culture shock: full force
I rarely write about the 'job' over here, cos though it might not be as boring for you to read, as it is for me to 'experience daily', it doesn't have the full effect. BUT first time for everything! here is an excerpt of a conversation I had with one of my japanese english teachers yesterday. sympathy will be accepted in the form of comments below.
ALT (me): "I noticed the students aren't grasping today's concept (I tell myself this every day, of every class, at every school). Maybe we should give the students more opportunities to communicate and/or use English during English class. The best way to learn is by doing, right!"
JTE (teacher): "Your role is NOT to play games and make English fun. Most things can be learned best from the textbook, NOT activities."
ALT: (pausing to think of how this style of 'instruction' is only used by the Marines and wondering why Japan would recruit us to move 8000 miles away, only to find out that 1/10 of our potential wouldn't be used); I regain my composure, make a mental note that I have only 8 days left to work with her, smile and say, "OK. Here are some cultural things I'd like to try instead..."
JTE: "Oh, well I don't have time for your culture."
Gee, isn't team-"teaching" fun? The 'job', or lack thereof, has been a growing concern since about my second week on the job. Team-teaching is difficult when you can communicate with the other person, but when they struggle to put even the most basic of sentences together, us ALTs are literally at a loss for words. The more I try, the more resistance I meet. Our idea of 'teaching' is so polarized that often times 'my fun and exciting games' don't appear to go over that well, cos they require the students to 'think on their feet' and use more than one 'grammar point' in an activity. The students freeze up and shut down and seem to forget anything they have ever learned in English. The students, typical spazzy, hornball 15 year olds have been so restricted in their day to day lives that just interacting with others in ANY language is a challenge. I tell my students to watch my body language and gestures and listen to my tone of voice...they NEVER look for these 'clues', they simply hear an English word and look the other way (or look to a friend to try and translate it). the shyness factor greatly impedes their learning english. then you have people like me, no previous japanese skills and no interest in actually studying japanese over here,...who through sheer listening and speaking every day, i can hold a basic conversation and i can get by in my day to day life over here using simple japanese. why, after two, three or twenty years of studying English,...why can't they speak a word of it!? we can't blame the students, but perhaps we should point the finger at the source--the japanese english teachers who, them themselves, refuse to speak english!
i never want to admit defeat, but the 'successes' are so infrequent, that i'm starting to think that the job of the ALT is a bit insignificant--given the way they have their educational system set up. they brought us over here to make english memorable and enjoyable. why don't they give us an opportunity to do our jobs? why would you put me with a teacher like the one mentioned above!? don't expect us to move here and learn japanese, study Kanji for hours on end and act japanesey, while you carry on with your anti-english spiel...that's cowardly. WE are willing to learn some, but its a 50-50 thing right? so why don't they learn some english so we can at least use broken japanglish?
ok, deep breaths. i guess this is what culture shock is. and it has HIT with full force, kinda like the typhoon that has just swirled in this evening. i can't believe that in 48 hours we will be holding the first ever "International Festival" in Taneichi (an event that I coordinated and organized for my town.) I hope the turn out is huge and that it is a positive 'push' in the right direction for acceptance of both foreign ideas AND language.
Ironically, I just got an email from my pal Dave, which read:
"Are you chomping at the bit to go home yet?"
Tonite, I would say that is a slight understatement.
70 days until departure...
ALT (me): "I noticed the students aren't grasping today's concept (I tell myself this every day, of every class, at every school). Maybe we should give the students more opportunities to communicate and/or use English during English class. The best way to learn is by doing, right!"
JTE (teacher): "Your role is NOT to play games and make English fun. Most things can be learned best from the textbook, NOT activities."
ALT: (pausing to think of how this style of 'instruction' is only used by the Marines and wondering why Japan would recruit us to move 8000 miles away, only to find out that 1/10 of our potential wouldn't be used); I regain my composure, make a mental note that I have only 8 days left to work with her, smile and say, "OK. Here are some cultural things I'd like to try instead..."
