English vs Japanese

So the home economics teacher speaks practically perfect English, but she’s too shy to talk (I think. Maybe I smell bad… hmmmm). So of course I have to learn my Japanese quickly so that I can talk to her in broken Japanese, lest she wear out her fantastic English. :D Life in Japan is always interesting. But then I did just recently (yesterday) buy my Japanese – English dictionary, and my “Learning the Kanji” book. Sarah recommended the latter, and her Japanese reading is superb (but then a few years at university might have helped it along as well!). So hopefully I’ll be fully fluent in a day or two. :P
I also have an English teacher who I never have class with, and I actually don’t know what level English he has, as I never get much more than “Could you please mark these papers for me?” and “Thank you.” My Kyoto sensei’s English is future tense. As in he may be speaking English some time in the future… But he gives out tasty cookies, so that’s ok.