Who am I, and Why Should You Believe What I'm Telling You
Hey there!
As I'm sure we're all aware, the internet is full of crazy people. So, how do you know that I'm not a crazy person who is just teaching a fake language? Or teaching you incorrectly? Or just wasting your time? Or any of countless other crazy possibilities that one man can't think of?
Well, my name is Evan Rogers, I'm married (so at least one person trusts me), I live in Columbus, Ohio, and I have been involved with Japanese for a really long time. I started learning Japanese when a friend of my brother's gave him a Dragon Ball comic before returning back to Japan. My brother brought it home, and I was still young enough to be mesmerized by the completely weird things I was looking at. In case you've never seen the original Dragon Ball comics, you might not understand that you can pretty much follow along with the story without knowing the language. However, You won't get the full brunt of the comic's hilarity until you understand it.
When I finally got to high school, I was lucky enough to be in a school district that offered Japanese as a foreign language choice. I would like to claim that the Dragon Ball comic was the reason I chose Japanese, but in reality it was simply that I was (am) a nerd. I think the real reason why the Dragon Ball comic had such an impact on me was that I was a nerd even then (elementary school). I immediately chose Japanese as my language.
For those of you outside of central Ohio, you might not realize that there is a huge population of Japanese people living here. Out in Marysville (about a 1 hour drive), there is a huge Honda factory. The high-up management in the factory largely consists of Japanese people who came from... um... Japan. They generally live in the Columbus are for 2-4 years, and then are forced through Visa laws by the US government to return back to Japan. Because of the giant factory, it has become economical for other Japanese companies to take up shop nearby as well. Many other manufacturing companies use the same system of Japanese-management-from-Japan.
The families that come over generally take up residence in just a few school districts in northwestern Columbus. There is a reason for this, but it's not worth going into here. I happened to be going through one of these school districts.
My high school Japanese teacher, who will remain unnamed until he tells me he wouldn't mind being mentioned here, was very active in the Japanese community. He held some free English help at a local Japanese Church, and encouraged his students to help out. I was one of the first to help out. I didn't realize it, but this was brilliant on his part: it forced me to use the language I was learning.
It was also brilliant because I had no idea how important it would be to my future career. Many of the Japanese families in the area wanted private tutors to help them with English. They wanted tutors who could speak Japanese, if only a little bit. This opened up a huge world for me that I still partake in: tutoring English to Japanese families.
I basically did that through my undergraduate college program. I majored in Japanese. Upon graduating, I got a job working in Japan for a company called "NOVA Eikaiwa", which basically means "NOVA, English Conversation School", where I sat in a room with some Japanese adults for an hour at a time and practiced English with them. I have to admit that I didn't like teaching there very much -- I know I shouldn't be negative, but I hated the fact that I got scolded for explaining things to the students in Japanese when they had questions. They would ask me questions like "What is the difference between 'I will eat it' and 'it will be eaten'? Why is there a difference?", and, to save time, I would just blurt out the sentences in Japanese (as opposed to saying "Well, the first is what is called an active sentence where the speaker places the emphasis on the subject performing the action to an object, whereas the second sentence is what is known as a passive sentence, whereby the speaker wants to emphasize the direct object in relationship to the verb.").
Each time I explained a grammar point in Japanese, a student would be so happy and say something like "Oh man, that Evan-sensei can speak Japanese! That's great!" to the receptionist. The receptionist would then be all smiley, but realize that I had spoken Japanese again. She would then tell the manager that I was using Japanese in class, and I would get chewed out a week later. (It became clear to me that the reason why they didn't want teachers speaking Japanese was simply because not all the teachers knew Japanese, and they didn't want the students to start demanding only one teacher.)
I left NOVA after only 6 months, and got a job as an ALT. An ALT is an "Assistant Language Teacher", and the job description was pretty much "go to a Japanese elementary school, middle school, or high school, and assist the teacher in teaching English." Of course, this was how it was supposed to work - me helping the teacher. However, I was given the job of being an elementary school ALT. Many of the elementary school teachers didn't (don't) speak any English. In fact (it was explained to me), they chose to be an elementary school teacher in part because English wasn't a required subject. However, over time, "INTERNATIONAL TEST RESULTS" declared that "JAPANESE STUDENTS AREN'T DOING AS WELL AS STUDENTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES IN ENGLISH!!!" (We have similar reports here in America). The government has been working to phase in elementary school English programs for some 20 years.
I spent about 3 years teaching in Japan. Looking back on it, I probably could have been a better teacher (not that I was bad, I just could have been better). I undoubtedly made numerous cultural blunders, and probably insulted a few more people than I wanted to by accident. However, the experience was a real eye-opener. It was great to be integrated into real Japanese culture - how much more real could you get than to be in an elementary school every day? I got to see kids being kids. I got to play English games with the kids. I got to act like an idiot and get paid for it.
Also, completely unrelated, I rode a bike to work and back every single day. But, because of the mountains to the west of my home, the wind would blow to the west in the morning, and then would switch directions some time around 2 pm. So, I actually did have to ride my bike against the wind in both directions each day. Every once in a while, the wind would break its pattern and I would get to ride with the wind on my back both ways, and those days were awesome.
My at-the-time Fiance (she's now my wife), came to Japan to work as an ALT as well. She worked at a nearby middle school and had to dress professionally each day.
After three years of ALT work, I decided that I should come back to the US and work to become a teacher. I got a master's degree in Education - so yes, I can actually talk about educational theories with you if you'd like - and have been working towards becoming a licensed teacher. Then I will try to find someone who wants to start a Japanese program, or would like a Japanese teacher.
Currently I'm a private tutor for Japanese families learning English and American families learning Japanese.
