A Brave, New Curriculum
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Wednesday, January 24, 1990

I've been very busy at school this term because I'm designing a new curriculum to teach conversational English. I've been creating worksheets and lesson plans and all my non-teaching periods at school are spent grading papers and developing remedial worksheets. I've taken charge of my own classes, but now I have to follow through and do the work.

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The Eyes of Texas
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

February 7, 1990

Last week in my final class of my third-year students (high school seniors), I showed my video of Austin. Two of my students had been to UT on the summer exchange program. To my complete astonishment, at the end of class, my students stood up and sang "The Eyes of Texas". Apparently the two who went to UT last year learned it then and taught it to the others. I cried. I'm going to miss my third-year students so much.

Language is a Communication Skill
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Friday February 2, 1990

As a result of some thinking over winter vacation and buying an English conversation textbook in Kyoto, I decided to design my own curriculum for teaching communicative English. I've had to place the emphasis on communication because, although it seems obvious to us, in Japanese schools foreign languages are not taught as tools of communication. Languages are taught as a set of formulas and lists of vocabulary to be memorized, though not to be understood, and certainly never to be put together and used to communicate ideas.

The purpose of studying English is not to learn to communicate, but to weed out "good" students from the "bad". Studying English in Japan is an intellectual exercise with no practical application. No wonder my students hate English. And no wonder the Japanese are the world's worst speakers (so I've read) of foreign languages.

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Junior Class Trip: Departure
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Sunday March 11, 1990

The junior class trip to the Tokyo area was, without question, the best experience we've yet had in Japan. I never went on my own senior trip when I was a high school student, so this is an adventure that I'm now old enough to appreciate. I get all the pleasures of travelling with 100 giggly girls without any of the headaches of acting as one of the chaperones. My fellow teachers are near panic at the burden.

The Japanese are unparalled in their ability to orchestrate tours. I knew I could trust our tour guides to handle every detail. It's a wonderful feeling for me--to be free of fretfulness. We have two guides from the travel agency travelling with us. It is their problem to ensure that we are in the right place at the right time. I just stand whereever they tell me to and make notes for when I travel alone.

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Junior Class Trip: Shinkansen
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Monday March 12, 1990

We spent most of the today travelling.

From Kobe, we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. As we were waiting on the platform for our train, another Shinkansen bore down on us with the look and sound of jet plane. As it flashed past us, lot of the girls in jumped in fright. gasped, and then cheered. Being from the country, they've never seen the Shinkansen either. Before we could catch our breath, it was gone. It's thrilling to see the hi-tech side of Japan after living so long in rural Japan.

Junior Class Trip: Nikko Unremembered
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Monday March 12, 1990

We arrive at Tokyo station at 10:44. In Tokyo, we board tour buses to Nikko National Park, which has been described as the Yellowstone of Japan. It is the home of an elaborate, Chinese-style shrine, a mausoleum for Tokugawa Ieyasu. Completed in 1636, the Toshogu Shrine is one of the most famous sights in Japan. But we rushed through it, Japanese tour style, and then each class sat for their official tourist photo. (In 24 hours of travelling, we've spent only an hour and a half actually sightseeing!)

After visiting the shrine, our tour buses headed westward through the national park, climbing snow-dusted mountains. The hairpin curves became more and more treacherous and the view over each precipice was enough to make our stomachs queazy. As we reached the top of one mountain, snow flurries started blowing.

We stopped and got out of the buses to see the famous Kegon falls, a thin, powerful cascade of water pounding the ice below. We stayed long enough to allow students and teachers alike to take their requisite snapshot. The wind was whipping the snow around us and our girls were typically without coats, hats, and gloves, their teeth chattering and their bare legs turning blue.

The buses climbed higher and higher into the mountains, past a lake that looked like a choppy sea with mountains falling right into the edge of it. Then, higher still to another lake, rimmed with ice. Finally, our hotel! (The Okuniko Kogen Hotel--which I infer from the brochure is a famous ski resort.)

The ground is thick with snow and it is snowing still. JQS and some of Akamine-sensei's students play in the snow while the rest of us are settling in. Although it is snowing, he is the only one wearing a coat.

