The Final Goodbye

It's my last night tonight. I had a lesson with Miss Kei. It is also our very last lesson together. When I told her that I was quitting, she immediately sent an e-mail to our office and said that they should stop me from quitting. How sweet of her...

And now I am quitting. She normally doesn't turn on her video. Since it is the last night together, she opened her video when we were saying goodbye. She was teary eyed.

I will miss her-- Miss Kei. I will also miss other students: Mr. Yoh, Miss Lin, Miss Ellen, Miss Eri, Miss Miyo, Mr. Mits, Mr. Ats, Miss Masumi, and many more! I will also miss my other co-teachers. Though actually, I'm only acquainted with some. I will miss this job. A home-based job, a comfortable job but not a ho-hum.

Tomorrow is the real world. I've felt it already but I will feel more of it. Goodbye....

Good Bye Another Time

If you have read my previous posts, you will know that I will leave this home-based online English teaching job very soon. I will end on the 9th of this month. It's next Monday already. I still teach for the remaining lessons which are very few already.

And I guess, with my resignation as a home-based online English teacher, this blog will come to an end soon also...

It's sad to say good bye but I have too.

More Goodbyes

Yesterday, I received more goodbye messages and wishes from my avid students. Let me share it here. One of my student, Mr. Yoj, told it to me in person during our last lesson yesterday. He said:

Today is the last day... I should say something. Thank you for the lessons. You are one of my favorite teachers. Ganbatte for new job.

The rest are already through chat message.

I got your message. I'm sad but at the same time I'm glad to know you could find another job. Your experience at GNA will help you with your job. I was really happy to talk with you in the lessons.
See you someday. Thank you a lot. --Miss Ellen

It's surprising for me to resign you GNA. I hope you will be happy. Thank you for every lessons. good-bye. ;(---- Miss Masumi 

Thank you for your message.I'm very sad not to see you anymore.I'm very happy to meet you.Good luck and see you in somewhere in the world!--- Miss Miyoko 

Thank you for your good-bye message! I really enjoyed with your lesson. I miss you. I hope your good future, Thank you so much, again.---From my newest student, Miss Kayoko 

Oh... I will miss being a Home-based English Teacher.

Goodbye Again

Unfortunately or fortunately, it's not my last of my teaching nights yet. The management would not let me go handling too many replacement of reservation in their hands. I have to help with that too because my offer has been very abrupt.

Anyway... I have told some students about my resignation. Most of them are sad. Some teachers who are also close to me are also sad about the sudden news.They knew from the students whom I sent a message to. I will miss them all!

Some students whom I gave messages replied to me. Fortunately that the first class doesn't have any students so I was able to cater all questions, students and co-teachers alike. Let me post some of their sad replies with my aliases for them:

I miss you I sent a mail to CNA..".I have a question. Does teacher Zed will leave GNA? I'm very shock! Please stop! She is a good teacher."I don't want to say good-bye.But I had no chice. I waiting for next lesson.--Miss Kei

ohh, I am so sad to hear that ;(.   in the other hand what winderful news to hear you have a new job, I am also very happy to hear that, congratulations !!! (F)--Miss Lin

hi! Congratulations! (clap)However, I am slightly lonely. ;(Please try even the next job hard. Please take care.thank you. (bow) :D (highfive)-- Mr. Melancholic Eyes.

Thank you for your message.
I was surprised that you would leave GNA suddenly.
I have always enjoyed your kind lesson and thanked your friendly personality.
I wish your success in your new job.
I will miss you. --Miss Eri.

I guess I can expect more of this.  Miss Kei's message hit me hard. I hope to see them, somehow.

Annoyed

I don't know I've written something like this... but here it goes.

A student stressed me out a lot today. I thought we will have a fun lesson together but in the end, it came for the worse. I guess she was not that as enthusiastic as before. Perhaps, I have forgotten how irritable she is when she can't get what the words mean. Or maybe I expected so much of her because I know she knows a lot of words and reads between the lines and can understand even the strangest expressions. As always, in the end, she apologizes about that. But the hurt has already been inflicted.

I got annoyed. I almost lost my cool. I believe I have forgotten about handling those kinds of people.
And maybe, after a year and six months of teaching, I still don't know how to teach. Sigh.

I guess I do.

I am now on the point where I am to lax in my job--where the room of improvement is there but I'm not budging any step to take initiative and do it. I have gotten to lazy, pre-occupied of some thoughts. I was very different when I was just starting out as an HBOET. There was a drive to be better but now, I don't know.

