"Why do I have to study English, Mum?"

It is one of the good questions my daughter asked me once. She is 14 years old, studying English at a private Jr. high school. She took the entrance exam and was accepted a year ago. When she entered the school, she was full of enthusiasm to learn English which she had been exposed as soon as she was born by her mum, myself. As soon as she became 5, we started going abroad and enjoyed our adventure in a different country. In Vaucouver Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, Australia and Guam we travelled on ourselves on a tour or visit my friends living there. She played with some of local kids and joined some of local summer programs for kids as well. She had no fear of speaking English in spite of her low English proficiency. Her speaking ability wasn't so bad as a Japanese kid who had never lived overseas. But her strongest skill in the second language learning is her low anxiety in communicating in English with locals. She developed an excellent non-verbal communication skill via exploring the foreign cities and being exposed to the local cultures.

So, when she marched into English education at the school, I didn't imagine she would ask this question, "Why do I have to study English?". In fact, I was quite offended by this inquiry of hers because I felt that my identity as a bilingual was questioned as well. I didn't answer well at that time. But later she started hating English as a school subject due to the miserable test scores she kept on getting at school. Finally, last semester, she became the worst three students in English and she asked me this question again. This time, I tried to answer her question sincerely because she looked desperately in need to hear my answer.

Here is what I said to her:

I didn't want you to abandon possibilities to take a part in the growing global village where no country boundaries, no ignorant discrimination towards race, nationality, gender, social status, education background and other measures that people used to have due to the lack of accurate information. But I am also aware of the pitfall of the so-called global village where developed and economically dominating countries exploit developing countries via using their cheap labour and products. Losing unique and outstanding cultural identities including the staple diet, the language and regional rituals would be a great loss for the multi-national world with numerous cultural heritages for the future generations. But taking a part in the global village would be better than isolating ourselves in the rapidly changing multi-cultural society. Because I believe that we evolve by adjusting to the changes and learning something new under a new environment. If we stop evolving, the humanity won't survive. And whether you like it or not, English has become a global language and it is one of the most useful tool to have as a communication with as many people as possible under the current circumstance. The status as a dominant language that English has might change as the global economics changes.  But for our generation, such a big change would less likely happen. So, considering the global current circumstance, it is my responsibility, as a mum, as a facilitator of learning for you, a guardian of your future to tell you the potentials of learning this dominant language, English. It is just a potential and it is you who open many doors by using the language as the key. Please remember that you have so many potential abilities to lead a life that you feel proud and love. It is possible to join the global circle to make things better for you and your children without learning English. But equipped with a good English proficiency get you in without so much hustle.  Besides, the way  English is studied at school is just one way. It is not at all the one and only way. In fact, there are so many ways that you may have difficulties to find the most suitable one for you. So, it is too early to stop exploring now and conclude that you don't need to learn English just because a way of studying the language is not suitable for you. Give English a chance to represent your own mind and soul. Once you acquire one more way to speak your own mind, it surely will enrich and empower your presence on this planet.

This is the answer from me to my daughter but I can't tell anyone who ask this good question in any other way.

Lessons for life

My daughter stopped going to the brass band. She needed a break from all the practice, pressures and unnecessary and unpleasant conflicts within the members. She became physically so sick that she had to skip school. To get her healthy teenage life back, she has decided to leave the club for a while. ( It can be for good.) After solving slightly serious problem, she has gained her health and became the cheerful girl again.  Thanks to my partner for taking his time and offering what she needs when she asked him how to play the guitar. I suppose her soul craved for music and the guitar was there. It was miraculous that she actually went up to his room and showed him her interests towards playing the guitar. He did not miss the chance to show her he is also in her cheering team. From that moment, her lesson for life has started.

It is not only about music or playing the guitar. It is about the legendary musicians such as Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Tracy Chapman, R.E.M,  and their legacy and souls. She has been immerged in their harmony of melody and lyrics. Their music got some power to move even the most apathetic girl towards real life at that time.

