Elementary and Junior High school. That’s where I spent my Monday. In Kosuge to be specific. It’s a small mountain village with roughly 923 residents and 13 junior high school aged children. I visited today because I had the day off and because I’ve wanted to spend time with younger Japanese students since I came to Japan. High school students are very much teenagers. Expressing independance and annoyance with anything they deem pointless or superfluous to their current existence. For about 93% of my students, English falls into that category.
So today, with my friend Clinton, we planned simple lessons, played games, and generally had a wonderful day in his beautiful little town nestled in the woods. Teaching in the classroom became effortless when the stakes were lowered and the teacher I’m supposed to be “team-teaching” with is a native English speaker and genuinely excited to boot. I was startled that the Japanese teachers of English used more English and translated less than any of my teachers. Maybe it’s the fact that the ratio of teachers to students ranged from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4. (Seriously, one class was 3 teachers and 4 kids.)
Clint has the marvelous experience of knowing almost every kid in his neighborhood, as well as having decent relationships with his teachers, many of whom speak English. The smaller scale of everything makes it all much more familia, and makes it easy to see why Clinton is staying a second year.
I brought my camera to Clint’s ready to embarrass the students and make good memories of the day. In all the excitement of wanting to take pictures I completely forgot my camera at his house. I think I have one on my cell phone, not of anything in particular, just of the mountains as we drove out of the second, even smaller, town he teaches in. Maybe I’ll post it tomorrow. I need sleep, having fun wears you out.
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