Hi everyone! My name is Gerard. I’m from Durham, North Carolina in the USA.
Do you know Duke University? It is a famous school from my hometown. I earned a master’s degree in teaching from there. I was a high school history teacher in Washington, DC before coming to Japan. If you like history, I could talk with you about history for hours. If you don’t, maybe I could convince you to like the stories history provides. I don’t like memorizing names and dates, but I think learning lessons from history is important.
I Came To Japan Over 5 Years Ago. I Thought I Would Stay For About A Year And A Half And Return To Teaching In America. However, I Fell In Love With Japan And Decided I Wanted To Stay Longer. In My First Week Here, I remember being scared to cross the street from the opposite side of the street and I joked with my friends that “I might die in Japan.” Now, I am thinking that I might really die in japan, but, because I could retire here. I truly feel at home here.
I Am Excited To Be At OEC! All The Teachers And Staff Make Me Feel Comfortable. I Am Enjoying All Of The Conversations With The Students. The Days Fly By Because Each Lesson Is Fun To Teach. Often, The Students End Up Teaching Me And I feel like the student. It seems that each conversation is too quickly, but the next students are waiting for their lessons, so we have to stop the conversation. If I have already met you, it was nice meeting you and I enjoyed our conversation . If We Have Not Met, I’M Excited To Meet You.
Either way, I look forward to speaking with you!