Brian's Japan Adventure

January 26th, 2007

Routine

 McBreakfasr
Library
Home to drop off PC
Happy Town
McDonalds II
Home Again
Listened to Audiobooks all evening

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.

January 24th, 2008

A Saturday Two Days Early

I slept a little late today. No special reason, but it was my first Thursday off and I decided to take advantage of it. Eventually, I decided that I’d have to get out of bed sooner or later, and looked at the clock. It was only an hour later than usual. So I got up, got dressed, and pretended it was a Saturday; in other words, Library Day!

It was too late for McBreakfast, so I had McLunch instead. I was planning on spending a good bit of time on the Internet today, so I figured I should eat something first. Then it was off to the library, which was unusually quiet. I assume that’s due to a combination of it being a weekday, alongside the fact that both major universities in town are doing exams this week (and next).

Aloha II

I did a bit of research on Hawaii. I can get a cheap student-discount flight, but it might mean going all the way to San Francisco and doubling back to Hawaii. Get this: Going to SF and then Hawaii is almost $100 CHEAPER than a direct flight. I’ll never understand airports!  I found a cheap, but well-reviewed hotel near both the ocean and the airport, and then did some research on the surrounding area. I still am not convinced that I should shell out that kind of money for a week vacation, but if I do, I am convinced it would be a well-planned and fun trip.  Making decisions has always been my biggest weakness.

I downloaded umpteen gazillion more pod casts and did some research for my business idea, with some good and bad answers. Information is good, even if it’s not what you want to hear.

A Wonderful Trade or Just a Quick Switch?

I didn’t mention in yesterday’s blog that when I returned home last night, I found a new TV in the living room. Marc wasn’t home, so I had no explanation as to why.  I’d like to think maybe the ancient Japanese Gods took Marc away and left me a new TV set in exchange. That’d be a good deal for me!  More than likely, however, the old TV died, and he called Y-San and she had someone exchange it. If that is what happened, it was darned fast service. It worked reasonably well Tuesday night, but it had been acting up since… well, always.  Still no cable though. Sigh.  My understanding is that with cable TV, you can turn on English subtitles on most channels. NOW they tell me this.

Candy From The Survivors!

Actually Marc must still be walking the Earth because on the living room table this afternoon, there was a box from home.  Normally, Y-San phones me when I get a box, but not today. Marc must have stopped by the office (about the TV) and carried the box down.

This box was from Aunt K and Uncle J. Ahhh… Errrrm… Now that I do the math, I guess I don’t have to specify which aunt & uncle sent it. As far as I can remember, they are the only ones left. You know you’re getting old when you have to take inventory to see which relatives are dead now and which ones aren’t.  Well, anyway, I do seem to have one surviving pair of aunt and uncle, and they sent me a box. Inside the box was a bunch of hard candy. There were multiple bags of “Claeys Candies Since 1919” to be precise. Lessee, there was Wild Cherry, Sassafras, Root Beer, Lemon Drop, Watermelon, and Peppermint. I almost always have some kind of Japanese lemon drop candies on my desk next to the computer here, so now I can have some variety. Inside was also a note about how much they like reading the blog. (Thanks guys!)

Let’s see now… I guess my next step is to just ask all my readers to mail me some candy.  We’ll have some kind of high-calorie pledge-drive.

January 23rd, 2008

Full-Schedule Wednesday Again

It was drizzling this morning on the way to the train station. Not so much as to get me soaked on the ride there, but enough to be bot cold and annoying. I took the earlier Shinkansen, so I arrived in Hiroshima about 20 minutes early. I picked up an egg-salad sandwich and some kind of sugar-bread thing that I won’t quite call a donut. At least now that I know about the earlier train I have some opportunity go eat breakfast and not have to run to make the kindergarten in time.

We continued singing the ABC song and we practiced raising arms and legs. I’m not quite sure where to go next on the route to playing Simon Says. I thought today would be a good day to shake things up at the kindergarten a bit. I brought along two packs of the fash cards that my parents sent me way way back in October I think. The cards were sets of Colors and Shapes as well as the Alphabet. They sent two other sets of cards that aren’t gong to be useful, but these two always looked promising, and their time has come.

Wow!

The kids already know their ABC; even the three-year-olds. I find that pretty amazing. In America, not all three year olds know the ABCs. Here, not only do they know them, but I did the flashcards in mixed-up order and they still knew them. Keep in mind, that the ABCs are a foreign language here; how many three-year-old Americans know the Japanese alphabet? Or Arabic? Or Russian? Not very darn many, that’s for sure.