As I'm sure we're all aware, the internet is full of crazy people. So, how do you know that I'm not a crazy person who is just teaching a fake language? Or teaching you incorrectly? Or just wasting your time? Or any of countless other crazy possibilities that one man can't think of?
Well, my name is Evan Rogers, I'm married (so at least one person trusts me), I live in Columbus, Ohio, and I have been involved with Japanese for a really long time. I started learning Japanese when a friend of my brother's gave him a Dragon Ball comic before returning back to Japan. My brother brought it home, and I was still young enough to be mesmerized by the completely weird things I was looking at. In case you've never seen the original Dragon Ball comics, you might not understand that you can pretty much follow along with the story without knowing the language. However, You won't get the full brunt of the comic's hilarity until you understand it.
When I finally got to high school, I was lucky enough to be in a school district that offered Japanese as a foreign language choice. I would like to claim that the Dragon Ball comic was the reason I chose Japanese, but in reality it was simply that I was (am) a nerd. I think the real reason why the Dragon Ball comic had such an impact on me was that I was a nerd even then (elementary school). I immediately chose Japanese as my language.
For those of you outside of central Ohio, you might not realize that there is a huge population of Japanese people living here. Out in Marysville (about a 1 hour drive), there is a huge Honda factory. The high-up management in the factory largely consists of Japanese people who came from... um... Japan. They generally live in the Columbus are for 2-4 years, and then are forced through Visa laws by the US government to return back to Japan. Because of the giant factory, it has become economical for other Japanese companies to take up shop nearby as well. Many other manufacturing companies use the same system of Japanese-management-from-Japan.
The families that come over generally take up residence in just a few school districts in northwestern Columbus. There is a reason for this, but it's not worth going into here. I happened to be going through one of these school districts.
My high school Japanese teacher, who will remain unnamed until he tells me he wouldn't mind being mentioned here, was very active in the Japanese community. He held some free English help at a local Japanese Church, and encouraged his students to help out. I was one of the first to help out. I didn't realize it, but this was brilliant on his part: it forced me to use the language I was learning.
It was also brilliant because I had no idea how important it would be to my future career. Many of the Japanese families in the area wanted private tutors to help them with English. They wanted tutors who could speak Japanese, if only a little bit. This opened up a huge world for me that I still partake in: tutoring English to Japanese families.
I basically did that through my undergraduate college program. I majored in Japanese. Upon graduating, I got a job working in Japan for a company called "NOVA Eikaiwa", which basically means "NOVA, English Conversation School", where I sat in a room with some Japanese adults for an hour at a time and practiced English with them. I have to admit that I didn't like teaching there very much -- I know I shouldn't be negative, but I hated the fact that I got scolded for explaining things to the students in Japanese when they had questions. They would ask me questions like "What is the difference between 'I will eat it' and 'it will be eaten'? Why is there a difference?", and, to save time, I would just blurt out the sentences in Japanese (as opposed to saying "Well, the first is what is called an active sentence where the speaker places the emphasis on the subject performing the action to an object, whereas the second sentence is what is known as a passive sentence, whereby the speaker wants to emphasize the direct object in relationship to the verb.").
Each time I explained a grammar point in Japanese, a student would be so happy and say something like "Oh man, that Evan-sensei can speak Japanese! That's great!" to the receptionist. The receptionist would then be all smiley, but realize that I had spoken Japanese again. She would then tell the manager that I was using Japanese in class, and I would get chewed out a week later. (It became clear to me that the reason why they didn't want teachers speaking Japanese was simply because not all the teachers knew Japanese, and they didn't want the students to start demanding only one teacher.)
I left NOVA after only 6 months, and got a job as an ALT. An ALT is an "Assistant Language Teacher", and the job description was pretty much "go to a Japanese elementary school, middle school, or high school, and assist the teacher in teaching English." Of course, this was how it was supposed to work - me helping the teacher. However, I was given the job of being an elementary school ALT. Many of the elementary school teachers didn't (don't) speak any English. In fact (it was explained to me), they chose to be an elementary school teacher in part because English wasn't a required subject. However, over time, "INTERNATIONAL TEST RESULTS" declared that "JAPANESE STUDENTS AREN'T DOING AS WELL AS STUDENTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES IN ENGLISH!!!" (We have similar reports here in America). The government has been working to phase in elementary school English programs for some 20 years.
I spent about 3 years teaching in Japan. Looking back on it, I probably could have been a better teacher (not that I was bad, I just could have been better). I undoubtedly made numerous cultural blunders, and probably insulted a few more people than I wanted to by accident. However, the experience was a real eye-opener. It was great to be integrated into real Japanese culture - how much more real could you get than to be in an elementary school every day? I got to see kids being kids. I got to play English games with the kids. I got to act like an idiot and get paid for it.
Also, completely unrelated, I rode a bike to work and back every single day. But, because of the mountains to the west of my home, the wind would blow to the west in the morning, and then would switch directions some time around 2 pm. So, I actually did have to ride my bike against the wind in both directions each day. Every once in a while, the wind would break its pattern and I would get to ride with the wind on my back both ways, and those days were awesome.
My at-the-time Fiance (she's now my wife), came to Japan to work as an ALT as well. She worked at a nearby middle school and had to dress professionally each day.
After three years of ALT work, I decided that I should come back to the US and work to become a teacher. I got a master's degree in Education - so yes, I can actually talk about educational theories with you if you'd like - and have been working towards becoming a licensed teacher. Then I will try to find someone who wants to start a Japanese program, or would like a Japanese teacher.
Currently I'm a private tutor for Japanese families learning English and American families learning Japanese.