interesting propositions, and battle royalle revisited
i haven't updated in a while! and lots of things happened this week, so here's a list:
Monday:
I taught my first 3rd year class! the teacher warned me before hand "this class is very quiet and shy, so if they don't respond to anything you say, don't take it personally," but actually the class was responsive if not overly enthusiastic. however, after class this happened:
female student: *approaches me with a bunch of friends* hello!
me: hello!
female student: ... do you have a boy friend?
me: nope, i don't.
female student: *looking surprised* really? i'll be your boyfriend!!!
me: ... ?
and later that night i went to see gollbetty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVF63ptEwX0 , a japanese ska band, with one of my fellow JETs. the concert was really awesome, and one of the opening bands, Holidays of Seventeen, are coming to Boston in November, so GO SEE THEM!!! they're not what i usually listen to (or recommend), but they're really fun to see live--and their key board player is really cute!
their website is here: http://ho17.com/
Tuesday:
it was a holiday here (Shuubun no Hi, aka fall equinox) so i got the day off. but because i am a sucker, i went to school anyway since my main elementary school was having its "sports festival" and i wanted a chance to interact with the kids outside of the classroom. sports day is a time when all the students do performances, competitions and traditional japanese games like this:
and this:
and my favorite:
in which each team is assembled into 4 person towers, and the top people try to steal each others' hat without having their own stolen. it's very fun to watch!
so why was this creepy? one of the teachers pointed out to me that the tradition of sports day was based on a form of military training--the school was divided into a red team and a white team which competed against each other in each game, earning points for each victory, and even the performances were ones that stressed discipline and precision. but the really strange thing was this: many of the games weren't ones that you could win by running faster or playing better--the outcome was determined entirely by luck. no matter what you did or how hard you tried, if you were unlucky there was no way to win. why would you play a game like this? it's all about mental training: you have no control over your own life, therefore, you do what you are told without complaining. if you wonder why so many japanese people are passive and submissive, it's because they're taught to be that way starting in elementary school. suddenly, "the program" in battle royalle doesn't seem so inconceivable...
Wednesday:
i started looking through the textbook the class uses to learn english ("sunshine english") and was so frustrated by how idiotically it was designed that i almost tore it in half and threw it across the room. that would have made a great impression on my co-workers, right? but in case you think it would have been an overreaction, here's an example of idiocy:
students learn "i" and "you" in chapter one, "she" in chapter 3, "he" in chapter 4, and "they" in chapter 6. what the hell is up with this? do they really think that students won't have know how to refer to third parties or groups of people until seven weeks into the course??? i know that learning the inflection of verbs is difficult for japanese students because their verbs don't change based on 1st, 2nd, 3rd person, singular or plural, but seriously? simplicity is important, but at least teach things in a logical way! and there's no excuse for separating "he" and "she"--no wonder so many japanese people confuse the two! (real quote from a japanese english teacher: "don't call her "mr. emily"--he is a woman!!!")
here's another example: students learn "sister" in chapter 1, "brother" in chapter 4, and "mother" and "father" in chapter 6. again, what the hell? wouldn't it be easier to remember these words and keep them straight if they were all taught at the same time?
later that day, i also developed a hatred of japanese methods for teaching english. (or maybe it was just that teacher... we'll call her "teacher 1") in any case, it was all repetition and listening, no chance for the students to practice communicating or actually think. seriously, everything was spoon-fed, and most of the activities were from the poorly-designed textbook and were likewise poorly designed. all the students looked bored out of their minds the entire time--aside from the ones that were acting up or sleeping. the class was so painful that i wanted to apologize to the students for having to waste 45 minutes of their lives so pointlessly.
afterward, i talked to my kick-ass second year teacher ("teacher 2") about how i thought the text book was strange for not including coherent vocabulary lists or communication activities, and he let me come up with a lesson plan and vocabulary lists and even helped me make all the materials.
Today:
another horrifyingly mind-numbing class with teacher 1. i kind of knew what was coming, so hopefully i didn't look completely horrified about my role as a human tape recorder:
me: *reading dialog from "sunshine english"* Yuki, you look nice in that sweater!
student-zombies: Yuki, you look nice in that sweater...
me: You say I look nice, but really I want to jump off the nearest bridge...
student-zombies: You say I look nice... (etc)
then! i got to teach the second year class using my lesson plan. it went surprisingly smoothly, considering the fact that i have exactly one month of teaching experience and that most of that month consisted of me introducing myself... i really think it only went well because teacher 2 kicks so much ass (as evidenced by the fact that there are few discipline problems in his classes and students actually seem to respect and like him). he let me explain the activities i'd planned and then translated for the students when necessary. when i did something in a different way (ex. letting students read the word on the flash cards rather than just repeat them) he let me try it rather than insisting that i was doing something wrong or that it wouldn't work. i was blown away by how supportive he was! (a lot of the teachers i've worked with are very rigid, by-the-books types) class participation was much better than in teacher 1's class (again, probably teacher 2's doing, but still a happy change!), the students got a chance to speak with each other and seemed to enjoy the activity, and no one was falling asleep in class! even though we didn't have time to finish the game at the end, i was really happy with the way the class turned out!
my biggest problem with "sunshine english" and teacher 1's style of teaching was that i didn't feel like the students really learned the material, but after my class, the students were using the new grammar i taught to joke with each other in english. whether or not it was because they thought my game was stupid, it was proof that they knew the material and could apply it in real situations. i was so proud of myself!
and teacher 2 liked the game so much that he asked me to make another set of materials so he could use it in his other classes : )
then, on my bus on the way home, my supervisor called. this made me nervous, because i thought she was checking to make sure i was still at work, which i wasn't... but actually she was calling to tell me that i could come into the office to pick up my very own copy of "sunshine english" volumes 1, 2, and 3. i can't wait...
