4.21.23
While recently scrolling through this blog, I realized I've rarely talked about what it actually means to be the designated Yakage English teacher. As much as my days are filled with looking at the broccoli mountains and being fed delicious meals, I do have a regular 8:30 - 5:30, Monday to Friday job here in Japan. I know, crazy right!? Sometimes I feel like I'm not a legitimate "contributor to society" because my job is essentially just to play with and care for the cutest chubsters all day. Yet, there are some unexpected challenges and thoughts that have helped me grow as a person, which is what I'll be sharing here today.
Below is my 9-month fellow report written for PiA, so it runs much longer than my usual "look at these pretty pictures!" kinds of blurbs. I was tentative to post this, because she be LONG...but decided to when thinking 30 yo Kai may be interested in what was going on around 23 yo Kai's brain while in Japan. But that being said, I have complete understanding for any reader who leaves this as an opened tab for "later reading" yet never ends up coming back because said reader gets tired of reading such rambley reflections.
PiA 9-month Fellow Report, Winter 2023: I have come to regard this position as one demanding humility…more hours are passed wiping tables, sweeping floors, serving cute lunch platters, and sanitizing chubby little hands than actually teaching English. Initially, this bothered me because I felt like my grade-A liberal-arts-groomed-English-self was going to waste.
“I should be doing something more meaningful!” said I.
“I should be making a difference!” bellowed I.
“I SHOULD BE CHANGING YAKAGE!!!” declared I.
Now, as a 14-month English teacher veteran, I am much more aware of the need to be honest with a job’s realities as opposed to one’s ideals. I’ve had to honestly ask myself: does Yakage’s preschools really need a grueling English curriculum for its 4-6 year olds…especially when they’re not even literate in their mother tongue? Is the town really asking to be changed by a 20-some year old American who will have to leave in a year just so said American can feel purposeful?
The simple answer is: no. According to the preschool teachers, English should just be something the kids get to see as “fun.” One of my first “huh?” moments was when a teacher approached me and asked me to stop using Japanese as a means of explaining…she seemed to care more about having a foreigner be an exemplary “other” as opposed to actually having her kids comprehend English. It was odd having to come to terms with this reality–even though the kids were able to understand the meaning of all 5 vocab words, my lesson was 20 minutes longer than she expected, so it was a “no” in her book.
This relates to the unspoken thought I assume not only this teacher but most other teachers have: “oh no, Kai and Nadia are here today…how am I supposed to fit them into my schedule of 500 things to do today, and how do I spend a whole day with them in the classroom distracting my kids from paying attention to the tasks at hand?”
I completely understand these worries considering the teachers have to teach cultural events, prepare for numerous large ceremonies, do attendance, make observations, have kids play outside, take temperatures, serve lunch, get the kids to change, take naps…the list goes on. Thus, after some attempts to throw in change, I have surrendered to carrying out English lessons as it has been done for the last 20 years:
“Let’s start English, OK?
First greeting time, ok?
Next, ABC song, ok?
Next, today's song, ok?
Next presentation, ok?
Next activity time, ok?
Next reading time, ok?
Next goodbye song, ok?
Next, sticker time, ok?
Let’s say thank you - (with kids) thaaaank youuuu!”
The teachers say these lines, the kids reply “ok!” and we lead each section according to the title (i.e. we choose the motions for ABC song, we choose today’s song and lead singing/dancing, we do presentation, etc.) The homeroom teachers are there to keep the kids in check/put on the CD/re-explain instructions when kids get confused. If the English class runs any longer than 30 minutes, the kids get antsy and disinterested, so it’s difficult to actually seriously call our lessons “lessons.”
You're probably thinking, that's it? And you call yourself an English teacher? Well, I hear you-that's what I thought as well.
What’s more, by the end of the day, when I ask the kids “do you remember how to say__(insert today’s vocab word)__?” they look at me with the most sheepish eyes and run away giggling before I get the chance to review the word. So, I’ve come to learn these lessons aren’t exactly where the most effective teaching occurs. I would have loved to change the flow a long time ago, but if the script deviates by even one word, I am fearful most homeroom teachers will have a heart attack because that’s one more thing they have to relearn and memorize. So, my biggest challenge has been: how should I really teach English? And how should I teach English enjoyably and effectively, especially when it is considered more a “jyama,”-the Japanese word for “trouble/hassle/bother”--than something useful?
