Eric: No, I do not get to speak all that much Japanese. I am forbidden by my schools to speak any Japanese to the students or the teachers. I have to pretend that I am the typical ignorant American who has absolutely zero communication skills unless you try to speak to me in English, in which case I am to become an uber-teacher with the uncanny ability to understand very broken, badly accented Japanese and to know every grammar rule under the sun. So, what was present progressive tense again? I can't remember.
Yesterday, I went to my very first elementary school to teach some lessons. I was a little apprehensive at first, because I hear that the children are crazy and will try to climb all over you. So yes, that was the case, but at the same time, it was a lot of fun. The younger students are very outgoing and for lack of a better word, very genki. I was starting to get tired of really quiet and shy junior high school students so it was refreshing to teach a class where if I asked a question, 10 students would jump up and down with their hands raised, eager to give me an answer. And when I suggested a game to them, they were actually excited to play. I wonder what happens between the ages of 9 and 12 that makes junior high school kids so unwilling to participate in school? I guess it happens to American kids, too. It's quite a shame, because from what I've seen so far, the students' English skills are pretty good. They just need a little more confidence. Hopefully, they'll stop being so scared of me and I need to get the other teachers to stop reverting back to Japanese in the classroom. That's the problem with a lot of the teachers is that they don't speak English in the English class... How are the students expected to learn how to speak in English when their teachers aren't giving them a good example to follow?
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home