The pictures above are of foreign teachers. They are coming from many countries. The teacher on the left is from China. And then America, the U.K, Russia, Canada, South Korea and Iran. There were also teachers from France, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.
However in each teacher's country there are many connections politically, religiously and culturally. Greenleaves is based on the idea of " the world is one."
Many teachers have changed since greenleaves were opened in 2005. The pictures in the upper frame is recent. I can't guess how many teachers have changed until now. However I just know that they can create many layers in the upper frame.
They seem to leave their countries for some reasons. Some people have things they don't want to remember very much, others seem to come to Japan with big dreams. Many kinds of reasons exist there There seems to be foreigners who look for good countries to earn as an English teacher by advance. However it's sure that Japan is a paradise for them.
First when they started thinking living in Japan forever, they notice a big hurdle in fron of them. It is Japanese. Especially kanji. They seem to be unable to recognize them.
They can't find jobs to earn without language teachers.( It means that they don't hope to work as manual workers.) Therefore they have to go back to their countries.
But reacetly their situations changed a lot. Japan started needing more foreigners as workers. Japan's population is decreasing. The number of workers in Japan is decreasing as well by them. So Japan has to open the gate to them. But in this case situations are a little different from the past. From recently they ( who can work as manual workers) can live in Japan forever to find jobs even though they can't write and read Japanese. I think.
However if someone ask me whose lesson you want to see one more time? I'll response it's Ivason's lesson. He used to teach loudly. So students could understand clearly. I felt like it was coming from the background of his gene. Could you understand my expressions? Anyways I used to feel the difference of scale from his lessons.
He stayed at greenleaves for about a year. After all he went back to England to enter the school of a nurse. His life in Japan seemed to be a life for looking for himself. I had a good experience.
私の生徒さんで5年生になるKento君がいましす。クリスマスも近くなってきたある時、私は ’ What do you want for Christmas?(グリスマスに何がほしいですか?)' ときいたんです。そしたら、彼は' I want peace.(ぼくは平和がほしいです。)'と答えました。これをきいた時なんとすばらしい答えなんだ、ととても感激したと共に驚きました。彼は何の特別な主義主張を持っているわけでもないのに、ただ平和を望む気持ちから、とっさに表現したのだなーと、感じました。
We had " a presentation and a Christmas party" on December 21 (Sat.) , 2019. The title of the book Yuki and Ou read on that day was ' peace book'.
Why is the title of that book 'peace book'?
I have a student his name is Kento. He is in the fifth grade of elementary school. I asked him what he wanted for Christmas during a lesson. He replied that he wanted peace for Christmas.
When I heard this word ; peace, I was very shocked. Because he doesn't have his own principle. He is an ordinary boy. But he hopes peace. So he expressed peace against my sudden question. This word is very important for us now. I think.
After I experienced this, I found this book at the book store by chance when I was looking for a book for a cristmas party. This book is separated by English and Japanese.
I was belonging to ECC junior before I started The Green Leaves in my area. I think it was in my early 30s. I used to teaching math and English at that time. To tell the truth I liked math better than English. So I learned English at the other English conversation school.
My Canadian English teacher asked us why Japanese people can't speak English so much even though Japan is a developed country.
I was very shocked to hear what my teacher said. Because I was proud as a Japanese and I had never thought about this. I got a chance to learn English deeper by the words from my teacher.
Nice to meet you. I'm Terumi Yamanaka who is the owner of The Green Leaves in Ichinomiya City.
The Green Leaves by foreign teachers started in November 2005. Before that I used to teach English and math to Japanese elementary school students and Junior high school students as an ECC home tutor at home. For about 13 years.
The Green Leaves is going to be 14th years this year. We'll continue more.
We'll write for the people who are our students , their parents and wil become students in the future.
The themes are 「Things related to English」.
Please look forward to. I'm going to write many things that come up to me.