Nominikeishon and Bureikou

In one of the classes two days ago, a student taught me two Japanese words. Nominikeishon and Bureikou.

Nominikeishon is an abbreviation of the words nomimasu and communication. Nomimasu means to drink and of course, communication means to communicate. This term usually applies when you drink in social gatherings or to have drinks with your workmates. So good manners should really be checked if you are going to have a nominikeishon , especially with your workmates. Nominikeishon in our culture roughly means social drinking, but more sophisticated.

Bureikou, on the other hand, literally means putting aside rank. Usually this term applies when you have a nominikeishon with your boss or other high-ranking people in your company and with other workmates. Nominikeishon with your boss and other high-ranking people in your company can be intimidating. So sometimes, hearing the bureikou word from the top officials in your company can be a good thing and will help you relax a little bit. Like the word means, you can set aside the differences of your ranks even for a bit. But, it does not necessarily mean if you the top guns said that the nominikeishon will be a bureikou, you will lose your sanity and drink yourself till your dead. NO! Though you will have a bureikou, manners are still important.

Nominikeishon and Bureikou are terms that depict the Japanese way of social drinking. In that case, I believe, this is one of the good attitudes of the Japanese. Manners are important in any situation. I think, we should adapt this attitude also.

Officially Seven

I just renewed the contract between me and the company I'm with. My contract actually ended last August 02 but I don't know why the administration did not contact me whatsoever to renew it on the said day. Maybe, they were still preparing it at that time.

Officially, I have been teaching online for seven months now. I've talked about it a few weeks ago and yeah, it's still fun and still very challenging! Like I said, I still have a lot to learn when it comes to teaching, especially to super beginners and beginners, adults and kids alike.

Recently, I've been having a lot of beginner students. I don't know why they like to reserve me as their teacher. I find it really strange. My profile specifically said in our online school website that my teaching level is for intermediate and advance students. But everyday, I get more beginners and super-beginners instead. One beginner student that I just had today said he can understand me very well because every word I say is very clear and I speak very slowly for him to catch up. Another beginner student that I had yesterday said that I can understand her very well even if her grammar is not right or even her thoughts are such a mumble. She appreciates me for that. And another beginner said that her mother likes me because I can speak English well and I guess she likes me too. I don't know if those comments are compliments because I always sweat a lot when I have lessons with them.

I don't know if other teachers have the same problems that I have. My performance is still at a satisfactory level and I cannot say yet whether I'm good or not. I guess I just have improved a little, not a lot yet. I hope I still improve more and I hope I can astound my mentor whenever she monitors me.

Oh yes.... It looks like that I'm going to stay with this company more than I imagined. I'm enjoying everyday, whether it's a good or a bad day. More things to come here and I'm up for that!

Teaching for Beginner-Kids

Recently, I've been having more beginner-kid students. It is one of my dreaded nightmares. And with that, I've been running out of materials for beginner-kid students. This is because some teachers had given the same material previously.

It is hard to look for materials for kid students. They are more cooperative if it has pictures on it or strange sounds. As experts say, visuals are powerful media especially for kids. Whenever I want to look for kid material, I check other teachers' materials. It can be seen on the Karte of the student. Sometimes, I look in the Internet. But I guess, I've finished checking every link that the search engine has offered.

I'm thinking of creating my own story books with some of the dialogues that I have. I have some dialogues that I use for adult beginners that can also be suitable for kid students. Some beginner-kid students, like the one I talked about here one time, uses his own reading material for the lesson. I think I can use that and just improvise the visuals. And maybe I can post them here so you can see!

It's just a happy thought for the moment, but yeah, I will try it! Keep you posted on that! (^_^)

The GEL Program

In our online school, we have a special program for students who want to learn in a systematic way. Generally, HBOETs give lessons with free-talking, article discussion, and short stories or dialogues for beginner students. But those ways of teaching are so easy-going that some students find it boring or sometimes frustrating to them because they cannot see their improvement. Some students have definite reasons to learn English and they always seem enthusiastic regardless how the teacher will conduct the lesson. But some students don't have a definite reason to study English because they just want to study. To cater that need, our online school formulated a special program wherein students can see their improvement and be competitive with their English studies with us.

We call it the General English Learners program or GEL program. Any student can apply for that program. In GEL program, there are over one hundred topics students can choose from. The topics are in a dialogue format with a variety of three learning levels. These are: easy, average, and difficult. Each level also have two comprehension questions and one practical question. A student can not move on to the next level of the topic or to the next topic if the he/she cannot have a perfect or passing score. 3/3 is the perfect score and 2/3 is the passing score. Students can learn new idiomatic expressions, grammar, and new vocabulary too.

Some students in this program sometimes find it hard, even with an easy level. Some dialogues have idioms that are based on Western culture and that makes it hard for some to imagine the situation. Nonetheless, in that way, I believe, students can have a sense of competitiveness within themselves to learn and finish one topic and eventually improve the English skills more.

Seven

It's September now and I've been teaching for 7months now. Hurray!

So far, so good. I can say I have adjusted well to my new schedule. But with teaching, I have to say, I still have much too learn. I've just learned how to crawl, I'm still trying to walk.

Last August, we had a lot of holidays. National holidays means no work and no pay. I also filed one leave. The latter half of the month meant little salary. Good luck to me for that!

But it's bittersweet to see our RE calendar without any red shades for the holiday. I've noticed that I'm so used to teaching that I'm becoming a little lazy. I hope that will not pose a problem.

I have a lot to say but this is for now. Cheers to seven months!