Beginning My Adult ESL Class

On Friday, I had my first adult ESL class. ESL stands for English as a Second Language. I was very nervous because it is one thing teaching children, but a completely different thing teaching adults. All of my students are older than me, ranging from early thirties to sixties. So I wasn't sure exactly how things would go. Everything however went very well. I have 6-7 students in my class, and 4 showed up that day. I started the class by introducing myself and then talking about what I liked to do and had done over the summer break. Then each one of my students did the same. Sometimes it was difficult to understand them, but most of the time I at least got the overall gist of the conversation. By the time, we had finished chatting and telling about ourselves the hour was up and class was finished, and I didn't even start the lesson I was going to teach, accepting and declining invitations. It would have been interesting. In Japan when you are declining an invitation, you don't give a reason for the decline. You can just say "I'm busy" or "I have other plans." It's also rude for the other person to ask why you declined. Whereas in the United Stated, it is the opposite. People expect to be told the reason and it is rude not to give one when declining an invitation. Anyway, I was looking forward to hearing my classes thoughts on this topic. Oh well, I'll just have to wait for next week.