There is something wrong with my outlook and there is something wrong now on how I look on things. I guess I need help on how to do this improvement. Another job perhaps? Or maybe teaching in our company office? I don't know. I'm constricted with my time and my mind wants to stay in this constricted mind.

August Holidays--OFFICIAL

Just hot off the press! This is our official schedule of the APPROVED HOLIDAYS FOR AUGUST!


AUGUST 19 =  KADAYAWAN [Davao Holiday - Special non-working Holiday]

AUGUST 20 =  EID UL FITR  [ Legal Holiday ]

AUGUST 21 =  Ninoy Aquino Death Anniversary [ Special non-working Holiday]

AUGUST 27 =  National Heroes Day [ Legal Holiday]

I'm so HAPPY that it can't be contained with caps!

Sigh For The Rain

It's June again... time for the torrential rains to start. I suppose, it already has started at the end of May. For online jobs, I believe rain means intermittent connection, slow connection, choppy calls, or no connection at all. I believe I can also say that it applies both to wired and wireless connections. 

I just had a share of mishaps in my schedule. Since we had bad weathers, I experience such and sometimes to a point where my lessons had to be replaced because of a bad connection. 

Internet connection is a very important tool when working online. It is the base of your bread and butter. No internet connection= no work= no pay. It is very different here in the Philippines. As would some people say, internet connection here is like a dial-up connection in first-world countries.  Unless, you would want to pay a hefty price for your sole internet connection. It's impractical for home users to pay such.

We're strongly considering now to change our provider. But we cannot just do that since I don't want to be absent even for a couple of days. Sigh.

If you think working online and home-based doesn't give you any stress, sometimes it can. 

Thoughts.

My last post was ages ago, right? I'm getting too lazy and pre-occupied with other things that make me not to care about posting something here. Oh well... excuses as you might say. 

Anyway, I mentioned from my last post about one of my avid students. Apparently he did not leave our online school. He said he misses us, his favorite teachers, so he's not going to quit. That's one good news! Another good news is that, he just found a job as taxi driver and he doesn't like it. Too bad but he doesn't have much of choice because he is already way beyond his younger years.

 He realized that it was a bad move for him to quit his previous job. He quit because he's getting too tired doing the same thing. Now, he's going to be a taxi driver and it's way too unrelated with his previous or his skills. He doesn't have much of a choice now since he has been rejected by some of the companies he had been interviewed with. I guess this is his last choice. I just hope him for the best with this new career.

Regarding to me... I don't have much of a news, I guess. As everyday unfolds, I'm beginning to dislike my schedule. I start late which gives me the chance to spend a lot of time with my baby and do things I'm supposed to do. But I end late and that makes me stay up late quite longer than before. It's tiring and sometimes the reservations don't come a lot. I'm now hoping for a better and different job. If that's the end of it all, I won't be posting here anymore....

I'm just ranting out of my head here right now. I haven't organized the things I learned so far because of the laziness. I hope I can reorganize and hope to share it with you. :)

New Sched Again!

I have a new schedule again!

I start late and end late now. I start at 1630 JPT and end on 2200 JPT. It's a very laid-back schedule because it gives my more time to do all the things I want before the lesson. But, I already get sleepy and sooo hungry when 2100 strikes.

For the compensation part, hmmm, it seems the same with the last schedule though. But I hope there would be some improvements.

The good thing about this schedule is that I can meet my old students before and get to know some more! There are more men in the late schedule hehehe.

I guess I'm loving it. XD

Love Letter

Today, I received a letter of an apology for being absent from one student. I usually get those kinds of letters written in their broken English. Sometimes, they send it to me directly and sometimes they send it through the office and the staff sends it to me. But this letter today is different.

Here it is:

こんにちは。

今日の１６：００のレッスンで、応答がこないと思っていたら・・　ワイアレスのスイッチが

オフになっている事に、旦那さんが帰ってきてからわかりました。

私が　パソコンがあまり使えないので・・。

先生に　またまた　申し訳なかったです。

すみませんでした。

I consulted Google Translate with this and it said:

Hello.

Wireless switches · 4:00 PM I thought today's lesson, the childdoes not respond and

Was found to be turned off, comes back from her husband.

I can not use PC-much.

I did not apologize once again to the teacher.

I'm sorry.

