All of you use pretty good English. Well if you were a native speakers, of course. But if not, where did you learn it? And what was the most effective ways to learn? And what made you decide to study English or going abroad in the first place?? What are/were your motivations? How old were you when you started learning English?
Wonderful attitude!! I wish more English speakers had your motivation!! Yesterday I went to an English camp for a highly rated private High School here in Matsuyama (Saibi) and gave a magic show, spoke about いじめる, made balloon animals and had some lessons where the students participated. During lunch on three separate occasions, a different student came up to me and expressed how they would continue studying and work hard on their English. It gave me a very warm feeling and I feel that my contribution to that English camp was a success!! I hope you will all have your own reasons for continuing to study English and never give up!
Occasionally, I have students who want to cram for an exam. I just say NO!! hahaha I hate teaching in that style. My idea of teaching is to provide an enviornment where the students will learn the use of the language for a purpose rather than a test. Please stick to your guns (keep your ideas), don`t give in to the pressures of the schools to teach for tests. My feeling about that is that after the test, they forget most of what is being taught, so why teach it in the first place? Useful conversational English is my way of teaching.