To the students of Kaplan

By now most of you are aware that I'll be leaving Kaplan, so I would like to use this final post to reflect on my past two years of teaching here, and to say a few words of thanks.


The other day I ran across the cover letter that I used when I applied to work at Kaplan. It gave me a good laugh. I used the most formal business English I could, because I really wanted the job, and it seemed like Kaplan was such an elite place.


When I came in for my interview -- wow. Omotesando! All that glass and steel architecture... Fashion models walking around everywhere! Was this some kind of urban Valhalla or what? I was nervous, but I got the job, fortunately.


Right away I realized that Kaplan is indeed a different kind of place. You students! You're hard-core.


See, you get the image speech when you sign up: Kaplan is not like any school you've attended before; Kaplan is an elite, no-nonsense institution, with the highest expectations of staff and students, and in fact, the leading blah-blah-blah in the world, etc., etc. (Anyway, that seems to be the jist of it.)


Hearing this, you come to class all pumped up, ready for action and taking no prisoners.


Now, I had just come from that play world called eikaiwa, so my first day at Kaplan was a bit rough.


I will never forget the looks on the students faces in my first-ever Newsweek workshop. It was a mixture of disappointment, disbelief and disgust. Um, excuse me--you're not doing it the right way, a student curtly informed me. Ouch!


Back in eikaiwa-land you could come in unshaven with last night's ramen stains still on your shirt, muddle through the lesson using the wrong chapter of the wrong textbook, and the students would politely gaman till the end. Not so at Kaplan. (Not that I ever did that of course!)


But you know, that's one of the things I love about Kaplan, and which makes it hard to leave. You are serious about why you're here, and you know what you want to get out of it. It's not a hobby for you, but a critical life decision, and you won't put up with teachers who slack off.


More than anyone it has been you, the students, who have kept me on my toes. You have made me care more about raising my level of professionalism as much as possible.


I'm so impressed at the work that you put in to study at Kaplan, to do the homework, prepare the presentations, practice for TPP or ALL, in addition to your already hectic work and life schedules.


I want to say thank you for inspiring me to try as hard as you do. I hope I have given something back to you for your effort. I will really miss you.


Finally, I want to urge you not to lose sight of your goals. You should set two kinds of specific goals: modest ones which you know you can reach, and ambitious ones that you may not think you can. You'll be surprised what you can achieve just by saying aloud or writing down, "My goal is to..." This method has worked well for me and I'm sure it will work for you too.


So I guess that's about it. Best of luck, everyone, and please keep in touch!




▼▽▼▼Markの過去の記事を読む━━━━━━━━━━━
・【How Are Japan and the United States Different?】2008.10.03 (Fri)
・【Two of my favorite Japanese things】2008.11.07 (Fri)
・【Dear Kaplan Students and Staff】2008.11.18 (Tue)

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