Whats new...

This is Tim, reporting form Repos Internet Cafe, but with any luck we won`t have to come here to use the internet nearly so often starting in the near future. On Wednesday of this week we are slated to start our subscription to NTT Communications Company`s Hikari Internet Service Plan. Our in home internet was usable under my predecessor`s account through the end of August, at which time I believed I would be able to transfer the service into my name without interruption. As it happened that was not possible, and after getting jerked around trying to set up new internet service with the same company, I contacted a different company at the end of September and set an installation date for October 15th. Still not as early as we would have liked, but we are really looking forward to having internet in our apartment at last. We are hoping to keep in better contact with everyone now that we will have in home internet.

Ruth has been especially busy with her school work recently, but she should be finishing up with her mid-terms next week and things should calm down a little as far as her workload is concerned, for at least a little while. As for me I`ve been keeping pretty busy with my job, I had to work Saturday last weekend, but this weekend I am enjoying a three day vacation thanks to one of Japan`s many national holidays. I think having the internet installed will finally be that last step in terms of getting everything in order and settled with our life here, and with everything we need to worry about in place I am hoping it will be easier for Ruth to do her classes, and of course I`ve been meaning to spend more time studying Japanese. I`ve always found studying Japanese exciting, but it is particularily exciting now that I live here, because every new word or grammar point I learn will have the potential to be immediately applicable in my everyday life. I always mean to set aside more time for studying than I actually do, and to move into the next level of language proficiency I will have to study more seriously.

My job has continued to be fun and interesting, I have visited around 20 different schools so far. I think I will start taking a camera to some of my schools so that I can post some pictures of my schools, and of course my students! My only real frustration with the job has been that since I am teaching very young children with very little (or no) background in studying English, I am unsure of what the expectation is with how much English vs. how much Japanese I should speak while teaching the class. On the one hand, if my lesson is too heavily in English, the students will understand very little of what is going on and will have the tendency to become bored or frustrated. On the other hand, if I speak too much Japanese in the classroom, it might be a good way to get students involved in the lesson, but from the standpoint of many of the staff at the schools my primary value as a teacher is rooted in my status as a native speaker of English, therefore I think there is a certain level of dissatisfaction with my lesson if I end up instructing in Japanese for a good portion of the time. Anyway, striking the right balance in that regard has been challenging, as some schools have felt that I used too much English, and some that I used too much Japanese. That said, most of my feedback from schools has been positive, so I think I am somewhere on the right track and should basically continue with what I`m doing.

Ok, well that about does it for now. I`ve had a cold this week, and just as I turned the corner Ruth came down with it. I think its probably due to the slight chill in the air here that has developed since the beginning of October. I`m sure things are chilling down even more in Minnesota, so take care of yourselves!