Land of the rising sun!

End of August, I decided to take a break. In my previous post, I called it "a much needed break!". It's a good thing that I made that decision because in the 6 days of "being away", I learned a lot!

My destination??? My 2nd most favourite country. From "never been there" in year 2000, to been there 5 times now! It's the land of the rising sun. Japan!

Why Japan? I just feel comfortable there!!! The people there are polite and never appear to try to intrude on other people's life. Even the men don't give sleazy looks to the women...well maybe accept when they're drunk. Walking alone in the city or the outskirts are just safe and peaceful....well of course, accept for the bikers passing by. If you're not careful, you'll get the "ring!" from their bicycle.

I met 2 + 1 instructors. 2 by appointment, and 1 by accident! They were great. It was an honour to meet them as they have more than 25 years of experience being an instructor.

I have been to so many centres outside of Malaysia. However, this time, it was special because I was allowed to interact with 6 wonderful Japanese students. We spent about an hour in a meeting room and we read to each other. While I try to read some English sentences to them, they were evaluating my "nihongo"!!! I tried to break the ice by letting them mark my nihongo worksheets. A few of them found it hilarious that I made mistakes.

With all the laughter and reading, I felt they were comfortable. I understood how it's like to have to speak in a language you're not confident with. I was like that too. One boy even looked like he was going to cry. I remember feeling that way at his age, when my teacher made me stand in front of the classroom to read an English passage.

Besides the students, it was great to be able to communicate with their instructors. I was there to also improve on my nihongo (well....I did learn how to change money in japanese, and I did get around the place by myself) I can't wait for their visit to Malaysia!

This trip was a hush-hush trip. The reason being me trying to find some peace and break time.

I did come back refreshed and having new vision for my centre and I feel that it's working out.

Year end crisis......here I come!!!

*** Every end of the year, we have so much problem in keeping the students to continue learning. They usually want to take a break.