Completed the professional communication skills course!

The professional communication skills course that I had been taking for the last 12 weeks finished last Tuesday.  I enjoyed it very much and got a lot out of it.

The course was valuable in many levels; it has provided great opportunities for me to learn and practice fundamental communication skills, which help me to not only survive, but also thrive in day-to-day personal and professional life.  

The course trainer and team mentors' sincere support throughout the course was also very encouraging.  It allowed me to develop my potential talents into new strengths, as well as identify and work with my weaknesses.  In the professional yet relaxing environment, everyone seemed to willingly try something that they have never done before, and the results are incredible. 

Working in a team also enabled me to feel to be an integral part of the course.  Weekly reports were great ways to share each other's stories about how we implemented what we learned in the course outside, and reflect upon this from other people's points of view.  In fact, it worked as a good warming up exercise, since it let me to comfortably challenge to change before actually standing up and talking in front of other people. 

Finally, my greatest debt of gratitude must go to my husband who took this course 20 years ago and supported me to appreciate the value of its outcomes...thank you!

Rewarding moment

Today I had a fantastic day teaching my Contemporary Japan students.  The discussion went particularly well this week; it was energetic, interactive and fairly critical. 

The key point of the session was to question the definition of the term 'freeter' to see how a particular social classification in general can change from one context to another (e.g. Japan vs Australia).  

While navigating through the key themes, I threw in few questions to let them to consider the term's fluidity and arbitrariness; Could 'freeters' exist in Australia? How would social stigma attached to the term/classification be re-configured in a different cultural/historical/national context? 

With their willingness to participate in the discussion, I was able to give every single student a chance to talk about their thoughts and stories about the topic during the class.  The open-discussion that I facilitated enabled them to share different points of view about issues, such as working conditions, life styles and definitions of happiness, while also letting them to evaluate other people's opinions about those issues. 

The greatest moment was when the time was up but then there were still some students who were raising their hands to say something that has yet to be said.  The conversation continued and different points of view were added.  That was indeed a rewarding moment that I embraced and want to remember as an educator.