Australia Report One: Australia Can Be A Scary Place

Our second day here, Amanda and I visited Wildlife World and the Sydney Aquarium.


So I had some idea of Australia's reputation for dangerous animals, but I still managed to learn a few things during this trip. Australia has the most deadly spider, the funnel web.


It is also home to the top three most venomous snakes in the world.


Here's number two:


And number one:


Here are the one's I didn't know about. According to Guinness, Australia has the most dangerous bird in the world.


What is it? The cassowary.


It also has the largest cockroach on earth. Not dangerous, but certainly interesting.


I'd like to think that the cuddly, mostly harmless indigenous species of Australia are Gods way of apologizing for all these deadly ones.



Tomorrow: dinosaurs!

Keeping Busy

With only six months left until my contract runs out, I’ve been trying to stay involved in as many student-centric activities as I can. Last weekend, I traveled to two volleyball games and attended a play put on by one of my elementary schools. There was also an ALT party Saturday night that was a lot of fun. But I suppose all this really started a while back.

Two weeks ago, in a rare display of actually telling me what was going on outside class, I received a flyer from my Wednesday school explaining that there would be a performance and discussion of a drama outreach program. I have grown pretty close to my students at this school and decided that I would try to make it out to see the play, especially considering it started at two in the afternoon and only lasted a few hours. That night, I was visited by one of my students at my home, who had another copy of the flyer to give to me and was sure to explain when and where the event was. I tried to say I wanted to see it, which she mistook as a question and told me she wanted me to come. It was very sweet.

I was not as fortunate to receive advanced notice of the volleyball games, instead having to rely on my kids to keep me informed. Literally two days before the games, I was told by one of my students when the game would be, though she didn’t know where. I had to talk to three different teachers to find out where the games were (both boys and girls) and get directions.

The games started early Saturday morning and were a good 40 minutes from Ariake. The boys’ game was in Matsushima, which is a bit closer than the girls, who were in Oyano. I got to the place the boys were playing, a public gym called Aroma, a little after nine and stayed for about an hour. Our boy’s team is quite a bit smaller than the girl’s so I couldn’t talk to any of the players as they were having to play the entire time I was there. A few of my third grade boys showed up and Tazaki sensei was there to see her son play, so I still had a few short conversations and didn’t feel too out of place. Tazaki sensei was the one who had written my directions for me (in English!) and was happy to see they had gotten me there safely. The boys won their first game and were about to start a game against Tazaki sensei’s son’s team when I had to leave. I told her to let me know how the games went Monday, which I think she understood.

I stayed at the girl’s game quite a bit longer than the boys, as I got there right before lunch and was only able to see the very end of a game. Ariake has so many members in the girl’s volleyball club that we actually have two teams at any given tournament. This means a lot more time to talk with my students as there is usually one team playing while the other rests or refs for other games. I was kept pretty busy cheering during the games and spent all my free time talking with the parents and the kids, so I actually didn’t get any pictures. I left around one and stopped off at Mos Burger before going home to rest and prepare for the party that night.

This month’s party was at Erik’s house, which I had only been to once before. We got pretty close before getting lost and having to call Erik for directions. This month’s party was a little smaller than last month, but awesome nonetheless. We played Crocodile Dentist, Telestrations, and talked about internet memes which resulted in Erik getting a new catchphrase.

Telestrations was especially amusing. I think having Anne, Emily, and me go after one another is an awesome idea, as Anne sometimes doesn’t know the phrases or will draw busy pictures, Emily delights in making random, absolutely insane guesses, and I will draw anything she writes as best as I can. This combination resulted in the pictures for “Why am I married to the matrix” and “A dead guy giving a powerpoint presentation in front of a scenic landscape” pictured below. Watching Amanda’s face, who was next in line to guess these pictures’ meanings, was priceless. This game also saw two failed attempts (by me) to use song lyrics to convey the ideas of Pina Colata and Pocahontas, Daniel’s rather disturbing notion of what a “powerstrip” picture should have been, and a few rounds that actually ended up with the correct word.

We were up pretty late at the party, so I slept in the next day, even missing my tokusatsu shows. Not long after finishing lunch, I headed out for Hondo and the drama outreach performance. The plays were pretty amusing and the focus was on conveying ideas through actions, so even I understood a lot of what was going on. The first one was performed by my fourth graders and was about keeping the oceans clean. It involved a lot of animals, like fish and birds, as well as a boat all acted out by the kids. The only props were signs that set up every scene. The fifth grader’s play was a bit more complicated and included at least one location that I had no idea what it was meant to represent. I do know that it involved a school and an onsen and had a fair bit of humor that you probably wouldn’t see in a children’s play in America. For instance, there was a scene where one of the students goes to the restroom and actually pantomimes using a urinal that wasn’t a prop but one of the other kids.

