I felt like drawing something of my own:
 |
| "Not the face!! Anything but the face!!" |
Anyways, back to work. See you next time!
Monday, September 10, 2012
Playing with our Food
I was eating lunch with some of my first year students, they started drawing on their bread with their iron-infused chocolate paste spread. It was so cute I couldn't help but take a picture.
I felt like drawing something of my own:
I felt like drawing something of my own:
Basketball with the Students
Hello again everyone!
After my first full week of teaching classes at my base school, Higashi Middle School, all of the students now know me. I took this as my cue to start participating in after school activities with the kids. What this means is that I wandered my way over to the gym after classes ended on Friday.
There, I found a few of the boys casually shooting hoops. They saw me and excitedly greeted me, so I headed over and picked up a ball. Those of you who've known me for a while know that I'm pretty terrible at basketball. After an uncountable number of failed dribbles, rim shots, and even more air balls, those few boys understood how bad I was.
Apparently, those few boys were just the early birds, as the gym began to fill up with more people. More and more students came in to play basketball, and the girls group showed up also. The gym was split in half as the volleyball club came in also. After a while, the gym was filled with more than 40 kids.
At this point, I already had enough warm up time to get reacquainted with basketball, as I had not played in months to maybe years. I managed to get a few lucky shots and mostly avoided missing the rim altogether. I was still shooting with the boys, when one of the math teachers walked in. I made a few impressive but lucky shots, and she walked away saying "sugoi!" (which means "amazing!" for those who don't speak Japanese) before I started missing all my shots again. Note to self: prove to her that I'm actually not good at basketball.
After I was bored shooting with the boys (who don't bother speaking English and weren't impressed), I headed over to the girls' side to see what was going on. A group of 4-5 girls was loitering around the 3 point line, so I joined them and started chatting a little bit. One of the girls took a rather wild 3-point shot, but it when in. I shouted, "sugoi!"
One of the other girls told me it was my turn, and I warned them that I suck at basketball. They said to just try anyways, so I took a shot from the same spot. It went it, and they made a ruckus. I told them it was just luck, so they told me to shoot again. So, I shrugged and did. It went it again. They made an even bigger ruckus. I turned to them and insisted that it really just was a coincidence. They were skeptical, and told me to take another shot. I assured them it would miss this time and took the shot. It went in again. At this point, the previous two ruckuses (rucki?) turned the attention of the entire basketball half of the gym to me, so the crowd went up in a frenzy. Trying to convince them of my lack of ability wouldn't have done me a single favor at this point, so I just collapsed onto the ground with my face in my hands. As I crawled back up speechlessly, they told me to take one more shot. Exasperated, I did, and it finally missed. Unfortunately, it only missed by a hair, so the girls yelled "oshii!!" (which means "so close!!"). I told them, "I'm done here. I'm going home," and left the gym.
Now, I have an entire army of basketball girls, who knows how many volleyball kids, and one teacher who think I'm amazing at basketball, but I'm just too humble to admit it. God help me...
After my first full week of teaching classes at my base school, Higashi Middle School, all of the students now know me. I took this as my cue to start participating in after school activities with the kids. What this means is that I wandered my way over to the gym after classes ended on Friday.
There, I found a few of the boys casually shooting hoops. They saw me and excitedly greeted me, so I headed over and picked up a ball. Those of you who've known me for a while know that I'm pretty terrible at basketball. After an uncountable number of failed dribbles, rim shots, and even more air balls, those few boys understood how bad I was.
Apparently, those few boys were just the early birds, as the gym began to fill up with more people. More and more students came in to play basketball, and the girls group showed up also. The gym was split in half as the volleyball club came in also. After a while, the gym was filled with more than 40 kids.
At this point, I already had enough warm up time to get reacquainted with basketball, as I had not played in months to maybe years. I managed to get a few lucky shots and mostly avoided missing the rim altogether. I was still shooting with the boys, when one of the math teachers walked in. I made a few impressive but lucky shots, and she walked away saying "sugoi!" (which means "amazing!" for those who don't speak Japanese) before I started missing all my shots again. Note to self: prove to her that I'm actually not good at basketball.
