Hello, my name is

One of the few topics that were harped on over, and over again during the first month here was our individual "self introductions". At the drop of a hat we should be prepared to give a mini lecture at varying degrees of English difficulty and to different age groups. It could be a quick two minutes for the teaching staff or a 30 minute presentation for junior high students. The idea is that you keep a little bag at the ready of anything tangible that can aid you in keeping the attention of kids who are teenagers or younger. I carry photos of my immediate family, a map of the states, a Frisbee, a stuffed Armadillo (for the younger crowd), a superman/batman comic book and my cowboy hat in controlled environments.

The speech I give to my junior high students ranges from real simple "I like..., I am..., I have" to the the use of some past tense sentences like, "I was in America for 25 years. I had a dog.". Its fun because for my first year English students, I have to slow down and use extremely simple words to explain or describe. When I'm doing this, I use hand and body motions to help the kids understand words they may not be used to.

So last week after I got back from the wedding I did a majority of my self intros here at the Junior High on Thursday and Friday. The 1st year students simply listened to me and then filled out a worksheet the 1st year English teacher, Abe-sensei, and I had made. The 2nd and 3rd grade classes were alot more fun. In each of those, three 2nd year and three 3rd year, we started by having the students stand up and introducing themselves one at a time and then asking me a question. Something like this:

Hello, my name is Koji. I play Judo. What sports do you play?

The English teacher for these classes, Ishikawa-sensei, a real nice guy with a great sense of humor, stood on the side and watched. After each students asked their question, I would respond and try to ask them something similar in return. This usually resulted in the following, in this order; a dear in the head lights stare, a quick look to their friends for help, then a quick glance to Ishikawa who was just laughing, a panic look back towards me and then I would say thank you, which was the release on the pressure valve because they new then they could respond "thank you" in return, sit down and watch their friend go through it all next.

What is you favorite sport was a pretty popular question. Others were along the lines of favorite food, my height, my hobbies, etc. One kid, I don't know if he was being brave, funny or just curious, asked me the qualities I looked for in girls. No kidding, Ishikawa lost it and doubled over in laughter, I responded smart and kind. So after all that, I would do my intro, and then the students would write a "luke report" while Ishikawa and I walked about the room helping and making suggestions for the rest of the period.

I got all these reports to correct for errors on Monday. Its great because it gave me a chance to get an understanding for what the students in each level know. Well, while checking these I'm usually reading sentences like this.

By Mizuna-san:
Luke is like Japanese food in karage (fried chicken).
He is play soccer.
There are five members in his family.

By Hiroki-san:
Luke sleeps on a holiday.
Luke favorited color the blue.
His birthday is June fifteen.
Luke likes movies.

Now, there was a good deal that were better than these two but this gives you an idea of the mistakes they make. It has alot to do with how their sentence structure is in Japanese, but that's all for a later post. So I'm going through about 180 of these and about three quarters through them imagine my surprise when I read this by Akari-san:

Luke is very cool.
He makes me happy because he is good at mimicry trombone.
There are five members in his family.

Ahhhhh, yeah. That's really good for their age. Not only that, but mimicry! I was not just surprised, but I'm pretty sure I've never used that word, AND I didn't know if it was even spelled correctly. Hell, I wasn't entirely sure it was a word. I had to go look it up. Forget the fact she forgot a couple of particles, she made me scratch my noggin for a couple of minutes.

This is a good example how even out in the sticks some parents drop tons of cash so that their kids can get into a really good high school. Turns out Akari-san, SUPRISE, has an English tutor. The rest of this week, at least at the junior high, is practice for sports day. More on that later and I promise that will be a post worth reading for sure.

Pics this time are what the board behind me looks like as I give my intro speech. A picture from the front of the class as the kids are working on their reports and a shot of the school from the top floor.