Class Report: How many (Part 2)

Last week’s class was a bit of a challenge. It wasn’t because of the kids. In fact, I’m so thankful that they’re as energetic and excited as they are, otherwise it could have been a complete disaster. We are still on the “How Many” chapter, this time studying 11-20, which is a lot harder than 1-10. The reasons for this are many: 11-20 has a lot more multi-syllable words, 13 and 14 are difficult for Japanese speakers to pronounce, and it’s less likely that students have had exposure to these numbers beforehand.

Class began with another cultural exchange game, this time showing the differences between how Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and American people write tick marks for counting. Turns out all three countries besides America use the kanji 正 as opposed to the American style of four vertical lines slashed through with a diagonal. There was a bit of confusion on the kids’ part as to what in the book they needed to be counting, but once I clarified, everyone did really well.

Next we drilled the numbers 11-20. Drills are my least favorite part of class, but they’re necessary for the kids to pick up new words or phrases. Once I felt that most of the class had grasped the concept, we moved on to a connect-the-dots game. The students had to listen to my directions to know the next dot to move too. I said each number, waited, then pointed to that number on the board for the students who were having trouble. The puzzle was fairly simple and symmetrical, so about halfway through several students started saying the next number in English. I started asking the kids which number was next to get more speaking practice in.

The last game was the most difficult to explain. There were two charts in the students’ books that each had fifteen boxes. The students put numbers from 1-20 in the boxes then went around the room playing janken with other kids. The winner of each game got to say a number, and both students could circle it if they had it. I was pleasantly surprised to see several students asking for help from me and the JTE rather than just using Japanese, which is what usually happens.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish even the first game. Many of my students were sad, saying things like “No time over” which was both adorable and heartbreaking. I don’t have many classes that are as excited as this one to learn English, or at the very least to play the games. It makes me happy that they want to keep going even after nearly an hour of class. We told them that the next class would start with game two. It should be a nice review for them. I only hope that Rino, who I noticed was absent, isn’t overwhelmed.