Tuesday I had a class with the younger students, and after last week I was hoping to try some new things and see if I couldn’t get them a little more under control. My first big break came when one of the parents said that her oldest daughter couldn’t make it today, but she delivered Yuzuha, the youngest of the class. Yuzuha explained to everyone that her mom was mad at her sister, and after last week I could believe how that might happen. I got everyone else settled in, and we started the class.
It went fairly well, but about the 30 minute mark one of the girl students (Mai) who is usually pretty well behaved, thought it would be amusing to stop studying and hide under the table. She learned that trick from Karin, the troublemaking girl that was absent today. She encouraged the other students, and there’s nothing like peer pressure to make a class full of Japanese students grind to a halt.
She continued her mission to not participate for the remaining 20 minutes or so. I don’t mind if one or two students has trouble staying focused the whole class, but when they are telling other students who are enjoying the lesson that they should stop I think that is bad news. The worst part was when I finally got Kento, the quiet boy in the class to sing and act out one of the songs. Mai, who hadn’t spoken a word to him in the last three months started telling him to stop. Apparently the humor in the situation stemmed from me doing the activities without them accompanying me.
Anyway, the class went better than last week but in no way could be considered a success. Bummer.
My other classes went just fine, and I had a junior high school class in the evening that helped cheer me up. When I got home Kuniko was already home and she had made a cold udon noodle salad for dinner. Delicious! I drank wine and drowned my sorrows, and went to bed fairly early. What a day…
