Kate’s Quests

Yes, I’ve started teaching English. I’ve had some pretty interesting experiences, but I’m sure that as I go along, I’ll get better and this will get much easier. Teaching a grandmother and her granddaughter have been interesting, but today was great. I met with a woman in Ofuna and we each bought a drink and sat in the local KFC to have her lesson. It was kind of awkward at first…after my last lesson with the grandma, I bought a book and was planning on using that, but this woman wants to work on fluency. I think the best way to work on fluency is to just talk so I told her so. I explained that I had learned both Spanish and German and understood just how difficult it was and to not be afraid of making mistakes. She seemed quite relieved after this news (I know how hard and frustrating it can be!!) and we got to talking.

I told her about my trips around the world and she told me about her trip to Australia. We were talking about travel for awhile and she said that she had never been to the United States. I said that travel was much different since the U.S. is much bigger and there are no good public transportation systems. She seemed shocked that you could drive from Seattle to Ohio for free! Of course you have to pay for gas, but no tolls! Really? How can this be?! I said that the train system in Japan was far better than any sort of public transport in the states (besides a couple of city systems) and she said that she and her friends always complain about the accidents on the Tokkaido line. Accidents? Trains running into trains or trains running into cars? No, the problem is suicides…at least once a week. I asked why and she said difficulty with jobs. I asked if it was stress and she said no, that it was losing them. When people lose their job, it’s so awful that they commit suicide. I mentioned the word fired and had to explain it and then she softy said…quip? Quip? Um…huh? I must have looked utterly confused because she got all embarrassed and after a few minutes I realized that she meant quit! I then had to explain the difference between quit and fired and then I explained that there was also something else you could be…laid off. So I explained that and then got into some American culture and explained what it meant to “get a pink slip.”

And I don’t realize the nuances of English until I’m trying to teach. Quip sounds so similiar to quit, but it’s meaning isn’t! I had to explain slip (I didn’t mention that it could mean a couple of things), but slip, sheet and piece can all be referring to paper. A slip could be a gown underneath a dress…a sheet could be on a bed and so on. It’s just funny how I take speaking my native tongue for granted until I try explaining it to someone who doesn’t speak it fluently and is from a completely different culture. Oh wait…this is hard too!