Monday:
I taught my first 3rd year class! the teacher warned me before hand "this class is very quiet and shy, so if they don't respond to anything you say, don't take it personally," but actually the class was responsive if not overly enthusiastic. however, after class this happened:
female student: *approaches me with a bunch of friends* hello!
me: hello!
female student: ... do you have a boy friend?
me: nope, i don't.
female student: *looking surprised* really? i'll be your boyfriend!!!
me: ... ?
and later that night i went to see gollbetty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVF63ptEwX0 , a japanese ska band, with one of my fellow JETs. the concert was really awesome, and one of the opening bands, Holidays of Seventeen, are coming to Boston in November, so GO SEE THEM!!! they're not what i usually listen to (or recommend), but they're really fun to see live--and their key board player is really cute!
Click to viewtheir website is here: http://ho17.com/
Tuesday:
it was a holiday here (Shuubun no Hi, aka fall equinox) so i got the day off. but because i am a sucker, i went to school anyway since my main elementary school was having its "sports festival" and i wanted a chance to interact with the kids outside of the classroom. sports day is a time when all the students do performances, competitions and traditional japanese games like this:
and this:
and my favorite:
in which each team is assembled into 4 person towers, and the top people try to steal each others' hat without having their own stolen. it's very fun to watch!
so why was this creepy? one of the teachers pointed out to me that the tradition of sports day was based on a form of military training--the school was divided into a red team and a white team which competed against each other in each game, earning points for each victory, and even the performances were ones that stressed discipline and precision. but the really strange thing was this: many of the games weren't ones that you could win by running faster or playing better--the outcome was determined entirely by luck. no matter what you did or how hard you tried, if you were unlucky there was no way to win. why would you play a game like this? it's all about mental training: you have no control over your own life, therefore, you do what you are told without complaining. if you wonder why so many japanese people are passive and submissive, it's because they're taught to be that way starting in elementary school. suddenly, "the program" in battle royalle doesn't seem so inconceivable...
Wednesday:
i started looking through the textbook the class uses to learn english ("sunshine english") and was so frustrated by how idiotically it was designed that i almost tore it in half and threw it across the room. that would have made a great impression on my co-workers, right? but in case you think it would have been an overreaction, here's an example of idiocy:
students learn "i" and "you" in chapter one, "she" in chapter 3, "he" in chapter 4, and "they" in chapter 6. what the hell is up with this? do they really think that students won't have know how to refer to third parties or groups of people until seven weeks into the course??? i know that learning the inflection of verbs is difficult for japanese students because their verbs don't change based on 1st, 2nd, 3rd person, singular or plural, but seriously? simplicity is important, but at least teach things in a logical way! and there's no excuse for separating "he" and "she"--no wonder so many japanese people confuse the two! (real quote from a japanese english teacher: "don't call her "mr. emily"--he is a woman!!!")
here's another example: students learn "sister" in chapter 1, "brother" in chapter 4, and "mother" and "father" in chapter 6. again, what the hell? wouldn't it be easier to remember these words and keep them straight if they were all taught at the same time?
later that day, i also developed a hatred of japanese methods for teaching english. (or maybe it was just that teacher... we'll call her "teacher 1") in any case, it was all repetition and listening, no chance for the students to practice communicating or actually think. seriously, everything was spoon-fed, and most of the activities were from the poorly-designed textbook and were likewise poorly designed. all the students looked bored out of their minds the entire time--aside from the ones that were acting up or sleeping. the class was so painful that i wanted to apologize to the students for having to waste 45 minutes of their lives so pointlessly.
afterward, i talked to my kick-ass second year teacher ("teacher 2") about how i thought the text book was strange for not including coherent vocabulary lists or communication activities, and he let me come up with a lesson plan and vocabulary lists and even helped me make all the materials.
Today:
another horrifyingly mind-numbing class with teacher 1. i kind of knew what was coming, so hopefully i didn't look completely horrified about my role as a human tape recorder:
me: *reading dialog from "sunshine english"* Yuki, you look nice in that sweater!
student-zombies: Yuki, you look nice in that sweater...
me: You say I look nice, but really I want to jump off the nearest bridge...
student-zombies: You say I look nice... (etc)
then! i got to teach the second year class using my lesson plan. it went surprisingly smoothly, considering the fact that i have exactly one month of teaching experience and that most of that month consisted of me introducing myself... i really think it only went well because teacher 2 kicks so much ass (as evidenced by the fact that there are few discipline problems in his classes and students actually seem to respect and like him). he let me explain the activities i'd planned and then translated for the students when necessary. when i did something in a different way (ex. letting students read the word on the flash cards rather than just repeat them) he let me try it rather than insisting that i was doing something wrong or that it wouldn't work. i was blown away by how supportive he was! (a lot of the teachers i've worked with are very rigid, by-the-books types) class participation was much better than in teacher 1's class (again, probably teacher 2's doing, but still a happy change!), the students got a chance to speak with each other and seemed to enjoy the activity, and no one was falling asleep in class! even though we didn't have time to finish the game at the end, i was really happy with the way the class turned out!
my biggest problem with "sunshine english" and teacher 1's style of teaching was that i didn't feel like the students really learned the material, but after my class, the students were using the new grammar i taught to joke with each other in english. whether or not it was because they thought my game was stupid, it was proof that they knew the material and could apply it in real situations. i was so proud of myself!
and teacher 2 liked the game so much that he asked me to make another set of materials so he could use it in his other classes : )
then, on my bus on the way home, my supervisor called. this made me nervous, because i thought she was checking to make sure i was still at work, which i wasn't... but actually she was calling to tell me that i could come into the office to pick up my very own copy of "sunshine english" volumes 1, 2, and 3. i can't wait...