Teaching the People You Meet

This is more a journal entry than anything else because I didn't have my actual journal at the time.

I obviously think about education a ton, and i obviously think about purpose. Today at school I introduced Lila Downs, something some of my students may never have ever experienced had it not been for me. I remember my interview and when the Consul person asked me some very broad questions. Asked me questions related to purpose, to the why, to the being okay with the unknown. Must of known in our short interaction that I'm a very deep thinker.

I guess that has a ton to do with why I'm really good at adapting. I thought about my friends and my students, and how them interacting was awesome. How this was the first time that most of my students had ever interacted with a non-JET "foreigner" as they say. And then I thought about how cool it was that in the hidden corners of the world like the one I live in, beautiful experiences are more than possible. Where there are people there is emotion.

And I'm so glad I could help build those bridges. That my language and cultural competence was being put to use to help folks better understand each other, that the world is a much smaller place than any of us thinks it is. More importantly, I feel as if I made language itself much less scary for everyone. Now my students have my friends' beaming smiles imprinted in their first memories of speaking in English with other non-teacher, non-Japanese people. They got a real taste, and now I know a real passion, for wanting to learn language, not just English, and a real drive to learn about the small round globe we live in.

This school is exceptional, but it doesn't have to be. The formula is simple, allow people to feel, allow them to interact. Have rules, but only as guidelines, focus on the students before all else, and the rest is just cake. The more experienced I become at life, the more I realize that language is just a convenience, as my quote on my blog profile says. When we learn to talk with our hearts and our minds, we realize that language itself can never stop us from feeling. So why not go out there into this little world of ours, learn as much as we can, and learn how to talk with the many words, tongues, hands, gestures, mannerisms, beliefs, traditions, and love that makes up such a rich diversity of people kind on this planet. When all you have is all you have, why not enjoy every bit of it. And I hope that is what I teach the people I meet :)