Double Tutoring

I had a Japanese lesson this morning, in which we finished off a chapter and started on a new one. We also had vocabulary tests on two different chapters. The teachers’ motivation now seems to be to get me to the end of the book before I leave. Everyone else is wondering what’s going to happen once I have gone: “Are they going to stop teaching us when you leave?”

I had curry rice with Rushen for lunch. The others went off to another canteen, which serves Western food, but Rushen had to get the bus so I decided to stay with him. Afterwards, Seb turned up for his lesson, but had forgotten the vocabulary list for the lesson and so disappeared off again. We eventually started the lesson, which was good again. We covered another page and the story is getting interesting, though, it is slightly frustrating that we can only go slowly. Not much happens in the story each lesson, but we are steadily moving through it.

I had another tutor lesson after that. I had somebody different today – in fact, I had two people today. They had not prepared anything, so it was a little awkward at times, with gaps of silence, but we got through. I find it hard speaking Japanese. The easy things are ok, but every time that I want to say something interesting, I stumble over words and just generally talk rubbish. It was good though and they pointed out practically every one of my mistakes, which, though slightly depressing, was good for me. They were all mistakes I should have known better than to make and I should not fall into bad habits.

I taught at Linden Hall with Flick and Binks, playing 40-40 with the kids. It is like hide and seek but, whenever the person who is it sees you they can call out your name to get you out. The aim is to get back to base without being seen. Some of the kids liked it and others did not. Mai was there again, with her rather adorable over-confidence. She liked the game. After playing three times, we let them have free play. I provided a counter-balance for Mariko and Mai on their unicycles. They are getting better and better. Only one more Linden Hall to go now.

I have not really done much this evening. Somehow, I have wasted the whole evening doing nothing. I think I did some homework at least. I also watched more anime with Brendan. He likes it and keeps asking to watch more.