It seems that the post that I put in the questions referring to my willingness to volunteer shows more about my lack of knowledge about volunteering than my abilities. I’ve since learned that just a drop in volunter situation from time to time is not going to help anybody. I worked in Japan for approximately 40 years at my own tutoring facility, the Canadian Language Centre. The children and youth I worked with had, in most cases, parenting issues rather than cognitive issues. Their parents had unreasonable expectations of their children who were pushed to the limit to learn and master more than they could handle. The parents would soon learn, which of their children had the “brains” and all the families’ financial resources and time were devoted to the gifted child to groom them for a place in Japanese society. This begins at an early age and doesn’t stop until they’ve graduated and found a good job. Many of these children became morose, dull and lacked spontaneity. They responded only to requests and commands, and essentially the vigor and spontaneity was scrubbed from them. My school had a large following of students and parents in Kyoto who had heard of my success brought their kids to me as a last resort. They were desperate, and this gave me a great deal of leverage. Parents were sent to the adjoining waiting room and were able to see their child from the back and see me from the front, the student could not see the parent so there were no visual clues to the parents reaction. I developed a friendship with the children, playing games and slowly teasing out the child in the child. Because of this relationship the children wanted to please me and I was being able to slowly introduce English into the equation and we had a good time learning and laughing. In 1996 I began a 2 year program with the University of Victoria’s (Victoria, British Columbia) Child and Youth Care program. I finished this program but did not complete it some years later. I’m looking for a long-term structured volunteer situation. Any pointers? Thanks, John

Try using paragraphs.

You beat me too it, although I would add brevity as well

Does it need to be through a volunteer program? What about approaching an orphanage, or a low income school and offering your services?

Tell them you're interested in a long term position teaching English, explain your teaching approach and see where it leads.