Man, I feel like I don't have much time to do anything when the family comes over. I am always busy having a blast with them. But at the same time, I feel as though my time (as in my personal time) is limited. Therefore, I feel like I can't accomplish anything.
I feel as though I should let everyone know what is going on in my mind right now. At the moment I am one month away from graduating so please excuse me while I bite off the remainder of my nails to the brim that I have hang nails on each one. One month and I will be clutching onto my Bachelor of Arts in English Writing. And more so, I have back up plans left and right to see where my life is going to be headed. Because, I have to face it: I don't want to live my life in just one setting. Even more so because I have nothing to settle me.
I recently went on an interview with an Eikawa school in Japan called AEON (pronounced EON, which was weird to say, and I felt like a klutz when they gave the proper pronunciation of that school). I put on my pretty granny stockings, ripped off the ticket prices on my newly bought navy suit, whined as my sister pulled my hair back like a stewardess in an airline, and was off. On the way over I took the wrong turn and went into the south bound instead of the north bound freeway (or I think the other way around. Point of the matter is I went the wrong way) but luckily I was there an hour early and arrived in time. I hopped into the elevator after asking the front desk for directions and waited upright because if I didn't stand upright, the skirt would have sliced me in half.
As we, (another interviewee and I) stepped into the waiting area, I looked around at my competition. I noticed two people (asian descent and no this isn't me being racist, their eyes were slanted) in black suits, and two more in a grey suit and a nice dress shirt. If there was one thing I learned from the forums is DO NOT WEAR BLACK. They are not fans of black suits and even state in their dress code pamphlets they had laid out for us is to not wear black. Good thing I went into those forums and went with the navy skirt dress suit.
After the initial background information and the break time, we were given the floor. We had to prepare a 30 minute lesson plan and present a five minute portion of it to the recruiters. The first one that went up was so nervous that he couldn't control himself from shaking. The lack of smiles doesn't help. One thing that I also remember from the forums was the fact that they like to have the students talk more than the instructor, and also to be very energetic and smiling the whole time. When the nervous shaker's time was over, I decided to step up and present my lesson plan. I initially forgot to give them my lesson plan but was promptly reminded to do so. When I did, I began with a smile plastered on my face. The game was simple enough, I grabbed the tape they provided and played a "Who am I?" game, in which the students had to ask around the other students what animal was on their backs. It looked fun enough and I made sure that I was smiling and saying as little as possible. Once my time was up, the other presenters came and went, still with not as much energy as I assume AEON enjoys.
After the initial five minute presentations were done, we had a few more information announcements for what we should expect if we leave to Japan, and finally we were given a short quiz, in which we had to spell some words and describe the difference between certain words. I vaguely remember some of mine: describe the difference between lay and lie, I'll be there in 10 minutes vs. I'll be there within 10 minutes, describe the difference between pick up and pick out, and the most dreadful one: describe the difference between effect and affect. I pulled a blank but still managed to give out the most of my knowledge on the two. After our twenty minutes were up, we were asked to wait while they went to get the results and give it back to us.
We were each handed an envelope and asked to not open it in the building but rather when we were alone. I was hopefully wishing one of us would be begging to open them at the same time while we were in the elevator, but unfortunately, nobody was feeling impulsive. And with good reason. I was nervous more than anything. I didn't waste anytime, as I was alone in the elevator for the parking garage and opened the flap to read that I had a following appointment at 1:15 for a personal interview. I was beyond ecstatic.
I returned on the following day an hour before I was scheduled to arrive, and walked into the waiting room and listened as I waited quietly for the interview to begin. I've been to interviews before, such as like the one that I went to for my tutor supervisor position but for this one, it was a bit more demanding. They put me in a room and gave me the floor to ask for any questions that I had, and all I could think of was whether or not I could take my iPhone (selfish and possessive I am about that thing, I know) and if it would work there. I also asked if he (the interviewer) had any special place that he liked in Japan, and he said that he never went anywhere past Tokyo, such as Hokkaido, which is the coldest place in Japan.
After a few more questions, he then asked me if I was ready to teach something from their lesson plan and I told them I was ready. The lesson plan was simple: adjectives and superlatives and comparatives. Big words that basically mean, "This is the biggest of all the things (biggest being the adj) and this thing is bigger than that thing (showing a comparison between the two objects)." They left me in a room for ten minutes to prepare and had another person join him, who was to be my "student" that I was teaching the lesson plan to. I was comfortable teaching and listening to make sure that they were answering it correctly but took too long before I was able to go into the next lesson (I must admit I did that on purpose, I didn't know what I was planning to do for the second part of the lesson). They gave me my feedback and then gave me an example of how they would present the lesson to me, where I was the student learning English. Afterward I put on the teacher hat again as I repeated the lesson that I was just put under to give the "student." I stumbled twice and got through it simply at the same time.
After the mock lesson was over I was given a few questions and was asked the regular, how did you hear about us? Why do you want to work for us? Why do you think it is good to teach/learn English? Those types of questions. By the time we were done, they said that they would notify me in two weeks to see if I got the job.
It will be one week on Tuesday. I don't know how I am going to wait any longer after that. My finger is itching to dial that number to see how I did.
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