This apathy that my daughter showed and declared towards real life bothered me so much. I blamed all the digital culture she is surrounded by. In fact, I was about to organize anti-social networking group to protest this soul threatening addictive culture. She is really into tweet and social networking with other teens she has never met. Her favorite ones are called utaite-san or the singers who upload their own singings to Niko-niko douga (Japanese version of youtube). Some may be talented but many of them are just enjoying to share their performances and comments from the viewers. My daughter is one of the viewers. I won't be bothered if she was the one who upload her performance for it might be a sign of creativity and her own expression. It has been the hardest job I've ever got to take iPhone from her and get her in bed to get some enough sleep to live! Otherwise, she would go online all night long talking to someone she never met. What do you call that if not insanity or addiction?

But after she met those legendary musicians via my partner and his guitar lessons, the way she deal with social networking and online culture has changed. She started listening to great music and reading books as well. She must have realized the taste of good stories again. She also started going out with her classmates and other club members from her school who enjoy my daughter's presence and treat her  as a fellow human. I detect a bit of sweet scent of the puppy love that would burn your soul and show so many colors of emotions. One of the best lessons you can ever get if only you know what it is.

Her trampet seems like sucking her soul out of her but the inspiring music and the warm helping hands my partner offer to her have brought her vigor back. My lesson from her this time is to give enough space for children to grow on their own way. Do not judge teens or any other people based on my old conventions. One more encouraging discovery is that teens love cool and inspiring stories of real people!!!

Lessons for life would go on!

Making stories

I finally recovered  from the awful jet lag and my brain started functioning again. I was fully energized and refreshed during the summer vacation. Thanks to the jolly Northerners of UK!!! I had an absolutely fantastic time there. The great memories I got there make the nightmarish jet lag worth having. Revising  my research paper added a little too much spice on my life but it is over. I am ready to rock again!

To begin with my new adventure, I've got two big story-making projects going on at the moment. One will be held at Obaasan no chibukuro, a bookstore in Kokubunji with 10 other story& music lovers. This event idea was inspired when I went to see my friend's storytelling event with her own storybook at the place. The place got something extraordinary and I wanted to have regular magical event with stories and music. Tonight is the first event of the project. What I have in mind is to share the pleasure of telling stories and music appreciation. My additional purpose for this project is to make stories with others, based on a lot of story-making activities that are written in a book, Creating Stories with Children. Today I will try out the relaxation activity as I read my favorite poem. Then I will introduce, Fortunately-unfortunately activity. I can't wait to meet the others tonight.

Another project is at my new work. I finally persuade one of the elementary school's head master to permit my project. It is a play, based on Momotaro, the Japanese folklore. I have written a script and showed it to him, telling his students would be able to perform the play with a little bit of preparation. I have already made some musks of some characters for the play such as the Monkey, the Demons and etc. He promised me to support this project 100% and ask other teachers for their cooperations. Teachers are too busy to look after other affairs and I know I might have to plan and prepare for the project all on my own. I get a little bit supports from the teachers if I beg. The main purpose of this play is to show the pleasure of making and sharing a story with others to kids via taking a part in the play. It doesn't have to be perfect but I will encourage them to be the best they can. Otherwise, it will be dull.
For the theme music, I chose this tune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maHkfrPrG6o

Lyrics: Come on let's go! Come one let's go! Come on let's go to Onigashima! We're gonna get, we're gonna get, we're gonna get the treasure back!


Through these projects, I truly hope to find more story & music lovers. If you are one of them, please join us via sending me a DM to my facebook page.

