 For me, the most enjoyable aspect of being a language teacher is the relationships that I am able to build with students and their families. Throughout my teaching career I have pretty much been the sole Japanese teacher in my respective schools. This means that I get the chance to spend my working days with a great bunch of motivated young people. I get to meet them when they are around 12 years old and I see them most days until they are around 18. Along the way we have fun and learn a great deal about the language and culture of Japan.
My most rewarding moment in teaching was several years ago I taught a student at Scotch who had struggled in Japanese, but who persisted and passed Year 12 Japanese. Then, by himself he organised and spent around half the following year in Japan. We met up in Tokyo just a few weeks after he had arrived and I could not believe how much his spoken Japanese had improved in such a short time. I am so proud of this student.
The memorable times I receive from teaching are when I see our students mixing with young people from other countries - whether it be at school (with our students who happen to be from overseas or during incoming exchange visits) or during our trips to Japan. Seeing young people sharing experiences together, laughing, helping each other and trying to understand each other’s view of the world makes for pretty special memories. In contrast a funny incident I will never forget occurred several years ago. On this day in my class, Paul Reavley (‘05) tricked me by pretending that there was a mouse in the room behind me. I screamed and jumped on my chair, but we then all had a great laugh about it. I still haven’t gotten Paul back yet!
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