After I was bored shooting with the boys (who don't bother speaking English and weren't impressed), I headed over to the girls' side to see what was going on. A group of 4-5 girls was loitering around the 3 point line, so I joined them and started chatting a little bit. One of the girls took a rather wild 3-point shot, but it when in. I shouted, "sugoi!"
One of the other girls told me it was my turn, and I warned them that I suck at basketball. They said to just try anyways, so I took a shot from the same spot. It went it, and they made a ruckus. I told them it was just luck, so they told me to shoot again. So, I shrugged and did. It went it again. They made an even bigger ruckus. I turned to them and insisted that it really just was a coincidence. They were skeptical, and told me to take another shot. I assured them it would miss this time and took the shot. It went in again. At this point, the previous two ruckuses (rucki?) turned the attention of the entire basketball half of the gym to me, so the crowd went up in a frenzy. Trying to convince them of my lack of ability wouldn't have done me a single favor at this point, so I just collapsed onto the ground with my face in my hands. As I crawled back up speechlessly, they told me to take one more shot. Exasperated, I did, and it finally missed. Unfortunately, it only missed by a hair, so the girls yelled "oshii!!" (which means "so close!!"). I told them, "I'm done here. I'm going home," and left the gym.
Now, I have an entire army of basketball girls, who knows how many volleyball kids, and one teacher who think I'm amazing at basketball, but I'm just too humble to admit it. God help me...
Friday, September 7, 2012
Giving Candy to Students
Whenever I teach at a class I've never been to before, I always start with a self introduction. I try to keep students interested by first making them formulate questions in a group and then asking me. Then, I use pictures, gestures, pictionary, and a little bit of bribery during my introduction to keep students interested and involved. What I mean by bribery is this: for each class, I give a Warhead to the kid who correctly guesses my age. It's actually pretty difficult, since they all think I am much older than I really am. For those of you who don't know what a Warhead is, read this or just look at this picture:
After some of the classes, the more unscrupulous students came up and asked me for the same candy I gave to that one student. Some did it in English, some in Japanese, and one infamous girl did it half and half (amekko please!). I, of course, refused all of them because I didn't want to become the school-wide candy man from a foreign land. Instead, I told them that if they came to the teachers' room and had a chat with me in English, I'd give them one. I was hoping that this would encourage more kids to 1) try to use English more often, and 2) befriend me. Many of the students left with discouraged looks, so I didn't think anybody would actually do it.
In one of the third year classes, however, two girls seemed a little encouraged by this. It turns out that - as I heard them mutter to each other - they are part of the team that cleans the teacher's room after classes are over. Still, even though they had this opportunity, I didn't think they'd muster the courage to actually come and try to talk to me, in English nonetheless. By the time they actually got to the teachers room during cleaning time, I'd pretty much entirely forgotten them. The team (of 6-8 students) finished cleaning the teachers' room and they all began dismissing themselves one by one in loud voices like all Japanese students do. (On a side note, when students come to the teachers' room for any reason, they always knock and announce their year, class, name, and purpose for being there. They do this even if they go there every day for the same expected reason or if they are repeatedly ignored. When they leave, they loudly announce their departure as well.)
These two girls, however, did not dismiss themselves and leave. Much to my surprise, they walked over towards my desk, paused a slight distance away to reconfirm that they were in "English mode", and then finally approached me. They already announced their purpose when they came into the room to clean, so they just kept riding the same "cleaning train" to get what they wanted without needing to announce themselves again. I had no idea what to do, but I happened to be reading an article about the Democratic National Convention. I pointed at a picture of Bill Clinton and asked, "Do you know who this is?" One of them muttered in Japanese, "He's a former president, isn't he?" I then showed them a picture of Obama and asked if they knew him. They did. I asked them is they knew what was coming up in November. When they said no, I told them about the presidential election, and translated "election" into Japanese. They basked in the significance of the occasion, but after that, they had to go back to their classroom to finish up the rest of the school activities for the day (and I still have no idea why they have to stay so long after classes end). They looked a little disappointed as they were leaving, but I tossed them each a Warhead on the way out. I figured they gave a good effort and deserved it.
