I have spent the previous year of my life training to be an art teacher, something I have found thoroughly enjoyable; for this reason it may come as a surprise to hear that I am about to leave the safety of my chosen subject area, and indeed my homeland, to set off, for a year, to teach English in Japan.

Now, there are many possible anxieties which can be attached to a life change of this magnitude; will I be homesick? Will I miss my boyfriend so much that I will be in a constant state of loneliness? Will I feel out of my depth culturally? Will I be killed by an earthquake? Will I miss baked beans and will I have problems with the language? This last one is giving me the most concern; and by language I don't mean Japanese, I mean English.

This week I will board a plane to Narita airport where I will begin my new life as an English teacher. The transition from art to English should not seem too much of a leap, after all I am a native English speaker. How hard can it be to spend a year speaking my own language? If only it were that easy. I have been advised by my new employers to refresh myself on English grammar. The word refresh gives the impression that I should be brushing up on something I have previously looked at. So, my first stumbling block to a new life - I wouldn't know a restrictive relative clause from a non-restrictive relative clause. I always believed that my lack of grammatical knowledge was due to the fact that I moved schools a number of times as a child, and as a result must have simply missed grammar at every stage. However, when speaking to others of my generation I find this is not the case, and that when we were at school grammar was not something given much attention.

In an attempt to redress this sorry state of affairs I have bought myself a book on English grammar. Unfortunately, due to the number of important practical matters that need to be addressed when moving overseas - like how many pairs of shoes to pack and whether they sell hair dye in Japan - I haven't had a moment to look at it. The way I see it I have an eleven and a half hour flight to look forward to, and what else am I to do but learn my own language during that time?

Strangely, the Japanese students I will be teaching will have spent, on average, six years learning the English language, and will probably be more familiar with the theory behind it, ie grammar, than I am. My job is to turn that theory into practice, and help them build their confidence with spoken English. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up teaching me as much about my language as I teach them. We'll see.