Archive for the ‘Teaching English with minimal resources’ Category

A sumo wrestler was demoted in the last rankings for driving a car, which is against the rules of the sumo association. Seeing as there would be logistical problems with them trying to ride a horse or be dragged along in one of the few of the rickshaws* that run around looking for tourists, that just leaves waddling along in their flip flops or getting stuck in the underground ticket barriers (seen by a friend of mine). Can only imagine this is a law of the same vintage as the ‘no shooting Welshmen with arrows on Sundays’ still somewhere in the distant recesses of the British lawbooks, the difference being that no-one has been chucked out of the UK Olympic archery team for that one recently.

This is just one example of how Japan sometimes feels like living in a 1950’s American sci-fi set- the architecture and gadgetry are from the future, but the morals and behaviour are from a past that was lost in the UK long before I was born. Female teachers have been poked in the stomach by (admittedly weird) old men for showing a millimetre of skin, travel agents look up your flight arrangements on the computer and then copy it out by hand in triplet and stamp it with a ‘hanko’ made of ivory, and then there’s the bowing etc. etc. And a good thing this mix is too- Japan can sometimes sound antiseptic the way travel writers describe it, but it is anything but. Human contact and a visible personal touch remain the most important things.

Hence perhaps the shocking lack of technology in English language teaching here. In a previous school of mine a computer was finally bought and set up to much excitement by the teachers, only for it to be put back in the box 2 weeks later. Never found out the reason for that one. There are even urban legends of accountants in some companies doing the travel expenses on abacuses that are, if unverified, at least believable.

So, plenty of tips on teaching English with minimal resources coming up from me, and absolutely none on using technology at all.

* Rickshaw is a Japanese invention and the English word a corruption of the Japanese word ‘jin-riki-sha’, human-power-cart. Just thought I’d show off that I know that one…