Tokyo Love and Japan (part 3)

Continuing my excitement for my upcoming novel, Tokyo Love. Being published by Crimson Romance this July.

More fun stories from my adventures in Japan!

One of the most exciting things I got to experience in Japan was teaching summer classes at KA International School.

In Japan there is a lot of pressure on succeeding academically. For any parent that wants their kid to be ahead of the curve, they send them to 'after schools'. So, after a long day in the public school, the kid goes to another school until the evening. 'After schools' have become such a booming business that they compete with one another for the best reputation of helping their students get into better middle schools and better high schools and better colleges. Yes, kids in Japan have to test into their middle and high schools. Some tests they take are rather similar to the American ACT and SAT, but also involve a heavy use of foreign language (English) and a professional interview. It's called the juken test and KA helps 5^th and 6^th graders to pass it.

I won't go too much into my criticism of the Japanese academic situation. One, it's not really my place to criticize since I don't live in Japan (or have school aged children in Japan). Two, KA was a super awesome school, with a great program, great teachers, and amazing kids. I'd love to teach there again. Seriously amazing experience.

The kids at KA were a little different from the normal students. These kids had all either grown up abroad (usually Canada, USA, or UK) or they had a parent that was a foreigner. Many of them had spent the first years of their life in a foreign country and now lived in Japan. Others spent half their year in Japan. In all cases, they came to the school to keep up their English.

At KA, we taught a little differently than most public schools. Since all of us teachers were native English speakers, we tried to keep the classrooms more western as well. Which means there is a lot of class participation, questions and answers are encouraged, and we generally try to be louder. Some kids could get really into this, and some kids were too used to the Japanese method of 'keep your head down and don't get noticed'. There is nothing more depressing than when you ask a question to a group of students and they all stare at you like you are the crazy one.

I taught a range of ages, from K-12^th grade. Most of my classes were only a few kids. Though I did have an eventful day in which I got ten 3^rd graders in one class. My one tip to aspiring grade school teachers; confidence is key. Any troubling students were usually satisfied, however, by entertaining class work and that I usually had some fun games for them to play between learning.

Some highlights of my experience was a kindergartner who was so smart and studious that I could play a game with him for ten minutes, then send him straight back to work with no trouble (he also could write better English sentences than I could at that age). He was the darling of the school.

The one day I actually got to teach some high school kids, I spent half of the class time rambling about Latin roots as pertaining to their vocabulary. I'm pretty sure they thought I was insane, but I think they enjoyed my anecdote about Sextus Molestus.

When I got to teach five kindergartners at once and it was terribly exhausting. But worth it when they all were working and decided to quietly sing every song from Frozen, in perfect English.

The middle school girl with whom I got to talk about poetry with. And totally showed her some clips from Lord of the Rings. Because I am a nerd.

My amazement when I found that if the attention is lagging, just let the kids write on the whiteboard. Writing on the whiteboard is the best thing ever. Also stamps, everyone loves getting a stamp.

Discussing Frozen a lot. Let me tell you, the Japanese love Frozen. So all Japanese kids love Frozen. Elsa is their favorite character. How dare you suggest otherwise.

Fun fact, after Frozen came out, the top songs on the Japanese Charts was 1. Let it Go (theatrical version) 2. Let it Go (pop version) 3. Let it Go (Japanese version).

Last fond memory, having a normal class with some 3^rd and 4^th graders, and hearing my sister yelling at her students through the walls. Good times.