English teaching

I have been teaching English conversation to a group of grandmas and grandpas in a community center and it has been a blast. They respect me as a teacher but also treat me a bit like a grandchild. One of them always uses keigo (very formal respectful Japanese) with me and one calls me Veronika-chan and brings me candy and little seasonal presents. One can't here very well and only uses strong Hiroshima dialect. I very rarely know what he is saying but he always smiles at me and shows me translations of random words he looks up.

They decide the topics they want to talk about and it leads to both most interesting and most absurd conversations. I am learning so much from them and keep being amazed by their stories. Also, my English limits get tested regularly. Examples of the topics we talked about:

- dentists, teeth, types of teeth and their parts, mouth diseases, jaws, gums and ways their get infected
- disposable pocket warmers and how they work

- ways you can injure your back
- differences between a dean, principal, rector and university president
- cryptocurrency
- how planes work (and crash)
- many many many types of flowers and trees. pine trees and their parts. cutting instruments for different parts of pine trees.
- groups of animals - herds, flocks, schools. in Japanese, there is just one word for all the groups (mure), což vysvětluje, proč W. sensei nevěděl, jestli má magisterským studentům říkat stádo, nebo hejno monster.
- insects
- frauds in Japan and the world
- mental arithmetics and abacus school clubs
- endless list of Japanese festivals and traditions
- egg hole puncher (yes, it is a thing. you can buy one in daiso for 100 yen)

Seeing the cute elterly grandma literally jumping with excitement in front of the white board as she explained how eggs work and pretended to be the forces inside an egg was one of the highlights of everything. Getting excited about how eggs work when I retire is lifegoals.