Lesson in the library

Last Thursday I felt like a teacher for the first time in weeks. The school year ended the previous Friday, and the 9th graders graduated 2 weeks before that. The students are now technically on Spring Break, though some still come to school for club sports, to get extra help, and hang out. For nearly the whole month of March, I have had very few lessons to teach or plan for. My requests for something to do were repeatedly denied by my co-teacher, who insisted there was nothing I could help out with. Most teachers were quite busy writing evaluations for each student and compiling end-of-year reports, while I remained at my desk, trying to busy myself with email, graduate program research, and March Madness coverage on the internet. In short, I've been really, really bored with my job as of late.

Thursday afternoon, after cleaning/organizing my desk for the 3rd time in two weeks, I decided to go for a quick stroll in the hallway to strech my legs. Passing the library, I heard a string of giggles and poked my head in to say hello. Five soon-to-be 9th graders, were gathered around two computers--some studying, some playing Solitaire, and all chatting boisterously. Seeing me, they shouted my name, and beamed big smiles. Now, understand, these girls are not my best English students. Their efforts in class are, with rare exception, mediocre, and they are usually shy to speak even when they understand. Two of them repeatedly cut up during the lessons and it is usually quite difficult to keep their attention. Outside of class, our communication is usually limited to "hellos" and "good mornings". So imagine my surprise, when they suddenly began to warm to me. Outside of the classroom, isolated from the Japanese teachers, and free from the pressure of tests and textbooks, the girls became quite inquisitive. At first, most of their questions were about my girlfriend--not just her age, where from,etc. but also "Michael, you..girlfriend...where...confession....love?"

However, their attention soon turned to questions about America, and my hometown. Shino grabbed the world atlas off the shelf and thus began our geography lesson (mostly in Japanese). I showed them North Carolina on the map, and we talked about the weather and seasons there. They began shouting place names that they knew and I pointed them out on the map (New York, San Francisco, Disneyland and Disneyworld). Misato wanted to know where the State of Austria was, and was embarassed when I turned to the Europe map. Suddenly, Ayumi shouted "Ken-tah-ki !!!" (what the Japanese call KFC) when she saw Kentucky on the map. She hadn't realized it was a state, or even that KFC was an American chain. After, we talked about distances between things. They were amazed at how big America looked--Natuski exclaimed, "I thought Miyagi was big! (the prefecture where we live), I bet 10 Japans could fit in America!". They were also surprised to see how many expressways exist in America--when I told them they were usually free (in Japan, the expressways are quite expensive toll roads), they said: "Wow! America is the BEST!"

Then Natsuki remembered that I had mentioned living in Panama and wanted to know where it was. I began to talk about the Panama Canal, but only Misato knew what a canal was (even though I used the Japanese word). Together, we gave an excellent and comical explanation to the other girls using Japanese, English, and gestures (using my arms for the locks AND the ships).

Later I retrieved my laptop from my desk and showed them photos from home, of my family, and of the different countries I've visited. However, they were most fascinated by the places I've been to in Japan, and I once again remembered how lucky I am and what an incredible experience I have had here. The irony of me teaching something about Japan was not lost on them. As we were looking at my photos from the summit of Fuji-san, I noted the "unkai" (literally, cloud-sea) below. Several students were confused by the word, and then most impressed when I explained the term by its kanji characters...

It was a treat to relate to the students in a pressure-free environment as it is often difficult to make connections with students in the classroom.