At the end of school (maybe an hour or 2 later), I was in the hallway reading a poster. The same 2 girls were heading home, and when they saw me, they stopped for a second and discussed something with each other (probably checking their grammar use). I honestly didn't remember their names at this point, so I just kept reading the poster by myself. They walked up and said hi, and I asked them what their names were. They told they were Miu (the one usually spearheading the English conversation operations) and Fumika (her moral support and partner in crime). That's when Miu slowly announced her practiced line: "You are a good teacher." I stood there silently for a few seconds pondering the meaning behind her words, and then bended over laughing for a while. I wasn't sure what spawned a statement like that, but it surely must have been because of the candy. Not wanting to have my reasoning confirmed, I asked if they were going home and said goodbye. I didn't expect to talk to these girls outside of the classroom again.
The next day, I went to the same school again (which is Higashi Middle School), but only taught first and second years. While wandering around the halls in my free time, I came across Miu and Fumika again in their classroom. They said hi while I botched their names (I thought they were Yui and Funami), and I asked if they tried the candy already. In Japanese, they said it was very sour and awesome. They seemed less interested, so I just said goodbye and went back to the teachers' room to keep reading news and writing future blog posts. Later on, the girls came back to clean the teachers' room, but I just let them do their thing and be done with it. They got their interesting candy from America already, so they no longer had a reason to interact with me. As the kids were dismissing themselves, the two girls used their "cleaning ticket" to come over to my desk AGAIN! I exclaimed loudly in Japanese, "You're here to get candy TODAY, too??" They laughed and said no. They just wanted to say goodbye before going home.
Ahhh my school life is getting sweeter. (T^T)
*UPDATE* 9/28/12
The "amekko please" girl finally got her candy! I taught the class she's in again, and I started calling her "Amekko please-chan". She told me her name is Aya, but I still like calling her Amekko-chan. (For those who don't know, "amekko" is short for "ame ikko", which means "one candy") She also has a friend who I call "Sode-chan" (or "sleeves") because she likes to roll up her sleeves and the head teacher always calls her out for it. She seems to get a real kick out of her nickname, and she goes around telling all her friends about it. Sode-chan seems to like her nickname a lot more than Amekko-chan.
I also ate lunch with this class, and Amekko-chan kept staring at me, so I made some funny faces at her. To be honest, I was just being silly because she was kinda creeping me out with the staring. You know, the kind where you notice someone is staring at you and look back at them, but they don't stop staring. Awkward... Anyways, after school, I was going to wash all the chalk dust off my hands at the big community trough-looking sink. All the kids were cleaning the school, and Amekko-chan happened to be cleaning the sink. She called me over and asked if I remembered her name. I said, "Yes, you're Amekko-chan." She replied loudly with, "違う!" (or "chigau!", which means "that's wrong!") and made a slightly pouty face (which was adorable, by the way). I told her I was kidding and said,"You're Aya." She was surprised and said, "覚えてる。" (or oboeteru, short for "you remember").
Then, I asked if she still wanted a candy, since it had been more than 3 weeks since she asked me for one. She looked excited and said yes. I proposed that she introduce herself in English. She tried her best, but could only spit out her name. So, I ended up pretty much interviewing her on age, hobbies, family, interests, and pets. It turns out that she's a single child with a single parent mother, which surprised me because she is an energetic and cheerful person. As I ran out of questions to ask her, I felt like she did enough and gave her a Warhead. The girls around her looked at her jealously, but I told them that they should come and get some too. "I have too many candies! Please come talk to me," I said. I doubt they will, but I'm sure there will be other opportunities.
After some of the classes, the more unscrupulous students came up and asked me for the same candy I gave to that one student. Some did it in English, some in Japanese, and one infamous girl did it half and half (amekko please!). I, of course, refused all of them because I didn't want to become the school-wide candy man from a foreign land. Instead, I told them that if they came to the teachers' room and had a chat with me in English, I'd give them one. I was hoping that this would encourage more kids to 1) try to use English more often, and 2) befriend me. Many of the students left with discouraged looks, so I didn't think anybody would actually do it.
