Brian's Japan Adventure

January 25th, 2008

Sometimes Mistakes Can Be Productive…

Today was the first Friday where Marc and I “enforced” the way our schedule was written. He left this morning at 11:30 to teach at 1:30, and I left about an hour later to teach at 2:30.  Somehow, I managed to pick an express train that didn’t stop at the right station, but I realized it in time and changed trains halfway there. Although it was an accident, the portion of my trip on the express train got me there about ten minutes early. Despite what my instructions say, I will use that route from now on.

…And Sometimes They Are Just Mistakes

And sometimes they aren’t. I got to the school and pulled out my worksheets for the wildly successful movie lesson that I used here on Tuesday. I say wildly successful, and I mean it. I’ve never had students so eager to play the game and get the answers right. I didn’t worry about it a bit last night or even have the first thought about not using it today. Until I was halfway through the lesson, that is.  They didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, nor did they even know how to ask me to clarify my instructions. The teacher wasn’t much help; I suspect she didn’t understand me either. Remember: Everyone loved this lesson three days ago in the same school. But those teachers spoke at least a modicum of English, while this one barely scrapes by.

I made the lesson easier by telling them not to worry about what the movie was about or who the star was. It didn’t help. I walked around the room, watching some of them struggle and others play little games with each other. About ten minutes before then end of class, I modified the lesson again. I erased all the stuff I had on the board and wrote, “My favorite movie is _______.” I don’t know if they honestly didn’t understand that, or if they were in shock from the previous lesson, or if they were just “playing dumb” by tht time, but no one could even answer that question. I dragged it out a bit until the bell rang, and told them to think of what their favorite movie is for next time.

Sigh. I really am not sure what to think about this. This is the fourth time I have presented the exact same lesson, and I believe that I have gotten clearer and used better examples each time. There was nothing wrong with my presentation. Granted, this class is younger than the ones on Tuesday, but only by a year. When I walked around the room to try and help them, they seemed to not even understand my questions. OK, I’ll grant that obviously I started out using a lesson that proved to be too hard for them, but come on, they can’t even tell me the names of favorite movies? NONE of them?  What exactly have they learned in this class the rest of the year?

Language Teacher Rant

These kids act like they have never heard English before, and that may very well be the case. Their teacher certainly can’t help them with either speaking or listening.  I’ll continue doing my lessons for 50 minutes a week, but I really just don’t think they are ready for a native-language speaker.

I have to say, I have never been a big fan of having a native speaker teach an introductory course in a language. I have had bad experiences with both Spanish and, more recently, Japanese. Beginner-level language courses should be taught by people that the students can understand and relate to.  Once they have the basics, then bring in the native speakers.  I once signed up for a Spanish class at my university. When I showed up on the first day, the teacher started babbling in English that was so heavily accented that I could only make out every fourth word. Then she said that in the second class, she would speak only Spanish. I don’t know how that worked out because I immediately dropped the class and took Latin instead. I’m sorry, but if I have to know Spanish to learn Spanish, then I’m screwed. There aren’t any native speakers of Latin, and I absolutely swear that’s the reason I chose Latin.  The Latin teacher was from Brooklyn and spoke Latin with a slight gangster accent, but since I’ve seen the Godfather, that was no problem for me.

I survived Japanese language class here, but my feelings on that subject should be well known to my regular readers. I realize that there are situations where you have to use a native-speaker teacher in a beginner class, but that should not, in my opinion, be the first choice.

I haven’t really changed my opinion since that ill-fated Spanish class. Japanese kids learning English should, at least in the beginning, be taught by Japanese people who know English, not foreigners like me. That being said, those Japanese people who are teaching English should be well-practiced in using the language. I’m not saying they have to be fluent on a level with a native, but they should at least be able to understand a native.  I do not feel that the main teacher in today’s class should be teaching an English class, and I think the lack of ability of her students show that.

I have five more weeks of this class, and they are going to be long ones. How is it that the eighth graders can play the movie game and lessons like that, but the seventh grade kids are seemingly not much more advanced than my kindergarten kids? Do I have to pull out the “Shapes and Colors” flashcards for them too?  I suspect the school expects more than that. Yes, it’s frustrating, and yes, I’ll find something far simpler for next time, but it’s still going to bother me until I find something that works. I had the two teachers on Tuesday insanely pleased with my lesson, and now this one was a total flop. I wonder what will be said when the teachers get together and discuss their day?

So there you go. I have just taken my failed lesson and managed to blame the entire Japanese education system for it.

The Evening

OK, that’s enough of that. The ride home was uneventful and I stopped at the carryout for dinner. I got my usual obento, as well as little fried dumpling things that they have on special this month. They are crunchy on the outside and taste a lot like pork eggrolls on the inside. Yum!

The apartment, however, was really cold when I got home. There was frost on the ground this morning, and the heaters were all off while Marc and I were working. Brrrr!  I decided I wanted some coffee, but I emptied the jar last weekend. It was dark and cold, and I wasn’t in the mood to go all the way to Happy Town, so I went to the convenience store on the corner to buy some. They have the same little jar of Nescafe Instant Coffee that they have at Happy Town.  Happy Town sells it for 389Y, while the convenience store had it for 699Y.  You know, I don’t even like instant coffee that much; I’ve been drinking it because it’s a warmer-upper in the apartment. So now I sit here, typing my blog with a cup of hot water and a tea bag beside me. I’m not a big fan of hot tea, but it very popular here, so at least it’s cheap!

The rest of the night I’m going to take it easy and stay warm.  Tomorrow will be library day again.  I am not going to worry overmuch about super-simple lessons; I can find something like that in the books we have at the apartment. My problem with overly-simple lessons is making them fill up an hour. I do need to find something for the two Wednesday classes. I already have a bunch of things that I might use on Tuesday, so I’m not concerned about that. I have this Monday off; N-Sensei’s final exam is the following Monday. So this is a three-day weekend for me. I don’t have any special plans as yet.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Japan, Teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.