Help with Private Lesson

9 comments

1. I’d say some depends on where they’re going, if they want to understand native speakers they might want to know slang or something

2. Could do with some more info here? What level roughly is the student?

3. Get em used to slang. Ain’t no one talk like how they teach in the textbooks 😂

4. What do they need? Are they taking a test (IELTS?). What kind of job do they want to get? Will they attend school? What is their level? Too little information OP.

5. Depends on their level. It’s important to familiarise them with how to ask for help in an emergency and describe said emergency (I.e 911, I have chest pain I’m at XYZ. )

6. Handshakes. Realistic ordering food in both a sit-down and fast food restaurant (including things like ‘how do you want that cooked?’, split-tabs, and tipping). Making small talk with shop staff and other customers. Ordering drinks at a bar. And a whole bunch of situational/danger awareness tips (Japan is a very safe country, and many Japanese don’t have any real spidey-sense for danger).

7. Which country and city? Four years ago, I helped someone (TOEIC < 600) going to Toronto, Canada on WHV. All our conversation lessons were on topics related to living in Toronto, and articles and videos from Canadian media (newspapers, magazines, TV), lot of pre-lesson reading and listening and then talking about those topics when we met. By the end, person had enough familiarity with Toronto including transportation, neighborhoods, shops and restaurants, potential employers, popular online services, searching and applying for places to live, work, and socialize. Now permanently settled in Canada with a job.

8. If you came to Japan on WHV, what do you think is important to know as far as language knowledge goes?

   Don’t waste to much time on resume writing. There’s templates online anyways.

9. I’ve found that some Japanese people HATE the question “How was your weekend?” and feel like it’s very personal and an invasion of their privacy. I once had a student complain to my employer for asking such an inappropriate question. You might want to give them some practice with dealing with this kind of mindless small talk.