Today was the first time i've seriously wanted to scream at a class. Granted, most of my classes are pretty neutral -- dont particularly like or dislike them, but today, man... talk about pulling teeth. I was at one of my junior highs for the first time, and today is really easy on the students. they just have to listen to me, and on occasion nod or shake their head so i know if they're following what i'm saying. Easy enough, right? Apparently not!
So this school only has 30 students. 9 1st graders, 9 2nd graders, and 12 3rd graders. the 1st and 2nd years were fine, but the 3rd years were sooooo painful. The entire class, just blank stares from everyone. Everyone but one that is. This one kid i gathered pretty quickly is the ringleader. The boss. You can't act outside of what he does because that would just be poor form, right? Soooo, because his English ability out of everyone in the class is the lowest, he has to sit there the whole period nagging at my JTE to translate what i'm saying, and also repeatedly say, "I told you we DON'T understand English!" in Japanese. Seriously dude, someone from Zimbabwe could understand what i'm talking about with all the gestures i do. All you have to do is look up and stop complaining! sheesh.
To make things worse, all the girls' English ability is apparently pretty good, except they are the epitome of shy, and refuse to move during class. Because you know, it'd ruin their image of being shy if they nodded for me on occasion (arrrgh). And this is apparently common all around my island. Girls like English and their ability is high, but they're all super shy. Boys on the other hand, have less of a grasp of English, but are chatty during class. This equates to the type of class I had today. *sigh*
I think the point at which i almost cracked was when i pointed at a picture of my family and said, "This is my mother. What is 'mother?'" Blank stares from everyone. And this goes on for several minutes! They all refuse to mutter out even guesses! C'mon people... you all knew this before you even started learning English in school. Just looking at my picture you could tell it was my mother. Is it sooo much to just take a chance and say okaasan? Their silence as i went on to ask them what "father" "brother" and "sister" meant only increased my anger within, to the point of seriously wanting to walk up to each of their desks, slam my fists down on their desks, and yell out, "Speak up! Do something! Move! Don't just sit there!!!! Look alive!!!" My anger can only be equated with a description that my friend often uses:
"It's good i'm not the Hulk because really, with how angry I sometimes get, it'd seriously be 'HULK SMASH!' by now."
In other news, i think i found at another one of my junior highs, perhaps the only child in all of Izuhara and maybe Tsushima even, that likes the Hanshin Tigers. Totally made my day!! I have one slide of just the Hanshin Tigers logo in my powerpoint self-intro. there's always a commotion, but when i ask who likes Hanshin, no one ever says they do (they're all Softbank Hawk fans since the Hawks are from the nearby Fukuoka). BUT, in this class, one boy raised his hand! Score! I literally ran up to where he was and hi-fived him. Two slides later, i have 2 pictures of Akahoshi (only my favoritest baseball player EVER), and again, that kid got all excited. After class, i went up to ask his name and also who his favorite baseball player is. Guess who it is? That's right -- Akahoshi! I think i officially have a favorite student at that school now =)
And now, it's bed time. Oyasumi!
--Evelyn
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Not many people here root for Hanshin either, but last weekend when I was in Matsuyama, I walked into this restaurant and the walls were plastered with Hanshin stuff. The couple who owned the shop were wearing Hanshin aprons too. It was very exciting. :D
you do know the official language of zimbabwe is english, right? =p
Chris, so it is in Nigeria, too, but that doesn't mean that any old Nigerian that you picked out of a crowd would necessarily understand an American speaker of English (some of which is from the fact that not everyone in Nigeria actually speaks English, the rest of which would be from accent differences -- I speak from experience). BOOYAH! 8^P
Yay, Hulk!
no, i didn't know that english was the official language of zimbabwe, but dont let that distract us all from the fact that my students were sitting there stiller than rocks in a zen garden. really -- i was getting a better reaction from my 2nd graders in elementary school. THAT'S how sad that class made me.
and chieze, i blame you for the words "HULK SMASH!!!!" pumping through my brain for seriously the majority of class that day. oh the anger =P
Awwww... sorry to hear about your tough day. At least it was not the alternative. A class for 40+ teens who know less English than your students and do not care about learning one bit. So all they do is talk amongst themselves and ignore your foreign presences no matter what you do or say. And the JTE just nods thier head and accepts it. That was 50 minutes of hell. At least at the next class the teacher got pissed and we were out of there before 10 minutes had passed.
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