Quote:
Originally Posted by samurai007
I taught at 2 schools... an Academic school most of the time, and a technical school (that was about 80-90% boys) a few days a month. The actual proficiency level in English was higher at the Academic school, but they were very shy and often unwilling to use what they knew. At the technical school, though, they were eager to use what they'd learned, to the point of shouting it out (in class or outside of it!). We often play games, such as Pictionary, and many times they worked out better at the Technical school because the students weren't afraid to speak out.
I too had a goal to teach them about life in the US, with pictures, a menu I brought from my hometown, stories about all the holidays, different foods, etc.
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That's a good story. And I totally relate.
One day a week I taught at a night school. In Japan, there is no "skipping grades" or "being held back". If you need to be held back, you get to go to "night school". At the night school the students were aged 15 to late 50s. Some students were handicapped. But, a good percentage were really enthusiastic, and I made one of my best friends in Japan with a student there, who was actually a little older than me, at the time.
Anyway, your story reminded me of one of the most bizarre incidents of my time teaching there. I ran into a student from the night school at a local izakaya. He worked at a host club, and often napped in class (at night school) BEFORE he went to work. That's fine. I taught his class once every two weeks. So he was at this izakaya with his fellow host-mates getting a meal before work, probably, and I walked up to them and said "Hi, +++-kun". (I can't remember his name now, but I did remember it then.)
The young man looked at me and said "How do you know my name?". Mind you, this was in a small industrial city in an urban area between Osaka and Kobe. You could count the number of white people living there on three hands at that time.
So he said "How do you know my name?" and his buddies looked at me and looked at him and said "+++-kun. Who is your friend? Who is this guy?" He responded "I have seen him somewhere, but I am not sure." I was in shock.
I said (in Japanese the whole time, mind you) "Seriously, you don't know who I am?" and try as he might, he couldn't remember.
When I reminded him that I was his English teacher, and that I had seen him (or at least the top of his head) in class less than a week earlier his face red and his buddies chastised him for not even recognizing his own teacher, but for me it was a good lesson in recognizing how insignifigant we can be in our students' lives.
Now after that, his buddies invited me to sit down with them for a beer, and I happily obliged. I actually was able to have a conversation with the guy, (after he got over his embarrassment) that I NEVER would have been able to at school. We learned a lot about each other that night. I wish I could say he never slept through my class again, but at least he said "hi" to me every other week before he took his nap.