A: Look at the bum scavenging for half-rotten left-over in the garbage bin. B: Oh, that lot. Yeah, he was an English teacher. A: Really? He should be doing a decent job with his English skill, shouldn't he? B: How could he? A decade ago there used to be heaps of English teachers who didn't know English in the least. A: Aren't you kidding? Incredible. What was he doing in class without English skills? B: It was a total waste of time and tax-payers'money. At that time kids all had to go to a cram school after school. It was a big social issue because children got all exhausted and their parents had to pay extra expenses for the cram school. A: I should say it was the Dark Age of Japanese English education!
Academically-oriented schools don't need any excellent English speakers as a teacher. All they should have is a teacher who can explain English structures clearly to his students so that the students themselves will be voluntary learners who will be able to teach themselves for the rest of their lives, because learning a language takes amazingly long time. Chances are they have to keep on doing as long as they live.
I'm a teacher, so I know what it's like to be one. If you ask me, I would say all my co-workers(teachers) have fairly good command of English. I'm sure they are all better than grade pre-1 level.
You might ask why they don't take the trouble to get the qualification. We just don't have the urge to prove our proficiency because we are confident about it and pretty sure that we will pass without any problems.
Maybe it's only me, but I don't single out STEP and recommend it to our students. It's one of the testing systems available in Japan. If you want to prove your proficiency in English, you can take one of them. If you don't need to prove it, of course you don't have to.
>>272 You seem to despise this thread, saying こんなスレ. Then, why do you want to say something here? You are contradicting yourself.
If they know the ways to talk the students into studying a little or at least staying in their classrooms without walking around hallways, they can be a good teacher in difficult schools.
Those skills are as important as English proficiency.
I prefer English teachers with a good command of the language to the ones with poor English abilities... That's for sure.
When their teachers enjoy learning English themselves and their students see them they do, the students want to learn it more, I think. Students and teachers should learn it together. In that sense, teachers are not teachers in a traditional sense; teachers were considered to be the ones who always know the answers, like the almighty god.
Today, JEPs are more of facilitators than of teachers.
More and more local governments in big cities are leaving JET program and have started using private human resource companies for sending ALTs. They can do that because there are a lot of foreigners in big cities, but obviously smaller cities in rural areas seem to still depend on JET program to secure ALTs there.
The same is true with English teachers. Teachers should be public workers especially in rural areas.
Oh, darn! She's left here, hasn't she? I was actually interested in why she became an English teacher in a junior high school. Seven years in the U.S.! To be able to speak English 普通に with any difficulties. Isn't she too good to be a teacher?
You are doing a post-graduate course at a teachers' college, aren't you? So what is your plan? Do you want to be a teacher or what? When you get into the workforce, the reality is just what you described in >>386.
Actually that was not what I wanted. I was afraid that you might be disappointed to find your future coleagues are not so concerned about improvement of their own English abilities.
I completely agree with you for the latter half of what you said in >>390. Both your English and my English are just mediocre, bookish, and full of unnatural expressions. That's the way it is if we are taught English only at school and have never lived abroad.
I'm a teacher myself but what bugs me is how my co-working teachers neglect practical English skills. I think they are important and should be a center of our teaching. My co-workers sometimes go on explaining the structures of English sentences and spend most of their energy on how skillfully their students put English into Japanese. They seldom take notice of what English sounds are like. They don't let their students listen to their own model reading, much less native speaker's English. English should be fun but it seems penance or a kind of torture for their students to endure from the way they present it.
>>397 It seems to me that you neglect natural usage of words. You should be more careful about whether the word you choose is casual or common core or formal. Therefore, at least we cannot refer to your English as "practical English".
I kind of agree with you about my own English, which is "hotch-potch English," as some of you put it. If we don't use English until it will become perfect, I'm afraid the day will never come. That's how they use it as a second language, for example in Asia, Africa, South America etc..
'Hotch-Potch English' is fine as long as we can make ourselves understood and do what we want using the language. The same thing can be said about your English, which is perfectly understandable, or much better than mine, needless to say.
>>403 So you emphasize fluency. And your colleagues emphasize accuracy. We need both of them to make ourselves understood very well. Besides, in the exams you evaluate accuracy that you scarcely taught to students.
Couldn't it be possible to accept your colleagues' method?
It's a matter of a balance. Accuracy vs. fluency. Too much emphasis on either one of them is not good for sure. Of course both of them are important.
It's also a matter of quantity. JETs tend to explain sentence structures and spend most of their lesson doing that. Chances are students get to read just one paragraph at the end of a lesson. The amount of English they are exposed to is so limited. I think students should read more speak more, and write more.
I'd have to be ashamed of my English and feel guilty if it was the only English the students listen to. Actually it's not. I also ask our ALT to correct any worksheets I make for the students before printing them, because I know I make some stupid mistakes in whatever I write. When it comes to my spoken English, you know, it's far from perfect. I just hope my students won't learn errors and get them fossilized. However, again, it's not the only English they hear, because we have our ALT.
>>421 Yes, and that is so often said among teachers. To add my point of view, output matters more than input. In fact I dwelt on how to encourage students to speak during my teaching practicum.
>>422 Not just trying to say but I meant it. From what you ask it is hard to evaluate students' expression. And writing needs accuracy while relatively speaking doesn't. What would you think of that?
Well, my test does not include any rote-learning(memorizing things.)
All the passages we learn from the textbook are written somewhere on the test paper, where I might ask,"Why did the writer get annoyed?" Students might say, "Because the boy stepped on his clean pants," using the expression in the passage. Sometimes questions are multiple-choice ones. As a vocabulary test, I sometimes ask students to guess a word by reading the definition of a word...What is "a common water bird with short legs and a wide beak, that is used for its meat, eggs, and soft feathers?" The answer is, by the way, "duck." Not all but some of my students can do it because they learned the word from the lesson we did during the term.
The bottom line is my students don't have to memorize much but all they have to do is to know and understand what happened in the stories. Most of them do well at this kind of test.
Watching this thread twenty four hours and writing worthless sentences is 483's job. It suits him fine. All he can do is only looking down on other people.
Using English is fun, especially when we talk with someone from abroad and exchange our views and learn forign cultures.
In cases like that, we don't really care if we make mistakes. We enjoy chatting. When it comes to writing formal documents, we feel naturally pressured because mistakes in written forms look really awkward and should be gotten rid of as much as possible.
As for solving grammatical problems, it is something we have to do, in order to understand the language better. We can hardly enjoy doing it.
One of my students go to 予備校(a cram school?). He respects his English teacher there. He was a very good student but now he seems too busy preparing for his cram school classes. I don't think I can blame him for being neglecting his studies at school, because 予備校 seems more informative in terms of the kind of English they should know in order to pass entrance exams for universities. I'm afraid I coudn't be a 予備校 teacher, even if I wanted to.
>>524 yeh, I hear you. we just try hard for them to be able to pass the goddamn entrance exam. I bet you guy are busy with a bunch of bullshits, right? I cant stand that bureaucratic shits.
....and you guys have to take care of every single student in the class, even dumbshits, right? I only have to deal with those who are conscious. I can kick out kids like these shitheads here.
予備校 teachers are lucky, as you say. You have more free time and you can kick out those who don't want to learn. I wish I could do that... Wait! Probably not! I take pleasure in teaching the students who didn't like studying anything at all but who start to enjoy learning it because they like the way I teach or something. That rarely happens in real life, though. A few months ago I was delighted to hear one of my students say, "I like your way of teaching. I kind of like English now!" I don't know if he meant it, because he later started memorizing English expressions he was told to learn by his 予備校 teacher. He didn't say it but he clearly made it clear that I can't possibly help him get ready for university entrance exams. Oh, well, it cannot be helped.