Only a few of my kids saw me, but several parents and teachers greeted me. I also overheard one of the drama instructors teasing Riko for something I noticed a while ago. Riko is a fifth grader, but her second grade sister, Wakaba, is already taller than her. When she came over to introduce herself as Riko’s younger sister, the instructor kept insisting that Riko was younger. It was actually pretty amusing.

Following the plays was a brief intermission in which I took the opportunity to take pictures of the display out front that showed the preparations for the event. Next was a panel discussion about the program that included representatives from the Amakusa City PTA, the principal of the school, one of the instructors, and a few others. The panel lasted an hour and since I couldn’t keep up with what was being said I tuned most of it out.

I asked around Monday and found out that both the girl’s and boy’s volleyball teams had placed in the top three on Saturday, though it was only one of the girl’s teams. Tazaki sensei’s son’s team ended up taking first place, which means they beat our team twice L. Wish I could have stayed around to see what I consider a victory, though given what I’ve seen at other competitions, many of my kids already have the mentality that anything less than first is bad. Pretty busy weekend. I have Shikaki Festa coming up next Sunday, but the weekend promises to be at least a little less busy than this one.

S-san

Looking over a few of my more recent posts, I’ve noticed a trend toward depressing or angry entries. I need some happy to get over all this sad, so I’m just going to talk about how awesome one of my students is. Since I’m going to talk at length about a single student I won’t be using her real name and will substitute in “S-san” instead. S-san is a second grader at my junior high who not only has far and away the best English of her peers, but shows an active interest in learning anything and everything she can about it. She takes extensive notes in English class and actively seeks out students from the other half of class (we divide each class between two teachers) to incorporate differences in their notes into hers.

Talks with her are very easy and usually flow quite naturally. As a result, I have probably learned more about her than any of my other students. She has told me about the classes she likes and the one’s she doesn’t and, more importantly, can tell me why. I know when her birthday is, her favorite foods, why she plays volleyball, what she wants to be (an English teacher or an archeologist), and why she always draws herself as an adorable fox on all her class projects. When I have a question that I have to repeat a few times for other students or say in simple (and sometimes incorrect) English, S-san responds the first time without any hesitation. Her passion for learning inspires me and gives me hope that what I’m doing here has some meaning.

I probably first saw S-san fairly early on in my teaching career. She would have been a first grader at the time I arrived in Japan. More than likely, she was very quiet in class and I’m a bit ashamed to say I really didn’t take notice of her until a full year after arriving here. I consider our first meeting to be the volleyball game I went to last summer. There, she worked up the courage to start a conversation with me, an occurrence so rare among my students that it really stuck in my mind. She didn’t have perfect English, but I could understand her meaning easily. She asked if I could read kanji. When I told her I knew a little, she asked if I could read their headbands, which had the kanji 心 (こころ, kokoro) which means heart or spirit. The smile on her face when I talked to her was priceless. She was so happy with such a simple conversation that I really felt I needed to get to know her better.

At the time, I wasn’t aware of just how good S-san was at English. Or perhaps the simple fact is that she wasn’t. I get the sense talking with my various grades that second grade is the time when students really buckle down and pick some subject or skill that they really want to excel at. After all, they need to have a high school picked out by the middle of their third grade year and most of those are rather narrow in focus. For instance, I know of at least one teaching high school in Kumamoto and there is an engineering school in Hondo. My point being that over the next three months or so, while I did have fairly regular conversations with S-san, I was not actively seeking her out to talk with her. I only gradually became aware of how much simpler it was to talk to her, how she would help her friends by translating what I said, and how she was always at or near the top of the class in English.

It’s a difficult thing, sometimes, to see so much potential in a student. On one hand, you want to nurture their talent, help them get better, and push them to try new and more difficult things. On the other, you don’t want it to appear like you’re favoring them over the other kids. So while I admit I’ve made time for S-san, by speaking with her after school or periodically joining her cleaning group, I try to do the same with my other students as well. The key differences are what I’m able to talk to her about and the fact that she will come to talk to me.

Recently, S-san has begun writing in a special English journal once a week for me to read. I get it from her after cleaning time and return it after school. I’ve tried to make it clear that I will do the same for any student, and I’m hoping the extra interactions between S-san and I will encourage other kids to do the same. In her first entry, S-san asked for my email address, which I gladly gave her. Of all my students, I feel like S-san and I are friends. In her first email to me, she told me she was very happy. And you know what, I am too.

