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At the end of these three years I find myself asking "Where has the time gone?" So much has happened in the last three years that it would be hard to recount everything. Sufficeth to say I've had a wonderful time getting to know my students, have had lots of fun in the classroom and have really enjoyed my life in Japan. Also, thanks to Luna being a Cambridge ESOL centre, and Jim's tireless efforts, I have been able to train as an Oral Examiner for the Cambridge exam suites, and have had a lot of input with regard to professional development.
It is with mixed feelings that I return to my home. On the one hand I will really miss this beautiful country, the fresh air of Matsumoto, and the people I have met here. On the other hand I am really looking forward to seeing my friends and family again and seeing what has changed in my hometown, if anything, since I've been away. I will spend a year back at university studying General Education, and then will continue my career in teaching.
Many thanks to all the Staff at Luna, and to all my students for making my experience of Japan a really special one. Please come and visit me if you ever find yourself in Durban! I would love to see you!
All the best,
Tana
It goes without saying that we are going to miss Tana-sensei an awful lot. It is hard to believe she has been with us for three years already.
ReplyDeleteTana has been very popular with our students since her very first day, and has consistently managed to be bubbly & cheerful come what may. She is always smiling for her students and genuinely delights in their successes. She has never stopped trying to improve herself as a teacher - even last month, when she is starting to pack her things away, she was in Tokyo for two weekends attending a training course. This is a measure of the professional pride Tana takes in her work, and how lucky we have been at Luna to have kept her away from Africa for so long. Not many first time in Japan teachers last that long!
She is a managers' dream: Honest as the day is long, reliable, flexible. Easy to work with and a good communicator, with a sensible head on her shoulders. I have been able to rely on Tana a lot since she joined us in 2007 and have needed to, coinciding as her tenure has done with Yukari and I having two children & naturally being a bit distracted from time to time.
We are going to celebrate Tana's time at Luna with a party downtown on the evening of December 4th. We hope lots of Tana's students, mums & dads, will come along and help us say 'goodbye' properly - she deserves a lot of praise and a massive hug from everyone.
I know Tana will find it hard to 'let go'; deciding to move on to exciting pastures new was not easy for her. I am confident she will not forget us, and that we will hear from her from time to time as she pursues her teaching career. We wish her all the luck in the world with that, and thank her more than words can say for being simply, uniquely, Tana. We will miss you very much.
xxx