I am not sure what you meant by that. We try to give an opportunity to study something fundamental to the children of those who are relatively not so well-off, which is, I think, a good think in theory.
How popular the teacher is among the students matters more than anything else. Any impressive qualifications don't seem as important as his own popularity. Besides, students don't get impressed by the name of prestigious universities their teachers graduated from, because they will never find it out unless their teachers brag about it, which is something students are not in the least interested in. All that matters is how the teacher teach; how he can get certain things hammered down, how his students learn the subject, how they will be motivated to keep on learning even after they graduate from school.
I'm not saying those two factors(1. the university the teacher graduate from and 2. his/her teaching skills including the approval rating among their students) are contradicting ones.
It's just that No.1 factor is less recognizable unless the teacher himself brags about it, which hardly happens.
When you were in school did you know which universities your teachers graduated from? I didn't.
I also didn't know which teachers had any English qualifications. However I knew at that time which teachers were good at teaching so that I didn't get bored and fell asleep.
I don't think most students even now ask their teachers if they have got a very high score for TOEIC or what universities they studied, partly because they are not so concerned about it and partly because they don't have any nerves...our good old tradition still tells us it's rude to ask such direct questions.
For my part, I would answer those questions if I were asked by my students. It's no big deal.
>>I also didn't know which teachers had any English qualifications. また、I didin't ? オレの高校時代でさえ、受験の前に英検2級ぐらい取っておいたほうがよいという感じだったし、 英検2級は今はかなり難しいようだが、英検はじめ英語の資格試験の知名度は数段上がっているぞ。 生徒が英検を受けようとしているのに、アドバイスできない教師ってなんだか考えてみろよ、このボケ。
Hey, I'm quite amazed at your reading skill and you are also quite good at saying I said something I didn't say or highlighting the parts in the way they suit your argument. Suit yourself. I've got to go.
In my point of view the point is that teachers must not dissappoint students' ambition.
If the 1st or pre-1st grade in STEP is essentioal to motivate students, teachers must have those qualifications. On the other hand, unless qualifications are always the necessity, teachers can substitute other teaching skills for the qualifications.
Question: How many teachers in cram school, which are considered to be much better than school teachers, do you think have decent score in STEP or TOEIC or TOEFL?
If students' and even their parents expectations lay in high scores in TOEIC, TOEFL, or any other English proficiency testing systems, teachers should live up to them. They don't look so much concerned about whether or not their teachers passed those tests.
Frankly speaking, I think they should be more interested in their teachers' command of English, but reality is that most of them don't care about it. They like the teachers who can make something difficult seem easier and help them learn it, hopefully finding pleasure in doing so.
>>587 Unfortunately, I work for one of the biggest cram school and I teach ENG and JP. I daresay English we learn in high school is not enough to get the 1st grade in STEP. Therefore, no matter how long we learn or teach English there, it makes no use. And expressions like "Question:", "Confession:", etc are frequently used in English conversations. I think you should forget literal translations and watch more movies. This kind of lines are very easy to find.
>>588 Clearly you've never taught in cram schools. None of my colleagues got such a good qualification. There're many kinds of techniques to make students' trust us. Especially, a student like you, is quite easy to "attract".
>>592-593 We have to consider the situation before we choose words to speak or write. Do you really think in movies a president use such words in their speech?
>>604 Not really. Students only care about weather the teacher LOOKS good at English or not. Especially in cam schools, it's quite another problem whether the teacher is REALLY good or not.
>>Not really. Students only care about weather the teacher LOOKS good at English or not. >>Especially in cam schools, it's quite another problem whether the teacher is REALLY good or not.
Cram school teachers should be good-looking like "Madonna" in the Japanese Classic world. If their teachers look great and confident and they can convince their students that what they have to do is not really as difficult as it seems... if so, their students will surely be motivated to learn.
I speak typical Japanese English and I'm proud of it. :-)
It's a different story, but a student of mine asked me about the homework given by a cram school. The question was about what word should be put into a blank. I read the passage and from the context, I thought the answer should be ( to V), so I told him so. The next day, he said the answer was (V-ing). Oh,no! I might have passed STEP 1st grade test, but wasn't even able to answer a cram school question. Probably I really should quit, as someone here suggested.
Yeah, poor kids... but they are fine. They don't care. They don't expect too much from us perhaps. I have 15 classes a week and teach 160 kids altogether. Most of them seem happy about their school life judging from the result of the questionnair, though.
Catherin:A Japanese tourist has touched my hips in the subway the other day. John :Oh my... Catherin:I told him "Stop it otherwise I will call a policeman." but he didn't. So I took him to the police. John :Disgusting. Catherin:That guy kept saying strange things like "Halo Haudoyudoyu" in the police department. John :Idiot?w Catherin:Soon a Japanese guide rushed and interpreted what he had said. According to him, he touched me because I told him to touch. And he kept claiming that he heard so without any mistake, because he was an English teacher. John :Gosh, English teachers in Japan cannnot use English. Catherin:Oh! Really? John :But they are claiming that they are good at English, and then what was happened? Catherin:There is no way, but I just left him to the police. John :That's fine. They should learn the reality.
When I started teaching some time ago, there was an elderly English teacher at then-our-school. He told me how English teachers are not so good at English and how a young teacher was bullied just because he read English novels in his free time in the staff room. The older teacher explained to me he was bullied because everyone else couldn't read English novels and got jealous of the young man.
There was another story I heard from the older man; one English teacher went abroad. He was very quiet while the tour of people were traveling in non-English speaking countries. Finally they reached England and he became excited and started to try his English on a shop attendant. He said, "dolu, dolu," by which he meant "dollars." A woman in the shop didn't understand him and reached for "doll," displayed in the showcase. The teacher got frustrated and shouted, "dolu, dolu." Other teachers on the same tour, who was not an English teacher had to help him. My mentor, after all, wanted to tell me English teachers shouldn't show off their English and that it is quite all right for them not to make themselves in English. I was surprised but it seems that is the way it is.
A man from New Zealand said English education in Korea has been more successful than that in Japan. I asked whey he thought so. Then he said he met quite a few Korean people with pretty good command of English during his short stay in Korea.
Obviously those Koreans are working in a tourism industry, so it is not surprising they are better than average Koreans...But, he said he's met just 5 Japanese people whose level of English is as good as theirs during the perdiod of 1 year.
Moreover, those Koreans were only brought up in Korea... only a product from their ordinary mainstream education system. The New Zealander wanted to know what is the difference between their way of teaching and our way of teaching.
I'm not sure about how they teach but probably they start teaching kids English from the time they are little. Also the motivation to be a good speaker of English is keener because they are still trying to catch up with the other developing countries, including Japan, and being able to speak English is just absolutely a must. Japanese children are so well off that they have got rather complacent.
Employment exams vary from city to city, prefecture to prefecture. I know to pass the test was extremely difficult in the early 2000's because there were so many baby boomers-turned to be elderly teachers didn't start to leave their work forces yet. These days it seems a little easier to pass the test and get to be employed. Those who got emplyed a few years back were really excellent and now the gate has got widened but those who has got it through must still be very good.
to pass the test→ it is extremely difficult to pass the test elderly teachers→ elderly teachers who the gate has got widened but → the gate has got widened so...
