That Time I Taught a Night Class
I look so adorable, and yet I was about to shit my pants.
About a year ago, I was happily sitting at my desk during my visit school day (where I teach in another city once a week). The head teacher of the night school, an after school program in which young adults who work during the day can take classes towards their high school diploma (essentially a GED program), approached me. He didn’t speak much English, and through broken Japanese, gesturing, and a few teachers to interpret, I discovered that I was being asked to give a lecture at the night school.
“The students speak no English whatsoever,” my co-teacher informed me, “So, it would be best if you used as much Japanese as possible.”
I gawked at the request, but some weird part of me felt riled by the challenge. Plus, I would be given a pretty generous bonus for doing the class, and I really felt like this would be a good opportunity to put some of my Japanese to use.
I was asked to give a lecture about my experiences as a gaikokujin (foreigner). I agreed, although I immediately realized I didn’t have much to talk about, as I had been spending most of my time in Japan visiting other countries, playing video games, or going to gay bars.
Trembling with antici...pation
The worst part about preparing for the class was all of the stories various teachers told me about night schools while I was preparing. One teacher told me about students who flashed teachers in the middle of class just to get a rise out of them.
Another teacher told me about how her class were so difficult to motivate that she eventually just had them copy everything she wrote on the board for the duration of the class. “They aren’t very good at learning,” she explained, “But they really liked mindlessly writing things down.”
I was horrified.
Jeopardy
At first, I was planning to do Barnga, a class in which groups of students would play various card games. After a few minutes, students would be shuffled around and they would have to learn how to play the new card game without being able to speak to each other. This was meant to simulate what it can feel like to assimilate to a foreign culture.
When I told this to the head teacher, he blatantly refused. “They are extremely slow,” he explained.
“But all of the information will be given in Japanese? The card games are really quite simple to learn!” I protested. But, he was resolute. He had no confidence that the students would be able to do it.
“Just a simple lecture will do,” he said.
But, even with my lack of experience, I knew this was a terrible idea. Clearly these students didn’t thrive in classroom environments, and if I had learned anything from teaching students in a foreign language, it was that you had to trick them into learning.
Eventually, I settled on playing jeopardy. I could prepare a powerpoint in Japanese, it would be a good way of teaching them about the U.S. so they understood my cultural context.
Technical difficulties
The amount of problems I had projecting a powerpoint in the school’s AUDIO VISUAL ROOM (what the fuck do they use this for anyway!?) would equate to a rant of epic proportions. Let’s just say that I had to fight to get that powerpoint on that screen, but it was worth it.
The teachers prepared a really amazing banner for my class, and the whole thing was presented as a really exciting event. I was super nervous, however, mainly because I felt like I had nothing meaningful to say and it was going to come across even worth in my butchered Japanese.
But, I wish I had some pictures to show just how great it went. The students were basic high school students. They were super patient with my bad Japanese and enthusiastically fought to answer my Jeopardy questions, and they listened with rapt attention to a speech I had prepared to conclude the class. I talked about things I liked and disliked about living in Japan, my journey self-studying Japanese, and the growing need for globally aware Japanese youngsters in a time when immigration in Japan is predicted to rise.
The students even asked questions, some of them able to make full sentences in English. Many of them appeared to be multi-ethnic, and very intelligent. I began to wonder if the only reason they were taking night classes was because of economic hardship.
All I can say is that I learned three things from that class:
1) I can speak Japanese better than I think I can, as long as I don’t care about perfection.
2) Never walk into a classroom with preconceptions about the students. Focus on making your content as approachable as possible, but believe in kids and they will reward you.
3) Never say no to a challenge. If you fail, you fail. But, it might be amazing. What is there to lose?
That said, it was hella stressful and I was so glad when it was over. Challenges are great, but extra work still sucks!
