epilogue (prologue?)
Nov. 12th, 2004 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormsewerWell. I just got back from my little dinner appointment.
I was worried at first because Matchan brought the middle school Japanese teacher along (not to be confused with "Sophie," the high school Japanese teacher who I have a vague (but seemingly fading in the apparent lack of reciprocation) interest in). Besides the fact that it's harder to speak candidly with a person when a third, only quasi-relevant person is present, I had hoped to use the opportunity to really force Matchan to practice her English conversation skills. That wasn't going to happen with the Japanese teacher there. Throughout the meal they proceeded to talk to each other in full speed Japanese, mostly ignoring me (not entirely, just mostly), and seemed to have no intention of talking about anything work related. I was getting annoyed.
At one point near the end of the meal I kind of interrupted and mentioned to Matchan that I still wanted her to explain the finer points of the Japanese education system to me. (In my little idealized plan for how the evening would go, we would start with her giving her opinions to me before moving to me giving my opinions to her.) She said, "Yeah, we still need to do that sometime," and left it at that. So... right.
But then the Japanese teacher chimed in and asked me what I wanted for the students in regards to English education. (And the clouds parted, and a single shaft of light broke through to touch the earth, and heavenly choruses sang "Hallelujah.")
I did kind of a real quick summary of the stuff from the last entry. I first admitted that I don't know the Japanese way of doing things all that well, but I do know English and I do know learning foreign languages. I mentioned that the kids pretty much can't engage in English conversation at all, even the smartest of the 9th graders. I said I thought this was because they didn't get enough practice actually using the grammar patterns they learn. I said I liked the exercise Matchan had them do where they write their own sentences and ask them to their friends and record their responses, and that more of that sort of thing would be good. I also said I liked the way she used lots more English in class in general with the 7th graders, and that I thought it would be good if she would do that with all the classes. (See how I tried to couch everything as a compliment to her? I'm not totally without social graces!)
Matchan then mentioned that the curriculum is pretty jam-packed and that there's not a lot of time to spend on time-consuming exercises such as that. I then mentioned that, while pronunciation practice is important, we could perhaps take a little time away from repetition exercises in order to have more time for more active communication exercises. Then she of course played the ace, which is school entrance exams; the students have to study English that is relevant for the exams, and unfortunately these exams do not usually focus on communication ability. I said that while I understand that the exams are important, as a foreigner coming here to teach my native language, that's not really relevant to me. Communication is relevant to me. (Probably my most blunt and uncompromising statement of the night, though I tried my best to say it all smiling and apologetic like the Japanese do.)
The Japanese teacher then started talking about how my Japanese was probably good enough that I could teach the kids all by myself. ...Which I'd rather she hadn't said, because it sounds a little threatening to Matchan and that's not what I wanted to do. I deflected that by saying that Matchan is much better at explaining the grammar than I am. (Though could I teach the kids myself? Hell, yes.) Then she suggested that Matchan could maybe teach grammar classes and I could teach separate conversation classes, but again... That's not how it's supposed to work, really. We're ideally supposed to teach as a team, and I don't want me to become the "fun" teacher and Matchan to become the "boring" teacher; ideally we should both be the "fun" teacher. (Though of course "Every Situation Is Different.") She also brought up the idea of me working on conversation skills with a small group of interested students, which... might be good...
Looking at Matchan to try to get a read on what she was thinking about all this... Honestly, I got the distinct impression a few times that she was holding back tears. Maybe she was just tired and bleary eyed, or maybe she has a cold, but... yeah. So, ugh. She's such a sweetheart, and my heart goes out to her. But I need to make my opinions known.
And really, I don't care that much if nothing really changes. I know I gave it the college try and that if classes aren't going the way I think they should be, it's not for my lack of trying. And hell, it's a lot less work for me that way, anyway. I do hope Matchan and I can be friends, though.
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.
I was worried at first because Matchan brought the middle school Japanese teacher along (not to be confused with "Sophie," the high school Japanese teacher who I have a vague (but seemingly fading in the apparent lack of reciprocation) interest in). Besides the fact that it's harder to speak candidly with a person when a third, only quasi-relevant person is present, I had hoped to use the opportunity to really force Matchan to practice her English conversation skills. That wasn't going to happen with the Japanese teacher there. Throughout the meal they proceeded to talk to each other in full speed Japanese, mostly ignoring me (not entirely, just mostly), and seemed to have no intention of talking about anything work related. I was getting annoyed.
At one point near the end of the meal I kind of interrupted and mentioned to Matchan that I still wanted her to explain the finer points of the Japanese education system to me. (In my little idealized plan for how the evening would go, we would start with her giving her opinions to me before moving to me giving my opinions to her.) She said, "Yeah, we still need to do that sometime," and left it at that. So... right.
But then the Japanese teacher chimed in and asked me what I wanted for the students in regards to English education. (And the clouds parted, and a single shaft of light broke through to touch the earth, and heavenly choruses sang "Hallelujah.")
I did kind of a real quick summary of the stuff from the last entry. I first admitted that I don't know the Japanese way of doing things all that well, but I do know English and I do know learning foreign languages. I mentioned that the kids pretty much can't engage in English conversation at all, even the smartest of the 9th graders. I said I thought this was because they didn't get enough practice actually using the grammar patterns they learn. I said I liked the exercise Matchan had them do where they write their own sentences and ask them to their friends and record their responses, and that more of that sort of thing would be good. I also said I liked the way she used lots more English in class in general with the 7th graders, and that I thought it would be good if she would do that with all the classes. (See how I tried to couch everything as a compliment to her? I'm not totally without social graces!)
Matchan then mentioned that the curriculum is pretty jam-packed and that there's not a lot of time to spend on time-consuming exercises such as that. I then mentioned that, while pronunciation practice is important, we could perhaps take a little time away from repetition exercises in order to have more time for more active communication exercises. Then she of course played the ace, which is school entrance exams; the students have to study English that is relevant for the exams, and unfortunately these exams do not usually focus on communication ability. I said that while I understand that the exams are important, as a foreigner coming here to teach my native language, that's not really relevant to me. Communication is relevant to me. (Probably my most blunt and uncompromising statement of the night, though I tried my best to say it all smiling and apologetic like the Japanese do.)
The Japanese teacher then started talking about how my Japanese was probably good enough that I could teach the kids all by myself. ...Which I'd rather she hadn't said, because it sounds a little threatening to Matchan and that's not what I wanted to do. I deflected that by saying that Matchan is much better at explaining the grammar than I am. (Though could I teach the kids myself? Hell, yes.) Then she suggested that Matchan could maybe teach grammar classes and I could teach separate conversation classes, but again... That's not how it's supposed to work, really. We're ideally supposed to teach as a team, and I don't want me to become the "fun" teacher and Matchan to become the "boring" teacher; ideally we should both be the "fun" teacher. (Though of course "Every Situation Is Different.") She also brought up the idea of me working on conversation skills with a small group of interested students, which... might be good...
Looking at Matchan to try to get a read on what she was thinking about all this... Honestly, I got the distinct impression a few times that she was holding back tears. Maybe she was just tired and bleary eyed, or maybe she has a cold, but... yeah. So, ugh. She's such a sweetheart, and my heart goes out to her. But I need to make my opinions known.
And really, I don't care that much if nothing really changes. I know I gave it the college try and that if classes aren't going the way I think they should be, it's not for my lack of trying. And hell, it's a lot less work for me that way, anyway. I do hope Matchan and I can be friends, though.
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.