In one of the third year classes, however, two girls seemed a little encouraged by this. It turns out that - as I heard them mutter to each other - they are part of the team that cleans the teacher's room after classes are over. Still, even though they had this opportunity, I didn't think they'd muster the courage to actually come and try to talk to me, in English nonetheless. By the time they actually got to the teachers room during cleaning time, I'd pretty much entirely forgotten them. The team (of 6-8 students) finished cleaning the teachers' room and they all began dismissing themselves one by one in loud voices like all Japanese students do. (On a side note, when students come to the teachers' room for any reason, they always knock and announce their year, class, name, and purpose for being there. They do this even if they go there every day for the same expected reason or if they are repeatedly ignored. When they leave, they loudly announce their departure as well.)
These two girls, however, did not dismiss themselves and leave. Much to my surprise, they walked over towards my desk, paused a slight distance away to reconfirm that they were in "English mode", and then finally approached me. They already announced their purpose when they came into the room to clean, so they just kept riding the same "cleaning train" to get what they wanted without needing to announce themselves again. I had no idea what to do, but I happened to be reading an article about the Democratic National Convention. I pointed at a picture of Bill Clinton and asked, "Do you know who this is?" One of them muttered in Japanese, "He's a former president, isn't he?" I then showed them a picture of Obama and asked if they knew him. They did. I asked them is they knew what was coming up in November. When they said no, I told them about the presidential election, and translated "election" into Japanese. They basked in the significance of the occasion, but after that, they had to go back to their classroom to finish up the rest of the school activities for the day (and I still have no idea why they have to stay so long after classes end). They looked a little disappointed as they were leaving, but I tossed them each a Warhead on the way out. I figured they gave a good effort and deserved it.
At the end of school (maybe an hour or 2 later), I was in the hallway reading a poster. The same 2 girls were heading home, and when they saw me, they stopped for a second and discussed something with each other (probably checking their grammar use). I honestly didn't remember their names at this point, so I just kept reading the poster by myself. They walked up and said hi, and I asked them what their names were. They told they were Miu (the one usually spearheading the English conversation operations) and Fumika (her moral support and partner in crime). That's when Miu slowly announced her practiced line: "You are a good teacher." I stood there silently for a few seconds pondering the meaning behind her words, and then bended over laughing for a while. I wasn't sure what spawned a statement like that, but it surely must have been because of the candy. Not wanting to have my reasoning confirmed, I asked if they were going home and said goodbye. I didn't expect to talk to these girls outside of the classroom again.
The next day, I went to the same school again (which is Higashi Middle School), but only taught first and second years. While wandering around the halls in my free time, I came across Miu and Fumika again in their classroom. They said hi while I botched their names (I thought they were Yui and Funami), and I asked if they tried the candy already. In Japanese, they said it was very sour and awesome. They seemed less interested, so I just said goodbye and went back to the teachers' room to keep reading news and writing future blog posts. Later on, the girls came back to clean the teachers' room, but I just let them do their thing and be done with it. They got their interesting candy from America already, so they no longer had a reason to interact with me. As the kids were dismissing themselves, the two girls used their "cleaning ticket" to come over to my desk AGAIN! I exclaimed loudly in Japanese, "You're here to get candy TODAY, too??" They laughed and said no. They just wanted to say goodbye before going home.
Ahhh my school life is getting sweeter. (T^T)
*UPDATE* 9/28/12
The "amekko please" girl finally got her candy! I taught the class she's in again, and I started calling her "Amekko please-chan". She told me her name is Aya, but I still like calling her Amekko-chan. (For those who don't know, "amekko" is short for "ame ikko", which means "one candy") She also has a friend who I call "Sode-chan" (or "sleeves") because she likes to roll up her sleeves and the head teacher always calls her out for it. She seems to get a real kick out of her nickname, and she goes around telling all her friends about it. Sode-chan seems to like her nickname a lot more than Amekko-chan.
