Teaching (?)
So I haven't mentioned much about my work. I teach young children - the youngest is 3, the oldest around 11.
Teaching children is a far cry from what I was doing last year in Prague. In Prague, I was teaching. I explained concepts. I introduced vocabulary. I had conversations. I was interacting with adults.
My work now is more of daycare, babysitting, and disciplining little kids who have not been taught boundaries at home. I don't get it - Japanese adults are very reserved, very polite, very respectful. The kids, however, are anything but. They're loud, selfish, unaware of others, disrespectful, and dangerously wild.
One of their favorite activities is kancho, which, put quite simply, is putting their fingers up someone else's ass. No joke. Recently, they've also taken to reaching into my pockets and pulling out whatever they can.
It's not all bad, of course. Sometimes I have a ton of fun with the students - playing with them, tickling them, doing "magic" tricks (what's that behind your ear? and how'd the eraser get into my pocket?). They're easy to amuse when it's play-time. But when I actually want to teach them something (you know, do my job), they yell, shout, scream, cry, run around, and generally act without boundaries.
But being six feet tall, and being able to palm their heads, can have its advantages.
For instance - a couple days ago I was teaching by myself. 95% of the time I team-teach with a Japanese teacher. However, once a month I teach by myself for most of my classes, on a so-called "Native Day." This past Friday was a Native Day.
This one 7-year old - who is normally pretty reserved - was angry that he lost at a game, so he shouted at the top of his lungs. I turned to him, and said, knowing full well that he can't understand me, "That crap doesn't work with me. You can't yell. It won't get you anywhere. And don't forget that you're a little runt and I could kick the crap out of you if I really wanted."
And although no one understood the words that I said, everyone in the class immediately became real quiet and attentive. Ahhhhh.
Teaching children is a far cry from what I was doing last year in Prague. In Prague, I was teaching. I explained concepts. I introduced vocabulary. I had conversations. I was interacting with adults.
My work now is more of daycare, babysitting, and disciplining little kids who have not been taught boundaries at home. I don't get it - Japanese adults are very reserved, very polite, very respectful. The kids, however, are anything but. They're loud, selfish, unaware of others, disrespectful, and dangerously wild.
One of their favorite activities is kancho, which, put quite simply, is putting their fingers up someone else's ass. No joke. Recently, they've also taken to reaching into my pockets and pulling out whatever they can.
It's not all bad, of course. Sometimes I have a ton of fun with the students - playing with them, tickling them, doing "magic" tricks (what's that behind your ear? and how'd the eraser get into my pocket?). They're easy to amuse when it's play-time. But when I actually want to teach them something (you know, do my job), they yell, shout, scream, cry, run around, and generally act without boundaries.
But being six feet tall, and being able to palm their heads, can have its advantages.
For instance - a couple days ago I was teaching by myself. 95% of the time I team-teach with a Japanese teacher. However, once a month I teach by myself for most of my classes, on a so-called "Native Day." This past Friday was a Native Day.
This one 7-year old - who is normally pretty reserved - was angry that he lost at a game, so he shouted at the top of his lungs. I turned to him, and said, knowing full well that he can't understand me, "That crap doesn't work with me. You can't yell. It won't get you anywhere. And don't forget that you're a little runt and I could kick the crap out of you if I really wanted."
And although no one understood the words that I said, everyone in the class immediately became real quiet and attentive. Ahhhhh.
posted by David at 12:47 PM
1 Comments:
Found the book.... Joy Hendry's "Becoming Japanese".
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