Cultural shapes

One thing that caught me off guard one time while in the classroom was the different meanings of certain shapes across cultures. I was standing at the blackboard, the students having chalked some answers up there. As I read the first answer, I checked it off and nodded, and threw in a "Very good." The students looked puzzled, and several touched eraser to paper.

Apparently, check marks are not used in Japan to denote a correct answer. As I learned that day and would come to observe quite frequently in the future while watching teachers grade tests, correct answers get a circle beside them (○＝まる) and incorrect ones get an X (ばつ) or often just a straight line (that sometimes resembles a check mark, I guess). 

Additionally, triangles (⊿＝さんかくけい) are often used to denote partial credit or "debatable."

I've seen these symbols used at my current job, too. At our daily morning meetings, we each present some articles and talk a bit about them, and then my boss tentatively draws a circle, x, or triangle on his paper next to the article name to note whether or not the news will be sent to Tokyo (the triangles are "maybe").

And blue moons mean "%$^ you!"

In retrospect it makes perfect sense, but it just never occurred to me that different shapes and symbols take on different meanings depending on the culture.

Creepy Dog

My first lesson of the year with the 一年生 (first year students), I asked them to draw a picture of something important to them and tell us about it. A lot of the kids wrote about their club activities or siblings, which was nice, but there were a few strange ones. This one made me laugh out loud. In case you're wondering, the kanji on the dog's body is 犬 ("inu," meaning dog).

Why English Teachers Should Study Japanese

 This article is an entry in the April 2011 Japan Blog Maturi, hosted this month by Nihongoup. Thanks to our hosts! For more information, visit the Japan Blog Matsuri FAQ page.


If you're working as an English teacher in Japan, you should probably study Japanese. I know, crazy stuff. Sounds like a reasonable assertion, but I've known people who come to Japan to work and have zero or little effort to learn. I'm not writing this as a finger-wagging at them, though I definitely think it's a good idea to learn the language of the country you're living in. I'm writing this because it will make you a better teacher.

According to the US Foreign Service Institute, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn. This is because on many levels they are very different. Knowing more about these differences will help you better understand the difficulties and challenges that your students may face.

Augmenting your lessons

Japanese doesn't use articles, like "a," "an," and "the." Similarly, there are few ways to distinguish between singular and plural nouns, aside from context. But you don't need to study Japanese to know that. Let's go a little further.

The Japanese language lacks certain sounds, so English pronunciation (both speaking and listening) can be very difficult. The combination of "l" and "r" is pretty widely known. Japanese also lacks a "th" sound. In Japanese "f" and "h" are blended. There is a "wa" sound, but no "wo," "wi," "we," or "wu." And since Japanese characters (with one exception) always end in a vowel, one of the biggest challenges is getting students to drop that extra letter. We call this "katakana-izing" a word. For example, "what" becomes "what-oh." "Name" becomes "Name-oo."

Japanese uses many loan-words from other languages, including English. But upon adoption, many of these words undergo a change in meaning. ジュース (juice) doesn't mean "juice." It means "soft drink," which includes juice but also soda and other beverages. パンツ (pants) generally doesn't mean "pants."* It mean "underwear." And you don't チャレンジ (challenge) yourself to do something; you challenge a thing.

例:   難問にチャレンジする。

While a native English speaker might look at this and think "Challenge the difficult problem," it means "Tackle a difficult problem." チャレンジ doesn't exactly mean "challenge."

* (Update) Good and Bad Japan points out that in the UK "pants" is underwear. I guess the 3 days I spent in England didn't teach me that one! So when in doubt about an English loanword, the meaning may be from a different form of English than you're used to (American English in my case). For example I recently found out that the Japanese OB (stands for Old Boy) is used in Australia.

The more you know about the differences between English and Japanese, the more you can tailor your lessons to avoid these pitfalls and potholes along the road. If there's a particular vocabulary word or grammatical expression that is very dissimilar in the two languages, you can be prepared to explain a certain way or spend more time on that point.

Easing communication

When I was a kid, sometimes when I asked my dad what a particular word meant he would tell me to look in the dictionary. As much of a hassle as that was at the time, I see the value of that now, especially when studying a foreign language. Be that as it may, dictionaries have their place. Writing an essay, doing homework, research - all great times to use an aid.

But when you're trying to speak, it can take too much time and interrupt the flow of conversation. For this reason, I think it's nice when a student can ask a teacher "What is ____ in English?" Of course even if you're studying Japanese you may not know the answer, but there's a much better chance you help the student continue with their flow of thought and save them from getting bogged down for one or two minutes looking through a dictionary while you (and maybe the rest of the class) wait.

Students wait while little Takeshi searches for "pants" in the dictionary. This could have been avoided!

Setting and example

Studying Japanese is an important way that you can show your students that (a) you're interested in them and their culture and (b) you're not just all talk. To them, it shows that you're not only good at making them do challenging classwork and homework, and speak in a language they'll never use; you can walk the walk, too, and learning actually has real, tangible application.

In conclusion

Do you need to study Japanese to be a good English teacher in Japan? Certainly not. In fact, not studying Japanese also has its benefits. You can honestly claim ignorance when students try to speak to you in Japanese, for one. If they don't get frustrated and give up, they'll be more motivated to study English so they can communicate with you.

