How I nearly learnt Japanese
Although starting yet again on yet another language with the usual recipe of vocab lists, graded readers, self study textbooks and horribly uncommunicative language classes was about the biggest pain in the arse I could possibly imagine, unlike Darrrrren Ellliottttt I actually really got into Japanese through a combination of it being a very different language (Kanji- it’s like a picture and a word and a concept man all all in one, wooooo, far out man! Japanese English- it’s kinda funny and clever at the same time!), having my mornings free, having no love life to distract me for the first nine months, finding some different methods (online games and dictionaries, CD ROMs), and a determination to read Norwegian Wood in the original Japanese.
Unfortunately, finally slogging my way through that Murakami Haruki classic as my third (and final) novel in Japanese two years after I arrived seemed to suck the final language learning energy from me and coincided with a realisation that almost everything else I was reading and listening to in Japanese was something I would avoid like the plague in English- Daily Mail-style rabidly right wing midbrow newspapers, NHK news reports on subcommittee meetings, comics designed for ten year olds, scandal mags, irritatingly pointless safety announcements, cheesy music that is no longer amusing once you understand the lyrics, things that were translated from a language I could much more easily read in the original, fact stuffed museum guides with no attempt to divide the interesting and relevant from the history trainspotter stats, documentaries on World Heritage sites that spend 90% of the time talking about food… Add to that being able to read and listen to the best in the world with Spanish language newspapers, Italian movies and BBC radio downloads being available on the internet or in Tower Records (still alive and well in Japan), and that is where my Japanese stopped and has stayed ever since- Intermediate comprehension, Pre-Intermediate production, Elementary accuracy, but Upper Intermediate use of language that really shouldn’t be heard in polite society.
Looking back, what I really needed to keep me going was another interest or hook once I’d learnt those 2000 kanji, read those three books on Japanese English and lost interest in the only decent comic books I could find. It could’ve been another comic book or animation series, a new favourite film director, a local dialect, or a more interesting news website. It occurs to me that what my students need is also something like that to motivate them, and as a teacher I should be helping them the way that I wish someone could have helped me. I do have some techniques for this such as bringing graded readers into the classroom and discussing language learning techniques in ways that tie in with many points in the textbook, but I think the number of students who can say “My English took off after Alex gave me a love of British slang/ Australian comedies/ WWI poetry/ Spearhead/ Pulp/Mike Leigh/ Blackadder” is probably zero- even with those examples, which are ones I (less than successfully) brought into class back in my more experimental days. In the same school in London there were other teachers who spent a lot less time typing up worksheets and had less expertise in the phonemic chart but despite being paid the same 14,000 pounds a year (!) seemed to be able to truly inspire their students with a love of such things. Is such inspiration something you have to be born with? Is it because I grew up in a small town with the automatic assumption that no one else I knew was likely to be interested in Marvin Gaye or Gunter Grass? Has the fact that my hobby now seems to be TEFL blogging (!) robbed me of my last chance to bring an enthusiasm for other things into the classroom?
On the other hand, if you are also not convinced that you’ll ever be able to inspire your students and wonder whether you therefore have any future in the TEFL classroom, I stand here as proof that you can drag yourself up to a perfectly adequate level of teaching and reasonable popularity without having to display almost any personality in the classroom at all.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:53 am
I really feel you on this one Alex. While my Turkish is quite good, it could be much better. The problem, like you said, is finding interests in the language. TV shows here are pure drivel, the news is as idiotic as any in the US and more of the tabloid variety than anything. All the Turkish lit I’ve picked up either didn’t interest me or was not well written. People never talk about anything interesting. Discussion topics are inevitably food, football, or your family.
Do I inspire students in the class? I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten my students hooked on a band or lit that they weren’t already into. I do make them laugh a lot and throw some challenging topics at them that keep them up nights. I think that’s the best I got. It seems to work though, so no complaints.
Don’t be so hard on yourself and besides, you’re teaching kindy now. You don’t have to worry about being inspirational for another 10 years at least
November 18th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
You’re not the only one, see this kind of related thread at the forum…
http://eltworld.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2909
Nick, I agree. I find that I just don’t want to be involved in most of the Turkish conversations I could be a part of. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Hmm, surely inspiration can be more subtle too. Your dedication, as evinced by your many worksheets and general mastery of your subject, is bound to be an inspiration for the hard slog that is learning a language. People usually have a reason for learning a language, but what they don’t have is a model for what it takes to learn a language – that patient accumulation of knowledge which is a long way from the fireworks of the more traditionally-conceived inspirational lesson.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I was nodding my head in approval, Alex, until I hit that last sentence. I couldn’t disagree more – I long ago gave up teaching by typical methods, and now attempt to do so AND motivate the students through my classroom persona alone.
And I think it might be working…
November 19th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Well, Sandy, that’s all very well for you teachers with personality…
November 19th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Yes, I can understand the telly just fine… and there really is nothing worth knowing there. But how about career? Do you think you would have a better crack with better language skills? I know I would.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:01 am
Really? You mean jobs that need JLPT Level 1 to apply?
November 19th, 2009 at 9:31 am
For me – part of the attraction of living abroad is the detachment from the day to day trivia. I rely on the internet for news and my wife for any communicative needs. It might not be healthy in the long term but I’m wary of learning the language since I would then be obliged to hear what people are saying.
Friends in Korea often regretted being able to hear the racist drivel that Koreans (usually drunk and less than the brightest among them) would come out with as we walked past. For me it was water off a duck’s back since I didn’t understand it.
But motivation is key in language learning. These days I’m teaching small kids mostly and they’re motivated by fun games and being able to please the teacher!
Finding something about the culture you want to be able to understand is key to successful high level learning. How to inspire students? I think some can be inspired by catching a charismatic teachers love of football, music, comics or soome such. But often the students actually rebel and are turned off by such nerdy behaviour. Feigning interest in their interests is often a better way to motivate them to speak, and teaching learners to be able to take a genuine or not so genuine interest in the other people in the class has always been an important aim in my classes ever since I did my dip.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Alex – yeah, probably level two would be sufficient. But if you want the tenured jobs, you’ll need to do committee work and so on…..
November 21st, 2009 at 5:10 am
Level 2? Easy peasy Japanesey!
November 21st, 2009 at 9:00 am
See, I’m a bad person…. that was my whole blog post point….
I got level three though!
November 21st, 2009 at 1:56 pm
A: But he’s an MA qualified published TEFL teacher
B: No he’s not, he’s a very naughty boy
Actually, it was just my only possibly PC context in which to use “easy peasy japanesey”. I think I managed to semi-convince my wife that that British playground chant was because all British under tens thought Japanese girls are easy, and that’s why they ended up coming to Japan ten years later to teach, but that was in our early days when she still paid some attention to what I said…