I have yet to master the recipe, but there are three key ingredients I have gathered:
Relevance: People are generally more interested in something new when they can attach some sort of connection or familiarity to it. I think it comes to people needing meaning or purpose in who we are, what we do, why we exist. And such meta thoughts apply to English in Yakage as well! Our “ABC” time used to be just singing the ABC song at every lesson. We wouldn’t even stop to sound out each letter, so LMNOP would just sound like “lamanananpa.” With such teaching, it’s no surprise the kids would let the ABCs dissipate into nothingness! Without any explanation or something to connect these letters back to, they are just random clusters of lines and curves.
But then a momentous day–E-chan and I were cleaning up his rice container when he said “Kai-sensei! Look! A!” It was so simple. Even beyond the lesson, English is still found everywhere, and all we have to do is point it out. Since then, I’ve tried to make a point at quizzing the kids with every ABC I see, whether it’s on their chopsticks, their sleeping mats, or on a nearby recycled box. And they are so willing to gather enthusiasm to not only repeat these letters back to me, but to find more on their own. I’ve tried taking this discovery and inserting it back into the lesson where I bring a print-out of something they like such as Minecraft, SuperMario, or Doraemon, and ask them to find the letters. And they get so excited because they can relate to the English in front of them. Since using this methodology of making English relevant in small and simple ways, a lot of my kids are now able to recognize 75-100% of letters. They still can’t write them (though there are a few that can!), but it’s still such a rewarding feeling when my kids now come up to me and randomly point to something and say “M!!!!” ENGLISH!!!!!”
Recognition: Apart from having kids recognize English in their everyday lives, I’ve found that recognizing them for realizing or attempting something goes such a long way. I know it’s not the best to hand out compliments and “good jobs!” super easily, but with English, showing crazy excitement conveys they did something really special and that they DO have the ability to remember words from a language still so foreign to them. For example, K-kun once asked me how to say 100 in English and we went through the repeating motions and called it a day. But then, after a few days, I ran into him at the local grocer. I asked him if he remembered 100, and he thought through a “hmm…huunndddoo…hmmmm…hunndredd…..hmmm one hundred?” and BAM! I went WILD! He REMEMBERED! And now, since then our way of greeting each other is him reciting a new 100 number (i.e. 111, 112, 113, 114) and me going haywire with excitement. Yes, it’s repetitive, but it seems he understands that remembering these numbers is worth his time and effort because he can feel some sort of accomplishment, some sort of pride. And I’ve come to realize that even if all my English teaching attempts are washed away by the time these kids are in elementary school, if I can help them carry self-confidence and pride in their stride by being extra animated with small English victories, then maybe I can leave Yakage feeling like I did something right.
Repetition: speaking of creating a routine greeting with K-kun, repetition is yet another key ingredient to effective teaching. This might seem like a pretty obvious realization, but I did not realize just how crucial the repetitive technique was until finding myself in Yakage. I suppose I underestimated the almost unnatural ability for kids to pick up on language as easily as they do–I knew I reacted to people with an “oh my gosh” but I was not as aware of my intonation until S-chan once reacted to something the way that I say the phrase–”ohH my GooOOOosh” (my secret goal is to get all of the Yakage 4-6 year olds to say "oh my gosh" Kai style. It'd be AMAZING if I came back to Yakage and overheard an "oooohHHH my GoooOOOshhhHH" on the shoutengai. That's when I'd KNOW I left my mark. I often found myself scared of persisting with a certain question or word time and time again because…”won’t the kids get tired of saying this phrase, then get tired of doing English then get tired of seeing me?” But a) I shouldn’t limit my teaching for the likes/dislikes of kids…I’m there as the one vessel of English, so my popularity among 4-6 year olds shouldn’t be an affecting factor and b) I have to stop underestimating the kids because one thing they like is being correct, which means they love repetition since once they know the answer, they’ll get the rush of “rightness” unfailingly. So, repeating and asking for repetitive use of the vocab words, the ABCs, the 1-20 digits, and the words they ask to be translated just out of their curiosity–I’ve found this is a key building block to having kids actually remember and take something from the 30 minutes we call “English Class.” Just today, I was able to get a few kids to remember 11 and 12 by repeat-counting the amount of tofu in their kyushoku dish.