One of my students asked me which test is harder, the employment test to be a teacher or STEP grade 1 test. I said they are different kinds of test and it's difficult to compare. The employment tests include other genres such as questions concerninig about common sense, laws related with education, etc.
The people on the street would think that teachers working in school should keep on studying the subject they teach and should be good enough to pass STEP pre-grade 1 at least. I agree with you.
You seem to be visualizing the scene at an auditorium where people from the local communities are all invited and every teacher in the local schools are introduced to them and they have to hang down from their neck a placard which says the name of the university they graduate from and of any qualifications they have.
Catherin:A Japanese tourist has touched my hips in the subway the other day. John :Oh my... Catherin:I told him "Stop it otherwise I will call a policeman." but he didn't. So I took him to the police. John :Disgusting. Catherin:That guy kept saying strange things like "Halo Haudoyudoyu" in the police department. John :Idiot?w Catherin:Soon a Japanese guide rushed and interpreted what he had said. According to him, he touched me because I told him to touch. And he kept claiming that he heard so without any mistake, because he was an English teacher. John :Gosh, English teachers in Japan cannnot use English. Catherin:Oh! Really? John :But they are claiming that they are good at English, and then what was happened? Catherin:There is no way, but I just left him to the police. John :That's fine. They should learn the reality.
Well, my English is good enough to be a teacher but not good enough to work for a company using English as a tool to do business. I know that, so I teach English, I suppose.
>>677 Thanks for your compliment. My students don't think I'm a good teacher. They say that I am all right. Some of them dislike me, which is fine with me. That's life.
When I look back my own school days, I liked my teachers. I especially remember one English teacher, whose pronunciation was terrible but he was very funny and made us laugh all the time. I doubt he could speak English. What he did was read a few passages with his horrible pronunciation and let us write down his translation on our notebook. He sometimes made us memorize strange mantras such as "toki matawa joukenn wo arawasu fukusisetu nonakade miraiha gennkei" He even went on talking us into learning those mantras by heart and made us repeat after him reciting them! Good old Englsih teachers were like him...
>>681 I doubt there is such a thing like "business English." If you are a maker of machine parts and want to sell to a company in China, you should be able to explain the product and what is different from products made by other companies. You have to negotiate about the price probably you might come to an agreement and all that, by only using English and a little Chinese. After work you might be invited to have dinner with your business partner. You might talk about how impressed you are to look at the beautiful scenery or funny things which happened to you while in China or you might talk about current events which interest you, such as a Russian spy who got killed in London... Isn't it all ordinary English we have to know?
Today, English conversation test is done by boards of Education in adopting new English teachers. So those who can't speak English well can't become English teachers. I am one of them.
If my memory is correct, STEP used to be authorized and partly sponsored(?) by Minisitry of Education, sports, culture and technology. It is one of the English proficiency testing systems students can sit for. I don't particularly recommend STEP to my students. TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, STEP, or any other system is good to measure our English skills, each characteristic of them taken into account.
Yes, there has always been an oral test for candidates to be teachers. I remember I had an interview test back then. The examiner was a kind of old man. He said, "Please be seated," with very thick Japanese accent. He asked me where I was from, why I wanted to be a teacher, and so on. Then, he just gave me a piece of paper, on which there was a newspaper article or something. He told me to read it and let me read it for a while and then, I was asked what was written there. He also asked me several questions concerning about the article. The session lasted for about 20 minutes or so. I don't remember much, though.
>>692 Thank you so much for your reply. Yes, I took such an oral test last year and this year. On the scenes, I couldn't respond well to the interviewers. Especially after the interview test, I don't have required skill for school English teachers. In fact, I failed the final selection for teachers to be adopted next April. Huuuh,I'm going to look for another job.
>>693 You are welcome. I hope you will pass. I was always nervous after I took a test. Sometimes I was confident but the result was not really good, and on other occasions I was not confident at all, nevertheless, the result was right and I passed... Who knows! You might just pass.
I work at private school as part-time teacher now. I've come to know school English teachers need ability to speak English fluently. I feel that way especially when I need to discuss TT with ALT. Some people post vicious jokes on this bulletin board. I know they are out of question. But I think the title on this board" Not quite a few JETs might have poor speaking level" has a kind of truth. I sometimes feel ashamed both in classes where I teach alone and in TT when I can't speak well. So, I'll leave school education and get a different job from it.
You seem to have decided to have a different job, so I say this, but teaching is not always fun, as you might already know. I hope you will find a nice job which will make you happier.
I agree with you on the point that JETs should improve their speaking skills and the title of this thread is right to some extent. It's partly because most of the teachers are over forties and fifties, they have got accustomed to the idea that they teach mainly English grammar and how to translate English into English. They don't think we should be able to speak it. I assume you are young and have a lot of future ahead of you. You will be able to improve your speaking skills quite easily based on the knowledge of grammar and structures.
Speaking of myself, I am not an excellent speaker either, but at least I believe speaking skills are as important as other skills, which you also seem to think. Good luck to whatever you are going to do and good luck to your own English learning!
>>696 Yes, I'm sure you understand what I want to say. I know we should bring up students' ability to listen, speak, read, write English. So I make my students memorize the texts on the textbook and present them in pairs in front of the others in classes. I believe memorizing model conversation is useful for them to speak English freely in the furture. I understand what you are saying, so I feel I'm not confident of myself. I like to work for young students, I mean I like to cope with their life problems and think about them together. That's our work. I like to talk with the young. But I know English proficiency is the most important factor for us English teachers.
>>698 Hmmm... You like to help younger people and you seem to like teaching English. In that case, teaching English is a perfect job for you, it seems to me. Of course you don't have to do that in a public educational institution. You might want to be an English teacher at a private school. You might be able to work at a cram school.
Anyway, I think you should have more confidence in yourself. No one is a perfect speaker of their second language. Let's take it for granted that we just make errors. Of course we should try to make as few errors as possible, though.
>So I make my students memorize the texts on the textbook and present them in pairs >in front of the others in classes.
That's great. Are they all willing to talk in front of the whole class?
>>699 I make the students make pairs and make the pairs memorize the dialogue one by one. One dialogue has 6 or so sentences in it, so each stundest has to memorize about 3 sentences in a try. And I make them recite the dialogue in pairs in front of the others. They always do much better than I expected. Maybe that's because I often tell them " Your presentation is included in your grade as usual score." They don't seem to feel much burden memorizing 3 or so sentences, so they don't seem to be unwilling to do this. I think this way is effective in bringing up their speech skill, I mean I hope in the future they will have positive attitude to give a speech in English before people without feeling hesitation.
I think Japnese teachers don't lay back either. They always seem to have a heated discussion. Here in this thread, there is no discussion but an attempt to humiliate English teachers. However, I found some truths in what they are saying; teachers do not make enough efforts to improve themselves, including myself, of course.
>>703 >They always do much better than I expected.
Yeah, they do, don't they? We are sometimes amazed how well they do. On the other hand we are disappointed to find how little they have been following what we are trying to plant in them..., like today. I mean, I'm now marking their test papers. Most of them seem to find the test very difficult and leave so many blanks unanswered.
>>706 I agree. In my workplace, there is a teacher who graduated from Tokyo university of foreign language studies(外語大). Although he majored in a minor(?) language spoken in the southeast Asia when he was a student, his English is excellent. Maybe he has the best command of English. There is another teacher who says openly he can't speak English well. He says he got TOEIC 620 after he became a teacher, which is, as he says, not that high as a teacher.
