I was born and grew up in England, but I have also lived in many other countries, such as Switzerland, America, Australia, Italy and now Japan. I have lived in Kyoto for the last 20 years, and I feel that Japan is my home. When I go abroad and people ask me "Where are you from?", I always say "Japan".
I teach various different courses at Kansai Gaidai, and in all of them I try to make my students more aware of the world outside Japan, and also to think deeply about topics which I think are important.
For example, in a lesson about modern Britain, my students and I talk about the many differences between British education and Japanese education.
In particular, we talk about why there are no juku in Britain, and why British schoolchildren have much more free time than Japanese schoolchildren. In a writing class, my students watch a video about modern farm animals and then write about the question "Is it OK to kill animals so we can eat meat?" In another course called Critical Thinking Skills, my students discuss the question "What is love?", and they talk about different kinds of love, for example, romantic love, love for a
friend, love of animals, love for someone who is suffering, etc.
I also teach seminars about environmental problems and global issues, in which students learn about topics such as global warming, the destruction of forests, the chemicals in our food, overfishing, scientific experiments on animals, poverty, etc. In these seminars, and in all my lessons, I have two main goals, which are (a) that my students learn important information about the modern world (including English), and (b) they think carefully and deeply about important topics which they have not thought about before.