New Student...

Had a new student today. He's a car dealership owner, he's the grand-uncle of one of our youngest students, and my supervisor was very paranoid of offending this guy.

He speaks very very little English; I don't think he's done any real study of the language since he graduated from college. He has traveled around the world, but he always goes with Japanese tour guides...

My supervisor cautioned me that I might have to speak Japanese to make sure that he understands what I'm teaching him. At the same time, I had to be careful not to offend him or treat him with disrespect, since we DEFINITELY want to retain this man's business. (Instead of signing up for a full year, he opted to pay for three months and then decide whether or not he will continue then.)

So, no pressure or anything....

My supervisor wasn't in today, but she actually text-messaged the boss, asking her to remind me AGAIN that I would probably have to speak Japanese. (To be fair, I don't think she was nagging. She was JUST THAT worried.)

As it turns out, I spent pretty much the entire lesson speaking Japanese. The man is very enthusiastic about speaking English, and asked me many interesting questions, such as ｢ミネソタ｣の意味は何だ？ (What does "Minnesota" mean?) which led us into a side-discussion of the many places in Minnesota that have the Native American word for "Water" in them.

It was an...interesting class. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to the next one, but he seemed happy with it. He also specifically said that he doesn't mind going very slowly at first, which relieves a bit of pressure on me, I think.

I hope, anyhow.

It could've been worse. My supervisor has one class that she suspects is made up of people with mob ties...