Even though with the translation from Google Translate, it still doesn't make sense to me. I can read some of the characters so I know she is sorry. And I guess, she also said that she knew that the lesson will be at 1600 but the connection was not responding. And she found that their wireless switch was turned on but she still needs to wait for her husband to return. She doesn't use the PC so much, so, she doesn't know about it too well. She also mentioned that she didn't apologize to the teacher, so for that, she is very sorry. Isn't it sweet?

I hope I can read Japanese well so I don't have to consult with translators anymore. Translators can be handy sometimes but not so good with complex sentences. So, still the best resort is to learn Japanese. It can be helpful for students like her and it can be easier to explain English terms exactly.

So, in response to her letter, I gave her private message in English. That will serve as her homework. :D

It's always nice to receive apology emails/ private messages from students who miss your lessons. It makes you feel important and it really shows their eagerness to have a lesson with you. It gives you more inspiration to improve your teaching skills and interaction with the student. And you'll know for sure that the student will definitely book you again the next time.

Another New Sched

I've said before that I have been teaching for a year already. I thought that one year as a teacher equates to popular. Actually, NO. :D

I still get some lazy days, like today. I only have a total of three lessons for the first half of my working time and later, another three. Sigh.

With that, I requested to change my schedule again. It was actually approved around last week and it will be effective on the second day of March. So, from the 1400-2000 JPT schedule, I will work from 1630-2200 JPT.

The new schedule will help entertain interviews and it will also give me chance to handle some night classes. There will be no differences with the compensation though. In fact, it will be 10 bucks short but that's okay. I believe, I will get a higher guarantee of getting fully booked everyday because of the late schedule. And the feeling of the workload is not so heavy since it's just five hours compared to the six hours. I hope I made a good decision on that.

I don't normally inform my avid students about my new schedule. The first schedule was unnoticeable since it only revolves on almost the same time slots. So, no information on that. Only a little later when some students asked whether or not I teach at night. But with this second change, I already informed one because he also informed that he might not be able to reserve me. Thus, making me inform him about my new schedule. And I guess, he had some high hopes on seeing me again. (#^o^#)

Again, I do hope that I made a good decision on the new schedule. I have to adjust on this drastically because it's a whole new change. I hope I can deal with that.

As of now, my current schedule is blah. I get a lot of unreserved times, which is very bad, except on weekends.

And with that, let me take my break. See you!

One Year As An HBOET

I have officially turned one on teaching today. Yehey for me!

Contrary to what I promised my self last year, I was not able to make a hundred entries on this blog, not even half of a hundred. But that's okay. I shared some, maybe not the most, interesting findings about Japanese attitudes, cultures, and people.

I learned a lot from teaching. Even though, I believe, I have not yet improved to the fullest, but I can say that I have improved--my character, my flexibility, and of course, my multi-tasking skills. I have to say the last one because sometimes I do multiple things during the lesson. It goes to show whether or not I am paying attention or I can pay attention to students.

I guess the most important thing that I have realized and need to improve on is teaching super beginners and advanced students. I still lose control on teaching students with such levels. I still don't know what to do. And sometimes, I feel I am not a good teacher if they don't reserve me again. That's okay, though. I just have to try much harder than before.

I realized I have become quite popular a little bit that I have my own line of avid students that I expect and look forward. Sometimes, it's not a good thing because some students reserve me everyday that we have lost things to talk about. It's also good to have lessons with students who have reserved me on my first few weeks, who did not reserve me again for the succeeding stay. I guess I made a bad impression on them but when they reserve me again, especially that I am growing old with the school, they will be impressed with what I have become. I hope. It just go to show that they remember me and maybe, became popular that some long-time-no-see students want to try me again. :D

It has been a fruitful year. From the looks of it, I guess it'll be hard on quitting this job. If I do leave, I will miss my students, old and new, most especially.

The Long Lost Student: Details

Last night, I had a lesson with a long lost student. It was like a reunion lesson. XD

I had him as a student during my the first few days of teaching. I was still an awkward newb at that time and I still didn't know how to handle lower beginners. And it was unfortunate that he reserved me as a teacher. Our lesson was very awkward and I was too dumb at that time. He ended up not reserving me and I thanked him for that.

Until last night, however, he reserved me again. It was such a nice, nostalgic feeling to see him again as my student. It was good to know that he still remembered me for all those months. He became a more confident English-speaker than before. He could already make good simple sentences and his comprehension became better. I guess, I could also say that I became better myself. I did not feel awkward and I was even happy to have spoken with him again. Thinking about it, it was like a reunion of long lost friends.

