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How to Teach English

One of the things I like best about English class in Japan is how much Japanese I learn. Like the other day, I was in Nakamura Sensei’s class. He’s the English teacher in my middle school, and his English is arguably better than mine, since he actually knows stuff like what “a pronoun” is. I thought it was just a really excellent noun, like maybe when you take cat and turn it into meerkat, or popcorn into poop corn. Those are great improvements, so pronouns I figured, right? Well, apparently that was the wrong answer to give in front of forty students. Whatever. I still think they’re nice pronouns. Continue reading “How to Teach English”

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The Best Japanese Website

You know, I don’t read a lot of websites about Japan, mostly because if I wanted to know something about the country, I’d just roll over in my futon and look out the window. Like, oh now there’s a guy pushing a cart with a fiery oven full of sweet potatoes down the street, a woman in a fox fur hat and tiny miniskirt talking on an Android phone the size of her head, and a kid by himself, pitching balls against the dark wall of an apartment block by a dim street lamp. Yep, still Japan. Continue reading “The Best Japanese Website”

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Why all the White People in Japan?

Japanese Festival

I interviewed to teach English in Japan in a sunny office building in downtown LA, naively believing that Japan needed someone with my unique skill-set and stunning good looks.  But then I’m the kind of dude who watches late-night infomercials and buys a Ginsu knife set, so I guess that shows how discriminating I am.  Actually, they worked pretty well, and for $19.99, how can you go wrong?  I’m such a sucker for a bargain.  Anyway, sitting in that conference room, drinking green tea and listening to the recruiter explain the job, I assumed that Japan didn’t have enough English teachers.  Turns out I was wrong. Continue reading “Why all the White People in Japan?”

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The Grammar-Translation Method : Really all that Bad?

When it comes to teaching languages, the grammar-translation method has become the child nobody loves or wants to acknowledge.  But is it really hell on toast?  No, it ain’t.  There, I said it.  Leave it to Seeroi to be the one to defend something he doesn’t even like, but hey, somebody’s gotta stand up for the downtrodden.

Before getting into a whole deep analysis, let’s talk booze, if for no other reason than it’s a whole lot more interesting than grammar. Continue reading “The Grammar-Translation Method : Really all that Bad?”