The Even Greater Tokyo Region

Spring Holidays and Spring Changes

Before you get all excited for me, it is not what you think. Classes have stopped, but unless you want to take your paid leave days, you have to come to school. So I have named this week: “The Week of Boredom”. I have almost nothing to do (more so than usual), apart from sitting at my desk for 8 hours (I will have earned a few meals at McDonalds by the end of this entry). It’s not quiet at school though. In fact, a lot of students come to practice their instruments at school so as not to annoy their family at home. That makes the 8 hours pass by much faster.

I have been told by my English teacher to prepare a little bit, for THE REST OF THE YEAR! She gave me a helpful list of things I needed to keep in mind. The mission statement was very long, and in Japanese, but one of the aims was: To make the students think for themselves. Japanese adults can’t even do this, so I don’t see how this is even possible. Basically, they want me to concentrate less on teaching English, and more about “internationalising”, and teaching the students about the world beyond Japan. (“There is a world beyond Japan?” many students accidentally say out loud.). However, I am supposed to teach them this, in English. Great. Simply put, all I have to do, is teach the children about a world they will likely never go and see, while teaching them how to think for themselves, through the medium of a language they can’t understand.
This is going to be fun.

This is not the only thing that will change when the new school year starts in a few weeks. (Actually, when does the new school year start? Someone? Anyone?). From sometime next month, I will be teaching at a third primary (for all you Americans: “elementary”) school. This will be another half day per week. The problem is, this has replaced my weekly Nursery School visits, which I can be quoted as saying was “the highlight of my professional week” [December]. At first, I had no idea what to do with kids from 5 to 2 years old.
Anyways, the ladies working there would always ply me with coffee and sweets, and then I’d go and play with the kids, trying to teach them some English words in the process. After a few months, I really got the hang of it, and I was told that on the mornings of my visit, when they were told I would come, they’d get very excited. One time, as soon as I walked into the classroom, one 4 year-old girl threw her hands into the air, “ルーベン先生とけっこんしたい”. (“I want to marry Ruben sensei”).

Every month, I would come with a new talent to show. I became an “amusagician”. On top of being a human jungle gym, I played guitar, showed my card tricks, juggling routine, kendama, and on my final lessons, I brought my ukulele. Yes, a ukulele is an absolute must-have for thelazy ALT. The Japanese love all things small- cars, shoe sizes and serving sizes are but a few examples. I bought my uke very cheaply, and I play it like-wise. See, that is the beauty of a ukulele. Whenever you see one, you can’t help but smile. The mere sight of it makes everybody happy. And what’s more, nobody expects you to play it well. I quickly learnt a few chords, and now I have a new substitute for actually teaching, which I am a fan of. I have seen the potential of the ukulele, and this will not be the last you hear of it.

There were some sad farewells from all four nursery schools. One school didn’t actual tell them until home-time. The chimes of 40 kids’disappointment was both chilling and heart warming. The Board of Education obviously thought that teaching another primary school was more important than this. I politely disagree, and not just because of the snacks and coffee and milk and all the fun we had. It can be argued that the kids don’t really learn any English from my visits, but then, neither do most of the kids at any of the primary schools. Here, at least, I made a huge difference to everyone’s day, and showed the children from a very early age that foreigners really aren’t so different from anyone else. (Except for that they all do magic, juggling, play guitar, kendama and ukulele.)
Or maybe, just maybe, my work at nursery schools is done. Meanwhile, the Week of Boredom continues.