Job Discussion Forums

ssjup81 · Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:39 pm Post subject:

How exactly were you acting specifically? If I play a game with a kid, and I win, I don't really "brag" or anything. I'm pretty modest about it and friendly. You know, like, "I won this time, but let's play again" or say, "You're a very good player! This was a tough game and you were a strong opponent." *Okay, that's just cheesy, never mind that line* lol But yeah, with a child that young, I might even lose a couple times or either just barely win to determine the child's playing level. I also try to encourage the child too so that he/she won't feel like he/she is being picked on. In other words, I play up their playing ability. "Wow, I barely won! You're good."

For example, I was teaching my friend's nine-year-old son to play the game dots. Since the game was new to him, I played casually just to make sure he "got it". I lost a couple of times, and then I gradually upped my playing level. He enjoyed the game very much.

With a game like Uno, it's easy to do that. I think it's all about finding a balance with elementary school aged children. Now teenagers...that's where I lack patience (most of the time).

OneJoelFifty · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 463

inuzuki8605 · Joined: 01 Dec 2010 Posts: 98 Location: America

Yeah, seriously. That's something I did when I was my single digits... Shanghi might be a good place to live (if there's a lack of children). But I wouldn't really hold your breath for Japan to change very much any time soon. They are starting to enroll more and more teachers for children only classes or a mixture children and adults. Being good with children is starting to be a must.

Bread · Joined: 24 May 2009 Posts: 318

I used to be bad with little kids, these days I just make lots of dumb jokes to them and they seem to love me. これ蒸しパンでしょ？どんな虫が入っている？

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

inuzuki8605 · Joined: 01 Dec 2010 Posts: 98 Location: America

Rakuten · Joined: 14 Jun 2010 Posts: 67 Location: Japan

gwynnie86 · Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 159

There are a lot of cities that aren't Tokyo and Osaka. I'm in Hamamatsu, which you may not have heard of, but it has a population of 600,000 and a large percentage of them are foreigners. There's a great social scene... so what if you don't have friends there already? Surely one of the main motivations for travelling is to meet NEW people? One afternoon in Starbucks and an evening in one of the bars and you'll have made new friends, most people are very friendly. My friend works for AEON and only teaches adults.

Teaching children isn't that bad, honestly. If you're an ALT in a Junior High, you usually just read things out, there isn't a massive deal of interaction going on most of the time. I wasn't very comfortable with children at first... you just have to stop telling yourself that you can't do it. Just remember, they are mini humans who don't have as much knowledge of life experience and are more sensitive but mostly they are still people! Not that scary! As long as you're smiley, you talk to them and you make the effort to appear interested in things (maybe find out what music/anime is cool and talk about it)... or, with Elementary, as long as you're not too self-conscious and don't mind being a bit silly... try getting some experience with children, maybe some volunteering. Once you realise that you can do it, you'll feel a lot more confident about the whole thing. Besides, you can always start off with an ALT job, and build up a repetoir of private adult classes/students until you no longer need to re-contract.