It's the most depressing part of learning another language. Unless you are a genius of linguistics, it's almost impossible to master English while living in Japan. I've been learning it for quite some time, as a student, and later as a teacher, but I sometimes find my students speak or write better English when they come back from the USA or England. They are there for a short while, say, a year or so, and then they becoem quite fluent.
Yeah, I feel the same way you feel. The day of the 2nd term exam is coming soon at our school. I repeatedly say to them " This part is importnat, please review well." I intend to give them special hints about the upcoming exam. I say like this because I want them to get good score. But they rarely meet my expectation.
I wonder what the techniques are like. Putting on a bluff so that they would believe you are a great teacher?
>>730 You know what it is like, which so many people just don't know. I sometimes tell my friends what it's like, they don't believe it. The reality is now hard to accept.
>>733 My teachers were all middled-aged male teachers. I remember we once had a very attractive young female practice teacher. She was at our school just for a few weeks, but I still remember what she said to us. She said pronunciation is very important. She recommended to us that we should be careful about the way we pronounce English words. "The younger you are, the easier you learn to pronounce words correctly," she said. I really wanted to sound like her tried to practice doing that. I wonder what she is doing right now...
I wonder why you think teachers with good command of English tend to be bad teachers. Is there any general tendency about it? I think teachers should be a good role model. They should have a fine command of English and should be able to communicate well with ALTs.
You are saying those teachers who are good at English tend to leave their students behind, by which you seem to mean they keep on talking in English, not caring if their students understand them. That is not true.
What do you mean by that? I think it is universal. The more you listen, read, write, and speak, you will be a better user of the language. You might make heaps of errors, but with appropriate reflections by their teachers, you will make less errors.
>>754 The question (form) in >>752 is NOT really a question. It is called a rhetorical question, by which the speaker wants to make clear that what he is saying is correct and anyone who says against it is a fool.
I think you should use both bottom-up and top-down strategy to teach English. ALTs, once they realise what is difficult with the students, they will be able to teach English using those two strategies.
Why don't we post our ideas on this board in English? We all are English teachers or interested in teaching English, aren't you? If there is someone who doesn't do so, you will be supposed not to be an teacher.
It's hilarious! Difficult schools are just like that. I've seen that sort of scenes so many times. Perhaps almost everyday. Once you get used to it, you don't care. I am not so worried about it. They walk around, keep eating snacks, putting on make-ups, start laughing in a very loud voice, sit on their friend's lap, and suddenly stand up, saying," I'm off to shit!" That's our everyday life.
You also said those students can learn better with a bottom-up strategy. I don't think so. Most of them are allergic to linguistic jargons. Even though we try to make them learn 'eat-ate-eaten' a hundred times, they refused to do so. To them those small differences are not important. They just don't care about it. I think it makes much more sense to tell them stories and let them understand what the stories are about by showing cards, maps, graphs, pictures (of your own drawing on the black board), and photos. Some students still walk around but they seem to look at the props and start to wonder what their teacher wants to tell them. Yeah, I know... I'm too optimistic, right?
Cram schools for junior highs give "a deviation value 37" label to our school. Students have deep-seated hatred to learning in general. We keep asking ourselves, what can we do, what can we do... There isn't much we can do, really. I suppose you are right. When a student says happily, " I think I understand what you want to say in English," I feel rewarded. We want them to know that it's not that difficult, but it's actually fun to learn another language.
>>802 That way seems to effective for students to improve understanding skill of English. That is, if you do lessons like that, they just listen and guess what you say in class. To guess is important at some time, I know. But they also need to acquire writing or saying in grammatically correct English, even if they don't wish. Don't you think so?
>>808 Yes. Most of them seem to understand what I say because of the props I use. They might just guess...It might be just a mere speculation. I think some people would call it only my self-satisfaction. However, there are some students who say they feel happy when they understand me or our ALT.
You seem to be saying that students shouldn't be just passive but they should be able to start actively getting involved in speaking and writing English. Frankly speaking, it's a long way to go. Our students don't even have a very basic knowlege about the language. Besides, most of them can't stand learning anything! I sometimes make them repeat after me more than ten times and memorize target sentences. "What is the weather like today?" "What was the weather like yesterday?" "What will the weather like tomorrow?" My students just mimick me at first but later when I say,"Yesterday" as a cue they can say, ' What was the weather like yesterday?' This activity might be only mechanical and they might forget them soon enough but repetition seems to work. They seem to be confident about saying those sentences correctly...
>>809 Yeah, I think that so-called pattern practice is good. I just wanted to say to you that it would undesirable for students to think that even broken English was no problem if they could make themselves understood.
I think it all depends on what kind of students you are talking about. If they are just beginners, teachers shouldn't be so strict about their mistakes. Beginners are easily discouraged, you know. Advanced learners, on the other hand, they will learn a lot if they get an appropriate feedback, once in a while, but in my opinion not too much. You should have a positive rewarding when you express yourself. In other words, you should enjoy doing it in order to improve your skills.
Desirable or undisirable, "chopped English", which I don't want to call "broken," is the first step to be fluent, I think.
>>814 I agree with you. But don't you think it is difficult to draw a line between "chopped English and "broken English? I sometimes feel it difficult whether I should ponint out the student's errors and correct them or shouldn't care about them and get them through. As you have already noticed, my English is not good for my present job, an English teacher.
I think it's fine. My English is far from being excellent, either.
I know it's hard "when" or "how" to correct apparent errors. Again, it all depends on the students, but in general I think teachers should just try to expand their ideas. For example, if they write "I enjoy disny rand with family before week." Then, you might want to write (or say), " Oh, how nice! You had a very good time in Tokyo Disney Land with your family, didn't you? Did you go there a week ago on the weekend? Did you enjoy riding various kinds of roller-coasters?"
In reality, I don't do this in class right now because my students at the moment seem to be allergic to studying English...
I don't eat eggs for breakfast. Thank you. What about you? Do you like sunny-side up, scrambled, or porched eggs?
Today I talked with an American whose mother is a Japanese. She looked like a Japanese. Although she is in Japan and she has a Japanese mother, she said her Japanese is not really good because she doesn't really have to use Japanese. According to her, her mother is very very fluent but her written grammar is just terrible. Her mother has lived in the US for more than 30 years but just living there doesna't make her English perfect... Japanese English teachers, who were brought up here and don't travel often are less fortunate in improving their (our) English, I'm afraid. You've got to be a little easy on us.
Actually it's not. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes to write here. How many hours have we got? 24 hours. It is all right to spend just several minutes doing something stupid to relieve your stress or whatever... Start saying something intriguing yourself. I'm so bored.
No school days will soon be coming. In no school days, students don't use much English do they? It will make a difference if they just voluntarily listen to some English-language radio program.
>>833 I think motivation is the biggest element to improve his English ability. Students with the motivation will voluntarily listen to the radio program and study by themself.
A Canadian living in Japan said that a friend of his, now teaching English in Korea, really enjoys living there and teaching students (age 6 to 12)... In the community which is in a countryside in the country, kids can be more interactive and communicative than Japanese kids at the same age. I said, " I wonder why English education in Korea is so successful." The Canadian said he doesn't know the secret either but there seem to be so many native speakers in the community who help them with English, who happen to be all Canadians! It's not even a big city. I thought it is amazing. How can they do that? Rich parents in big cities can send their students to private schools and make them have good English education, but the institution the Canadian was talking about seems to be supported by a local government and sends native speaking English teachers to both private and public high schools. According to him, students take 4 English classes a day or something. I just wonder what will happen to their math, science, Korean language education. The Canadian asked me what I think will happen to Japanese English education. I said to him what I thought might happen in the future but it would be too provocative to say here...
