Made in Japan

Interestingly enough, I found out that students from other countries come to English Village as well.  The first week I was here, there was a group of Russian students who were here taking classes.  They were certainly a handful…and, unfortunately, none of them brought any good vodka, which would have made dealing with them quite a bit easier.

A few weeks later, we had a group of about 18 students come over from Japan.  Many of us were surprised, especially considering that Koreans pretty much hate Japanese folks.  (If you want to know why, Google it.)

Well, we teachers all agreed that we’d be happy to replace our unruly Korean students with this group ANY day.  When they first arrived they were overwhelmingly shy and quiet, but over time, they began to come out of their shell, and we had one of the best weeks since my arrival with our Japanese students.  They were sweet, loved to participate, and best of all, they were very well-behaved.  There were two girls who had extremely high English communication skills because they attend International Schools in Japan, but even the other students were able to successfully communicate as well.

One of the best nights we had was during Dance Party.  (Yes, there’s really a class called “Dance Party.”)  In order for me not to become tragically bored with the God-awful chicken dance, hamster dance, and Macarena, I have to entertain myself by teaching some of my favorite urban dances.  So, once I took over it was time for “Teach Me How to Dougie” and “The Wobble.”   I grabbed my camera, which, thankfully, has a video function, so I recorded my students doing “The Wobble.” 

I apologize for the jumpiness of the video, but I was recording while I was also dancing, because the students were copying whatever I was doing. 

Note: I do have a video of the comedy that transpired during “Teach Me How to Dougie,” however, one of the other teachers asked that I not post that video on the internet, so I will respect her wishes.  However, if you happen to see me on the streets, feel free to ask me to see it…it’s PRICELESS!  Ha!

The apple of everyone’s eye was this little kid named Ryo…and I have to agree, he was the cutest kid ever.  Not to take anything away from the other kids, but he was just adorable. He wore this cute purple hat every day, and we all wanted to swipe it. Believe me, if I could wear regular hats, I would have tried to buy it from him!  (In the slideshow below, there’s a picture of him from when I put him in charge of holding the clipboard for the class.)

When the week came to an end, we were all quite sad when it was time for them to leave.  I hadn’t seen so many teachers taking pictures of and with students since I arrived…and we urged them all to come back again next year.  (Trust me, this ain’t the Apple Store…at EV you have to be really awesome to get an Invitation to Return! LOL)  So, here’s hoping that we get to see them again next year…

Next Up: Party Like a RoKstar