Exploding baths and English teaching
Don’t know if the exploding posh hot springs resort in Shibuya (of 8 directions at once crossing and Lost in Translation karaoke fame) made the news abroad. It was another quiet news day in Japan (apparently news of Africa cannot reach east of the Maldives due to some physical law or another), so we were convinced it was a yakuza hit and on the edge of our seats. But it was not to be, just pure incompetence.
Much as I might have been confused and interested by a story of built up volcanic gases destroying a shopping centre a couple of years ago, I lost interest pretty quickly in this one due to no surprises- neither the incompetence that lead to the explosion (the Japanese are as serious and hard-working as they could possibly be, but if their boss isn’t focused on safety neither are they) nor the fact that there as a hot springs resort in the equivalent of Trafalgar Square.
The Japanese really do love their mineral baths. One theory* of why is that they can’t actually relax unless they are told it is good for you and virtually a moral duty to do so. Hence the fact that you can’t reply “Oh no, that’s fine. I enjoyed it” when your boss thanks you for doing some work and you have to make strange noises all the time to show how much effort you are making. And hence the appeal of doing something right and sitting around in radioactive water etc.
And so it often is in the language classroom. As they know they are doing something they should (learning English), they finally feel they can justify chatting, relaxing and generally enjoying themselves. However, they certainly won’t be saying that is their motivation if you ask them, hence the difficulty of doing needs analysis in Japan and students who keep on asking for more homework but not doing any of it.
There might be some everyday human good intentions seeing the light of day there, of course, but where is the fun in not making gross generalisations???
That will officially be the only Google search result for “exploding baths and English teaching”. Coming up next- “Bananas and error correction”
* Vague summary of what I remember from the book “Getting Wet- Adventures in the Japanese Bath”, Eric Talmadge, Kodansha. Highly recommended for those who wonder what the appeal of getting naked and pink with strangers of the same sex could be