Teaching in Japan :: Jessica's Diary December


Jessica Hartridge worked at Cactus Language for two years as our Creative Designer.

Jessica has always been fascinated by Japanese culture and left Cactus in August to spend
a year teaching in Japan.

December Diary 2006....

Hundred’s and Thousand’s in Kumejima

December was a very busy month in the classroom. Along with all the traditional festive activities like making Christmas cards and singing carols, I also introduced the Kume Island kids to some current British pop culture.

One of the comments gaijins often make about their Japanese hosts is how consistently surprised they appear on hearing about any Japanese customs existing outside of the Land of the Rising Sun. Using chopsticks and eating sushi are the main items of discussion. I have heard that remarks such as “you’re great at using chopsticks!” and “have you ever eaten sushi?” are innocent conversation starters and that the Japanese will try to compliment at every given opportunity. But after being here for five months my patience has worn a little thin.

With this in mind I decided to introduce the students and teachers to a much-loved Japanese restaurant chain in the UK. I am on Yo-Sushi’s mailing list and recently received an email highlighting the opening of another new restaurant in London. Realising this was perfect material to use for a restaurant skit my teachers had asked me to plan for the next lesson, I also saw it as a chance for some cultural exchange. I love the brand identity of Yo-sushi and thought it would be a great ego-boost for everyone to see and hear how hip and trendy Japanese cuisine is portrayed in England and also learn that no less than Posh and Beckham BOE had sushi as part of their wedding feast. (Everyone knows Beckham in Japan, he is the first topic of conversation when people learn I am from England, he is pretty much the British King.)

I printed out some of the brightly coloured menus, had the students make pairs and act out a restaurant situation. They were astonished to learn how expensive sushi was and I pointed out that this could be another good reason to learn English; move to England, open a sushi restaurant and be rich! They also loved the name after I told them that ‘Yo’ is a euphemism for ‘hi’ and ‘yes‘ and they found my pronunciation of ‘Edemame’ and ‘Mochi’ hilarious. I made the mistake of saying I had pronounced it the same as everyone else in England… Sorry! (Note to self; must stop generalising.) All in
all I think it was my most successful class to date because as well as giving the students reading, writing and speaking practice, it also showed them how Japan has influenced life in England. Hopefully it made them feel a little more comfortable about being accepted outside of Japan. I don’t think it was something that I worried about as a child but then I didn’t grow up in a country where practically everyone is the same ethnic origin.

In contrast to my own days as a student in school, the kids seem to love standing up and performing, particularly the boys who are probably the worst at speaking English since they spend most of the lesson messing around. These boys have no qualms in standing up in front of everyone and painfully attempting to read the given dialogue, having had no practice since they talked through that part of the lesson. It’s also different that the kids who are good at English seem to be the most shy in class, as if embarrassed at being good students. Having said that the girls are completely different from the boys and generally the brighter students (although there are some clever boys). Some love to show off their skills and come out with strange things like “my dream is to go for a drive in your car” or “it’s my wish that you read out the “Makino words today!”. Most things seem to be a little off key but I guess it’s just a cultural thing.

Lilly Allen was another topic of hot Brit pop this month and she too went down a storm with everyone. I used the lyrics game again with her ‘LDN’ tune in an attempt to introduce the kids to some current British music and in turn teach them a bit about how young people think and behave in good old England. Of course Lily Allen is not exactly the most positive young UK pop singer around today, but her music has a great beat and I’d just bought her album from Tower Records in Naha. I’m also quite behind the times by way of I’m still a music internet download virgin so I wasn’t about to spend a good few hours trawling the web for something more appropriate. Instead I took my reservations about the lyrics to my teachers before using it in class.

I should explain for those who haven’t heard Lily’s songs that she has quite a dark and shady outlook on London today, but she contrasts this with fresh and up-lifting rhythms; all a bit sugar and spice; a perfect blend for mixed up teenagers. Still, the reference to a pimp and a crack whore would certainly appear a bit too spicy for any classroom but it’s easy to forget that these sorts of words only have meanings in the society that they were created…or if you look them up in a dictionary or have heard them before. I was willing to bet that the students did not know them and would not look them up. My teachers and I agreed that we could dilute the meanings into something perfectly acceptable in Kumejima society; Escorts.

