Rainbow Hill

Well part of the battle is won. I've made it home, finished my course and landed a job, all without completely depleting my savings. The hardest part is yet to come, finding an apartment. Not an easy task in Brisbane at the moment, where most people spend at least at least a 3rd of their income on rent. Buying is out of the question, housing affordability is at it lowest point in about 12 years, and there doesn't seem to be any chance of that changing soon.

I'm working, and that's the main thing. I decided on going with a full time permanent position with James Cook University Brisbane, in their Learning Support Services section as a Student Learning and Support Officer. It's not English teaching, but it does have slightly more going for it financially. I needed the stability that comes with a salaried position over the contract work that typifies the English teaching industry even here.

I'm going through the induction process today, and tomorrow I'll be in the Channel 7 studios for the recording of "How to Get That Job" with Sarina Russo. I've been told to have some questions ready just in case I get called on to participate in Q&A.

I've been having such a good time in Brisbane since I've been back. I've found time to do all the things I have to do, like prepare for my course, and find work. I've also had plenty of leisure time, which will end tomorrow when my course starts.

I don't have a lot of money, but there are lots of things to do here. I've discovered the State Library of Queensland has free wireless Internet access. I've using it to do my course pre-task and stay in touch with friends and family in Japan. I usually get in to West End and have a coffee at Ugees before the library opens at ten and stay until just after six when the traffic has died down. Sometimes I pack a lunch and sit on the grass by the river.

The GoMA which is just next door to the library runs free films in their Cinémathèque every day. They are showing films accompanying the Andy Warhol exhibition which is on right now. I've seen a few free exhibitions, but since I can't really afford to spend $20 or $30 I haven't been able to see it.

That was until tonight, I finally have a chance to see it. A group of my mothers friends booked tickets to the exhibition and concert tonight, and some of them can't make it. Art is for everybody right? Also playing tonight is Ed Kuepper, well known for his seminal early Australian punk band The Saints.

 

After a fruitless week of searching for work in teaching English as a second language, rather than throwing in the towel completely, I've decided to take another qualification. Despite almost 5 years experience teaching English, employers don't want to take me on with out formal recognition of my ability as a teacher.

I've been accepted in to the Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults, otherwise known as CELTA, offered at The Australian TESOL Training Centre in Brisbane. It's considered an entry qualification for teaching English professionally, and here in Australia it's very hard to find a job without it. TESOL stands for teaching English to speakers of other languages.

Australian English schools of repute are accredited by a body known as NEAS, which is itself an acronym within an acronym, The National ELT Accreditation Scheme, ELT meaning English Language Teaching. If I can just get my head around the acronyms then I might have a chance of understanding the course.

By all accounts the four week full time intensive course is very hard work, there won't be time for much else except study and teaching preparation. The course starts Saturday week and finishes the first Friday of April. There should be enough time after that to find a job and an apartment before June when C and the kids come over.

When I first considered a job teaching English in Japan I had a vague idea of what learning a foreign language might be like. My experience of learning a language at school in Australia was disjointed at best, and was centred around standardised classroom texts and didactic teaching methods. Subsequently I didn't learn much of the Japanese, Italian, French, German, Latin or Ancient Greek I was taught.

I was fortunate however to have been educated in a school where most of the students spoke a second language at home, so I knew even then that bilingualism was a reality for many people. When I made the commitment to go to Japan, I also committed myself to learning the language, and studying martial arts over a two to five year period. My best chance of learning the language centred around being immersed in the culture, and using it to accomplish tasks of an everyday nature.

When I arrived in Japan, I enrolled in survival Japanese courses offered at the local international centre and took my notes home and practised phrases every day. I also mastered hiragana and katakana early on because I wanted to be able to read. Towards the end of my first year I moved to a rural town, from a prefectural capital, and my opportunities for engagement with the locals grew. I was beginning to feel more confident in my language ability.

Being a language learner gave me a much greater appreciation of what my students needed in the classroom. Everyone learns differently, and made sense for me to approach language acquisition from a learners perspective. I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in my second year, and sat it each year following. Studying for the test helped me understand the different modalities of language learning. Doing the past exams helped me to understand my weaknesses and better prepared me for what was ahead. I was constantly on the lookout for different learning techniques. Language learning itself, became my hobby.

When I met my then future wife in 2004 all of our communication was in Japanese. As we grew together as a couple my language needs changed, I was now required to understand things with a degree of subtlety that I hadn't had before. Speech was infused with nuance, and although the potential for miscommunication was high, I credit my wife's patience and understanding with my current language ability. We now have two children, a boy and girl aged 2 years old and 3 months respectively. They will be joining me in Australia in June.

I have come to the realisation that language learning is not separate from cultural experience. Language learning doesn't happen in a vacuum, it must be connected with and through people to what you want to achieve as an individual. Just as the motivation for learning a language must come from within, so too should the approach. Language learners are individuals first, and approaches to language learning should be centred around individuals.

