I made a kid cry today. Actually, it really wasn’t me, it was the situation that the teacher put him in, but I still felt bad. The student was a first year student, and in the beginning of class the teacher had everyone stand up and say “Hello, Bryan! My name is X. Nice to meet you!” All the students have done fine, but this one froze up, and despite being prompted by the teacher, he couldn’t continue and he started crying.
One nice thing about the homeroom setup in Japanese schools is that the students rally behind the members of the class that are having trouble or who need support. The students called on the student to try hard, they tried to help him say the words, and when he finally sat down without being able to finish they gave him a round of applause. All this without any prompting or intervention from the teachers.
Later I found out that he is one of the challenged students at our school – mentally he isn’t quite there. At the end of the class I gave him a smile and a wave goodbye, and he nodded at me, so I call that progress.
I had four classes today, and the biggest challenge was trying to keep my self-introduction fresh and interesting. I’ve done it about twelve times so far, and I’ve got twelve or so more to go. I make slight changes now and then to keep it interesting for me, and also to keep the Japanese teacher on their toes.
One difference between high school English and junior high school English is that the classes are infinitely more structured. The students are learning English for the first time, so there is only so much variety that you can introduce. Instead of the free-wheeling classes that I had at Takasago we tend to stick to a script a little more. But, like my previous school, some teachers want to run the show and some want you to run it.
Besides my classes I had a good long talk with Harada sensei (there are three Harada senseis at my school, and all of them are English teachers). This was Hiroko Harada. She wanted to talk to me more because she wants to practice English. She has a really interesting personality. She uses very direct, up front English, and she seemed to be a big fan of American life. She told me today that she used to date an ALT in the past, but they couldn’t make it work out because he didn’t want to study Japanese. We talked about her visits to America (she said the food made her gain 10 kilograms), and she enjoyed looking at all the pictures that I brought. I like her style of speaking and I think she would be fun to drink with – hopefully during a teacher party I can chat with her again.
After school I went up to play a little ping pong with the ping pong club. Today the head of the club came to play. He’s a third year student, and he has won the ping pong championships for the Nishinomiya region, so he’s a bit of a ping pong celebrity. All the teachers had said that I should play him, but when I arrived he set me up with a bunch of lower ability students first. Apparently I had to earn the right to play him. He had a paddle in a velvet case (no kidding), and the paddle surface was covered with a plastic film that he removed just before use. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
I played some of the other students and had a good time. I really puzzled the younger students and did very well making trick shots and taking advantage of their shorter arms. They couldn’t adjust to my style, and ended up declaring me “too strong”. Next I played some of the intermediate players and I did fairly well, coming in about even. Then I played one of the better players. At first I was able to gain some points by being tricky and spinning the hell out the ball. It wasn’t long before they adapted to my style and starting destroying me. I never did play the top guy – I must practice harder to earn the privilege.
I’ve played games with the students before, and my advice is – lose. You are already older than they are, and you are already an expert at English – something that may seem unobtainable to them. By showing a weakness it seems to encourage them, and I like telling them “Nice shot!” or “That was cool!” or “Please have mercy on me.” I had a good time today and I look forward to going back to play again sometime.
I’m back home and it is leftover night. Tomorrow night Kuniko and I are going into Kakogawa to meet up with some teachers from Takasago Minami – lots of people that we taught with in the past will be there. Saturday we have TV delivery and Kuniko’s sister will be spending the night after a concert that she is attending. I’m looking forward to sleeping in Saturday morning.
