My So-Called Japanese Life

Recently, I've been doing a lot of essay correction work for one of my students. This is relatively unusual as most lessons are spent ac...

About a year or so ago, I wrote out my student roster for the sake of my own future recollection, knowing it was of little interest to anyo...

One of the few trees outside our apartment on one of the few days that it snows. It's snowing today in Tokyo. I know what you're thi...

It's Sunday morning and I've slept in until 9:20 when I scheduled an English lesson for 10:00 am with my English teacher. I reschedu...

There have been many times during my business English telephone testing with students when the man on the other end has told me that he has...

One of my students works for a major computer company and discussed a bidding war for a contract with a chain of convenience stores (no, it...

Last week, there was quite a fuss made over what was seen as the indulgent and lavish offices of a failed English language school chain'...

For the past month and a half, I've conducted five private lessons with a non-Japanese Asian woman. This wasn't my first experience ...

Continuity tends to make people feel secure and comfortable. In fact, most people feel the greatest level of overall content when they have ...

During my formative years, I lied to my parents as many children do in order to avoid punishment. Around the age of 12, however, I developed...

On February 2, 2006, approximately 3 months after I quit my office job, I taught my first private lesson in about 10 years with student #1 f...

About a month ago, the referral agency I use for getting private students called and asked me to accept a new student at 9:30 am on Saturday...

About a month or so ago, the referral agency that provides me with students sent along a new potential student. This was a 61-year-old man w...

After a brief e-mail exchange with newly-minted professional Internet author Sean P. Aune , I've decided to give writing for Helium a t...

This weekend marks the end of a 2-month stint of doing a very big freelance job for my former company. Every weekend in May and the last two...

The old saying goes, "no good deed goes unpunished." This phrase has been on my mind today because one of my students e-mailed me ...

Since I started private teaching, I've been hearing stories about my students' workplaces and recently heard about a situation in my...

After years of doing lessons by telephone and in person, I've experienced the same questions from Japanese people hundreds of times. For...

In psychology, projection is when one attributes one's own thoughts or feelings, generally anxious or uncomfortable ones, to another par...