Live from Locohama, S2/E16: One moment, please
Team teaching with Okubo-sensei is starting to really bother me. Not that I’m hung up on or silly enough to believe that any semblance of a quality English program exists in Yokohama. I’m not. It’s just that…well, it’s difficult to stand by idly while the Japanese English teacher undermines and/or dismantles everything, no matter how minute, you try to establish with your class. I don’t have high expectations. I don’t expect my students to walk away from their three years seated before with the ability to converse in English. I really don’t.
I do, however, have a job to do. And, I take it as seriously as I feel I need to.
I endeavour to make my classes fun and I design my task to engage those students who are not completely adverse to engagement. I make every effort to make my class enjoyable even to those who have absolutely no interest in pursuing English beyond Junior High School. And I put enough into it that if they have even a glimmer of desire their needs will be met. My kids know that if you come to Loco’s class and you give a little effort you can have fun, with English, and you might very well walk away having learned some English almost effortlessly.
At least, this is how it is when I have run of the class. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
After my first few times team-teaching with Okubo, I decided I had better take over her class. The kids were falling asleep…hell, I was falling asleep standing up. Plus she was using me as her English Voice Box. She’d open the textbook, full of the strangest English ever set to print, and force me to read this Japlish jabberwocky aloud to the students and then, tortuously, have them repeat it.
I’d heard about this phenomenon but had been blessed thus far not to work with any Japanese teachers who favored this method of under utilizing ALTs. But, my luck had run out. By the end of the class I’d wanted to empty a whole magazine into Okubo.
Part of the problem was she’d been making her own lessons. This, however, is a problem I did have some experience with, as you guys well know, at my former School A. Turned out that the teacher at School A, Yoshida-sensei, had wanted me to make the lessons but was too afraid to speak up. Okubo seemed that type as well so I got all proactive and, without prompting from her, made a lesson. Then (through my buddy, Akiyama-sensei) I went ahead and made the case to Okubo that it was in her best interest to let me make the lessons, so she could have more time to handle her awesome administrative workload. This was necessary to save her face, you see. She knows she sucks, you see. She’s also the boss (Akiyama’s and mine),you see.
She readily agreed (yappari).
But, alas, it was not enough. She’s a boss, and not the type to sit on the sidelines with her mouth shut. I guess I can’t blame her, really.
I’ve mentioned her odd compulsions before. This inexplicable need to translate every thing that emerges from my mouth into English gibberish or Japanese (which Akiyama informed me on the down-low is often gibberish, as well). And I’ve noticed yet another annoying trait: whenever I say something she doesn’t quite understand, which happens a great deal more often than it ought to considering she is the Head English teacher, she has this habit of saying, “One moment, please…” and then totally changing the subject, proceeding as if whatever I had said had not even warranted a response.
This is how it plays out:
I gave the class a listening task. First, I explained the task, in English, using as few words and as many visual aids and sight cues as possible. The idea is to get the kids used to listening to instructions being given in English. But, in a class where only English is spoken, of what use was she, Okubo must have been thinking. And, remedied that by jumping in and translating everything I said into Japanese, and feeling gratified as the mildly confused faces of the students, accustomed to her style of English teaching where English is used maybe, generously, 20% of the class, became only slightly confused.
I held my tongue and we started the listening task: a simple skit I wrote to illustrate the natural usage of the grammar point. The kids got it. I know this because when I checked their understanding, hands were flying up! But, just to be on the safe side and to give the students a chance to prove their comprehension (and something I do to help me with my nihongo comprehension I must confess) I got the students to translate chosen lines from the skit into Japanese.
At least, that’s what I tried to do.
Okubo jumped in again and declared, in that way Japanese do when they’re seeking group consensus, that the skit was “muzukashii desu ne” (difficult, isn’t it?) and the group instinct took over and half the class decides that what they thought they understood they might not have understood as well as they thought.
I wanted to kill the bitch.
She proceeded to translate the skit, line by line, into Japanese. and, the students…even the ones who had understood the skit before her translation…nodded that ‘naru hodo’ (Oh, I see) nod they do when they want to show they get something that they hadn’t gotten before.
The ultimate result of this foolishness is they stop listening to my English explanations and start waiting for Okubo’s translation. I knew this from experience.
And to make bad worse, her translation is a little off. For example, the grammar point was May I…
May I borrow your cellphone? Correct Japanese translation: 携帯電話を借りても良いですか？Right? She says: 携帯電話を貸して下さい. Translation: Please lend me your cellphone.
I wasn’t weened on gaman (patience) and raised to acqiesce to the aged simply because they’re older. So, it was all I could do not to correct her in front of the class. Especially since I’d previously, painstakingly, explained to the class the difference between borrow and lend.
Nevertheless, while they were doing a reading excercise, gaman exhausted, I did whisper to her: “If you translate everything I say into Japanese, the students will never listen to me.”
She smiled, nodded in agreement, and replied, “one moment, please…”
It’s enough to drive you
Loco
Sounds maddening. I had pretty much the same problem, although at kindergarten level. It just took a conversation with the head teacher to bring the other teachers round to my way (no translations). Of course, in your case it is the head teacher causing the problem!
I hope you manage to come up with some kind of solution.
ganbatte Loco! hountoni ganbatte!
Wow, that sounds irritating as hell. Hang in there!
haha so happy I have company as you know misery loves this. I have my very own Okubo who apologizes after every class. gamansinasai
Great post Loco, don’t let her win ^^
Ganbatte
Hang in there, buddy! There are plenty of JTEs who don’t understand how to properly use an ALT…but if they are sincere and well-intentioned, they will make an effort to try and adjust. Okubo sounds like all she wants is control.
I had something to say. One moment please…
Hisashiburi Bored-san!
Welcome back…
LOL
@Chris D: it is maddening! But, she pumps the writer in me so I have to be careful what I pray for ne.
@YOTR @jeff @enrico thanks! ganbarimasu!
@kim, yep you have a companion in tribulation in me (-: thanks for the shout!
@blue shoe, yeah she wants power, but don’t most people? Even me? Like I said, I can’t really blame her
. Thanks for the shout
How frustrating! You have three goals for the kids: to become comfortable around foreigners, to learn English and to have fun. She couldn’t be more counterproductive with the last two if she tried. At least you still have the first one.
I have to admit feeling badly about enjoying your writing when it’s based on such a rotten experience. But not badly enough to stop reading!
@moogiechan, yeah it is a little frustrating, but like you I’m thankful for the writing material she offers so i’m torn between wanting a problem free work life and wanting my reality show to have interesting characters. If I had a choice i would probably choose her to be the way she is syouganai.
It seems like you two have communication issues.
Have you tried, after the lessons, pointing subtly to Okubo-sensei that you’d wish she didn’t translate everything since sooner or later they’ll start ignoring the instructions in English, therefore not making any efforts to get used to these new sounds and await for a homely translation?
You know, what you just said to us.
Maybe her head’s so thick that she needs further explaining to understand that she needs not to intervene every so often!
I love your posts, I peek at your blog every week or so, waiting for a new one!
Hey Alessia, thanks for the shout. I think you might have misunderstood. I was speaking to Okubo when I whispered that she ought not to translate everything I say.
(-:
Yes but maybe she might take it in a bad way, such as not wanting her to participate. Maybe if she knew the reasons why…
Just sayin’