the end of today we were both pretty confident and comfortable with the students and the lessons. After today we are "teachers"....on probation period of course.

At the end of the day (today was our final day of the initial training), the teachers took us out to a traditional Japanese restaurant. This place was great. . . all tatami (rice) mats where you kneel on small pillows in front of a table the height of a normal coffee table. We tried some new and interesting foods and Nick had enough beer to feel a little on the tipsy side. Nick also tried something that Andrew (our trainer) ordered by mistake thinking they would be like chicken kabobs but turned out to be more like seasoned chicken fat on a stick. For the record it did not look like that to the naked eye. Nick was brave enough to try it...not knowing what it was...and it almost did not make it down his throat. After two quick gag reflexes he was able to just swallow it whole and save face in front of the group. Anyone that knows Nick knows that we should be proud of him for doing this. Then, after a few more drinks and hours at the restaurant, we ventured out to a typical Japanese karaoke. This is not a karaoke bar like in the US, but rather a booth/small room that you rent for only you and the friends you`re with. So, without hesitation, we spent a good 2 hours singing our hearts out to familiar tunes like `Hotel California`, `Mony, Mony`, `New York, New York`, `Bittersweet Symphony`, `Under the Bridge` and `Billie Jean`. It was good fun!

Tomorrow (actually later on today) we will head back home to Sasebo where we will both start work full time on Saturday. It might be a while until we post again since we wont have access to internet freely like we did here in Nagasaki at the hotel. On Friday we will work on going to the City office to apply for our alien registration certificate so that we can then open a bank account and get internet access through cable at home. Hopefully next time we post it will be from the comfort of our tiny couch!

P.S. To answer Justin`s question on a previous post, we do have sliding doors in our apartment. We have sliding doors separating the bedrooms from the living room and also between each of the rooms. They don`t really go into the wall they just slide from one side to the other. They are not made of the thin paper that we would think of, but sort of like very light wood panels (very light) so that you cannot see through them.