>>833 What radio programs do you recommend to your students? I think "Let's Speak," and "Kiso-Eigo""Zoku Kiso Eigo" are very good.
>>835 I agree with you. Motivation is everything when we want to improve anything. Motivated learners learn better. Do you think it is a part of our job to get our student motivated in one way or another? I know it's extremely difficult though.
Again some English teachers try to revenge here. It is meaningless even if those teachers try to show themselves greater than how they really are, by using excite translation.
All right. Let's suppose what you say is true. All Japanese English teachers can't use English at all. Why can they get away with it? They can go around without having their English proficiency checked. Why? It's their employer's fault, isn't it?
I really hope English teachers should brush up their English a little more seriously but in my opinion most of them are capable teachers, trying to make a change.
Those excellent teachers are all in SELhis(Super English Language School)? I don't think so, because people in the Board of Education are not so concerned about teachers' characteristics(credentials) when they place them at a certain school. Public school teachers have to be able to teach various kinds of schools.
You've got a point there. Since >>849 is very much concerned about and interested in the proficiency and issues of English teachers, he should bravely get into the messed-up English teaching job himself and fix them. Why don't you join us? Let's work for the youngsters with so much future ahead of them!
Do you always take everything at a face value? When I say I'm a teacher, do you believe me? People might say they are teachers but they might not. How would you know what people claim to be true is really so? What is good about this thread is we can exlpore our ideas without taking full responsibility, which means I also teall a lot of crap here.
And teachers shouldn't answer stupid questions on this board. Althouh I'm not poor at Enfglish. I use English on this board. Those who can answer in only English aren't school teachers. True teachers don't have to answer to naughty buys.
Do you think we shouldn't make our students buy specific books? I think it is all right to just recommend what books to read or what TV, radio programs to listen or watch. No one will get any profit except for your students.
>>858 Well, I wonder if you didn't think my question in >>839 was a stupid one. I think you may be poor at Enfglish but you are not poor at English...Just joking. Well, I'm a teacher myself at least. I deal with naughty kids everyday. I miss them a lot when they leave school.
>>860 I ment to say "naughty guys" mean people who have some complainments about JETs. I was just wondering whether there is no problem in the case a teacher tells the students that they should read some book or watch some program by a broadcastig.
I guess it is wrong for us to recommend to our students a particular cram school, for example, Jonan, Yoyogi,or Toshin... I'm not so familiar with the rule about do's and don'ts of a public worker. Yes, you are right. I think we should be careful about things like that, though.
英語教師:あー静かに。ほら、席に着け。もうチャイム鳴っただろ。 ジョン: ・・・・ 英語教師:えー今日から外人の先生が週一回来てくれることになった。 生徒: 外人って外国人のこと? 英語教師:じゃ、ジョン先生お願いします。 ジョン: ・・・?・・・ 英語教師:あ、そっか。アー、ジョン、ティーチャー、プリーズ。 ジョン: Could you introduce me to the students, first? 英語教師:え?!、イントロ?あぁ、紹介ね。マイ・ネーム・イズ・スズキ。 ジョン: No. No. You introduce ME to the students. 英語教師:あッぁ、アイ・アム・イングリッシュ・テーチャー。 フォーティーイアーズ・オールド。ベリーオールド。なんちゃってw ジョン: I don't ask you to introduce yourself to me. Please introduce ME to the STUDENTS. 英語教師:アイ・ライク・ジャパニーズフード・ライク・スシ・・・ 生徒: 生徒に紹介してくれって言ってるんじゃないの? 英語教師:うるさい。授業中は静かにしてろ。アァー、ジョン・ティーチャー、ジュギョウ・プリーズ。 ジョン: You don't understand. I ask you to introduce ME to the STUDENTS. OK? 英語教師:あっ、ステューデントね。アイ・シー、アイ・シー。おい、それじゃ、まず、秋山から自己紹介しろ。 生徒: ザワザワ(そうじゃないんじゃない?)
英語教師:あー静かに。ほら、席に着け。もうチャイム鳴っただろ。 ニート: ・・・・ 英語教師:えー今日は序数詞の勉強やるぞ。 ニート: 序数詞って何ですか。 英語教師:序数詞も分からないのか、やっぱりニートだな。 ニート: ・・・?・・・ 英語教師:一番目、二番目、って数えてくやつだよ。じゃいくぞ。 生徒@: first 英語教師:OK Next 生徒A: second 英語教師:good Next 生徒B: third 英語教師:good next ニート: (自信満々)ショート! 英語教師:・・・・もういい。帰って2ちゃんでもやってろ。
JET: Hello, class. As you see, we have Sean today. Sean'll introduce himself. Let's find out what country he is from, how old he is, and what are his interests. Oh, no! Kaori, stop putting on a make-up. Kenji, don't walk around. Keiko, put aside your cell phone. Kaori: うざくね〜。何?あの外人。だっさ〜。 Kenji: 歩きまわっちゃいね〜よ〜。くそだよ、くそ。 Sean: (to the JET) What's "kuso?" JET: He just wants to go to the bathroom. Sean: Oh, I see. JET: Keiko, are you still on the phone. Let's hear what he wants to say. Keiko: (talking with her boyfriend on the phone) 明、それでね、それでね…。 JET: (loudly) Keiko, could you please hang up and listen to Sean. Keiko: (even more loudly) ごめん、明。 先公がでかい声で聞こえね〜よ。もっと 大きい声で喋ってくれるぅ? Sean: All right. I'm from the United States of America... Students: (to the JET) 何言ってんの?わけわかんね〜。 Seam: I'm 23 years old. Kaori: (to her friends) 今23歳って言った?見えなくね〜。おっやじぃ! Kenji: (back from the bathroom) 帰ったぞ〜。あ、すっきりした。でけえクソして来たよ。 Keiko: ケンジ、でかい声で話すなよ。ちゃんとドア閉めてこいよ。さみぃよ。(into the phone) ごめん、明。気がきかねえヤツばっかだよ。
I really like >>869. Isn't it so funny? Is that your original story?
As for >>877, it's the story I must made up, base on my every day experience. Sean(←not his real name) says he often feels like kicking out some of the students who are being so destructive, but in my imaginary situation above, he seems to behave himself...
I don't reckon using English is cool at all, especially my awkward English. I just want to show some English teachers enjoy learning English and try to get the hang of it and all that. I think it will answer the question to the title of the thread "なぜ、英語教師は日本語しかできないのか?" As limited as it is, English teachers are trying to use English as much as possible in their classes no matter what the others might say... I'm pretty much drunk today after I had so much beer in our year-end drinking party. I wonder how you think of >>875. That's our reality we have to deal with everyday. I feel like talking with somebody tonight. Does anyone talk with me?
I don't know anyone who doesn't want to justify what they do. I guess that's what I'm just trying to do here. If so many people are unhappy about what we are trying to do, perhaps we just start to think of the way we do. In my workplace, we ask our students what they think of the way teach by answering the questionaire, which is a multiple-choice type of it, and they tell us how satisfied they are by ticking a number out of five; if they are very happy(5), they are happy(4), they think it's OK(3), they are not very happy(2), and they think our performance is very poor(1)
Strangely enough, almost all the teachers seem to get similar scores. There are teachers who have TOEIC score only 600, and there are teachers who have a STEP 1st grade qualification. No matter how different our English proficiency is, the result of the questionaire are not very different amond us. Most of the students say they are happy about how we teach... No matter what we do, or how we do, they are mostly happy. As you might guess, it doesn't really give us any motivation to improve our teaching, really.
