Another Thought on English Education in Japan

Three weeks ago, I grew appalled by how my third year students did not understand my English when I spoke the words "noun", "verb", "adjective". Even when I tried using the words "meishi", "doushi" and "keiyoshi", these seniors at an advanced level high school did not know how to identify them within simple sentences written not only i English, but even in simple Japanese.

Luckily, I am given the freedom to create this class' curriculum, thereby immediately changing course from how to argue and make a speech to how to diagram simple sentences.

I began by defining the 5 easiest parts of a sentence to identify: subject, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Next week, I plan to teach them prepositions and prepositional phrases. By separating each of these by colored chalk and writing simple sentences on the board, we've been spending the last couple weeks of repeatedly underlining all the words in simple sentences in different colored chalk.

Loud cries of "eeeeeeeeeee?" could be heard when I informed them that "could have seen" is all one verb form. Same thing when I told them that "a" and "the" are really just adjectives given the special name "articles". I am making them memorize that adjectives only describe nouns, while adverbs can describe other adverbs, adjectives and verbs. As they grasp the distinctions of which words are which, they have become remarkably good at drawing the adjective arrows towards the noun in which they describe, just as how they've now become able to draw the arrows from the adverb to what it describes.

I wish that I would have known earlier that basic grammar such as this is ignored by the typical curriculum made by the Japanese English teachers, as well as ignored in college entrance exams. Now, i can better understand why my students seem to have little confidence in being able to construct their own sentences. Sure, they are masters at vocabulary and memorizing sentence structures, but when it comes down to making their own sentences, they tend to freeze up.

Another topic that I've been focusing on lately during these grammar lessons is learning how to correctly tell the difference between adjectives such as "excited" and "exciting". There are so many of these, which even my English teachers commonly misuse. The distinction that I've decided to make isn't foolproof, but it has helped clarify about eighty percent of the confusion.

For example....students commonly make mistakes in saying "I'm exciting" when they mean to say "I'm excited". In Japanese, the distinction is made between "wakuwaku suru" and "wakuwaku saseru". The difference lying in whether the feeling is being sent out or sent in. These types of adjectives are extremely difficult for them to distinguish.

The explanation that I have begun using goes like this.

Excited-Exciting, Disgusted-Disgusting, Confused-Confusing, Surprised-Surprising

Making a list of these types of adjectives is recommended. After that, separate "ED" and "ING"

I told them that:

-ED is people adjectives
-ING is a thING adjective----notice ING is in the word "thing"

He is excited about the party.---------ED, people----he
The party is exciting for him---------ING, thing---the party

After multiple examples and exercises, they become experts at making the distinction. Of course, this rule isn't fool-proof, as we native English speakers are aware of. "He" can be "exciting" even if "he" isn't a thing.

Nonetheless, once they become used to the rule, I think it becomes okay to explain the exceptions. Hopefully they will learn to distinguish between the two, almost as if naturally.

Lastly, I have been setting up a kind of "office hours" type thing before the midterm and final exam. I compose a very minor section of the listening portion of their test that covers the material they were supposedly to have learned during TT classes. On the last week of team teaching class before a big test, I have announced a special lunch-time review session where I basically go over exactly what I contribute to the big test. It's a bit of a freebie time where I basically tell them what they need to know in order to get a full mark on my small contribution to the test. The review session has only drawn about ten to twenty students, yet it has steadily grown. Besides that, it gains you points in the eyes of your JTEs that you are committed to helping your students become better test takers.

I wish I had learned these things earlier. I may have been a far better teacher had I done so.

六月祭 （Mina tsuki sai) June Festival

In the eyes of the students, the most exciting time of the year is the school's cultural festival. They plan it for months, and look forward to the June weekend with great anticipation. Since I already knew what to expect, and wrote about it in great detail last year, I won't bother writing about it again.

What is Shimada High School's School Festival like?

However, I would like to mark this memory with a few notes to my future self on how I wish I could have done it better. Next year, I want to be more involved in things, I should take note that meetings about the festival begin happening at the beginning of the year. Next year, I want to start making a performance for the OC class earlier. I also want to be in the band disney performance.



These are a few of my OC students.


Look carefully, and you'll see that I am getting flipped off. I wonder if it is wrong that I react with laughter and amusement. Well, perhaps since I rarely witness rebellion, it strikes me as comforting when given just a little.


I love this picture. This is me peeking in on tea ceremony club.


It's pretty awesome to see your quiet, obedient students rocking out.


These didn't taste as good as they look.


I love this photo for a variety of reasons. Firstly, everyone is in pink. Secondly, pictured here are 2 of my favorite students.

Number 1 is Eisuke, a quite amusing boy. He's not in my OC class, however, he became memorable to me last year when after his trip to California he wrote his entire English diary assignment on the hot sauce he bought at the Farmer's Market called "Off your Ass". During the show and tell performance, he put a big spoonful onto a banana and ate it in front of the class. It was awesome.

Number 2 is another of the nameless kids.

Number 3 is Hiroshi, one of my amusing and secretly good at English OC kids.

This year, the OC class performed Green Eggs and Ham. I was surprised to learn that nobody, teachers nor students, had ever heard of this book before.


Here is one scene with Shizuma and Naomi.


I was extremely proud of their effort.

Shimada meets Los Angeles

I visited home, but also accompanied my students on partial pieces of their school trip to California.

If you want to hear the students' impressions of their trip, as well as learning about the preparations of their trip, please visit our 二年生の英語のブログ。(2nd year English class Blog) at this blogspot address:

http://shimadakoko2.blogspot.com/
(島田高校の英語のブログ）Basically, my students being awesome, as always!



My sister and I went to Los Alamitos High School, one of the 3 schools my students visited. This was one of the classes that my students gave their presentations in. It was Japanese class. Had I known how frustrating it is to live almost 2 years in a country without a good command of the language, I'd have studied it in high school. Oh wait, I attended a tiny Catholic school without certified teachers. I barely learned Spanish. I wish I could have gone to a super school such as this one. I had Koko envy.

All the students had an American buddy to show them around the premises. Somehow, I got them to collect to take a massive picture. I don't remember kids listening to teacher figures, but somehow, it still happens.

My sister loved my students.

I love my students, too. Here we are on a Main St. ice cream shop in Disneyland.

And here we are again waiting just off of the Finding Nemo submarine ride.

A class photo of 23 homeroom.

Nemo, found.

It was so cool watching the kids give the presentations they've been work working on for months. I was like a proud mamma bird.

And the American kids loved the shit out of it. It gave me a newfound respect for kids these days. Go babies!