7/29 Final English Hour

Since I first arrived at Ehime University, I was tasked with being the school's English Tutor. I would work up to 4 hours a week helping students practice English. I wasn't quite sure how to start "tutoring" but over time I came up with ideas. By the end there were several options: we would practice reading a news article from somewhere (probably AP), practice listening by watching a Good Day Sacramento story, play a spelling bee, or just talk. Everyone loved Good Day.

But as a teacher, it was not only my job to teach the language, but it was also my duty to teach the culture. Every American knows what happens in the last week of class when they were in school. You don't do anything! You watch a movie and eat snacks. So I wanted the students to have that experience as well. I heard that in Japan, teachers never plan "free days" like that.

Before class I went to the student store and bought a couple bags of chocolate snacks to share. I came back and set up the movie Holes (2003) on my Disney Plus account and connected it to the room TV. I waited about 15 minutes for people to trickle in, which led to a decent sized group. 

We took a group photo and I can name them going clockwise from the top:

Kokoro -> Junsei -> Anna -> Yurina -> Kotomi -> Anon -> Naoki -> Mana

From there we started watching the movie, apparently Anna had seen it in Germany. At the end of the English "hour" I went to the office to ask if we could continue using the room, and they said that there was nothing else planned for the day so we were free to use it. So that meant that  we could watch the movie to completion! 

During the movie, I passed around a memory book and people could write a message if they wanted.

A couple of people left for class during the movie, but most stayed to the end. Then I gave a big thank you when the movie was over.

In the evening, there was a going-away party planned for me by the Christian Student Club. We went to a decently fancy place, kind of on par with Old Spaghetti Factory. They had chips and salsa which we had to order and wasn't free. I ordered a type of seafood salad, I don't think I was very hungry. So we shared all of the food, which included a "Californian" pizza, and chicken wings.

There was Yuka, Chihiro, Yui, Misaki, and the new club leader who I had only met a couple of times. I passed around my memory books and they wrote some messages in them. We talked about different things, but before soon it was time for me to go back to the dorm and say "see ya later!"

When I got back to my dorm I had discovered that there was now an ant problem in my room. I was fearful going to sleep.