Lost Blog

It has been a long time since I posted for various reasons. It seemed like a great idea at first, a way to record what was happening in my life but as time went on the thrill became less and less. I felt like I was writing to someone without ever getting a reply. It felt like writing into a vacuum. The words go out but there is little response. But after many months of not writing anything I think it is something I should do for myself, not to get a response, but to record thoughts and experiences. I also I think that writing is good intellectual exercise.

Anyway I will make another attempt. So many things have happened since my last post. For the past six months I have been teaching at Tezukayama university in Nara part-time. The university I was at before has a five year limit. After 5 years you have to quit for at least six months and then they will hire you back at your beginning salary. Not a great deal of course but thankfully they liked what I had done over the past five years and waved the pay reduction and promoted me from assistant professor to associate professor. Actually that is as meaningful as the pay "raise" to me. I never liked the title "assistant professor". I don't feel like an assistant. So anyway I like the title "associate professor" better. I feel like I am almost a real professor now. Since I will never get a PhD this is probably the closest I will ever come to being a full professor.

It was fun to teach at a different school for a while. I just has two classes, two days a week. One was the highest level class in the program and the other was the lowest. The high class was a lot of fun. There were several Chinese students in the class which really helped the energy level and it also gave students more of a reason to use English because English was a common language between the Japanese and the Chinese. The low level class was more of a challenge. I usually teach 100% in English because I think it is much better for the students if I use only English and also it encourages them to use English with me if they think I can't speak Japanese. But this class was so low I had to use Japanese. But it really hurt the class because it erased any need on their part to use English in the class. But I got through the semester and I think the students had a good experience I consider it a success.