Update: S-san wasn’t able to keep to her journal for too long and is now a third grader, which means even more time has to be devoted to study. I still e-mail her occasionally and she responds in English, but I haven’t seen much of her lately. She still seems to be doing well in class and is as enthusiastic as always, but is shy around others and will use her amazing English only in one-on-one conversations with me.

If the Robots Take Over...

Recently, I’ve been reading up on the trend in Korea of replacing English teachers with robots. Proponents are quick to point out that the children are really excited about it and that interacting with a robot might be easier for the shy students in class. They mention that the robots only need routine maintenance and will never ask for a raise or complain about work conditions. Also, the robots are programmed with games and music that they can “dance” to (it was in quotes in the article I read).

It’s time for a rant. I don’t even know where to begin on this one, as I find it such a monumentally stupid concept. I suppose before I really get into it I should acknowledge that some have asserted that the robots are not meant as a replacement for teachers and are only there to enhance the education experience. Also, this is only happening in a very small group of schools in Korea, so it’s not like there is a giant robot uprising that will see the end of my career, or my life, by next year. I am aware of all of this, but it makes the notion no less ridiculous.

First, a little bit about the robots. The worst I’ve seen appear to be little less than walking trashcans fitted with voice recognition software, and we all know that that is flawless. At best, the robots are actually controlled by a real person in the Philippians, who can see, hear, and speak with the children. Even then, however, there are a few problems. The first is the design choice to not show the actual teacher’s face on the monitor, but a generic Caucasian one. Why do that? I also have to assume that the range of vision for the teacher is rather limited and those robots, streamlined as they are, might not turn all that quickly. Can children goof off behind their robo-teacher’s back? And what if they do? What if there’s a fight or somebody gets hurt? Even if the teacher can take action, by calling the school for instance, the fact remains that a real person would be able to react faster to an emergency. Which brings me to my last point: if you’re going to hire a person from the Philippians to control your robot and run your English class, why not just hire him or her to teach at your school? There are so many more benefits for your students to having an actual person teach them, which I will discuss below.

Looking beyond the specifics of the robots in question, there are still several glaring flaws with this plan. The first and most obvious is the artifice of it all. I wonder what Korean schools that have taken this approach feel the purpose of English instruction is. If they feel it’s to interact with foreigners in any capacity, which I have to assume they do, then they are doing a disservice to these kids. While it may be true that interacting with a robot is easier for shy students, it is not helping them with their problem, only substituting in a weak alternative. Case in point, I was far more willing to play around with the robots at Canal City in Fukuoka than I was to approach a Japanese person and start up a conversation. Pushing panels on a touch screen, however, in no way changed my outlook on spontaneous human interaction. The only thing that has changed that is talking to real people. I’ve got my fair share of shy students and I try my best to show them that talking to me doesn’t have to be intimidating. Can the robots crouch down to speak to younger students? Can they smile in a way that isn’t creepy as all sin? Can they give a thumbs up or do anything to actively interact with kids beyond speaking to them? It certainly doesn’t seem that way.

As I’ve mentioned several times on this blog, my relationship with my students extends beyond the classroom. I go to community events, sports practice, games, other classes, and chat with my students during passing period. These robots seem incapable of doing any of that and honestly those are the times I feel my students really need me here. My JTEs have told me on more than one occasion that the students are very good with recycling material but have trouble with original thought and creativity. It’s not really surprising when you see how many junior high classes are run, with students learning a grammar point then translating a page in their book to Japanese and maybe, if there is time, coming up with a single sentence of their own. My time with them outside class is unscripted. I can potentially ask them about anything, and they have to really think about what they are able to say and how they can answer me. There is also this strange phenomenon I’ve noticed where children will use English when I’m around even when they aren’t talking to me. I’ve heard kids use “thank you”, “I’m sorry”, count and do all manner of other things in English when talking to each other. Well, all of that’s gone for these Korean kids, because there robot teacher is likely to only show up for class, teach the lesson, and go offline so that the person controlling it can go teach at another school remotely or maybe just collect their check and be done, I don’t know.

There is so much more about this that gets under my skin, but I’ve hit the main points, so I’ll just rapid fire a couple more here. I just love how proud these people are that their robot is programmed with games. You know who else is? Me and any other teacher you could hire. The difference being we can change our games to accommodate different skill levels and we can make up new games on the fly. But the number one detriment is the loss of any relationship between teacher and student. I know I’ve got a few students who try hard or do extra work because they want to talk to me and get to know me. I’m here partly as an example of the bare minimum English skills can get you, a new friend. Robots might be neat and the kids might find them interesting in the same way as a new toy, but it just isn’t the same.