I also ate lunch with this class, and Amekko-chan kept staring at me, so I made some funny faces at her. To be honest, I was just being silly because she was kinda creeping me out with the staring. You know, the kind where you notice someone is staring at you and look back at them, but they don't stop staring. Awkward... Anyways, after school, I was going to wash all the chalk dust off my hands at the big community trough-looking sink. All the kids were cleaning the school, and Amekko-chan happened to be cleaning the sink. She called me over and asked if I remembered her name. I said, "Yes, you're Amekko-chan." She replied loudly with, "違う!" (or "chigau!", which means "that's wrong!") and made a slightly pouty face (which was adorable, by the way). I told her I was kidding and said,"You're Aya." She was surprised and said, "覚えてる。" (or oboeteru, short for "you remember").
Then, I asked if she still wanted a candy, since it had been more than 3 weeks since she asked me for one. She looked excited and said yes. I proposed that she introduce herself in English. She tried her best, but could only spit out her name. So, I ended up pretty much interviewing her on age, hobbies, family, interests, and pets. It turns out that she's a single child with a single parent mother, which surprised me because she is an energetic and cheerful person. As I ran out of questions to ask her, I felt like she did enough and gave her a Warhead. The girls around her looked at her jealously, but I told them that they should come and get some too. "I have too many candies! Please come talk to me," I said. I doubt they will, but I'm sure there will be other opportunities.
I'm in the School Newsletter!
I looked at the school newsletter and check out what I found!
So that's why they took my picture!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Japanese School Lunch
Hi everyone! It's a little bit random, but let's get hungry today and talk about school lunches.
School lunch is a pretty big deal in Japan. Apparently, becoming a "food specialist" in the education system is a prestigious position with a lot of competition. School lunches must constrain to a rigorous set of requirements, and every meal is listed for nutritional value and calorie content. Menus are announced every day over the intercom during lunch, which seems redundant because they are usually already eating by the time the intercom turns on.
Like school lunches in America (at least until the end of elementary school), school lunches contain a good balance of starches, protein, vegetables, and sometimes fruits. They are a little heavy on the starch side, which you can witness with the size of the bread or bowl of rice they serve. I wish there were fruits more often, but they are rare.
Unlike America, school lunches are served by the students. Before lunchtime everyday, the students don their food handling wear, complete with white gown, clear plastic gloves, and white hair cap. I like to call it "scrubbing up". The 5-8 kids in charge of serving food for the day then scoop food into bowls or onto plates and hand them to the other students, who queue with trays buffet-style. Understand that even the elementary schoolers serve their own lunches.
Also unlike America, the school lunches are BIG. Here at my middle school, I get pretty full every day. The menu shows that lunches are 700-1000 calories depending on the day, and since the teachers serve themselves, I think I tend to get more than I am supposed to. Despite serving up crap-tons of food, we don't have much time to eat it. Fourth period ends at 12:25, signaling the start of lunch, but I usually sit down with my lunch around 12:35. By the time the clock hits 13:00, everyone is expected to have finished eating AND cleaning up the lunch serving area. On one of my first few days here, I sat down and began reading an interesting article about Mother Teresa while slowly munching away at my food. After a while, I checked my watch, and it read just before 13:00. I turned and saw a group of about 10 teachers standing next to the food serving area and staring at me, waiting to clean up. I leaped out of my chair and put my dishes away among the teachers while they muttered condescendingly at me in Japanese I didn't understand. That's not going to happen again.
It's even worse for the students, because while I can go to the teachers room and serve myself a hot tray of food immediately, the kids need to set up, grab the food from the food room, and serve to all the kids in class before anyone can even take a bite. By the time everyone says "itadakimasu" and the feasting begins, it's usually already 12:45. Basically, lunch time is only about 10 minutes! I'm a big eater, but these kids can pack away food so much faster than I can, even if they cant eat more.
Living and working in Japan means learning to scarf down food as fast as you can, even when it's not in school. The lunch breaks are short, there's always a lot of food, and restaurants don't provide take out boxes. In this country, the CUSTOMER provides the take out boxes, not the restaurant. You can buy a stack of disposable plastic take-out style box at the 100-yen shop, but you might as well just buy a reusable plastic container instead. And who wants to lug around a container every time they go to a restaurant?
Anyways, that's what lunchtime is like here in Japan. See you next time!