I read >>882 again. There are so many mistakes, I don't really want to correct them all. It's too time-consuming. All right. I'm too much drunk and very tired. I've got to go.
>>898 It's not only Filipinos but a lot of Indians are hired for call centers, because it's cheaper to have an office and hire Indians (or Filipinos or Filipinas) whose English is basically very good.
It is also beneficial to run those call centers for 24 hours a day because of the time difference. If you have some questions to ask in the middle of the night, you can talk to an operater in the Philippines, where their time is in their working hours.
There seems to be no problem in that case as well. Those operaters speak good enough English so you can talk to them without any problem. I've read in the newspaper some American parents hire Indian tutors living in India to teach their kids by using something like Skype. What surprised me was that they teach not only math or science but English language itself!
Imagine what it is like having a overseas teachers (whose primary language is not English) teach them English.
英語教師:あー静かに。ほら、席に着け。もうチャイム鳴っただろ。 ジョン :・・・・ 英語教師:えー今日から外人の先生が週一回来てくれることになった。じゃ、ジョン先生お願いします。 ジョン :・・・?・・・ 英語教師:あ、そっか。アー、ジョン、ティーチャー、プリーズ。 ジョン :Could you introduce me to the students, first? 英語教師:え?!、イントロ?あぁ、自己紹介ね。マイ・ネーム・イズ・スズキ。 ジョン :No. No. You introduce ME to the students. 英語教師:あッぁ、アイ・アム・イングリッシュ・テーチャー。フォーティーイアーズ・オールド。ベリーオールド。なんちゃってw ジョン :I don't ask you to introduce yourself to me. Please introduce ME to the STUDENTS. 英語教師:アイ・ライク・ジャパニーズフード・ライク・スシ・・・ 生徒 :生徒に紹介してくれって言ってるんじゃないの? 英語教師:うるさい。授業中は静かにしてろ。アァー、ジョン・ティーチャー、ジュギョウ・プリーズ。 ジョン :You don't understand. I ask you to introduce ME to the STUDENTS. OK? 英語教師:あっ、ステューデントね。生徒の自己紹介ね。アイ・シー、アイ・シー。おい、それじゃ、まず、秋山から自己紹介しろ。 生徒 :(ザワザワ)そうじゃないんじゃない?
栄見純一郎(生徒):You asked him to introduce you to us, right? ジョン :Yes, Yes. You understand me. 栄見純一郎 :先生、あのぉ、ジョン先生のことを生徒に紹介して欲しいって言ってますよ。 英語教師 :あっ?何だお前は。そんなことはわかってるよ。そのぐらいわからないでどうする。 栄見純一郎 :えぇ、ですから、生徒の自己紹介の前にジョン先生をみんなに紹介したほうが… 英語教師 :だから、今やろうと思ってたんだろ。それよりお前、授業中に私語は慎め。 栄見純一郎 :・・・ ジョン :・・・ 英語教師 :えー、これから週一回はこのジョン先生が授業をすることになる。 だから、オレの出番は一回減るってこと。じゃ、秋山、自己紹介してみろ。 ジョン(純一郎に):(whispering) He already introduced me to everyone? 栄見純一郎 :I don't know. He just said that you would come to the class once a week. 英語教師 :栄見!、私語は慎めと言っただろ。何回言ったらわかるんだ。 ジョン :・・・ 栄見純一郎 :・・・
I wonder what you meant by that. You seem to be talking about Japanese English teachers. Are you saying that none of them has a good command of their own mother tongue, namely Japanese? I'm a JET who is trying to learn English more, hopefully trying to help our students to learn it better at the same time. I have realized so many times how limited my own English abilities are, but I have never suspected that there is something very wrong about my command of my own native tongue. I really would like you to elaborate on this matter.
英語教師:あー静かに。ほら、席に着け。もうチャイム鳴っただろ。 ジョン :・・・・ 英語教師:えー今日から外人の先生が週一回来てくれることになった。じゃ、ジョン先生お願いします。 ジョン :・・・?・・・ 英語教師:あ、そっか。アー、ジョン、ティーチャー、プリーズ。 ジョン :Could you introduce me to the students, first? 英語教師:え?!、イントロ?あぁ、自己紹介ね。マイ・ネーム・イズ・スズキ。 ジョン :No. No. You introduce ME to the students. 英語教師:あッぁ、アイ・アム・イングリッシュ・テーチャー。フォーティーイアーズ・オールド。ベリーオールド。なんちゃってw ジョン :I don't ask you to introduce yourself to me. Please introduce ME to the STUDENTS. 英語教師:アイ・ライク・ジャパニーズフード・ライク・スシ・・・ 生徒 :生徒に紹介してくれって言ってるんじゃないの? 英語教師:うるさい。授業中は静かにしてろ。アァー、ジョン・ティーチャー、ジュギョウ・プリーズ。 ジョン :You don't understand. I ask you to introduce ME to the STUDENTS. OK? 英語教師:あっ、ステューデントね。生徒の自己紹介ね。アイ・シー、アイ・シー。おい、それじゃ、まず、秋山から自己紹介しろ。 生徒 :(ザワザワ)そうじゃないんじゃない?
栄見純一郎(生徒):You asked him to introduce you to us, right? ジョン :Yes, Yes. You understand me. 英語教師 :・・・ 栄見純一郎 :先生! あのぉ、ジョン先生のことを生徒に紹介して欲しいって言ってますよ。 英語教師 :あっ?何だお前は。そっそんなことはわかってるよ。そのぐらいわからないでどうする。 栄見純一郎 :えぇ、ですから、生徒の自己紹介の前にジョン先生をみんなに紹介したほうが… 英語教師 :だから、今やろうと思ってたんだろ。それよりお前、授業中に私語は慎め。 栄見純一郎 :・・・ ジョン :・・・ 英語教師 :えー、これから週一回はこのジョン先生が授業をすることになる。 だから、オレの出番は一回減るってこと。じゃ、秋山、自己紹介してみろ。 ジョン(純一郎に):(whispering) He already introduced me to everyone? 栄見純一郎 :I don't know. He just said that you would come to the class once a week. 英語教師 :栄見!、私語は慎めと言っただろ。何回言ったらわかるんだ。 ジョン :・・・ 栄見純一郎 :・・・
英語教師 :そういう事情を知りもしないで、英語教師の英語力をバカにする奴がいる。 教師をバカにしている。でも、そういう奴に限って入試は落ちる。受かるわけがない。 絶対、落としてやる。 ジョン(純一郎に):(whispering) What he is doing? 純一郎 :Well, a kind of a preach.... 英語教師 :・・・ ジョン :What should I do now? 純一郎 :Just stay.... 英語教師 :・・・ ジョン :I came here to teach English... but he doesn't understand me. English teachers here are always like this? 純一郎 :Yes, but I can't help it. 英語教師 :(突然大声で)コラァ―、いつになったら私語を止めるんだ! ジョン :・・・ 純一郎 :・・・ 英語教師 :栄見、後で英語準備室に来なさい。きょうはこれまで。
The teacher was bragging about his experience of his using the subway and visiting the police on his own in >>921 but actually he was mistaken for a pervert and got arrested. How pathetic!
