Japan Part II

Friday Night is our Jr. High class.  Lindsey and I used to teach the class, but then because of schedule changes and such James is now teaching it with me.  The class is 2 (sometimes 3) girls and 2 boys, so it is nice to have a guy in there too.  The oldest boy (8th grade) is probably the trickiest dynamic.  He is a great kid, but last week he was barely responsive after an intense week of mid term tests at school.    I have nothing positive to say about the Japanese testing system (and I LOVE tests!).  A couple weeks ago one of the high school English teachers was getting Lindsey to help explain a really difficult reading selection so she could "teach/test" on it...not her choice, but the school board's.  Many American kids would not do well on the written English tests they give to their students who can barely greet you in the hall.  The Japanese kids don't do well either...they just all get low scores (which is what the tests are designed for) and feel guilted into "I need to study more" attitudes.

So, with that academic set-up for failure is often how the kids come to us - frazzeled, overwhelmed, and burned out on studying.  That makes teaching English on a Friday night a bit of a challenge sometimes.  However, most of these kids and/or their parents, realize that there is more to life that good test scores and that language is more than memorization - so we have the freedom to make class fun an communicative...and occasionally do writing and workbooks.

Last night, the older boy was especially distracted though.  Not by the girl from the first week (she was absent), but by the Bible Manga (New Testatment done in manga/comic book style).  We have them in the room for the students to read before/after class (they are in Japanese).  As much as I love them reading the Bible...I don't let them read Japanese during English class.  I had to physically take it away from him more than once.  He actually put up a fight too!  After I had taken it away a couple times the other boy took it away from him.  (that was pretty funny!)  I told him "I love that you are reading this...just do it after class please!"  So after class he snatched it up immediately.  Twenty minutes later his mom came looking for him.  She and I talked for awhile and then she tried to get him moving.  No response.  He was deep in the middle of the story.  "Come on!  Your brother is waiting in the car!" she said.  No response.  Finally I said (in English even), "You can take it home and read it and bring it back next week."  Response: Jr. high grunt of acknowledgment as he stood up and walked out the door carrying the book, without taking his eyes off the page or saying anything to his mom or me...just kept reading.

Have I mentioned that I love junior high kids?!  I don't know why others don't.  They are completely unpredictable one day from the next - always exciting and full of surprises.