And if you do decide to study, I'm not saying you have to plunge in and aim to pass the JLPT level 2 within a year. Even learning the basics of hiragana and katakana at a leisurely pace has its benefits.

But I will say that I believe, without a doubt, that studying Japanese will make you a better teacher to Japanese students.

What do you think? For all you English teachers out there, do you study Japanese? If not, do you wish you had or plan to start in the future? Why or why not? I want to pick your brains!

Advice for my successor #3

No, I didn't intent to keep writing these, but they just come to me like an epiphany:

• There's a whole bunch of bulky stuff in the closets that I've never used before, and most likely neither will you. But since it's such a pain to dispose of, it's become a game of hot potato, and the loser will be the ALT who's living here when the school decides to find a new place for its ALTs to live (or stops hiring or housing ALTs).

• If you're like me and have a hard time remembering students names, if any students ask you if you remember their names, jokingly say something like "Oh yeah, it's Mary, isn't it?" They'll laugh.

• The "Oh yeah, it's Mary, isn't it?" trick only works so many times. And if there's a big group and you start giving them all Western names, they will catch on that you're not joking and really don't know if their name is Yuka, Yuki, Yukino, Yukinu, or Yukina.

• None of the teachers take the time to banter much with the lunch ladies, but they're really pretty nice (that one doesn't only apply to Japan).

• There are three main types of noodles in Japan: ramen, udon, and soba. Of course there are others, but these are the big three. You must decide for yourself how you will rank them in terms of goodness.

• Soba sucks.

Correction: You must rank udon and ramen for yourself. Soba has officially been pegged last.

Advice for my successor #2

I thought of some more pearls I'd like to share. I don't know who you are yet, and neither do you, but listen up:

• Don't be one of those ALTs who complains that you have too much free time. During breaks you can read a book, study, do some blogging (wink), chat with teachers and/or students, wander around the school, watch a club activity, or if you're at the visit school you can grab a nap on one of the couches. You'll be missing that time when you have four classes in a day, plus ESS after school, plus a meeting with a teacher during your only free period (Can you guess why I'm thinking about this right now? =P).

• There are some pretty cool JETs, but don't get caught in a clique. You're in Japan, so hang out with some Japanese, too!

• The brakes on the bicycle I'm leaving you suck, but don't bother buying a new one. The brakes on all the bikes suck.

• If you go to the Indian place in town or the one near the station often enough, they will give you free stuff on occasion. No matter how often you go to the ramen shop down the street, they'll never give you anything on the house.

• Clean the apartment as often as you feel necessary, but don't kill yourself dusting and vacuuming. Literally like 20 seconds after you clean an area you will spot some more dust there. It's an uphill battle.

Advice for my successor

Of course I'll impart similar nuggets in a letter or email when I find out who he or she will be, but I'm starting to think about the next person to serve at this post, and what they'll need to know. Here are a few things I've come up with:

• If you have to go number two, don't be afraid to use the handicapped bathroom. All the teachers do it.
• Both schools you'll work at have libraries. If you're already literate or want to study Japanese, there are some good resources there to be used.
• Don't try to keep track of which teachers give you candy/chocolate/snacks. Just be nice and share little (edible) souvenirs or ethnic foods from time to time. 
• Mr. S (the English teacher) will always act like he understands what you say to him, so never take it for granted.
• I don't know if one of your goals is saving money, but however much you save during your time here, know that you could have saved more if you hadn't gone out or drank so much.
• I don't know who these ALTs are that actively join clubs at their school, but good on you if you do. My first year here the judo teacher kept trying to get my to join, but I couldn't imagine throwing or rolling around on the mat with my students.
• I don't have it quite as good as my predecessor, but you will have it better than me.
• That food isn't what you think it is.

Technically Right

Today it was my turn to give the students in my 2nd-year English class a lecture quiz. I talked to them about the good and bad points of cash and credit cards (something I've been thinking about recently). At the end of every quiz, the students have to take a ten-question quiz.

#8 read: "Do people spend more if they use cash or credit?" This was referring to the fact that studies find that people tend to spend at least 8% more money when using credit cards as opposed to cold, hard cash. One student's answer: "Yes, they do."

He's got me there, but...I'm the teacher, so he's wrong!

Those about to teach, we salute you

This week (or somewhere there abouts), spring vacation will end and schools will begin the new term. For many expats living here, spring means sakura and ichinensei. Tomorrow I'll begin teaching classes again. As usual, I'm excited and a little apprehensive. Excited because there are new minds to be molded, and because I'm going to be team teaching a new kind of course this year called 総合英語, which is basically an integrated studies course. We'll be teaching the students other subjects in English. I'm apprehensive because as this is only my second year (although my third rotation of ichinensei), I haven't yet run full circle of the English department.

In many Japanese high schools, the teachers advance with their students. In other words, your English teacher, math teacher, history teacher, etc. moves with you and teaches you for 3 years, in most cases. So this is my first year working with a few of the teachers. Could be good, but it's just stressful readjusting my teaching/class style every year and not knowing exactly what to expect at first.

Anyway, to those who are beginning another new year, good luck and God speed to you. To those who are about to begin for the first time, just remember to be friendly and confident. Everyone makes mistakes and (nearly) everyone gets nervous from time to time, but if you maintain a sense of humor and own the classroom, all will be well with the world.