Summer Reading with Kids at Sunnyfield English

From tomorrow, the annual Summer Reading Course at Sunnyfield English will start. From 4 pm to 8 pm for 4 days in a row with varied aged and leveled kids, I am planning to read some stories. With high schoolers, I am planning to go virtual world trip, starting with this article on Day 1:
http://www.gogobot.com/awards/top_summer_destinations
Then on Day 2, learn more about some destinations on the list with Wikitravel such as
http://wikitravel.org/en/Barcelona
http://wikitravel.org/en/Hawaii
http://wikitravel.org/en/Helsinki
The destination will be student's own choice.
Then on Day 3, they will present the place they choose and share reasons why they choose the destination. Then we will decide which one is the most suitable destination for our own tour.
On the last day, we will share places to go and things to do in the place we decided to go on tour in the previous lesson.

For the elementary school kids, we will read books with summer-related themes.
Day 1: http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/EBooks/Kippers%20Diary/index.html#
We will write a week diary after reading this.
Day 2:http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/EBooks/The%20Sing%20Song/index.html#
And of course, we will sing a song:  http://youtu.be/BqVkRSO2h_M beacuse we will eat ice cream on the last day :-)
Day 3:http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/EBooks/Submarine%20Adventure/index.html#
We will draw things we can see under the sea.
Day 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1tzreJ-v2A
Finally: one of my favorite story, Swimmy. We will talk about this story and eat ice cream later on!

This is my plan and as you may know "Plan" is a subject to change :-)

Reflecting the first semester

Last Wednesday was the last teaching day in the first semester at elementary schools as ALT. In the last classes at 4 schools, I introduced a game that is similar to the horse racing board game.

1.  Divide the class into 6 or 7 teams of 4 or 5 students, depending on the number of the students.
2. Put 20 to 30 quiz cards with questions that you wish to review on the blackboard for students to choose from. 
3. The first players from each team decide their team name from 6 to 7 animals ( it can be anything like fruits ) via Janken. 
4. The second player come up to the front and pick a card or a lot. (I made a lot of french fries shaped lots and put them in a gigantic red container and wrote MEGA potato on the box.)
5. They go back to their seats and answer the question according to the number they draw. (the members of the team can help the player to answer the question if necessary.)
6. The team can go forward when the player can answer the question. In case the player draw a lucky lot with a heart on it, the team get to go forward one more.
7. When the team got to the goal, they are assigned to say,"Goal!" in chorus.

It was great to see kids help each other as a team and enjoy the review game. They like the idea of MEGA potato as well. 

I was told by one of the school masters that I don't have to teach anything but have fun with kids as I use English. Well, it is not that simple and easy when I need to have all the kids understand the rules of games in English. But by the second week of teaching, I figured that some of students can make brilliant assistant teachers for me and ask them to help me to explain the rules to kids who look completely lost. I also found out which students can make brilliant leaders and make classes more enjoyable and informative. Those key students are much better facilitators than any teachers. 

Thanks to those amazing facilitators / leaders, my classes got more fun co-contrractive learning space. 

I had a bit bumpy beginning because of the extreme lack of support and information about how to conduct classes with what materials. In fact, nobody can tell me when, what, how I should teach at the beginning. All I know was I was supposed to teach 5th and 6th graders and student books I am supposed to use. Later on, while I was searching some information on line about the assigned textbooks, I found accidentally the syllabus and lesson plan for each unit at the MEXT site. While I was  reorganizing the bookshelf to find available materials for the classes, I found DVD for the textbooks. This mess turned out to be kind of like a daily treasure hunting game for me and by the third week I started enjoying digging and discovering unexpected materials. By the 4th week, I started making my own materials using their PC and password I also found at the back of the PC desk on my own. The user name and the passwords were written on the post-it and stuck on the back of the desk of the shared computer. 