The way this teacher justifies himself is very funny and it sounds somehow familiar to us all. Teachers tend to say something like this maybe including myself. English teachers should be a good speaker of the language. Everyone believes so except for English teachers themselves.
There will be more and more young teachers fresh out of university joining the workforce since babyboomers will start leaving school from this March. Young teachers are better speakers and probably they have studied abroad and they have more access to spoken English when they were growing up. I hope they will change English education in Japan. In the meantime we should brush up our English and be a good model as an English learner in the eyes of the students.
I may be optimistic but I don't think what you said in >>941 will happen, because 40% of the teachers will leave the workforce in 15 years and younger teachers will be, then, influential by that time and they will change the way it is taught as they want.
Do you say those prestigious universities such as Todai or Kodai, still ask those who want to get into their university to translate underlined English sentences to see how good the applicants' English abilities are? However, the standerdized exams for the applicants to the universities have a listening part, don't they? I think that is a first step to change our traditional testing system in English.
No matter how lazy you are, you get paid the same amount of salary. This seems to be a shared idea among the public in general. I kind of agree with the human nature you are talking about in >>944. I might be too optimistic, but I think the problem seems to solve itself in the long run because students (besides principals) have started evaluating their teachers and the result of the questionaire will be reflected in their wage structure. There will be more and more young teachers hired in the next 15 years. All that seems to be indicating a rosy future of English education in this country.
>>946 When was it that you were in highschool? I don't know how old you are but if you are 25, you are talking about 10 years ago. Those young teachers are middle aged by now and older teachers are about to retire soon. I'm talking about young teachers who are going to join the workforce once the baby-boomers are gone. They are young people who might have been abroad or have more access to audio-visual equipments when they were growing up. I expect THEM to make a big change in English education.
Where did you get the idea most of the new recruits have influential relatives? Oh, well, I should keep silent about that because I'm not sure whether you are right or wrong unless I see statistics to prove it.
>>949 How would you know we don't get along each other and it is not true. However, you are right in saying it is almost impossible to tell how good our co-working teachers' English proficiency is. As a matter of fact, I think theirs is quite good, though it might be evaluated differently depending on what kind of English proficiency you are talking about.
You are younger than 30, which means your friends are(were?) pretty good because most of the local government didn't recruit so many people back then. They went through quite rigorous screenings including interviews. You say their English was hopeless. I would like to know why you think so. You went to school with them and they did bad, or something? Do you still talk with them? Are they so hopelessly lazy? Why do you make friends with them if you despise them? Before all things, have you ever given them any advice that they shouldn't be so complacent about their English abilities?
It's not only you but I do. I also find those postings rubbish as you do. Don't take any notice of them but just ignore them if you don't like them. That's all.
I use English here because English teachers try to use English as much as possible, which goes againt the thread title,"なぜ、英語教師は日本語しかできないのか?"
I don't have a false idea about my own English abilities; not good but not bad either. Those people who want to say something about English education are more or less interested in learning English themselves, aren't they? I would welcome you to start using English here if you don't mind.
I'm glad I seem to have put my intention across to you. I'm an English teacher whose English abilities are just mediocre but I can do this much; to use the langugage to let people know what I want to say. This is the very starting point of everything.
英語教師:あー静かに。ほら、席に着け。もうチャイム鳴っただろ。 ジョン :・・・・ 英語教師:えー今日から外人の先生が週一回来てくれることになった。じゃ、ジョン先生お願いします。 ジョン :・・・?・・・ 英語教師:あ、そっか。アー、ジョン、ティーチャー、プリーズ。 ジョン :Could you introduce me to the students, first? 英語教師:え?!、イントロ?あぁ、自己紹介ね。マイ・ネーム・イズ・スズキ。 ジョン :No. No. You introduce ME to the students. 英語教師:あッぁ、アイ・アム・イングリッシュ・テーチャー。フォーティーイアーズ・オールド。ベリーオールド。なんちゃってw ジョン :I don't ask you to introduce yourself to me. Please introduce ME to the STUDENTS. 英語教師:アイ・ライク・ジャパニーズフード・ライク・スシ・・・ 生徒 :生徒に紹介してくれって言ってるんじゃないの? 英語教師:うるさい。授業中は静かにしてろ。アァー、ジョン・ティーチャー、ジュギョウ・プリーズ。 ジョン :You don't understand. I ask you to introduce ME to the STUDENTS. OK? 英語教師:あっ、ステューデントね。生徒の自己紹介ね。アイ・シー、アイ・シー。おい、それじゃ、まず、秋山から自己紹介しろ。 生徒 :(ザワザワ)そうじゃないんじゃない?
栄見純一郎(生徒):You asked him to introduce you to us, right? ジョン :Yes, Yes. You understand me. 英語教師 :・・・ 栄見純一郎 :先生! あのぉ、ジョン先生のことを生徒に紹介して欲しいって言ってますよ。 英語教師 :あっ?何だお前は。そっそんなことはわかってるよ。そのぐらいわからないでどうする。 栄見純一郎 :えぇ、ですから、生徒の自己紹介の前にジョン先生をみんなに紹介したほうが… 英語教師 :だから、今やろうと思ってたんだろ。それよりお前、授業中に私語は慎め。 栄見純一郎 :・・・ ジョン :・・・ 英語教師 :えー、これから週一回はこのジョン先生が授業をすることになる。 だから、オレの出番は一回減るってこと。じゃ、秋山、自己紹介してみろ。 ジョン(純一郎に):(whispering) He already introduced me to everyone? 栄見純一郎 :I don't know. He just said that you would come to the class once a week. 英語教師 :栄見!、私語は慎めと言っただろ。何回言ったらわかるんだ。 ジョン :・・・ 栄見純一郎 :・・・
英語教師 :そういう事情を知りもしないで、英語教師の英語力をバカにする奴がいる。 教師をバカにしている。影で笑っている。 ジョン(純一郎に):(whispering) What he is doing? 純一郎 :Well, a kind of a preach.... 英語教師 :でも、そういう奴に限って入試は落ちる。受かるもんか。絶対、落として・・・・。 ジョン :What should I do now? 純一郎 :Just stay.... 英語教師 :・・・ ジョン :I came here to teach English... but he doesn't understand me. English teachers here are always like this? 純一郎 :Yes, but I can't help it. 英語教師 :(突然大声で)コラァ―、いつになったら私語を止めるんだ! ジョン :・・・ 純一郎 :・・・ 英語教師 :栄見、後で英語準備室に来なさい。きょうはこれまで。
次の文章を貼付けてぐぐると彼のブログが3つヒットします。 >>ここでは、私の英語・フランス語・ドイツ語・中国語学習の奮闘 第6/7回NOAレベルアップコンテスト受賞祝賀会にも参加? 一部伏せ字 Je m'appelle Msayk. ま◯ゆ J'habite a` Chiba. Je suis professeur dans un lyce´e. J'enseigne l'anglais.
John: All right. Let’s move on. Let’s have a quick introduction. I’m John, your new ALT from England. I like Japanese food especially Sushi and Okonomiyaki. I enjoy playing rugby and watching a video in my free time. I live in Takada. 英語教師: 高田、お前当たったぞ。返事しろ。 高田: 何言えばいいんすか? 英語教師: ジョン・ティーチャー。もっとスロー、プリーズ。生徒、困ってるよ。 John: What would you like me to do now, Mr. Takahashi? 英語教師: ジョン・ティーチャーは高田がお好きなんだそうだ。高田、よかったな。 生徒一同: (ざわざわ)そうじゃないんじゃないの? 純一郎: (ジョンに小声で)Mr. Takahashi didn’t seem to get it. He didn’t even know you made a self-introduction. John: (ほっとして) What am I supposed to do now?