JTE: "Oh, well I don't have time for your culture."
Gee, isn't team-"teaching" fun? The 'job', or lack thereof, has been a growing concern since about my second week on the job. Team-teaching is difficult when you can communicate with the other person, but when they struggle to put even the most basic of sentences together, us ALTs are literally at a loss for words. The more I try, the more resistance I meet. Our idea of 'teaching' is so polarized that often times 'my fun and exciting games' don't appear to go over that well, cos they require the students to 'think on their feet' and use more than one 'grammar point' in an activity. The students freeze up and shut down and seem to forget anything they have ever learned in English. The students, typical spazzy, hornball 15 year olds have been so restricted in their day to day lives that just interacting with others in ANY language is a challenge. I tell my students to watch my body language and gestures and listen to my tone of voice...they NEVER look for these 'clues', they simply hear an English word and look the other way (or look to a friend to try and translate it). the shyness factor greatly impedes their learning english. then you have people like me, no previous japanese skills and no interest in actually studying japanese over here,...who through sheer listening and speaking every day, i can hold a basic conversation and i can get by in my day to day life over here using simple japanese. why, after two, three or twenty years of studying English,...why can't they speak a word of it!? we can't blame the students, but perhaps we should point the finger at the source--the japanese english teachers who, them themselves, refuse to speak english!
i never want to admit defeat, but the 'successes' are so infrequent, that i'm starting to think that the job of the ALT is a bit insignificant--given the way they have their educational system set up. they brought us over here to make english memorable and enjoyable. why don't they give us an opportunity to do our jobs? why would you put me with a teacher like the one mentioned above!? don't expect us to move here and learn japanese, study Kanji for hours on end and act japanesey, while you carry on with your anti-english spiel...that's cowardly. WE are willing to learn some, but its a 50-50 thing right? so why don't they learn some english so we can at least use broken japanglish?
ok, deep breaths. i guess this is what culture shock is. and it has HIT with full force, kinda like the typhoon that has just swirled in this evening. i can't believe that in 48 hours we will be holding the first ever "International Festival" in Taneichi (an event that I coordinated and organized for my town.) I hope the turn out is huge and that it is a positive 'push' in the right direction for acceptance of both foreign ideas AND language.
Ironically, I just got an email from my pal Dave, which read:
"Are you chomping at the bit to go home yet?"
Tonite, I would say that is a slight understatement.
70 days until departure...
posted by aNne at 7:03 AM
2 Comments:
Hi Anne,
I am comparatively an old man in Japan as I have been here for 8 years already!
Your post has reminded me of a dilemma that I have. I agree with you that translating the text book is boring and that a lot of students are bored with it.
I do not know which country you are from but compared to my country (the USA) Japanese are no worse at foreign languages. Can you say the way English is taught in Japan is better or worse than the way it is taught in your country? I would be interested to know your answer and will let my students at Iwate University know about this exchange if it is ok with you.
Jamie
hard to summarize on here, but i think the US (where I'm from) and the Japan have different objectives for the students taking foreign languages. the US expects people to be able to communicate (verbally AND orally). these are things i remember being 'tested' on during 'ESL/EFL' classes--all of which were conducted in a manner that fascilitated the goal of communication.
japan "says" communication is important, but we know the students have little opportunity to speak in the classroom due to their japanese style of instruction. moreover, its crucial that Japanese English teachers CAN SPEAK English to break this cycle of inabilities: students have 6 years of rote-memorization English class but little speaking practice. if even a COUPLE of those students decide to become a Japanese English teacher, they are ill-prepared for it because of the ineffective English program they were subjected to for all those years prior.
The educational system in Japan, and the foreign language aquisition philosophies of the Western world are so polarized, that I feel English language learners are at a great disadvantage in Japan. Because of the bureacratic ways of this country, many changes would need to take place on all levels, (University requirements, BOE/Prefectural placements/credentials, teacher preparation, high school examinations,...) sigh...its all a bit overwhelming and disheartening just thinking about it. GOOD LUCK to you! what a responsibility you have! :)
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