School lunch is a pretty big deal in Japan. Apparently, becoming a "food specialist" in the education system is a prestigious position with a lot of competition. School lunches must constrain to a rigorous set of requirements, and every meal is listed for nutritional value and calorie content. Menus are announced every day over the intercom during lunch, which seems redundant because they are usually already eating by the time the intercom turns on.
Like school lunches in America (at least until the end of elementary school), school lunches contain a good balance of starches, protein, vegetables, and sometimes fruits. They are a little heavy on the starch side, which you can witness with the size of the bread or bowl of rice they serve. I wish there were fruits more often, but they are rare.
Unlike America, school lunches are served by the students. Before lunchtime everyday, the students don their food handling wear, complete with white gown, clear plastic gloves, and white hair cap. I like to call it "scrubbing up". The 5-8 kids in charge of serving food for the day then scoop food into bowls or onto plates and hand them to the other students, who queue with trays buffet-style. Understand that even the elementary schoolers serve their own lunches.
Also unlike America, the school lunches are BIG. Here at my middle school, I get pretty full every day. The menu shows that lunches are 700-1000 calories depending on the day, and since the teachers serve themselves, I think I tend to get more than I am supposed to. Despite serving up crap-tons of food, we don't have much time to eat it. Fourth period ends at 12:25, signaling the start of lunch, but I usually sit down with my lunch around 12:35. By the time the clock hits 13:00, everyone is expected to have finished eating AND cleaning up the lunch serving area. On one of my first few days here, I sat down and began reading an interesting article about Mother Teresa while slowly munching away at my food. After a while, I checked my watch, and it read just before 13:00. I turned and saw a group of about 10 teachers standing next to the food serving area and staring at me, waiting to clean up. I leaped out of my chair and put my dishes away among the teachers while they muttered condescendingly at me in Japanese I didn't understand. That's not going to happen again.
It's even worse for the students, because while I can go to the teachers room and serve myself a hot tray of food immediately, the kids need to set up, grab the food from the food room, and serve to all the kids in class before anyone can even take a bite. By the time everyone says "itadakimasu" and the feasting begins, it's usually already 12:45. Basically, lunch time is only about 10 minutes! I'm a big eater, but these kids can pack away food so much faster than I can, even if they cant eat more.
Living and working in Japan means learning to scarf down food as fast as you can, even when it's not in school. The lunch breaks are short, there's always a lot of food, and restaurants don't provide take out boxes. In this country, the CUSTOMER provides the take out boxes, not the restaurant. You can buy a stack of disposable plastic take-out style box at the 100-yen shop, but you might as well just buy a reusable plastic container instead. And who wants to lug around a container every time they go to a restaurant?
Anyways, that's what lunchtime is like here in Japan. See you next time!
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Speech Contest
Hi everyone!
In honor of my students who are participating in the speech contest today, I'm going to introduce them to you.
There are participants in both of my middle schools: Higashi 東中 and Toyama 戸山中. At Higashi, there is one first year (Miho), one second year (Miki), and two third years (Koushiro and Mai). At Toyama, there is one first year (Kanon) and one third year (Seina).
All of the participants are surprisingly good. They are required to memorize a short English story anywhere from a minute and a half to well over 4 minutes (depending on the year). They do have the same pronunciation problems as most Japanese people, but to a much lesser extent. They seem to learn very quickly, and whenever I correct a pronunciation or fluency mistake, I don't need to repeat myself often.
Performance skill-wise, Miho from Higashi probably has the best chance to win. She has excellent intonation and connected speech, but has slight trouble with omission of consonants and articles, as well as pronunciation of the letter 'r'. She takes compliments with lots of enthusiasm and excitement, which is very cute to watch. Kousuke from Higashi (who's kind of a brat to the other teachers) is also a very good speaker when it comes to intonation, but he has a particularly stubborn problem with pronouncing 'th' as 'z'. The other 4 students are somewhere slightly behind these 2 forerunners. Miki from Higashi is a little shy and has some problems with pronunciation of vowels and the letter 'l' when followed by a consonant or at the end of a word. She also has trouble with connected speech. However, she learns quickly and has good study skills, so she may well have caught up. Seina from Toyama, who looks strikingly like my devilishly cute cousin from my dad's side, is probably the weakest in the pronunciation section, especially regarding vowels that don't exist in Japanese. However, we've worked on her problems specifically and she has gotten a lot better. She has the longest speech, but somehow managed to be the first one to memorize it all. Mai from Higashi has very decent intonation and connected speech, but has trouble with pronunciation of the "v" and "r" sounds. There are also some issues with major grammar errors in her speech, but that is entirely out of her control because the composition was provided to her (*correction, it turns out she's participating in the "read your own composition" part of the contest, so the errors are the fault of teachers failing to correct her work properly). Finally, Kanon from Toyama is very shy and hardly talks when I work with her. She has a nice clear voice and a very decent grasp of connected speech, but she has a problem with adding stray 'r's into words, like many Japanese people believe native English speakers do. Watch anime and you'll know what I mean.
