Adieu

My favourite teacher, when I was at school, was my art teacher.

I don’t know if she would remember me, so many years later, but I haven’t forgotten her.

She only taught me for two years, when I was one of her ‘leetle leetle Std 6s’ and then one of her ‘leetle’ bigger Std 7s (in Grades 8 and 9), but the interest she took in me and my work made all the difference, especially at a time when my own interest in my school work was flagging.

She seemed to delight in each of us, her artists, in our mischief as much as our imaginations. And I think we, at a rather rigid and old-fashioned girls’ school, appreciated her impishness and wonder as much as her artistic and teaching abilities...

This was her farewell to us...

As a teacher now myself, I’ve since found out how hard it can be to say goodbye to students – but also how much easier it is to stay in touch.

We may have gone our separate ways, but I like to think that we may still meet up again, my past students and I, somewhere in the world – in the UAE perhaps, or Bahrain, Turkey, Pakistan, the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Japan... That our farewell was more an au revoir than an adieu...

So...

Till we meet again...

Later...

Very, very thank you!

Anyone who has taught English in Japan (especially at junior or senior high) would have ended up with a pile of these: thank you messages from students. I worked as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme for two years and loved it – it was the best start for a teacher with little experience (participants actually need none and no teaching qualifications) because it involved so much creative and energetic teaching, a lot of interaction and very little marking!

These were written by some of my first grade students at Ojima Junior High in Nagaoka where I was based for two years. I had met them when they were still at elementary school so knew them well and they were a genki bunch – they got on very well with their young Japanese teacher and were always keen to take part. I really enjoyed my lessons with them.

And these are some of the comments students made on a thank you card I received at another junior high where I filled in for a few months. Although I was only there a short time (so short I seem to have forgotten its name!), I remember this school as one of my favourites. It was much smaller than Ojima and on the outskirts of the city, and I can’t say I was looking forward to simply filling in there as I trudged to school through thick snow from the bus stop down the road on my first day. But I was met with such excitement (I soon found out I was the first woman ALT these students had had), curiosity and enthusiasm that it was impossible not to enjoy my often noisy and sometimes quite boisterous classes.

They were written by some of the third graders I taught. A few students wrote only in Japanese and a few only drew me pictures, but most tried to write their thank yous in English. You can pretty much guess which are from the boys! 

You look very beutiful.

You are teaching a little time. But very interesting.

You are beutiful woman! Thank you!

I want to be like YOU!! So you are very beautiful.

I love you.

You are nice girl!!

Very thank you!!

I wanted to study with you more and more.

I was glad to meet you!!

Good. Very good.

You are good smile!!

You are nice body.

You are GODDESS.

Good for you!!

I am ENGLISH! Thank you.

You are very cute!! 

My favourite is this last one – despite the unfortunate mistake, the boy who wrote this was actually quite good at English, and bright and sharp. I really enjoyed his honesty after so many over-excited compliments...

I was grad to see you. I’m good at English. And I want to study English more and more. I will go to South Africa some day. <- It’s a lie.

Class of 2011

These are some sketches I’ve done for my kind-of-comic – they’re some of the girls from the class of 2011. I taught them for three years when I lived in the Middle East. Full of fun and mischief, they made me laugh – and they made me blush! – and they made me cry – and they made me go a little bananas at times! I watched them grow, and they let me grow as a teacher and make mistakes when I also had a lot to learn. I love them to bits, beautiful girls.