Kim Coombes: Teaching English at Kozmoz Cafe

I recently had to change my CIP due to scheduling conflicts, so now I am teaching English at Kozmoz Café in Momoyama. I have been doing it for a few weeks now and am greatly enjoying it. I am able to engage with Japanese people of all ages. I have the pleasure of teaching classes to adults as well as children. It is amazing to see how dedicated Japanese students are to their studies. As part of the adult’s lesson plan, they must keep a weekly diary and write about one event that occurred. Many of the adult students write pages of information so the teachers can correct them! Watching how hard Japanese students study has given me motivation to work harder at my Japanese studies.
Aside from having the pleasure of meeting Japanese people, as a teacher, my Japanese is constantly being reinforced by the lessons. Both children and adult will commonly repeat a question I asked them in English, in Japanese to me to confirm they understand. By doing this I get to hear their Japanese as well as check their understanding. After lessons I am able to speak with Japanese people and practice my Japanese a bit.
Teaching English has helped me feel more comfortable within Japanese society because I am constantly engaging with Japanese people. As a shy person, I have been able to use my classes as a way to engage Japanese people. By finding out what is popular and interesting to them, I am able to talk to more students at Doshisha and can hold more interesting and relatable conversations in Japanese.
Kozmoz Cafe is a non-profit organization and I really enjoying volunteering there. They run food banks as well as teach English classes. They also hold parties and events for their students. If there is ever any interest in volunteering there feel free to email me!

4 thoughts on “Kim Coombes: Teaching English at Kozmoz Cafe

  1. That sounds like a lot of fun! I feel like private English-teaching seems like a big contrast to normal school curriculums, which from what I’ve heard sounds like a lot of rote memorization and very little actual retention and understanding of the language. What’s your favorite part of teaching there?

    • I really enjoyed being able to interact with Japanese people one-on-one. They have to keep a weekly diary as homework and many of the students would write pages each day. I feel like the truly wanted to learn English, and I was grealty impressed by their dedication.

  2. Through Kozmoz were you able to connect with some of the Japanese people you were talking to? Who was the person you enjoyed speaking with the most?

    • I really enjoyed a group of 3 adult students that I work with on Sundays afternoons. The group is composed of a youn man, a young woman and an older man. They are advanced so we are able to have fun conversations!

コメントは停止中です。