The rooms that JQS and I shared were larger than our apartment: two tatami rooms and a carpeted anteroom. One tatami room is 4 1/2 mats, the other, 10 mats. Although traditional in design, the rooms are modern in execution--new and luxurious, the most luxurious we've yet seen. The private bathroom alone was a marvel of porcelain and hot water. It includes a shower, a bathtub and a heated, western-style toilet. When we arrived, the low table was set out for tea (hot water in the thermos, and little tea cookies).

All the teacher have a fondue meal. Away from the students for awhile, everyone is in pretty good spirits and having fun. I feel a certain satisfaction in that I can now pick tofu out of broth with chopsticks.

When we return to our rooms, the futons have been laid out for us on a thick foam rubber base which makes them much more comfortable than ours at home--especially since the hotel rooms have central heating. After JQS is settled in, I go to the hotel onsen for a long, hot soak. Until now, living in Japan has been interesting, but we've never had fun. But this is fun!

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Junior Class Trip: Tokyo Free Time
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Tuesday, March 13, 1990

It snowed all night, harder and harder. We board the buses at 8:00 to return to Tokyo. Descending the mountain's hairpin curves in a blizzard is an experience you should definitely miss if you can. The bus brushed right up to the guard rail, and given our front seat view, I kept imagining the headlines "Bus plunges off snowy cliff: foreign teacher and son killed in school trip tragedy."

After we check into the hotel, we have the rest of the afternoon as a free day. At first, I was irritable because I was disoriented and my fellow teachers had their hands full dealing with students and couldn't be bothered with us (not that I blame them). So JQS and I strode toward the subway, map in hand, and headed downtown for the Ginza and the Imperial Palace. I was amazed at how easy it all is now. We can read the signs, buy our tickets, find the right platform, and get on the right train (going the right direction). The nice thing about Tokyo is that people stare less than in Oita-ken. We can wander around half lost without being the center of attention.

We find a couple of English language bookstores and I buy: Reading Japanese, Kanji Flash Cards, Japanese Signs 1, Japanese Signs 2, Basic Kanji 1, Basic Kanji 2, and Gift Wrapping. We eat at Kentucky Fried chicken. Mmm. Happiness.

Junior Class Trip: Disneyland
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Wednesday March 14, 1990

The lawn impressed me most about Tokyo Disneyland. People say the car is the symbol of America. But I think maybe it's the suburban lawn.

At Disnyeland, we were photographed frequently, not only by my students, but by complete strangers. Yessir! Come to Tokyo Disneyland and get your photo taken with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and gaijin kids. JQS smiles most of the time, but says he now empathizes with Sean Penn. It's hard to relax and have a good time ourselves when we are part of the tourist attraction.

Of course we also were in the all-important group photo.

Junior Class Trip: Tokyo Tour
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Thursday March 15, 1990

Today was tour bus day. We drove through Tokyo while a tour guide chatted cheerfully at the front of the bus. I was probably the only person on the bus interested in what she had to say. Of course, I didn't understand any of it, but I tried to follow her speech by referring to a map printed in English. Once I asked her a question and she asked me how long I'd been in Japan and if I was on homestay (that is, a foreign exchange student). "No. Eigo no sensei. English teacher. Their English teacher," I said pointing to my sleeping students behind me on the bus. She seemed very surprised.

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School Refusal
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

May 3, 2002

According to an article in the Japan Times students who refuse to attend school are on the rise in Japan. As it is becoming a more common problem, a more public effort is being made to cope with it. Until, I lived in Japan, it had never occurred to me that one could simply decide not to go to school. But, we used it to our advantage.

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Entrance Exams
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

In his Mar 19, 2002 entry, High School Entrance Exam Results JET Tanuki raises some interesting questions about the role of teachers in the lives of their students and the problem with the examination system in Japan.

Although I understand his frustrations, I also think there are benefits to the Japanese system that we in the US are lacking.

