Before you go off to Japan, Korea, or wherever, you should try to learn some basic conversational skills in the language of the country that you are going to. And you should continue to study the language while you are there. This is one of the keys to having a very enriching experience. Many teachers say they want to “immerse myself in the culture”, and so being able to speak some of the language will help you do that. It’s also very important that you make this a priority. You should get started on learning the language right away. If you don’t, you will end up losing motivation, and your overseas experience will be half of what it could have been. Learning the language for everyday life and cultural immersion is great, but it will also help you a lot in your teaching job. First, it will help you to communicate with the school staff thus creating a stronger connection. Second, being able to understand what your students are saying (especially kids) will help you to understand what some of the language problems they may be dealing with. You are an English teacher, but you should also be a student of the language of your host country. Learning something new can be tough, but it definitely has its benefits. What do you think?
Credit: www.alpha.ac.jp
Tags: English, Japan, Japanese, Study, Teach
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on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Blog, events.
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