The Last Japanese Student

I have not mastered everyday Japanese.

I certainly tried.

I first seriously studied with Tomita-sensei. She was a master teacher who had spent her life teaching English. For decades she ran her own school in Kyoto. When we met, she was in her 80s, and I was her last student. She lived near our home in Hieiraira, so 2 or 3 times I week I would walk up the hill to her home and spend 90 minutes struggling in her small Japanese room.

I am good at a lot of things, but languages have never been one of them.

With Tomita-sensei, I got all the way through a thick textbook, filled notebooks with thousands of words I had learnt, and tried to practice every day.

From the very start, my young children forbad me to speak Japanese. 

My girls would literally put their little hands over the top of my mouth to stop any Japanese sounds coming out. They were embarrassed for me – I made so many mistakes. Their daddy suddenly looked stupid, and they couldn't stand it.

Then I'd go to work, and be surrounded by talented Japanese, most of whom spoke fluent English. It was impossible to build a school by using my poor Japanese skills. I spoke English at work too.

I used to dream about giving my Self an immersion learning experience. At one point, I even planned to go to Sapporo, get an apartment on my own, and give up speaking English for three months. Force my brain to go 10x on Japanese and get over my lack of practice.

But I didn't go to Sapporo.

And the result over three years was only a small improvement.  

You can learn the basics of anything rather quickly, but development comes from practice. Nothing worth gaining comes very quickly.

Development takes commitment. It takes time. It takes practice.

And building your business is the same.

It is often dull, frustrating and lonely. The lonely part is the worst – are you the only one who struggles with your Alexander practice?

It turns out you are not. There are many fans of FM that struggle every day to find the energy and time to do the things they know they should but don't.

You need support, and you need to invest – your time, your money and your love. ATSuccess has helped hundreds of teachers get over that lonely hump. Yes, you have to invest – I don't do cheap – but the result is renewed energy and interest in making a success of your practice.

After a two year hiatus, ATSuccess Foundations is back with an extensive online program, and personal support from me in the form of monthly coaching sessions. You get 3 to get you started, then decide after that what you want to do.

You can read more about it and book here – the next coaching session is coming up soon!

https://atsuccess.com/foundations