Hello everyone.
I had a pile of translation work besides my Japanese lessons last week and this week. I didn't have proper days off on the weekend because I wanted to finish the work early. I will definitely take a whole weekend off this time! Thankfully, I have got more students and more lessons. So I often think that I should plan how to spend my time efficiently. As a freelance teacher, I know that there are some people who misunderstand what I do for work and how I work, as I work mainly at home and I don't have specific hours open to students like language schools. Today I'd like to explain what I think with some facts. Misunderstanding 1 : I am free when I don't have lessons Misunderstanding 2 : I don't care if students change their lesson time Misunderstanding 3 : My work is not "a proper job" because I don't have an office About number 1. What do you think teachers do besides teaching class? Yes, class preperation. Searching for answers to questions asked in the previous lesson Previewing the next chapter Making teaching materials Preparing ansers to questions that may be asked in the next lesson Looking for news or articles that can be a topic of conversation in the next lesson Other things besides preparation of lesson contents, I preprare something to drink for a student, clean the room, warm the room up with a heater and so on. Of course I have housework, too. Lesson hours are binding hours, but my working hours are not only lesson hours. Therefore, "I am free when I don't have lessons" is wrong. Now number 2. I manage everything by myself, unlike school where there are rules to be kept between management people and teachers. So I try to adjust to students' needs and be flexible up to some level when it comes to canceling lessons and changing lesson times. Even so, setting up a day and time is just like making a promise between two people. You don't feel good when someone cancels your plan or if he changes the plan again and again, right? That applies to both work and hanging out with friends, to both busy people and people who have a lot of free time. I would love the readers of this article to know that changing a plan (lesson time) suddenly and/or frequently makes the person feel he is not important to you. I'm not writing this to my students and future students only but also to people who would like to meet me. Number 3. I don't have a work place like a school. My home is my work place. This is an extreme that some people think this kind of job is something like a hobby that housewives do besides their housework. There are many ways to work as freelance teachers, but in my case, I think of my job just like a full-time job in a company. I want to concentrate on my work even when I don't have lessons, I want to finish my job in time when I decide to work for certain hours. To me, this job is a very important factor to make my life a life I want and what I must have to make my living.
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Takae
Job: Japanese teacher, English tour guide Archives
March 2023
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