Timothy Baril

Teaching in Japan
Year 2, Month 3
The very next day following the staff meeting, the first year teachers take the first year students aside and speak to them in the gym for another lecture. At the morning meeting with staff, the principal encouraged staff to seek help from each other, and join each other in classrooms [...]

Teaching in Japan
Year 2, Month 3
Difficult Students
My first class is first year students again this week. The class is terrible, worse than before. They are rude, unruly, and completely ignore the teacher. She struggles, looks flustered and red faced, the class is a complete waste of time. No teaching was done at all, and needless [...]

Icon of Hope, Symbol of Difference
By Timothy Baril
Why are we here? Why are we JETs in Japan? You thought it was to teach English? It’s not to teach English. Well, ok, maybe a little bit. But that’s not the most important part of your job. You want to learn English? Here’s a textbook and some [...]

The school I currently teach at is old. Erected prior to WWII in the 1930s or 1940s, it has received very little maintenance in the ensuing years. Little is needed for the massive concrete walls and floors, but the trimmings are falling apart.
Desks, blackboards, shelving, windows, all are original or near original. They’re wooden, [...]

I watched the Korean film Sexy Teacher/Hot For Teacher (Depends on translation) last night. It’s a very silly sexual comedy, but was charming enough. The real star of the show and the reason I spent hours trying to find it, download it, convert it, find subtitles, and watch it: is Kim Sa Rang.
I’m completely enamored [...]