A little apprehensive, first-day jitters took the best of me as I began my first day as an ESL instructor. Beginning with an introduction by Beth, I plowed my way through Monday, stopping only for breaks between classes; and oh, free lunch.
I was treated with deference by the students - even those who would’ve been older than my father - as to be borderline uncomfortable. Almost all the students we are handling are Japanese, and it’s not that hard listening in to their animated dialogues (watching raw animes come to mind), although we do emphasize day-to-day usage of the English language. An English-only policy is being implemented for them to practice and hone their English skills.
I was tasked to handle three students - Megumi, Mamui and Hashi - in a span of a day, introducing them to the basics and early stages of the course. Based on the techniques and strategies, each stage of the learning process follows a modular approach, integrating both the technical terms and conversational usage of the English language. Each side-by-side session not only focuses on the over-all learning experience, but can be used as an advantage by building rapport with the student. Observation skills are relevant, as it is up to the instructor’s judgement if the student would need reinforcement and additional time with the given topic, or can move on to the next one.
Lunch bell rang, and I must say that anything with ‘free’ attached to it is good, in my vocabulary … harharhar.
Lunch at the cafeteria was a buffet-style, Japanese-themed one (complete with a chef from CCA), and is exclusive for both school employees and students. Good thing though, Jhae pointed at me as an ‘employee’ and thus, granting me the privilege of a free lunch (oh yeah!).
All in all, I guess my first day as a teacher wasn’t so bad, after all. The open atmosphere of the place, and freshness of this experience greatly helped in overcoming my anxiety. The people are friendly, quick to smile, always has a ‘hi’ and ‘hello’ ready for anyone, and is closely-knit as to resemble a large family. Jitters and all - with a quacking voice to match - couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm as I open another chapter of my life.
