dilemma...

[ladyjemanny]

today one of my teachers wanted me to teach the student's the following dialogue:
"what's this?"
"it's apple."
when i corrected her and said "it should be "it's *an* apple" she said "oh, but that's too confusing. they'll wonder why it's "an" instead of "a" and they don't know the alphabet yet, so please just teach "it's apple""

Comments

[rina_says_hello]

I don't think you were being unreasonable by not going along with the teacher's lesson plan, especially because you explained your reasoning and opinion clearly and fairly. You shouldn't have to teach the students incorrect English!! There would be absolutely nobody gaining from that. So I think you did a good thing, and I like that you wrote a note rather than duking it out in person. I don't really have any basis for this opinion, but do you think teacher 1 is behaving this way because of some of sort of Japanese cultural thing? Is she embarrassed to admit that her gameplan of "simplifying" things might not be the best way to go? Maybe not, because the second teacher seemed eager to learn more and correct her mistakes. Anyway, that's my 2 cents :-P. I got your e-mail, btw - we should Skype sometime!!

[ladyjemanny]

i think there is some japanese cultural stuff that complicates the situation... in japan it's really important for people to save face, especially if they're authority figures, so it's better to be indirect when you're correcting someone. however, the other issue is that many of my teachers have a sort of limited command of english, so if i use indirect language i can't get my point across at all. (like japanese people don't say "that's wrong!" they say "i think it should be different..." but in context the second way could mean "it's better to say it this way, but that way is also okay.") teacher 2 has much better english than teacher 1 because she's been teaching english longer. teacher 1 was originally a math teacher, so she never studied english extensively and was forced into teaching english due to personnel shifts in the school. i think teacher 1 already feels very insecure about her english, but it's hard for her to ask for help without admitting that her english is imperfect--and to make things worse, the english teachers

[rina_says_hello]

woah, you're right, that IS complicated! in any case, i hope it all works out OK and that you keep teaching your kids "it's an apple" ;). I would love to Skype next Tuesday... I'm free from about 9pm - midnight Boston time, not sure what time that would be for you... let me know! (and feel better, m'dear!)

[ladyjemanny]

yay skype! unfortunately... the time difference from boston is +13 hours, so i'll be at work during 9pm-12am boston time. is there a way you could come on between 5:30pm and 7:15pm? alternatively, monday is a holiday here so i am free all day if you have time then.