It was nice seeing him again. We had a quite fun lesson. I hope to see him again and I promise to teach him even more better.

Updates On the New SOP: Reporting

I have mentioned sometime about last month regarding the new SOP. It was about getting all lessons being recorded.

Much to my worries of integrating a new category in our old SOP, it wasn't that nerve-wracking at all, as much as reporting is talked about. It has been weeks already, so I have gotten used to it. I guess, other teachers as well.

Generally, we have to make sure we report correctly in the general teachers' chatroom accordingly and reporting has been a hassle recently. Before, we only have to indicate "started" if we have started the lesson. And at the end of the lesson, we have to indicate "lesson done" or "done". If there are any disruptions while the lesson is still going on, we have to indicate it with "dropped call" or "DC" and state the reason why the lesson has been disrupted. Now, we have the new SOP, we have to report or type, for that matter, in the teachers' general chatroom many things. Some teachers have become creative with their reporting. Reporting for started goes like, SLAR or Started, Lessons and Recording. For lessons done, some would type LRD or Lesson, Recording Done. Others would report done, LR or done Lesson, and Recording. In my care I type less, rec done. Those creative ways of reporting are not yet allowed, though many teachers do that, including me. The allowed or the right SOP is still to type the whole thing. Started, recording at the start of the lesson and lesson, recording done at the end of the lesson. Yes it has become a little troublesome and a little confusing because you have to take many things into account. Sometimes, I feel like running a battle ship!

The implementation of the new SOP is still on its baby steps. We're still on the trial and error level. But I can see, we have already embraced this one.

More updates on this one! XD

Holidays

It's already December! Christmas is definitely in the air!

For this month, we got FOUR BIG HOLIDAYS and that continues to January, 2012 too!

APPROVED Holidays for the month of December 2011 and January 2012:

Dec 24 - Christmas Eve

Dec 25 - Christmas Day

Dec 30 - Rizal Day/ Christmas party

Dec 31 - Regular Holiday

Jan 1 - New Year's Day

Jan 2 - Regular Holiday

Jan 23- Chinese New Year (newly declared special non-working holiday)

It is good news for us teachers but a bad one for students. Students have already been informed with this. It can't be helped for some of the new students to be awed and would often wonder why they can't reserve any lessons on the said dates. With further explanation, they understand why. Our online school follow the Philippine calendar and not the Japanese's.

Our online school offers a lot of plans. One of those plans is to have 31 lesson credits in a month. Those lessons are prepaid and it depends on them on how they disseminate their lesson credits. Japan holidays meant more chances of having lessons for them. But Philippine holidays meant less lessons for them, thus not be able to fully use their lesson credits. Thus, it will be a waste for them.

Students who usually reserve a single lesson a day in other months, reserve double on this month. Also on other months that have a lot of Philippine holidays, such as November and April. They don't want to waste what they paid. I guess, it also showed their enthusiasm to learn and talk with their favorite teachers.

However, on the other hand, it can also be bad for teachers. Holidays meant no work. No work meant no pay. Still, it's good to enjoy a holiday or two, or even three! XD

It's good that our online school followed the Philippine calendar. If it followed the Japanese calendar, we would have more holidays and less work. Plus, we won't have any Christmas holidays!

I'm already counting the days to those holidays, even our online school's Christmas party. It'll be a first for me. I'm sure it will be blast!

The Beginning of the End

Today is last day of the freest free-conversation lessons in our online school. Tomorrow, all lessons will be recorded. That means, every lessons will be uptight.

Actually, today, I asked some students on their reactions regarding the recording of the lessons. Ninety-eight percent of my students today don't really care about the having their lessons, except one. He said that it somehow discloses his privacy. I want to persuade him on to agreeing with the new regulation but I did not push through any farther 'cause I, myself, is against with having the lessons recorded. Sad to say, I cannot do anything.

Like what I have posted in my blog a few weeks back, I have already installed and tried the system. Actually, on this computer only. I am using a different computer on Sundays sometimes. I have already installed the software there already but haven't tried it yet. I guess it will run smoothly, I hope.

So, tomorrow is the BIG day. Am I nervous? Yes!

Enka-Singing Student

I'm feeling tired recently. Maybe because with the new SOP that is about to launch at the end of the week or maybe because with the full load that I got today. I don't know.