The youngest kids had a little more trouble with the shapes. I had taught them about circles, squares, rectangles and triangles, but today was their first experience with ovals and stars. I’ll save the colors for next week, but I know they already know most of them. Now I wish I had tried them earlier in the year, maybe I could have done more with the alphabet cards.

I stopped in the office on the way out and remembered to pick up my train fare reimbursement from last week. The lady who handles those things was back this week, and as always, she’s on the ball.

Then it was off to the Culture Center. I picked up another donut at the convenience store on the corner near the center. Then I went up to the room and got settled in. I made copies of a news article about the death of Bobby Fischer. I figured that would be a good one for discussion since it leads into chess, the Cold War, insanity, politics, and who knows what else the students would have come up with. We never actually got to the article however. We all talked about what we did over the break for basically the entire two hours class. It was fun, but I’m sure it was a one-time thing; back to business next time.

One student went to Libya for vacation. Libya of all places! She also has gone to Croatia, Pakistan, and Greece in the past. I wonder if she’s a terrorist in training? I doubt it, but those are some pretty odd vacation sites. One the students in the later class is going to London and Paris next week, and another will be going to Hong Kong in March. These folks sure do travel a lot!

I Have New Readers.

One student asked if I was going to go to Hawaii when I was finished here. I was shocked, since the idea had only just come up this past weekend. Was that a regular practice of the teachers here on their way home? No. It turns out that some of them have been reading my blog! One of the students even printed out a few pages for another whose computer is broken. Another brought me a printout and asked me what “Col” meant (see January 20th for the uncorrected source). It was supposed to be “cold” but I didn’t type the D. Now they are correcting MY spelling. AUGH! I hope I’ve only said good things about all of them here. I mentioned the blog to one of them a week or two before the break, and now it’s common knowledge. By the end of class I had written the URL on the board for all of them. I always tell them to practice reading English…I’m just not sure if MY English is good enough for them. At least it’s authentic!

One student mentioned podcasts, and that she was starting to learn Spanish from one of them. I pulled out my Palm and let her hear the “Coffee Break Spanish” podcast. I just happened to have the one with me; it’s the one with the Scottish-accent teachers. It was the same one! I thought that was pretty neat. She’s learning English, and then using that English to learn Spanish. Wow! Not only that, but a Japanese woman and American man are both learning to speak Spanish from a group of people in Scotland. What can I say other than that is just plain NEAT!

Otis And Me

Then it was break time. I mentioned a while back that I wanted to try the Mexican Restaurant in Hiroshima. Supposedly, it’s the ONLY one, and I have no reason to doubt that. I found the place easily enough, but it was deserted. I walked in and the guy behind the counter told me in English that they would be closing at 4:00 so a live band could set up for the evening. It was 3:25. I ordered and ate in a hurry. I ordered chicken and bean nachos and a Mexican pizza. Both arrived burnt. I suspect they turned the heat up too high in order to get it cooked faster. I was not too impressed. I saw a bug run across the table while I was eating as well, and that’s not a good thing. I might have been willing to give the food at Otis’ another try, but bugs are bugs and I am just finicky about that.

Then it was back to the center for the old folks class. I hope they never read the website, because they probably wouldn’t appreciate being called the old folks all the time. There were only three students when the class started, and a fourth arrived about an hour late. I don’t know where the others were, but they’ll probably catch up with the rest next week. We talked what we did over the break, and did a little activity about life 50 years ago and now, what things are better and what things are worse. They liked that, and did a good bit of arguing about whether things are better or not.

Then it was home on the Shinkansen and probably soon to bed.

Tomorrow is a day off, and I will probably go to the library. For my Friday class, I am going to do exactly what I did on Tuesday, so I don’t have to prepare anything for them. It would be nice if I could find some materials to use in next week’s classes early so I wont have to worry about it over the weekend.

January 22nd, 2008

Called To The Principal’s Office

I was eager to go to school today; the heater in my room was acting up, so I wanted to ride the train to get warm. Well, OK, it wasn’t quite that bad, but the heater seems to be crashing on me more and more often. I am going to have to say something soon.

I arrived at the train station at the usual time and got off in Fukuyama on time. I walked up the mountain to the school.  This really isn’t a mountain; it’s more like a big hill. I usually stop and sit on a particular wall about halfway up for a break, but I really don’t have to rest. Today, there were a bunch of people out in the road, so I didn’t stop. I just went right on up to the top and into the school. This non-break meant I arrived in the office about 10 minutes earlier than usual. I stopped in the office and picked up my replacement train tickets, and then walked to the other building where the teacher’s lounge is. I noticed the assistant principal heading out to the street. I assumed he was looking for me and waved to get his attention, but he turned the corner before he saw me. He eventually caught up with me in the teachers room, but I think he believed I was later than usual rather than early. It doesn’t really matter since it was still well before class time.