Now I got most of mysteries figured out and the most challenging task is to get to know the teachers I work with. They have very very little time to communicate so that I have to find the best time to start talking to them. I sometimes feel like I have become CIA agent, trying to figure all the unknown codes at work. It would have been easier and better if I had more support from the board of education and schools. But easier doesn't mean more fun. I think I am getting much better and unexpectedly fun stories to tell :-) 

To be continued

Supermoon night

Supermoon to rise tonight.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/23/world/supermoon-to-rise-on-sunday-night/#.Ucar_JiilhM

The moon reminds me of many stories. One of them is a scene from this movie, Evening. An exhausted mum with a serious emotional problem sang the moon song for her kids when everything looked so intimidatingly wrong. She quitted cooking and put her daughter on her laps and went:

I see the moon and the moon sees me
And the moon sees somebody I wanna see...

Being a mum gets overwhelmed from time to time because of all the emotional roller coaster she deal with on daily bases. On such an evening, stop everything and just looking up at the moon with her little girls or boys and singing away would bring a big smile back on her face. How many times would you look up at the night sky and gaze at the moon? How often would you talk about the moon and the memories that are inspired?

Tonight might be one of the suitable one for storytelling night with a supermoon.

Have a lovely evening, everyone!

On my day off

Yesterday was one of those days that I don't enjoy looking back because of the despair I felt at work. I hear some abusive words from kids. Where do those painful and abusive words come from? Don't they come from the mouth of us, grown-ups. It is the chain of harmful words. I hear teachers say, "Why don't you understand such an easy instruction?" "Are you an idiot?" "Shut up!" without any reasons explained to the kids. I completely understand classroom management in a large class is challenging and stressful especially when you need to deal with that all day long. And those 6th graders can be a pain in neck. But abusive words can't stop anything. In fact, they feed only negative and painful vocabulary to the dictionary of our kids. It is true that the world can be brutal and harsh and kids might need to deal with that but I keep thinking what if kids didn't know those harsh and abusive expressions but knew more and more encouraging, supportive and soft words like music to our ears. Words and moods are much more contagious or influential to us than we imagine. For instance, when I feel relaxed and fine, my words become more inviting and cheerful. when my words become more cheerful, Momo, my daughter acts better and nicer. When she is cheerful, more laughters happen among us. And the other way around is the same. I am not saying that we should ignore something unpleasant or abusive incidents in our lives because there are always some.  But by focusing on such events, you become bitter and gloomy and your words usually coincide your mood. Then the painful chain of abusive words take place.

In order to have kids listen to you, perhaps giving them a little time to calm down especially after exciting activities is a better idea than throwing bitter and abusive words at them like, "Shut up! Otherwise, you are out!" " Shut up! Get out of here! You don't know when to stop!" I had enough of those heartbreaking words at work. It really break my heart because those words kill all the pleasures kids had during the activities that they felt excited. It is like feeding kids cake and telling them how bad the eating cake is. It is such a wrong message. One of the teachers say, "Ok, we had fun, Now let's listen to another one. Ok?" He has much better classroom management. It makes sense to kids. And I don't have to stand like an idiot while my team-teacher is screaming at those poor kids. I heard one of the teachers shouted at a girl, "We don't need a person like you! Get out of here!" It was harsher than what the girl mumbled. I felt so awful because she said something childish ( but she is a child and that's what she is supposed to say.) like, "You had a hard luck."to one f her classmate in a pair work. Maybe the teacher meant to shout at me for doing something inappropriate. But in any cases, shouting at the girl in front of the class and killing all the joy all the students were sharing at the moment was inappropriate to me. Whatever the problems she has in her daily behavior, I can't imagine such abusive words can grow anything healthy. I think inspiring and nurturing words can only touch our soft part of the hearts and grow more of empowering words there. What this girl need to empathize how her classmate would feel if she calls him a had luck. Empathy is something kids need to learn in the course of their development. And it is our responsibility to make sure that they learn empathy.

Some days, it is so challenging to be careful with my words. I get tired and stressed out and my words become unkind. For those days, I should remember the face of every kid when the harsh words were poured onto her / him - the most confused, embarrassed and despising faces. After all, I can't change anything nor anyone but myself. I would love to have a circle of musical and inspiring words around me :-)