Monday is no fun day
Starting today and for the rest of the week I'll run through a typical week for me so you can all experience 'Being Jason Henwood'. As per usual I'm teaching today. I teach at a private Christian high school called Kobe International High School. It's also called St. Michael's High School, not to be confused with the very fancy private school of the same name that is also in Kobe. I say not to be confused but my school is not in the least bit fancy. When I started working here I was under the impression that it would be quite a good school. In Canada private schools are generally very impressive. Parents send their kids there because they are usually better than public schools. My school in Japan is quite different. It is one of the lowest level schools in the prefecture. Students who can't get accepted at nearby public schools come here. I'm sure most of you have heard that the Japanese educational system is very competetive, from pre-schools to Universities. Students must pass entrance exams for each level of education. Those who can't pass the entrance exams are forced to enter lower level schools. My school caters to parents who would rather pay for their children to study here than go to the lowest of the low public schools.
Now I don't want to make my school sound like the 9th level of Hell. It's not quite that bad. I haven't seen any murderers or telemarketers here. It has it's good points; there is an attached College (which operates under the same principles and will accept ANYONE who can pay), and they have a very strong baseball team. In fact this is probably the school's strongest selling point. Last year one of the players was drafted by a professional Japanese team, the Kintetsu Buffalos. He is probably the most successful graduate of the school ever... even if he got injured and never played in a single game.
Despite the good baseball team the school is sometimes a challenge to teach at. Firstly it's an all boys' school and they are all going through puberty. Guranteed, if I say the word 'six', some boy will immediately stand up and yell 'SEX' to demonstrate his wit to his classmates. However, ask the same boy what comes between 5 and 7, and he's stumped.
The main problem at my school is that the students just aren't interested in English. And for those of them who aren't interested in going to University, travelling abroad, expanding their horizons (I should point out that I've described nearly all my students) it's understandable. English just isn't necessary in Japan.
The other big problem is mobile phones. They are very interested in using mobile phones, whenever and wherever they can. My English Communication class is just a slight roadblock to an otherwise effective 50 minutes of typing text messages to their friends, who are undoubtedly also suffering likewise in the classroom across the hall.
Luckily today my 3rd year class is cancelled. They are on a farm stay trip to New Zealand for a week so I get to go home a few hours early. It will be interesting to hear about their trip when they get back. Some of the students, despite the fact that they have had English Communication classes 3 times a week for 3 years, can speak absolutely no English. They can't introduce themselves, they can't answer the question 'How are you?' OK, too much ranting about this for now. I'm about to head home. I'll get home hours before Yukiko does today so I'll probably relax and watch a movie I downloaded from the Net.
Now I don't want to make my school sound like the 9th level of Hell. It's not quite that bad. I haven't seen any murderers or telemarketers here. It has it's good points; there is an attached College (which operates under the same principles and will accept ANYONE who can pay), and they have a very strong baseball team. In fact this is probably the school's strongest selling point. Last year one of the players was drafted by a professional Japanese team, the Kintetsu Buffalos. He is probably the most successful graduate of the school ever... even if he got injured and never played in a single game.
Despite the good baseball team the school is sometimes a challenge to teach at. Firstly it's an all boys' school and they are all going through puberty. Guranteed, if I say the word 'six', some boy will immediately stand up and yell 'SEX' to demonstrate his wit to his classmates. However, ask the same boy what comes between 5 and 7, and he's stumped.
The main problem at my school is that the students just aren't interested in English. And for those of them who aren't interested in going to University, travelling abroad, expanding their horizons (I should point out that I've described nearly all my students) it's understandable. English just isn't necessary in Japan.
The other big problem is mobile phones. They are very interested in using mobile phones, whenever and wherever they can. My English Communication class is just a slight roadblock to an otherwise effective 50 minutes of typing text messages to their friends, who are undoubtedly also suffering likewise in the classroom across the hall.
Luckily today my 3rd year class is cancelled. They are on a farm stay trip to New Zealand for a week so I get to go home a few hours early. It will be interesting to hear about their trip when they get back. Some of the students, despite the fact that they have had English Communication classes 3 times a week for 3 years, can speak absolutely no English. They can't introduce themselves, they can't answer the question 'How are you?' OK, too much ranting about this for now. I'm about to head home. I'll get home hours before Yukiko does today so I'll probably relax and watch a movie I downloaded from the Net.
posted by Jason at 1:02 PM
1 Comments:
This is Dan. I kept trying to log on so I could actually use my own name, but Blogger seems about as useful as one of your students.
If nothing else, you should take comfort that your job gives your friends plenty to laugh about, and almost a full third of that laughter isn't at you, its with you. Chin up big guy. Better days a comin'!
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