純一郎: (高田をさしながら) Start asking the student a question or something. John: Well, then. (高田に)Hi, there. I’m John. What’s your name? 英語教師: 高田、いい加減にしろ。はやく答えろ。ジョン先生が質問しておられるぞ。 高田: アイ・アム・オサム・タカダ。アイ・ライク・お好み焼き・トゥ、なんちって。 英語教師: 高田、調子に乗って関係ないこと言うんじゃない。 John: Osamu… All right, you like Okonomiyaki, too. It tastes good, doesn’t it? 高田: アイ・ライク・マンチェスター・ユナイテッド、なんちって。 英語教師: 高田、私語を慎め、お前も後で職員室に来い。 John: Oh, you like football. So do I. Well, Mr. Takahashi, why are you so upset? What was wrong with Osamu? 英語教師: えっ?何? ジョン・ティーチャー、ゲームやる?こいつは後でよく叱っておくから。レイター、バァーング!バァーング!アウチ、アウチ、オッケー? ゲーム、プリーズ。 John: ?
Oh. Did you like it? It's not as funny as the previous ones, which were made by someone else, not me...
I am an English teacher. so it's a kind of self-depreciating joke, which makes me feel a bit uncomfortable because I am making fun of myself... Personally I like the previous ones much better. They were so clever.
(純一郎は職員室にいるジョンのところに来る) John: Oh, hello. Sorry. What was your name again? 栄見: I’m Jun-ichiro. Call me Jun. John: OK, Jun. You were very helpful in class. How come you are such a good speaker? 栄見: Thank you. I listen to some radio English conversation programs. That’s it. John: I see. By the way, Jun, Mr. Takahashi just doesn’t seem to understand me at all. Does he really teach you English? 栄見: Yeah. He says he is good at explaining English grammar to us… (英語教師が通りかかる) 英語教師: 栄見、やっと来たな。お前、授業中に私語ばかり繰り返すんじゃない。 栄見: あっ、先生。私語じゃないんです。ジョン先生にちょっと説明してたんです。 英語教師: お前は何か、オレを助けていたとでも言うのか。先生はお前の助けなど 必要とはしていないぞ。ザッツ・ライト、ジョン・ティーチャ? John: Jun, could you tell me what Mr. Takahashi is saying?
(栄見は困っている) 栄見: Well, he is just saying that you understand him perfectly without any problems. 英語教師: 栄見、お前のそういう態度がいかんのだ。しっかり先生の話を聞きなさい。 大体なあ、「ハロー、ハワイユー」なんていうチャラチャラした英語を 少し話したって、まるで意味がない。大事なのは、語彙と文法だ。オレは ジェームス・カーカップもイーノックス・ガーデンも読まないヤツは認めんそ。 栄見、お前は、そもそも中間の文法は何点だったか。平均点しか取れてなか たじゃないか。そういうヤツはオレは認めん。金輪際、認めん。 John: Hey, Jun, Mr. Takahashi has started getting….angry….again? What’s happened this time? 栄見: Well, I don’t know… He says I should study English grammar a lot harder. 英語教師: 栄見、いい加減にしろって言ってるのが聞こえんのか?六本木の尻軽娘のよう に、チャラチャラとした英語を話すんじゃないぞ。そんなヒマがあったら 単語を100も覚えてみろ。文法問題を解いてみろ。
Traveling abroad as wellas in Japan surely broadens our horizon and we can have new perspecitives when seeing different cultures or different values. What countries have you traveled so far?
>>982 Well, I don't know about that. As for >>973-974 and >>978-979, I exaggarated what might have happened long time ago.
>>983 Actually I am not so sure about it. What do you mean by that? You start talking about something so obvious, which is 野暮, isn't it?
(ジョンは教育委員会から電話を受け、懇親会に参加を承諾する。) John: Mr. Takahashi, I was asked to attend a party organized by the board of education. They said some of the Japanese teachers from this school are also coming… I wonder who are coming. 英語教師(1): ジョン先生、もっとスローに、ね。早く日本に慣れてね。生涯先生、 ジョン先生に日本語教えてやってくださいよ。 英語教師(2): あら、高橋先生。外人は怠け者だから、何年日本にいても、日本語は ダメですよ。本当にイヤになってしまいますよね。 John: Well…Um… Are you coming or not, Mr. Takahashi? And you, too, Ms. Shogai? Actually I don’t know how to get there… Well, let me see. “Mura-ichiban?” Is it a restaurant or a pub? 英語教師(1): なんか、オレの行きつけの居酒屋「村一番」って言った気がするぞ。 英語教師(2): まあ、高橋先生、もうお酒飲んで、遊びまわりたいんですわ。困った 外人教師ですわよね。
(ジョンは放課後の教室へ、ぶらりと立ち寄る) 栄見: Hi, Joh(ジョンは放課後の教室へ、ぶらりと立ち寄る) 栄見: Hi, John. Are you going home now? John: Oh, hi, Jun… Well, it was Jun, right? (栄見、うなづく) No, I’m walking around to find some of the students and get to know them, hopefully… 栄見: There are so many students who are still around. Most of us belong to a club. As soon as school is over, we start practicing soccer…well, football, in my case. John: You are a member of the football club? Mind if I come and see you play? 栄見: Be my guest.
(グランドへ行く途中) 栄見: John…. Um… I have a …kind of problem. John: You can tell me about it… I might be able to be of some help, you know. 栄見: Oh, sure…. You can help me a lot… It’s about our English classes. I was advised not to speak any English in class… John: (ショックを受けて)What? What are you talking about? Who said that to you?
>>992 Well, >>987 might be a real story based on the writer's own experience or something but as far as mine is concerned, they are not real, needless to say...
(職員室で) John: Is it true, Mr. Takahashi, you told Jun not to speak English in class? It's nonsense not to speak English in English classes. 英語教師:ジョン先生、ドント・ドリンク・トゥ・マッチ、アット村一番、トゥナイト。 へへへ。 John: Could you please answer my question? All right? You know Jun, one of our students we taught today in 1-5. 英語教師:ジュン?六月はまだまだ先だしなあ。何のことかいな。 分かりますか、生涯先生? 英語教師A:ワン・ファイブとか言ってましたわよ。 きっと、6月の15日に何かあるんじゃないでしょうか。 ワット・ハップンズ・オン・ジュン・ワン・ファイブ、ジョン先生? John: Oh, Good Lord!
英語教師@:グッド・ロード、あり?道路舗装がいいって言ってるみたい。 ジャパンズ・グレート・テクノロジーなんちゃって。 おっ、高田の口癖がうつっちゃっいましたよ。 英語教師A:まぁ、高橋先生、さすがですわ。科学技術と言えば、日本ですものね。 このように、イギリスから出稼ぎに若者が来るくらいですもの。 グレート・テクノロジー、オンリーインジャパン、ですわ。 John: Oh, please...Mr. Takahashi, Ms. Shogai, please speak English so that I can understand you and just tell me why you said what you said to Jun. Jun... you surely know who I'm talking abou...
John: Yeah, Jun, Jun-ichiro! I remember he said that... Why should he not speak English in class, Mr. Takahashi, Ms. Shogai??? 英語教師@:オッケー、ドント・ワリー。アイルパンチ・ヒム・ハード。 John: Are you saying you'll punch him hard??? No, don't. What did he do to deserve that? You sound...insane!