To help them get better, I've recorded their voices at different stages of their improvement. Then, I made CDs for them (since many surprisingly do not use the internet very much) and told them to listen to their voices when they're practicing at home. They should be able to notice the problems I point out better if they can hear their own voice over and over at cue. The personal tutoring certainly improved their speeches, and I'm really proud of how much they've progressed.
That being said, they are all also surprisingly bad. At English I mean. Yes, they can memorize a long English passage and read it aloud. Yes, they sound very good while they are reading it (given that they've had a week of tutoring from a native speaker with some actual credentials). But, if you even try to have a simple conversation with them in English, they fall deathly silent. Why? It's because they have no idea what I'm saying. That's right: they can read and recite English, but their listening and conversational production are poor. I had to do most of my tutoring in Japanese because they couldn't understand my English.
However, I must admit the problems vary among the students. Kousuke can probably handle conversational English the best out of all of them. Even so, I still can't have a conversation using full sentences with him. Besides Kousuke, I doubt the other students can understand more than a few words I say. Seina, as friendly and fun to talk to as she was, couldn't even understand what I meant by "a lot" or "a little". Remember, she's the one who's a third year and is reciting a story that's about 2 pages long double-spaced.
This is a frustrating problem with the English language learning system in Japan. The problem lies in the fact that classes still have a large emphasis on written translation. For homework, lots of the students have to translate some English sentences into Japanese, or the other way around. I haven't yet seen a class taught entirely in English or one that emphasized creation and use of pure English rather than translated Japanese. This is the underlying problem, and as an ALT, I am here to help fix it.
Good luck to my students who participated! ファイト！一発！
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
My Elementary Schools
Hi again everyone!
Sorry I haven't had the chance to post anything in a while. It's been surprisingly busy around here teaching classes, buying groceries, cooking, going to JET events, and setting aside an hour or more a day to stay in contact with my Honeybunny (that's Kristin Armstrong, for the record). Outside of that, I haven't had much free time to relax, clean my place, or post things on the internet. After a while, my massive fanbase (a.k.a. my sister) began complaining about the lack of movement, so I'll try my best to let you all know what's going down in my life.
So, let's talk about my elementary schools. I have 3 of them: Harabetsu 原別, Toyamanishi 戸山西, and Nonai 野内. I've already had a chance to go to all of them and gotten to know some of the students. If you didn't know, elementary school students don't start studying English until 5th grade, so I don't teach any classes 4th grade or under. Harabetsu and Toyamanishi are rather large elementary schools, with about 5 classes for me to rotate throughout. Nonai is a much smaller school, with only one class per grade. I really like teaching at Nonai because I can actually remember who some of the students are.
Now that you know about my schools, let's talk about the kids. My general conclusion is this: I love 5th graders; I hate 6th graders. I'm really not sure what the reason is, but the difference between 5th graders and 6th graders is vast. The 5th graders get excited about everything. If you show them something about America that they're familiar with, they'll love it. Especially if that is Disneyland. They will lose their shit when you tell them you lived 10 minutes from Disneyland. They also love eating lunch with you and they will do their best to talk to you (but mostly in Japanese). Beware of giving away autographs, though. If one student asks for it and you give it to them, the classroom will erupt into a flurry of notebook and pen grabbing, and then kids will bum rush you to get their share. Their presence will blot out the sun. For a few minutes of my life, the sky was composed entirely of 5th graders.
