What I Learned from Working at the L-café

Abstract

In this narrative, a teacher working in a social language learning space recounts the impact this experience has had on his professional and personal life. He discusses the various types of interactions he had in the L-café: mandatory shifts for English conversation with Japanese students, sending his conversation class students there to practice, attending sessions in Japanese in which he assumed the role of language learner, interviewing international exchange students about their Japanese language learning and also socializing with a mixed group of native speakers and confident Japanese L-café regulars. He then talks about, as a result of these interactions, how his conversation class students are now learning to become more active conversation partners, and he is boosting his own second language learning.