So last week I was out of town at the Mid-Year Conference for Kochi ALTs. This year they renamed it the Skills-Development Conference, but don't think that changed anything. Last year was pretty horrible - boring, dull, filled with contradictions and frustrations. This year was a step up. Fewer contradictions and some actual development of skills.
First up we had a lovely speaker who told us all about why Japanese students are
1) just like all students around the world and
2) put off of English by random shit we do of which we have no conscious awareness.So fix it.
That's an over-simplification, of course. It's hard to fit an hour and a half speech into a snarky two sentence summary and still hit all the main points, but I'll try.
For one thing, the professor pulled out a number of excellent ideas for fostering independence and confidence in foreign language acquisition, all of which I would love to implement. Reality confronted, however, and let's remember I'm an assistant who has been here a year and a half and was only yesterday allowed to lead a fifteen-minute portion of the class. And that was after the teacher gave the students a speech telling them how stressed they were going to feel, but not to worry because even she didn't understand me in English or in Japanese. I'm happy to say that the kids did very well, they were more energetic than I have ever seen them, they mostly participated, and none of them suffered debilitating hysteria or strokes of any kind, nervous or synaptical. (not a word, just in case you were wondering..)
The speaker's other point was to say that Japanese students are put off by things like 1) beards, 2) technology, 3) their peers (I can't do much about that one), 4) our attitudes (truth be told, my attitude is sometimes poor - I am trying to mask utter rage and frustration and the closest I can come to content is probably boredom), and 5) their own Japanese-ness. This is true, of course. If the group is unintentional in its acquisition of new skills, the individual may just be paralyzed by the idea of becoming 'different' or skilled at something. Especially if there seems to be little application for it in everyday life.
Other than those little snippets of inadequacy, though, the conference was a success. We got to the end of it and survived, so I count it as a success.
We had a culture day, too, where we got to try out different crafts and projects that we may not be able to do in our own villages. I did calligraphy and martial arts. The calligraphy was fun - more so because I was so bad at it, the sensei (teacher) couldn't even lie to me like she did to the other kids. She wandered around the room giving excellent advice and guidance, happily complementing the kids who did passably well. When she walked by my table, she pursed her lips and tried to smile, but I could feel her soul wilt inside of her as she glided on. I don't hold it against her; I completely understand the feeling. Every time a child runs up to the piano bench and bangs Fur Elise out with nothing approaching grace, sophistication, or even basic rhythm. Story of my life, sister.
Martial arts was pretty awesome. My six months of karate training helped out with the basics. I even recognized the names of the moves the teachers brought out. Then we moved on to nun-chucks, long spears, and a few self defense moves. Loved. It. There is nothing so fantastic as remembering your technique, even if it was over two years ago. The senseis have a dojo in Muroto, but that's quite a hike. I have taiko on those nights, I'm sure.
Anyway, now we're back in our own little villages, back to the grindstone and the wild times of Tano cho. Tomorrow is our last class for the year - we are having our Super-Super (Really) Fun-Fun Grand Review tomorrow. I have to go buy some kit kats or something to hype them up for the end of it. And me. I am definitely going to be drinking from Thursday until 2013.
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