The Japanese Way...

I finally hit the wall with one of my teachers, I knew it would happen, and it did...

Classes so far (For first and third years, anyway), consist of the same sort of thing; the children stand up, we say good morning, they say good morning, we say how are you, they say I'm fine thanks how are you, we say I'm fine thank you, they sit down.

Then we get a piece of English, and we drill it... usually, they want me to read it and the class repeats after me. This goes on for 45 minutes...

The children are asleep (Wouldn't you be?)...

So, today I said to Ms. 1st year; "I think perhaps we should shake up the drills a bit, do a game or something, make it exciting..."

She says: "You have opinions. But that is not the Japanese way. We drill, that is the way it is done."

BAM... the door is closed...

Later, I talk to Mr. 2nd year: "Ms. 1st year says that is just the way it is done... but I disagree... children are children, whether they are American or Japanese... These kids are asleep before the bell rings..."

Mr. 2nd year: "I agree with you, let's shake up the class a bit..."

Did I mention I love this guy? He's new to the school this year, and in fact he is fresh out of college... he's a real sharp fella, and he has a lot of good ideas.

One of them was to split up his classes, he let the students choose which level they wanted to be in, and then he took the slow group, Ms 1st year took the medium group, and he gave the advanced class to me...

And he is willing to let me experiment with them (Insert wringing of hands and evil genius laugh here)...

I had that class for the first time today, and two of my advanced girls (Mind you these are all 2nd years... 8th graders), asked me if it was okay to write their names in cursive... cursive... I'm still trying to get some 3rd years to write their names in English... never mind cursive...

And these are my 2nd years...

At least, in the ocean of droning English drills, these kids can have one class with interesting stuff...

Haul out the exploding cars and sinking ships! This class will ROCK!

---Evil Genius...