GREGG

The thing with this school is that they have a solid core of senior teachers who know the game and get all of the great gigs. They know not to teach X course at X location. When you see the add in the paper, they are trying to fill a position for the course nobody wants. Why is that course so undesirable?

Well, for one, the main school in Jiyugaoaka, has all of the management staff--trainers, head teachers, development, administration and they like to keep an eye on the product they are selling. I was teaching a class and a woman walked by my door window very, very slowly looking in my class. She did it again 5 minutes later, then 10 minutes later again and again and again. I was puzzled. So I signaled to her by shrugging my shoulders. Was she looking for some one? Was she lost? She just kept walking.

I spoke to other teachers about this and they laughed knowingly. " Oh yeah, Ms. Hayashi was making her rounds? She was spying to make sure you were following he GREGG system."

At the time she came by, she must not have been too impressed. I had a high level class and they were keen to just talk. Far be it from me to stop a conversation in a conversation class. This is what I'm paid to do.

A couple weeks later, I got an evaluation and I was rated the worst teacher in the whole school! So much for conversation. I knew at that point that I was going to flip them the bird. Their methodology was horrible--contrary to the idea of conversation, in my opinion.