I taught at a private high school, what in the USA would be termed a vocational-technical school. Basically, the students who couldn't get into a good school applied to us. The teachers were also those who generally couldn't get jobs elsewhere. Most teachers were near retirement age. Some had actually retired, but returned to teach part-time.

In Defense of Exclusivity

I think that wanting something very much, working hard to achieve it, and suffering to get it, makes it really worthwhile. When you are "in" there is a tremendous sense achievement and belonging. Even though the intellectual level at my school was close to the bottom of the barrel, we still had entrance examinations, and they were still hard. I think that getting a score of 35% was the cutoff. But I also believe that the recommendations of the Junior High School teachers could definitiely sway a borderline case.

The benefit of this "hazing" was obvious afterward. School spirit was high. The drop-out rate was low. I was only aware of two students of 300 who dropped out. (Homeroom teachers also meet with the parents of every student every semester.)

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Day of Many Yawns
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Friday July 12, 1991

01:32 I am asleep. There is a sharp pain in my thigh. I leap up, brushing wildly at my legs. Even in my sleep I know that I've been bitten by a centipede. I run into the kitchen to try to wake up in a safer place. The bite is swelling. My whole leg is burning from the pain. I put ice on the bite and grab the can of bug spray. I turn on the light cautiously, see nothing, shake out the sheets. A centipede wriggles out. I spray it to death.

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Goodbyes
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Thursday July 18, 1991

08:20 I give my tearful goodbye speech to the staff. Receive geta and a yukata drawstring bag as going away presents.

09:30 I give my less than tearful goodbye speech to the students. Rijicho-sensei gives such a long speech that before she starts she tells everyone to sit down because this is going to take awhile.

11:30 I clean my desk one more time. Washizuka-sensei gives me two little doll presents, chu-gen money and a letter. He tells me to go home and I do.

16:00 Washizuka-sensei comes over with more gifts. A doll that his wife made and also some homemade umeshu. Our saying goodbye is awkward and I sense he wants to kiss me or something.

17:30 End of term party. Going away speech. Receive copies of yesterday's photographs. Yasanami-sensei drives me home, with Nakano-sensei and Sato-sensei in the back and Washizuka-sensei in the front.

Scenes From the Staff Room
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

I taught at a private high school, the high school attached to Beppu Women's Junior College. In our school, (and I supposed all Japanese schools), the students, not the teachers had a classroom, that is, a homeroom. My school had three grades of students: ichi-nen-sei (first-year students, HS sophomores); ni-nen-sei (second-year students, HS juniors); and san-nen-sei (third-year students, HS seniors). Each grade was divided into four classes. Each class had its own homeroom and homeroom teacher and class schedule.

Rather than the students changing classes, teachers were visiting lecturers to each class. There were no individual class schedules. The class schedule was designed for each class, although there were some differences within a class depending upon the course of study a student was pursuing. (My school had a sewing course, a nursing course, a cooking course, and a fledgling English language course.) To my knowledge, there were no elective courses. Non-academic courses were after-school club activities.

(I was explaining this to my husband, who grew up in England. He couldn't believe that in American schools, each student has a different schedule. He said the English system was closer to the Japanese system; his entire class took the same required courses together.)

Teachers didn't have their own rooms; their desks were in the staff room. Along the front of the staff room were four desks overlooking the room. There sat our bosses, the principle, the two vice-principles, and on special occasions, the director of our school complex.

The teachers' desks were arranged in four groups of eight, one group for each grade and the fourth group for any part-time teachers. Our desks were quite small and we stacked our books on top and all around the desks. In 1990, before laptops, it was easy to see why the personal computer revolution hadn't taken off. There was simply no space for the huge PCs of the day on anyone's desk.

The staff room was in the new building and was quite clean and attractive. The two long walls of the room had windows which opened. It was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It turned out that the staff room was actually air-conditioned. I discovered this working late one day, when the staff turned on the air-conditioning after the principle had gone home.

At the back of the room was a small kitchen, where there was always tea and a thermos of hot water.

Students could and would come into the staff room constantly. They'd come to talk with their homeroom teacher or club advisor or just to hang around. In the winter, they'd come to the staff room on the pretense of talking to a teacher, just so they could stand next to the huge kerosene heaters and warm up between classes.

