@Somebody

Thanks, I appreciate your suggestions.... unfortunately, where I am and what I'm doing just don't allow for them. I live in a very rural area... the closest university that offers any college-level courses in English is in Tokyo (about $150 or 6 hours one way), and they don't offer any online courses. I would love an intensive immersion course... of course, you could argue that's my whole life. Outside of school, I'm doing nothing BUT hearing Japanese, needing to speak Japanese. (There is the occassional cab driver who wants to sharpen his English skills.) The only improvement I could do over my tutor are language-exchange classes, 3 hours, on Sundays, in my capital city once a week (about an hour train ride away.)

I do like the "I know you are but what am I"... unfortunately, my Japanese just can't keep up to theirs. When I attempt a response, they either just laugh at my Japanese, or throw faster, more grammatically advanced Japanese at me that I can't understand, leaving me the moron holding the plate. I've tried responding in snappy English... but of course they don't understand what I'M saying, so it's easily ignored. The best defense I've found is just to always be within ear shot of other teachers.... though they're not always a great help themselves... (When a student asked a fellow JET if she was a virgin and enjoyed "playing sex," the Japanese teacher just stood there and laughed at how embarrassed the JET got.)

I don't mean these to sound like excuses. I'm just thinking out loud, and I really appreciate the input. I'll definitely try out the pamphlet idea.