Eikaiwa

On Thursday nights between 7-9pm I am responsible for teaching an Eikaiwa class (or Adult English Conversation class, pronounced "ay-ky-wa").  This Eikaiwa class only runs during school terms, meaning we get breaks across Christmas, New Years, Spring (read: Aussie autumn) holidays and during the summer.  My class is split into two levels, with beginner students attending between 7-8pm and advanced students attending between 8-9pm.  Eikaiwa is a free class available to anyone in the community who would like to participate.  It is regulated by my Board of Education - who arranges weekly room hire and handles student signups etc.  Eikaiwa class is also part of my contracted 35 working hours per week.  So though I must "work" on Thursday evenings, I am eligible to leave school at lunchtime on Fridays to balance out my total hours worked for the week.

Each week I prepare simple English activities to take along to class with me.  These range from easy board games to tongue twister challenges, show and tell lessons to grammar worksheets.  I like to give my students a schedule to follow (I think it makes it easier for them to prepare themselves for class) and so at the beginning of each "term" I write out a curriculum plan.  This plan sets out the activities we will focus on each week.  A lot of the time my Eikaiwa classes will veer from this plan though, depending on how much people have to say in response to my usual opening question: how was your week?

Most of my Eikaiwa students are middle-aged+ women.  There are a few retirees, some elementary school teachers, a couple of housewives and a handful of career women.  Though I have about 30 students on the books, only about 9 or 10 of them regularly come to class.

When I started Eikiawa class I was really nervous.  I had never taught adults before and the task was even harder without mastery of a common language in which we could all communicate.  I know some of my early lessons were probably terrible and unfortunately this early 'style of teaching' probably discouraged a few students from returning regularly to class.  As I slowly learn more Japanese however, and my Eikaiwa students become more familiar with talking to me in English, we are able to attempt more challenging and interesting in-class material.  As ever, some lessons are a hit and others still fail miserably.

It has to be said though that my Eikaiwa students are a lovely bunch that have grown on me immensely over the course of the year.  They have taken me out to dinner at a fancy traditional Japanese restaurant, helped me to read documents, written me notes that have helped me to locate grocery items in my supermarket, given me presents, loaned me Japanese study books, welcomed me into their homes for dinner parties and invited me to travel with them.  On Thursday afternoons I often sigh at the prospect of Eikaiwa class looming over me, but when 9pm rolls around I'm always grateful for having been given an Eikaiwa class to teach at all.

L-R: Wariishi-sensei, Me, Into-sensei and Nii-sensei