New Discovery

Having taught English for 30 years, you would think there will be no more new findings in your class.

There is one today.

I should introduce to you first that I am teaching a class for TOEIC preparation with students who are Japanese businessmen.

Well, the class is naturally dull because of its nature and I had offered some hints for them to understand new words. I would rather not give a list of new words for my students to mechanically memorize them.  My students thought I was wasting their time and requested me to "refrain from giving personal stories." So, I stopped giving hints.

Today, the class happened to talk about famous Japanese universities and I introduced my memory of talking to Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) professors who were very intelligent. One student gave me the look of "here you go again." He must have thought that I was bragging because I "had the experience of interviewing TIT professors for a story." I was responding to the relaxed moment of the class and not bragging about my past. Yet, he misunderstood me.

Is he a cold person who would not understand the honesty of other people? Is he with some kind of inferiority complex, so he would think teachers are out to ridicule him? Is there any generation gap between us and he automatically refuses to listen to older people?

Whatever the reason is, the class will continue.