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Now you're wondering, who is this guy? The closest thing I can give to an explanation is that I'm Steve, a 29-year
old Canadian English teacher in Japan. One fine day in early 2003 I was staring blankly into the computer screen before
me when Newton's proverbial apple fell from the sky and I felt it split in two as it cracked upon my head. At that
moment a thought came to me. I reckoned, "Hey man, I'm gonna be thirty in two years, and there are way too many tunes
I haven't hummed, too many pagodas I haven't seen and poisonous Japanese fish I haven't eaten." So what's the prudent
thing to do when inspiration hits? Why, quit your job of six years, uproot all your ties to home and move to Japan!
The rest, as the man says, is history.
Now that I've done my shpiel, this is the technical information. I grew up in beautiful British Columbia, on the
west coast of Canada. After graduating from high school in 1992 I kicked about for a bit and tried different jobs in
the hospitality industry. I went to school part time and experimented with business and science courses. Then
two of the most pivotal events of my life occured and changed how I look at life. The first was the death of my father
in 1998. The second was my first backpacking venture across Europe a year later. I found my focus when I came
back to Canada in June of 1999. I enrolled at a new university, changed my major to English, and clinched my degree
in June 2002. I went back to Europe in the fall of that year and came back before Christmas. But the traveller's
bug is an infectious one that I just can't seem to shake, because I left Canada for Japan a few months later.
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| Nishijin Nova |
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| This is the office |
I'm an English teacher for Nova Corporation, the largest language school
in Japan. I teach all the joys of Canadian English, eh? to the many eager Japanese who want to improve their English.
I teach all ages from all walks of life. Some of the more common occupations of the students are businessmen, computer
designers, airline attendants and high school/college students. I work in Nishijin, a college area in Fukuoka.
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Another Day At the Office
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Favourites
These movies rock my world:
Point Break (1991), with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze
Blade (1998), starring Wesley Snipes
And this music really does it for me:
Crystal Method, Linkin Park, Filter, Rammstein, Scooter, Vangelis and DJ Sakin. I'm really into the alternative
rock and techno.
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