Sunday, October 7, 2007
Private Tutoring
So, when I got my internet set up, the IT guy from the BOE stayed after the maintenance people left and we sat around chatting for a bit. He showed me a bunch of pictures of him and his friends around town and of his cat and I showed him some of my pictures from home. Before he left, he asked if I'd do some private tutoring with him sometime in the future, and as he's a nice guy I said sure so we set up a time and date. Just a sit and chat type deal rather than an actual study and learn type of thing.
I was a bit nervous cause I've never really done anything like this before and he speaks very little English, while I speak pretty much no Japanese. Ended up working out well though, cause Fred, who knows quite a bit of Japanese (but who always denies this fact), stopped by to use the internet at that time and the three of us sat around chatting.
And the second time we arranged a get together? Janet, who is pretty much fluent in Japanese, stopped by to use the internet (yeah, my bite size apartment was pretty much an internet cafe for a bit while everyone else was waiting to get their internet setup) and again we ended up chatting in a group.
At that point, we pretty much decided that meeting alone was a bad idea due to communication problems, so the next meetup was at Janet's to watch a movie. Me and IT guy stopped to pick up the movie, which was an interesting experience in itself as neither of us are very decisive. So after a good 45min. at the video store with finally went to Janet's apartment and then didn't even watch the movie cause we were to busy chatting! In fact, I can't even remember the movie we picked!
There wasn't really a follow up meeting cause the IT guy eventually started hagging out with Miki and they seem to hang out on a regular basis now. It's for the best because Miki knows a good amount of Japanese and can use their get togethers to help improve his language skills and vice versa.
Up Next: Natural Disasters
I was a bit nervous cause I've never really done anything like this before and he speaks very little English, while I speak pretty much no Japanese. Ended up working out well though, cause Fred, who knows quite a bit of Japanese (but who always denies this fact), stopped by to use the internet at that time and the three of us sat around chatting.
And the second time we arranged a get together? Janet, who is pretty much fluent in Japanese, stopped by to use the internet (yeah, my bite size apartment was pretty much an internet cafe for a bit while everyone else was waiting to get their internet setup) and again we ended up chatting in a group.
At that point, we pretty much decided that meeting alone was a bad idea due to communication problems, so the next meetup was at Janet's to watch a movie. Me and IT guy stopped to pick up the movie, which was an interesting experience in itself as neither of us are very decisive. So after a good 45min. at the video store with finally went to Janet's apartment and then didn't even watch the movie cause we were to busy chatting! In fact, I can't even remember the movie we picked!
There wasn't really a follow up meeting cause the IT guy eventually started hagging out with Miki and they seem to hang out on a regular basis now. It's for the best because Miki knows a good amount of Japanese and can use their get togethers to help improve his language skills and vice versa.
Up Next: Natural Disasters