There are many ’men’s clubs’ on the island and the kids are familiar with this ‘entertainment’ as a part of life. I’m not quite sure exactly how positively they are viewed but my teachers thought this was acceptable so I was happy as I wanted to use the song for the lyrics game. It would be a shame to ban a song just for two words when it has many other less offensive reflections on London life, and I personally like Lilly Allen‘s music, which is important as the Jet Programme encourages you to teach people about yourself. I’d have been disappointed if I was made to swap it for some filth like Atomic Kitten or whoever’s popular in the fabricated pop world today, and I‘m not about to teach them how to take drugs or anything so there‘s no cause for concern. Needless to say the lesson was a great success and some teachers even said that students who had previously shown no interest in learning English were now making a real effort. Now you can’t get better than that! I was chuffed to bits and am motivated to make future English lessons even more 3-D.

I am very sad to hear that my small school in the Mario-Kart hills will be closing at the end of the school year in April. The students will be joining another Junior high school which Laila teaches at. This will probably be good for the student’s social skills as the school is bigger, but I’ll miss them and their incredibly cool school. I don’t know any other schools that have electric guitars and a drum-kit in the music room, and some of the students have become my favourites. In a recent school festival they performed some rock music which I think they created themselves. It sent shivers down my spine as I thought this was something I would have killed for to be able to do at school. The next day I gave the drummer who was particularly talented, Oasis’ ‘What’s the Story’ album to borrow and then gave it to the singer, Marina, to borrow for my Christmas break. I know it sounds cheesy but it gave me a happy, warm glowing feeling.

Both the Elementary and Junior High schools made Christmas cards in class. You quickly learn to give the kids deadlines as something that can take half an hour can drag on for days. I gave a ‘Blue Peter’ demonstration on how to make a Christmas tree card then left the students to it with glitter and stickers. As Christmas fell on a Monday this year the poor little angels had to go to school. As a kid I imagined Santa Claus visiting every house in the world on Christmas Eve with everyone celebrating on Christmas Day. It was sad to hear they had to go to school but then they have their own beliefs and traditions which include far more public holidays than we have in England.

The school in the Mario-Kart hills is very lucky to have an exceptionally kind and open-minded teacher. All of the teachers I teach with are amazing, especially compared to some of the stories I hear from other ALTs, but this guy is particularly great. Nobuo sensei came to me at the beginning of December to plan a Christmas party for the students. He wanted this to include cooking a Christmas cake, dressing a tree, singing carols and everything else but in the end we made do with cards, pass the parcel and baking Christmas biscuits. There’s only so much you can fit in to three 50 minute classes no matter how big your heart is. I’d like to point out that no one seems to own ovens here in Kume. They have hobs, microwaves and grills but no ovens. A bit of a problem when trying to cook traditional English food (I’ve been dreaming of jacket potatoes…) Trying to buy ingredients for the Christmas biscuits in the local supermarket also proved a bit of a nightmare. No ginger powder and no one had even heard of icing sugar before. In the end we managed to make our own using egg whites, sugar and a bit of gelatine, and covered the biscuits in silver balls and hundreds and thousands.

We had three classes making biscuits back-to-back which turned out to be a bit shift-work style rather than each class making biscuits and then eating them. This was the first and last cooking class I shall ever attempt, I was violently sick for days afterwards, days before flying to Hong Kong for Christmas.

Kumejima looked very festive indeed and instead of Christmas parties, adults have ‘Bonenkai’s’ or forget the bad things in the year parties. One thing I noticed was that there were lots of blue lights instead of white, red or green. I bet it’s because they use less energy or something equally efficient. There were Santas disappearing down temporary chimneys and reindeers parked in the driveways of many of the houses. For the first time the airport also decorated and pulled out all the stops. They even had Santa waving goodbye as I got on the plane to spend Christmas in Hong Kong. People here love to celebrate, just like everyone else in the world.