Fast forward one year later, and you'd think nothing would have changed, but you'd be wrong. The sixth graders don't get very excited about much. If you try to speak to them in English, they'll probably just turn to each other and say わかんない and then give up on listening. They'll start paying attention again if you show them Disneyland or give them candy, but they'll lose attention once you stop. And some of the kids are just obnoxious. They'll talk to their little clique in the middle of class and just won't shut up. You can tell the teacher has given up on them because he/she just tries his/her best to ignore it. Classes lose energy really quickly, and it's hard to get the energy back up. Eating lunch with them is a pain as well. My first day at Harabetsu Elementary School, I was told to eat lunch with a class of sixth graders I hadn't introduced myself to yet. Think about it: I entered an unfamiliar area filled with unfamiliar people who barely speak a lick of my native language, and on top of that I look like a teacher and subsequently an authority figure. That was probably the most awkward lunch I have ever consumed, and I high-tailed it back to the teacher's room as soon as I finished.
I don't go to elementary schools very often. I only go to Harabetsu and Toyamanishi about twice a month, while Nonai only gets me once a month. I'm gonna miss the excitable fifth graders and I hope they remember me when I return, but I'm glad I don't need to see the sixth graders for a while.
Sorry I haven't had the chance to post anything in a while. It's been surprisingly busy around here teaching classes, buying groceries, cooking, going to JET events, and setting aside an hour or more a day to stay in contact with my Honeybunny (that's Kristin Armstrong, for the record). Outside of that, I haven't had much free time to relax, clean my place, or post things on the internet. After a while, my massive fanbase (a.k.a. my sister) began complaining about the lack of movement, so I'll try my best to let you all know what's going down in my life.
So, let's talk about my elementary schools. I have 3 of them: Harabetsu 原別, Toyamanishi 戸山西, and Nonai 野内. I've already had a chance to go to all of them and gotten to know some of the students. If you didn't know, elementary school students don't start studying English until 5th grade, so I don't teach any classes 4th grade or under. Harabetsu and Toyamanishi are rather large elementary schools, with about 5 classes for me to rotate throughout. Nonai is a much smaller school, with only one class per grade. I really like teaching at Nonai because I can actually remember who some of the students are.
Now that you know about my schools, let's talk about the kids. My general conclusion is this: I love 5th graders; I hate 6th graders. I'm really not sure what the reason is, but the difference between 5th graders and 6th graders is vast. The 5th graders get excited about everything. If you show them something about America that they're familiar with, they'll love it. Especially if that is Disneyland. They will lose their shit when you tell them you lived 10 minutes from Disneyland. They also love eating lunch with you and they will do their best to talk to you (but mostly in Japanese). Beware of giving away autographs, though. If one student asks for it and you give it to them, the classroom will erupt into a flurry of notebook and pen grabbing, and then kids will bum rush you to get their share. Their presence will blot out the sun. For a few minutes of my life, the sky was composed entirely of 5th graders.
Fast forward one year later, and you'd think nothing would have changed, but you'd be wrong. The sixth graders don't get very excited about much. If you try to speak to them in English, they'll probably just turn to each other and say わかんない and then give up on listening. They'll start paying attention again if you show them Disneyland or give them candy, but they'll lose attention once you stop. And some of the kids are just obnoxious. They'll talk to their little clique in the middle of class and just won't shut up. You can tell the teacher has given up on them because he/she just tries his/her best to ignore it. Classes lose energy really quickly, and it's hard to get the energy back up. Eating lunch with them is a pain as well. My first day at Harabetsu Elementary School, I was told to eat lunch with a class of sixth graders I hadn't introduced myself to yet. Think about it: I entered an unfamiliar area filled with unfamiliar people who barely speak a lick of my native language, and on top of that I look like a teacher and subsequently an authority figure. That was probably the most awkward lunch I have ever consumed, and I high-tailed it back to the teacher's room as soon as I finished.
I don't go to elementary schools very often. I only go to Harabetsu and Toyamanishi about twice a month, while Nonai only gets me once a month. I'm gonna miss the excitable fifth graders and I hope they remember me when I return, but I'm glad I don't need to see the sixth graders for a while.
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