Comments on: Demotivational work http://www.lo-la.co.uk/2007/10/19/demotivational-work/ Laurent Fintoni's online portfolio and blog... music, travels, life Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:00:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Laurent http://www.lo-la.co.uk/2007/10/19/demotivational-work/comment-page-1/#comment-2960 Laurent Sat, 27 Oct 2007 10:40:47 +0000 http://www.lo-la.co.uk/2007/10/19/demotivational-work/#comment-2960 ha ha nice allegory. yeah I can't say I've really played the game of going by whatever clear motivation they may have, apart from maybe one odd lesson or two where someone's come in saying they specifically wanted to study something for an exam the next week (which has happened more often than I ever thought possible actually). I think to me the real kicker has been ten months on the simple realisation that a lot of people are just hobbyists or whatever else, but not learners. And as you've said, it can do weird things to your own thinking about why you're here or doing this. You're right though about Japan being the kinda place that can keep on motivating you. As much as things like kanji and all the rest drive me mad at times, I've never felt more inspired in my life than since being here, and no matter the ups and downs, the inspiration is always there. Europe's nice, but it's just not the same. I do miss some of the cooking though, quite a lot. ha ha. ha ha nice allegory. yeah I can’t say I’ve really played the game of going by whatever clear motivation they may have, apart from maybe one odd lesson or two where someone’s come in saying they specifically wanted to study something for an exam the next week (which has happened more often than I ever thought possible actually).
I think to me the real kicker has been ten months on the simple realisation that a lot of people are just hobbyists or whatever else, but not learners. And as you’ve said, it can do weird things to your own thinking about why you’re here or doing this.

You’re right though about Japan being the kinda place that can keep on motivating you. As much as things like kanji and all the rest drive me mad at times, I’ve never felt more inspired in my life than since being here, and no matter the ups and downs, the inspiration is always there. Europe’s nice, but it’s just not the same. I do miss some of the cooking though, quite a lot. ha ha.

]]> By: Alex Case http://www.lo-la.co.uk/2007/10/19/demotivational-work/comment-page-1/#comment-2956 Alex Case Sat, 27 Oct 2007 08:54:53 +0000 http://www.lo-la.co.uk/2007/10/19/demotivational-work/#comment-2956 According to your latest post, you seem to have found your own solution... The most confusing thing for me for a long time was that Japanese people having that skill of magically knowing what you want to hear (how do they do that??), if you are the kind of teacher who needs to know what your students' motivation for studying is so you can plan the course, they give you a clear motivation (Going to Thailand on holiday, might have to use English in my work) and off you go. Only later, sometimes much later, do you realise that by drilling them on the language you think they need rather than letting them chat about their kids you have been doing the teaching equivalent of wearing a stupid pair of trousers for weeks because everyone has been too polite and told you they look nice... But hey, kanji is a stupid way of writing a language too, but at least kanji and Japanese motivation are going to keep on challenging me for at least the next 4 years too. After 2 years in Spain there was nothing left to learn about teaching motivated university students FCE, no more colourful Spanish swearwords to learn and no more different types of ham, so off I went According to your latest post, you seem to have found your own solution…

The most confusing thing for me for a long time was that Japanese people having that skill of magically knowing what you want to hear (how do they do that??), if you are the kind of teacher who needs to know what your students’ motivation for studying is so you can plan the course, they give you a clear motivation (Going to Thailand on holiday, might have to use English in my work) and off you go. Only later, sometimes much later, do you realise that by drilling them on the language you think they need rather than letting them chat about their kids you have been doing the teaching equivalent of wearing a stupid pair of trousers for weeks because everyone has been too polite and told you they look nice…

But hey, kanji is a stupid way of writing a language too, but at least kanji and Japanese motivation are going to keep on challenging me for at least the next 4 years too. After 2 years in Spain there was nothing left to learn about teaching motivated university students FCE, no more colourful Spanish swearwords to learn and no more different types of ham, so off I went

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