I forgot that it is a national holiday today in Japan. It's their Labor Day but there's nothing really special about it, except that most Japanese don't have work and school today. So with that, I got two students who are in elementary and I am going to share about one of them.

The other elementary English learner that I had today is a girl in the fourth grade. She is still a beginner but very bubbly and curious about learning English. It's very easy to relate to her since she initiates the conversation and is not shy when relating with a foreigner, like me. ^_^

She even shared to me one of her hobbies: singing. And not only singing normal Jpop or Kpop songs but ENKA! As what I have learned, Enka is a traditional Japanese way of singing. It can be very tricky since involves mostly the nasal muscles and the muscles in the throat. I have only watched Enka music videos and only a few of them to be really a good critic but my! The student is very good in singing Enka. And I can feel that it is something very special and you do not mess with. I want to hear her sing again!

You can read more about Enka here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enka

Thinking About The New SOP

Sometime, around this week, the new SOP will push through. This new SOP is along with the new system to record all lessons that we have. I don't know when exactly because the memo said it will start on the 21st but my mentor said it will be on the 26th. Either way, I am not so excited now after much thought.

I just noticed that sometimes, my students and I talk about some personal things. Though it is not really in a very open way, we do somehow talk about it. I ask general questions but sometimes the student cannot help to relate some personal things. Sometimes, there are students who initiate personal topics. Even though, I try to segue the topic into a more general one, the student will still steer back and go on with the topic. It cannot be helped sometimes.

Thinking about those cases, maybe some of the lessons will not be so interesting enough. As far as I have known, Japanese people tend to be really private about their lives. I guess, this goes with their English lessons online. I don't know how the students will react to this new SOP.I know some will understand and not mind that. But maybe some of them will continue to be on their guards and reign much of their enthusiasm. It will be an interesting result to keep an eye on.

Teachers, on the other hand, have no choice but to adhere to the rules. Sometimes, I don't really follow rules strictly in my lessons, especially with my avid students. We just talk about anything and sometimes forget the time. This policy will be a challenge for me but again, I hope I will not screw up.

It will be my off tomorrow, so anticipation and anxieties are also off until Tuesday. After giving much thought to this, I hope the new system will not push through.

Japanese Animal Noises

I realized I learned many Japanese words and slangs from various students. It's always fun to learn new Japanese words . It brings you closer to the Japanese culture, unlike from only listening to Japanese songs and watching Japanese anime and movies.

The learning experience is direct since you hear it from the student. You can get clear explanations and opinions from them. It's like having your own 3-minute Japanese teacher.

I've already blogged about two Japanese expressions not so long ago. This time, I want to share to you how certain animal sounds sound like in Japanese.

1. Chicken= ko ko ko ke ko
2. Dog= wan-wan
3. Cat= nyaa~~ nyaa~~

I learned those from different students who have heard those animal sounds from my background. The chicken is on top of the list since our chicken goes off like a broken alarm clock. Second on the list is the dog because the neighbor's dog barks like there's no tomorrow. Third is the cat because there was one time when one of our felines had a litter and she left one kitten to starve. It meowed, or "nyaaed" for three days or so. Students who have heard those animals have immediately asked me "What's that ko ko ko ke ko?" or "Do you have a dog?" or "I can hear nyaa~~ nyaa~~". I always apologetically answer for the disturbance. But they always say they don't mind and would further discuss about the animal that they heard.

Technically, HBOETs need to have a quiet environment. But there are days that some noises that cannot be shunned away. So, HBOETs only need to apologize for that. It's good though that most students are not so huffy about such noises. Again, as much as possible, it's good to have a very quiet environment conducive for teaching.

As for animal noises, I'm crossing my fingers on what counter part the sound of the gecko has in Japanese. (^O^)Y

Installed and Tried

So, after ranting yesterday... I received the software needed for recording our lessons and my mentor also discussed the renovations with me. It was still the same except for some little add-ons that might shift HBOETs leniency over the SOP.

I've already installed and tried the new system. It's easy and the "recorder" will not disrupt the Internet connection. It's just that, HBOETs should pay attention because we have to make it a point to record all lessons, whether or not it's just one minute. So teachers should always be vigilant. Just little changes, but like what I said, it might trouble us teachers for a time before we actually love it.

I'm actually a little excited on this one. I hope I will not screw up.