I started my first piano lesson in a private teacher’s house just 3 minutes by car away from mine. Surprising how there are private piano teachers here in my rural and small town? This goes to show that there is always something new to discover in any place, and about anything. It started when I was playing on the piano, and I mean just ‘playing’ and having fun with my students during the school festival. Some students started to teach me a popular and simple children’s tune. I was amazed how almost every student could play this tune though not all of them have piano knowledge. The tune requires the use of many fingers at a time too.
An idea came to me that maybe I should start taking piano classes during my time here in Iwate. After all, I have heard of students and even the music teacher in my school taking piano lessons privately, though in the bigger town next door. I decided to just find out from local friends if they know of piano teachers in Sumita. If there aren’t, I will perish the thought coz its just not worth it to drive 30 minutes to the next town for piano lessons. To my surprise, there is one teacher living so near me. I only asked my friend to check out the teacher’s name and telephone number but the teacher actually wanted to meet me. I haven’t even decided if I want to start lessons but the teacher and my friend were really keen and encouraging. Thus I finally did what I had procrastinated for more than eight years now.
Today another thought came that I should maybe try taking the TOEFL here in Japan, just for the fun of it. The idea was first boosted from a good friend, ML, who is using all her free time to study for her GRE to get into graduate school. I briefly asked her about it as I was interested in taking it back in Singapore then. But I thought I can always take it when I go back home since there is a test centre in Singapore too and its probably more convenient. Then today, my three English teachers were discussing about their own 英検 and TOEIC coz they just received some students’ scores for英検. The teachers started comparing their own grades and a thought came to mind that I should take my own TOEFL too! This is like the piano lesson, something I can probably pick up easily back home but would procrastinate till the end, coz of the lack of time due to various work and social commitments and TV.
It makes me very pleased just to discover how living here and having a job more relaxed than one back home gives me a lot of motivation to indulge in these self-improvement activities, as J calls them. It’s like the perfect lifestyle, to be able to make a living and at the same time to be able to indulge in enriching myself all the time.
I don’t know the difference between TOEIC and TOEFL but I will find out soon, after this blog is done. American universities do not exempt Singaporeans from taking TOEFL but it doesn’t matter, coz it would be exciting to know how I would fare. Heck, if I am going to fail the JLPT, at least I should aim for flying colours for the TOEFL!
