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"He Taught me to Play Golf!"
My weirdest teaching experience
ever
by
Clyde
Haumann
Editor’s Note: Private students can not
only augment one’s teacher earnings, they also can give a teacher great
satisfaction when they work hard and learn. In fact, some teachers make so much
money teaching well-to-do private students to use our language fluently, that
they are never to be found in a school of any type! Then, again, there are students like
Clyde Haumann's Mr. Yamamoto, who can make you
think twice about earning money in this enticing
way....
I have been teaching English as a foreign and second language for
a very long time, and have taught in schools of all types, and classes of
all types and levels to both children and adults, and certainly have taught
my share of private students, from pre-school age children to company
directors.
Priding myself on my ability to get good English language
teaching results, I would have to say that the weirdest teaching experience
I probably ever had was when I taught the managing director of a large
Japanese company years ago.
Mr. Yamamoto was (it seemed at the time) an “elderly” gentleman
of about 55, who spoke absolutely no English at all. As to why he suddenly
had decided to learn English I was not able to discover, because he certainly never put much
effort into learning it when I taught him, try as I might to gain his
interest.
The study agreement was that I had to teach him two hours a week
every Sunday morning at his home on Silom
Road in
Bangkok. Mr. Yamamoto, fully
understanding the traffic situation in
Bangkok, was kind enough to send
his driver to pick me up at home every Sunday morning at nine o’clock sharp.
The first couple of classes went as one might expect when a
somewhat older gentleman engages himself in learning a foreign language for
the first time ever. In
teaching him, I very soon learned that Mr. Yamamoto’s one great passion in
life was golf. It was the only thing he ever wanted to talk about,
and one day he suggested that we should move the classes to the driving range
course where we could play golf and practice English at the same
time.
At first, I told him that I didn’t think that would be a good
idea, but he insisted. Well, since he was paying me handsomely for the English
course, he was the boss, and when he told me he would tip me another one
thousand baht every week for doing this, I’m afraid I didn’t hesitate to agree!
It was actually great fun, for both of us, I daresay. I would speak to him in English
and he would answer me in Japanese, and neither one of us could understand a
word of what the other was saying!
I never did find out why he had ever signed up for an English
course in the first place, and need I say that when his forty-hour course was up
and he signed up for another sixty hours, I must have looked like one giant
question mark!
It was certainly not one of my most successful
English classes, nor one I was very proud of – because Mr. Yamamoto never did learn to
speak English (or, if he did, it was a closely-guarded secret unknown to
me), but I myself learned some golf and increased my income.
We became great friends and
I still receive birthday and Christmas cards from him every year.
ENROLL NOW!
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