It's been about three years, since I saw Brisbane but I never imagined it as green as this. It's almost as if I've been transported back to the Brisbane of my youth, except for the traffic and the development. Things are alive, growing, and the air is full of potential.

Or perhaps it's just the humidity getting to me. When I left Japan it had snowed heavily in the week before I left and was freezing as I stepped on the plane. As I stepped off the plane in Brisbane, almost a years rainfall had fallen in some parts of the state in the same time. Subtropical lows and a monsoonal trough are bringing an end to the drought here. There isn't enough rain yet to fill the state's dams, and there is heavy damage to crops in the north, but everyone I meet is saying it's a good thing.

There also seems to be plenty of work around. The resources boom in Australia is in full swing and Queensland is at the forefront of the boom. I'm looking for work in two areas, English as a second language (ESL), and software development. I'm hoping to put my Japanese skills good use use in either one of those areas.

ESL will provide some continuity and is perhaps more accessible in Brisbane, due to the high number of foreign students studying here.

Finding the right pathway back in to IT might be a little more difficult, since I've been out of the industry for about 5 years. My experience as a multimedia/web developer spanned over 7 years and 5 countries. It was top class, but now I need to work hard to update my skills, and demonstrate my ability.

I'm looking forward to the challenge.

佐々と寝ます。

最近、引越しや家族のオーストラリアのビザのことなどばかりを考えっています。今朝皆に役に立つように、早起き、紙ゴミを捨ててきて、必死で引越しの準備を続けてしました。必死で働いていたのでおばさんたちの個人レッソンをさっぱり忘れました。

ちょっと休憩を取って、携帯が鳴って、そのおばさんたちからメールが来ました。「今日のレッソンに来られる？」って。そう言いわれってもしょうがなくて、レッソンの気もありませんでした。すまんこと。

それでも引越し準備とビザを取るの手続きが進んでいます。今晩もやる気があったけど妻がぐすっり寝ています。昨日ちょっと妻の結婚する前の日記を読めていただきました。二人の歴史を書くためにいろんな覚えられないことを書かなきゃなりません。例えば、初めてのデートとか、いつ結婚に決めたとか、初め二人暮らしがいつだとか。

その結婚する前の妻の字を見るともっと可愛く見えます。今の生活は大変苦しいけど、一緒にすれば、もっと上手くいけるとおもいます。妻にきっと感謝しています。

This is the beginning of a big year, after the train wreck of last year, time to count my blessings:

• the love and support of my family here in Japan and in Australia.
• a beautiful wife that has expresses her commitment to our relationship with devotion.
• a sensitive and crazy smart boy about to turn ten who wants to spend more time with his dad.
• an inquisitive boy with boundless energy who just turned two.
• a baby girl born on christmas day.

That feels better.

In Japan people will pay exorbitant prices to have you talk to them in English, in stuffy little glass cubicles, in forty minute fixes. When the venue for formal study of language school chain is gone, they will have you around for coffee.

I love coffee and it isn't very hard to convince me to have another cup. So when three of my former students wanted to make it a regular Thursday morning event I just couldn't refuse.

The pretence of course, is a lesson in daily conversation, although they the mostly speak to each other in Japanese. I'm quite happy to let them wander off on tangents, as long as they afford me the illusion of teaching them something from time to time. It's a wonderful arrangement.

I may be preaching to the converted here, but I believe coffee contributes in many untold ways to the art of conversation. Let's see how you can apply the same principles you do when enjoying a cup of coffee, to the art of conversation.

The ritual of coffee.
When you set time aside for the preparation of a fine cup of coffee, you are creating a buffer between yourself and he outside world. Which ever way you prefer to brew your coffee, your attention to the details of your chosen method allow you to focus your thoughts on a single point, the perfect cup of coffee. Elusive as it may be, this ideal is essential for perfecting your art.

So too with the art of conversation. When you give your time to someone, give them your full attention. Let them know you are listening, and that nothing will intrude into the space you have created for them. Allow time for the conversation to develop at it's own pace. Respect the conversation as if it were something in it's own right, more than the sum of it's parts. Not just a speaker and a listener, but equal participants in piece of performance art.

The space between sips.

Last week our host served coffee in these eccentric cups and saucers, each one unique. As we admired their quality and craftsmanship a little more breathing space came into the conversation. Although the cups were small, we were in no hurry to put them down.
 
Some people are more comfortable with silence than others. When it does happen don't be afraid to sit back and just observe the space it creates. When you're not the first to talk, you might hear something genuinely refreshing.

The caffeine conclusion.
A small amount of the stimulant caffeine should leave you with a buzz, bringing you to the business end of conversation. You may feel able to express yourself more freely, but don't over do it.

Having the courage to speak your mind is accompanied by the responsibility to be receptive to the opinions of others. If you can strike the right balance, while learning to express yourself positively and in a non-threatening way, then you will win the respect and admiration of your peers.

Now, I wonder how I can translate that same coffee aesthetic in to one that generates conversation on this blog? How does coffee work for you socially? What is it about the ritual that has a lubricating effect on conversation for you? I would be happy to hear your thoughts over a cup or two.