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On A Clear Day
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

...you can see Shikoku. But only if you're looking the other direction. Today, I'm looking west, toward the mountains and down on my school.

If you climb the path behind the college dorm building, at the top of the hill is the old school and the director's old house. That's where I took this photo...looking down on the new school complex. The building on the far left with the three-gabled roof is the administration building. It has a lovely tea ceremony room and an onsen-heated swimming pool on the top floor. The two-storey building on the right contains the high school staff room (where I spend most of my days), offices, and classrooms for 3rd year students. Then the building with new classrooms, and finally the old, unheated building where I teach my solo classes. The long low building in the front, facing the athletic field is the kindergarten.

It's a rare day in Japan (or at least in Beppu-shi) that the sky comes out blue in a photograph. Usually the mountains are shrouded in low clouds. When I walk the five minutes to school, I'm hardly aware of them. And I love mountains. Having grown up around them in Albuquerque and Las Vegas, I never stop missing them when I'm in Austin.

Actually, here there aren't many vistas; the view is hemmed in by high walls lining the narrow streets. I have to really look for a view. But isn't this one nice? I should come up here more often, but whenever I do, Negoro-san gives me a look as if she's wondering what mischief I'm up to.

Speech Contests
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

When JQS had an accident on the bicycle (he ran into someone on a scooter) the high school girl who brought him home asked me if I would help her study for an English Language Speech contest. She wasn't from my school, but I was certainly grateful to her and happy to do her a favor. So for the next few weeks she'd come over and read an essay and I'd help her with her pronunciation. Her reading was very fluent, but I quickly learned that she had no idea what she was saying. Nowadays I understand that kids in these contests have to answer questions to prove that they haven't just memorized meaningless words.

Today I attended a counterpart here in Austin: the 16th Annual Japanese Language Speech Contest. I heard about through the JET Alumni Association. But I also know Cecil Lawson, who coordinated the contest at St. Edward's, because we attended St. Ed's at the same time. And he was one of the first participants on the JET program, before it was even called the JET program. Also one of the judges and founders of the contest, Dr. Matsumoto, was instrumental in JQS and I going to Japan. He started a Japanese Language School for Children. I signed JQS up for lessons. (He was tired of playing soccer.) And before we knew it, we were on a plane to Japan. My former Japanese teacher now teaches at St. Ed's; so I was hoping to reconnect with her, too.

The contestants ranged from seven elementary school students to people who had just finished their graduate degrees. Many of the younger children had a parent or a grandparent that was Japanese. The older students came to their Japanese studies through an interest in pop cultere. The adult students seemed to be interested in business, law, or international relations.

The elementary school kids were so fun to watch. Almost all of them came from Kolter Elementary which has a magnet program for foreign languages. I chatted with their teacher at the reception afterward. Unfortunately, I didn't catch her name. Her deep attachment for her students came through. She says that they want to practice, practice, practice...and she knew every one of their speeches by heart. I think everyone there felt moved by young Texans learning Japanese. Dr. Matsumoto expressed a deep contentment. He's been a bridge in Japan-American relations for so many years. He told me he was 78 now ("No way!").

After watching all those wonderful speakers, I feel depressed about my progress. I can't imagine trying to give a speech in Japanese. (Maybe if they'd let me compete against the elementary school children--but then losing would be even more humiliating.) One of my problems is that I have a hard time talking in front of people...even in English. And to think I used to spend my days in front of a group of people speaking for a living. Well. I do like a challenge.

Having a Field Day
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Taking a well-deserved Pocari Sweat break during the field day at our high school fall festival.

Field days are a lot more fun in Japan than in America. There are all sorts of silly races and games. And the faculty and parents are in some of the competitions. I got to run in a 3-legged race with the principal. Somehow I think my selection was rigged because none of the other teachers wanted to do it. But I didn't mind at all; I had absolutely no daily interaction with the principal and therefore could remain natural and unaffected by his presence. Actually, I think he was nervous to be partnered with me.