All right, getting off my soapbox. I’m done.

Down Time

So, when I'm not busy teaching or preparing for English class, I like to sit in on other classes with my students. My favorites are music, art, home making, and science because they don't require a whole lot of Japanese knowledge to follow.



At first I was reluctant to join these classes, feeling like I might be imposing on another teacher's lesson or distracting the kids. I still feel this is an issue with some subjects at the junior high, but most teachers are happy to have me join in. PE classes at elementary school are especially fun. Warm ups usually involve a game like tag to get the kids moving around in a fun way. I think having another adult to play with the kids gives the teachers a bit of a break.

Elementary science classes in Japan are nothing like I remember from my school. The kids get to run fun experiments with open flames (see above) and breadboards, which I don't remember seeing until high school. Most of these classes are interactive and when I join, I get a chance to participate as well. It's pretty great.


Junior high home making and wood shop classes are a great way to see the kids' creativity. I wish I could join in on some of their projects, but even though I visit the school every day, I'm not there often enough to join consecutive classes. Plus, there's always the possibility that I'll be busy with a class.

There have been a few days where I've spent more time with my kids outside of English class than teaching. As much as I enjoy teaching, I feel it's equally important to spend this extra time with my students. It helps get them comfortable around me and, I hope, projects a good image of foreigners.

Photo Friday: Koi Kites

May 5th is Children's Day, a holiday in Japan to celebrate (surprise!) children.


The most visible indication of this holiday's impending arrival is the koinobori, or carp streamers, displayed in front of households with children.


The black koi represents the father and the red represents the mother. A koi is added underneath for each son in the family, though more recently I believe one is added for every child. The koi are meant to represent the family's hope that the children grow up to be strong, as legend says that a koi who swims upstream will become a dragon. They look really cool on windy days, flapping in the wind as though they are swimming in the air.

First Special Needs Class of the Year

I teach an English class for the special needs children at my junior high about once a week. It’s not a duty too many ALTs I’ve met have to deal with on a regular basis and while it’s certainly fun it can also be really challenging. This year I have two students, a boy and a girl. I taught the girl last year and she only has a slight learning disability so I’m already pretty familiar with how to communicate with her. The boy on the other hand is new and necessitated hiring a second teacher to run his class, so it was already clear that he would present different problems. I haven’t asked about him yet, but it appears as though he has ADD. It’s very difficult to keep his attention and though he knows a little English, it’s always disjointed, making running a themed lesson pretty hard.

For my first lesson, I did the English alphabet. It seemed like a good place to start as I knew both students were at least a little familiar with it. Before we started, I introduced the warm-up activity I began last year, which includes five commands: stand up, sit down, spin, bow, and jump. It’s a really simple activity that can be expanded over the course of a year. For instance, after the lesson on numbers this week, I’ll start adding a number before some of the actions.

The start of the lesson was probably the most difficult part, though that’s true for a lot of classes. Mindlessly repeating things is just not too exciting an activity. Things picked up when we started playing games, though. First was karuta, which kept both of the students entertained enough to pay attention. Karuta, if I haven’t explained elsewhere, is a card game in Japan where something is read out loud, traditionally a poem, and players have to find and hit cards with corresponding lines. In English class, this is usually reduced to calling out letters, animals, subjects, etc. and having the students hit cards with those things on them. Whoever is fastest gets to keep the card and at the end of the game, I have them count how many they have and declare a winner. Both of the kids did really well, with Shiori barely coming out ahead.

Next, we played a game in which they could say up to three letters in alphabetical order and were trying to not be the person who says “z”. This game was a little more complicated and it became apparent that while Shiori understood the way it was played, Shouma was simply repeating what we asked him to do. All the same, he ended up winning two of the three games. Lastly, we did a connect-the-dot that used upper and lower case letters instead of numbers. When they finished, I asked them to write what animal they had drawn in English below the picture (it was a bird) and to write their names somewhere on the page. We finished class by coloring the picture.

It was a decent start to the year, but it wasn’t without problems. If I had one major complaint, it would be that the Japanese teachers did very little to help class along. I’m fine with planning the lesson, and in fact have a number of ideas at the ready, but the special needs class used to be among my favorites in no small part because the previous teacher was so open and friendly during class. She would always try her best to speak to me in English and joined in most of the games. With the current teachers, I feel like I’m putting them out just asking them to come over and help me explain something difficult to the kids. I still think I’ll have a good time teaching the class, but it’s not the same as it was.