2006 November 14 Tuesday.
There was no snow or ice on the roads today, so it made my drive over to Asahikawa University this morning a pleasure. When I arrived on campus at about 10:30, I had some copies made in the office, and then I went up to Professor Sugawa's office on the 5th floor. However, again today, just like last week, the lights were out and nobody was home. Hmmmm, I wonder if everything is alright with the good professor. Last week, I went back up to his office after my class was finished at about 12:10, and the lights were still out and still, nobody was at home. However, today when my class was finished at the same time of about 12:10, Professor Sugawa was waiting for me outside of my classroom on the 3rd floor. He told me, that there was a 4th year student in his office who wanted to talk to me about taking English Conversation Lessons at my classroom, Snowman Bei Kaiwa. When I got to the professor's office, I recognized the face of the student. He had been in my English class about 3 years ago when he was a freshman at Asahikawa University. The student told me about the fact of, his going to Vancouver Canada in a few months, for a working/holiday visit of about 2 months or so. He will be working as a licensed ski instructor during that time. He told me that professor Sugawa had recommend me and my classroom to him, and that he had enjoyed my English class, when he was a freshman at this university, so he has decided to attend my classroom, and brush up on his English conversation skills, before his departure to Canada. I was very glad to hear this because I pride myself on being able to help the Japanese people, whom I meet and talk to everyday, MOSTLY in THEIR native tongue, to improve their level of spoken English in an interesting and enjoyable manner. The student said that he would drop by my classroom today at about 17:00 to decide upon which days and which times he would be able to start his lessons. I told him that I would be looking forward to meeting him again today at my classroom, but that I would be teaching a lesson at that time, so he should make the necessary arrangements with my office manager, Ikuko. Sure enough, at exactly 17:00, he came to my classroom and decided to take lessons twice a week. Once on Mondays and then again on Wednesdays. He expressed his desire to take a private lesson every time, but when he saw the price, he thought about it twice. Fortunately for him, I have the policy at my classroom where a student can take a private lesson during the group lessons time-frame, 15:00 - 20:00, for the price of a group lesson, but only if that student is the only student in that lesson time slot. Many students throughout the years have benefited from this generous policy of my classroom. My pricing system is very simple. I sell lesson tickets. If a student wants to take a group lesson, all they have to do is make an appointment, and give me one lesson ticket at the start of their lesson. If they want to take a private lesson, they can do so at almost anytime that I am available, and they must pay cash each time they take a private lesson. This simple-minded system, makes the accounting work for my office manager, Ikuko, very simple and straight forward. It also makes my teaching life very relaxed, as well. Don't have a lesson ticket? Buy more. You don't need to pay a whopping 350,000 yen to get started at my school. About 15,000 yen will get you in the door, and started on your new adventure. How you want to proceed from there is your decision. Continue the lessons, or not. Nobody ever needs to take out a loan to get started at my school. The very big and well known Eikaiwa Chain Schools in Japan, have a very different system. They also do a hell of a lot of advertising on radio, TV, newspapers and magazines. They have even gone so far as to paint, entire city buses with their company logos, and use the buses as traveling signboards. Think about this for a minute. If these big chain schools are so damn good, then why do they need to spend huge sums of money on this constant advertising? Wait a minute! Coca Cola does the same thing! Is there anybody out there who has never heard of Coca Cola? Nobody? I thought so! But, what is Coca Cola really selling? They are selling a beverage that is made from; sugar, carbonated water 炭酸飲料 and a brown syrup that was made according to a secret recipe. Is this beverage 飲み物 good for you? Is it healthy? Do you get any REAL BENEFIT from it? Only if you BELIEVE that you do. And what you believed about Coca Cola depends a lot upon what you have heard about the beverage. And most of the stuff you have heard about Coca Cola is what the company itself, the company which makes the beverage has told you about it, THROUGH THEIR ADVERTISING. It's so simple, it's beautiful, isn't it. Can't decide what to buy while standing in front of a vending machine 自動販売機 for beverages? Buy COKE! It's the real thing! The real thing of your imagination.
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