The “main” principal called me into his office.  He doesn’t speak a word of English, so he had one of “my” teachers there to help him. He asked me if I had already eaten lunch, and I told him no, but there wasn’t time to do anything about that because I had class in ten minutes. He offered me coffee and a little plate of something like jelly marshmallows. They weren’t bad, but he did insist that eat them all. I don’t really think he wanted anything other than to welcome me to their school. He was in the initial meeting I had before Christmas, but I haven’t seen him since. It turns out he was in the hospital and just came back to work.  It was time to go, so I thanked him in Japanese and got to work. He wants me to come in an hour early next Tuesday for lunch. Oh yay.

The most annoying thing about this school is the slippers. You have to take your shoes off and put on slippers at the door. That’s not unusual, and many of my assignments are the same. The problem here is that this is not one building but a campus, and there is a lot of running out of one building and into another. With my coat in one hand and my briefcase in the other, it’s hard to change shoes.  It’s especially bad when the teacher accompanying you gives you that “impatient look.”

My Movie Lesson Gets a “Thumbs Up”

Class starts, and I begin by explaining “Movie Terms” like Actor/Actress, Plot, Climax, Category, and Setting. There were six or seven new terms, nothing excessive. I then wrote the questions on the board that I described yesterday, and filled it in with information about several popular movies.  They guessed “Star Wars” and “The Terminator,” but I don’t think any of them had ever heard of “The Wizard of Oz.”  Has that movie finally lost popularity with children, or is it just a Japanese thing?

I then handed out a sheet with a similar form for them to fill out with three movies of their choosing. I broke the class into two teams, and told them they had to work on their own movies, but they could talk and work together to describe their movies. I gave them about 15 minutes to work, but they could have used more time.  Some of them struggled, but most smiled as they filled in the blanks. I think this activity was just about at exactly the level I needed it to be.

With about ten or twelve minutes left in the class, I had them take their seats again, but still in their teams. I had one volunteer come to the front of the room and read their movie description. Then the other team had to guess what movie they were talking about. If the other team guessed, they got a point. If they couldn’t guess then the volunteer’s team got a point.  The first person reading their movie description in each class was nervous, but after the first one was over and the others saw how it went, they were jumping up and down and racing each other to the front of the room to try to stump their classmates.  I haven’t seen so much excitement outside of the kindergarten since I arrived here. This lesson was a major hit!

Naturally, I repeated the same thing for all three classes. The teachers said it was fantastic, and they seemed as shocked at the students’ excitement as I was.   They said I should do something similar next week too. Hmm. I wonder how I will work that?  I did tell them I would come up with something revolving around movies again, since it seems to be a good “common ground” starting point for all of us.  Beyond, that… I’ll have to think hard to come up with something to beat this one.

Oh Drizzle!

Then it was time to go, and the assistant principal caught up with me again, and insisted on driving me to the station. It was freezing and raining outside, so I didn’t even begin to protest. I thanked him profusely at the station and rode home on the train, listening to more podcasts all the way. Once reaching Okayama, I had to wait a half hour for the train to Hokaiin, and it was soooooo cold tonight! Reaching Hokaiin, I picked up my bicycle and rode in the rain to the Carryout and ordered a few small items and then hurried home. The rain wasn’t much more than a sprinkle, but it was cold enough that it wasn’t any fun. I arrived home just in time to eat and watch the last fifteen minutes of the Japanese language version of Doctor Who on the TV.

Use It Or Lose It

And then I had some homework of my own to do.  With my Hiroshima adult classes, I have a sort of ongoing assignment with them.  They write a page or so of a letter or diary to me, and I write a letter back in response. I don’t correct their mistakes or comment on their grammar at all, I simply write them back a letter responding to what they wrote.  I originally gave all my classes the option to do this, but only the early class on Wednesday actually took advantage of my offer, and not even all of them do it, but several do, and they seem to enjoy it.  One of them wrote about visiting a mountain, and I responded with a (brief version) of my own mountain climbing story. Another went fishing at night with his father, so I asked him why they do it at night.  And so forth.

I don’t care terribly much whether their grammar is perfect or not, I just want to give them more practice and experience actually using their English. That seems to be the main thing in Japan. Most students get at least some English in school, but they forget all of it simply by not having the opportunity to actually use it. A foreign language really is a “use it or lose it” kind of thing.

And that’s about it. It’s now 9:00 and I have no special plans to do much of anything else tonight. Maybe I’ll read or listen to some kind of audio book or podcast or something. I could just go to bed early for once…nah!