In my last few months, I want to be more intentional about persisting on these three R’s. It is easy to go through a day and realize on my bike ride home that my use and teaching of English was very little, as it is much easier for the kids to listen, respect, and enthusiastically interact with me when speaking Japanese. It is far more interesting for me to be at school communicating in Japanese because I get to ask the best questions, hear the best answers, pick up on the funniest comments, and exchange real empathy and thoughts with the kids (according to Y-kun the purpose of life is to eat yummy food, and according to I-kun, his soul is filled with the heart and star shapes.) But I fear I am being selfish and weak…am I doing the kids a disservice by limiting my English dialogue? Would they get more out of just hearing fluent English without comprehension for linguistic purposes, or is it better to throw in small moments of intentional teaching around simple words and phrases? These are questions still waiting to be fully answered, which makes it a great area for me to advance my teaching effectiveness by working at the three R’s more intensely until my time is up.
Lastly, along with these three R’s, I come back to humility and how this trait is just so necessary in this role. I think I carried a lot of pride when trying to add on new, more complicated ideas to the lesson…but this backfired very quickly because not only does it confuse kids and teachers, it detracts them from wanting to continue doing English. Confusion just discourages the kiddos and creates chaos for the teachers. So, I have learned that simple and realistic is practicing humility as opposed to giving up/feeling defeated. It makes more sense to get the kids to truly learn something (i.e. the numbers 11 and 12, the difference between M and N and W, the meaning of “how are you?,” how to naturally use “I like…”, etc.) rather than just shoving a bunch of information at them, then being disappointed they didn’t even remember one word I supposedly taught them at the end of the day. Being able to focus on smaller goals have come out with results–lots of kids are now able to count to 12, which is something not even my prior 3rd graders could do–so this is something I want to continue practicing in my last few months. Who knew that one of my biggest goals (and hopefully accomplishments) of 2021-2023 would be to get at least 100 (out of 190) 4-6 year olds count up to 12 in English.
In retrospect, all my overcomplicating the position was me trying to prove to myself that I was valuable, I was needed, I was to be taken seriously in the way I wanted. Wow. What an egocentric sentence.
But a legitimate pedagogical and academic English education is not asked for here. I’m finding that it’s more about being an adult figure who can love on and care for the kiddos without the restrictions of being a head teacher. Carrying the “other” identity has given me lots of freedom to be more open and attentive to the kids than the actual school teachers who not only have to uphold a professional face, but also just have to do a plethora of other tasks according to the Japanese system. As I head into the last three months, my daily goal is that my work fully conveys my compassion and care for the kids so I can help nurture them to truly grow into confident and grounded selves.
*Note on the preschool teachers–almost all the teachers I work with are absolute stars. I think it takes a lot of patience to allow a bumbling English teacher–someone that tends to be more a distraction than a help despite how much you want to be a hand– come into their classroom for a day and play teacher with their kids. I am so grateful for their willingness to work with us, especially when they go out of their way to insert English here and there (i.e. exclaiming with “yes! No! Oh my gosh! Oh no! Thank you! I’m sorry!” throughout the day.)
I am especially indebted to one teacher, Hashimoto-Sensei, because she trusted me enough to include an English lesson in her class’ happyoukai, the annual school performance. This is one of the biggest events of the year since it is a large showcase of songs, dances, music ensembles, and plays for all the parents to see. To be included in the repertoire, and being asked to translate, then co-host a 20 minute segment of “English Class” for the parents actually meant so much to me. Not only did it get the kids to take English seriously (and now remember their selected English words for good) but it also exhibited to the parents that these random English teacher visits are actually a part of the hoikuen experience. Perhaps I am too self-absorbed in having felt so gratified to actually be asked to do something outside of the typical classroom stays, but Hashimoto-Sensei helped me feel purposeful for the first time.
