To talk bluntly like the kids
Today I was at my second smallest school. I come to this school twice a month at most so I always have a full day of lessons whenever I'm here. But I don't mind cause the kids are so much fun here, especially the older grades.
After finishing the lesson with the grade 4 class, I started talking to their homeroom teacher as we made our way back to the staff room. The homeroom teacher said that the kids like English, even though they're not good at it. That is such a bizarre statement for me cause, does that mean I'm doing a good job or not? Hmm...
And then in the afternoon class, the 5th grade homeroom teacher/my supervisor threw me off guard by telling the kids to ask me questions about Canada's New Year traditions in English. This had the kids stomped to cause no way they could have formulate a question in English, even for those that went to tutor classes. So while the kids were racking their brains out with what to ask me in English, one of them suddenly told me something that I could never had been prepare for: the twins in this class, said they can't say "Happy New Year" because their father died. My Japanese isn't brilliant, but even I couldn't had mistaken "お父さん" and "死んだ" for something else. They even repeated this information in simple broken English. I was shock and glanced at the homeroom teacher for a hint as how I should react, but he didn't do or say anything. I didn't prey for more information nor did I said "I'm sorry". My only deduction is that this happened recently, within the last year. Other wise it wouldn't make sense for the family to never say "Happy New Year" again. Aside from shock, I was amazed at how compose and normal the twins were acting, as if nothing sad had happen at all. I tip my hat off to these two for being about to take about it class like this.
After finishing the lesson with the grade 4 class, I started talking to their homeroom teacher as we made our way back to the staff room. The homeroom teacher said that the kids like English, even though they're not good at it. That is such a bizarre statement for me cause, does that mean I'm doing a good job or not? Hmm...
And then in the afternoon class, the 5th grade homeroom teacher/my supervisor threw me off guard by telling the kids to ask me questions about Canada's New Year traditions in English. This had the kids stomped to cause no way they could have formulate a question in English, even for those that went to tutor classes. So while the kids were racking their brains out with what to ask me in English, one of them suddenly told me something that I could never had been prepare for: the twins in this class, said they can't say "Happy New Year" because their father died. My Japanese isn't brilliant, but even I couldn't had mistaken "お父さん" and "死んだ" for something else. They even repeated this information in simple broken English. I was shock and glanced at the homeroom teacher for a hint as how I should react, but he didn't do or say anything. I didn't prey for more information nor did I said "I'm sorry". My only deduction is that this happened recently, within the last year. Other wise it wouldn't make sense for the family to never say "Happy New Year" again. Aside from shock, I was amazed at how compose and normal the twins were acting, as if nothing sad had happen at all. I tip my hat off to these two for being about to take about it class like this.