Before I came to Japan

My original plan was to immerse myself in Japan by working on a strawberry farm and living with a host family through WWOOF Japan. But then I had more school work to do over the summer, so I had to cancel my trip. As a consolation, I enrolled in an intensive Japanese course at the local community college. I could only attend 3 of the 6 weeks because I was going to work at a summer camp in July, but I figured that 3 was better than zero. A friend gave me the course textbook and cc courses are very cheap, so I didn't lose too much money by leaving early.

It was odd to have a Master's degree (that's 18 years of formal education) and share the class with junior high students and other students in a mix of academic motivations. Plus the teacher was a graduate of Monterey Institute, the same as me. So the teacher-student distance was awkwardly absent because I could follow along with the methodology. But at the same time I took the experience like a classroom observation: making notes of things she did that I could incorporate into my own teaching practice. So this language learning experience was also developing my language teaching. That cycle will come up again and again I think.