Today, the kids had their big term exams (all the material since summer vacation ended in September) in all their classes. Once the English test was over, Kae had me grade the free-writing portion of all the 9th graders’ tests. Oh boy… These kids’ written English isn’t worth beans.
Out of all the tests I graded, despite their use of simple grammar over four sentences, not one student had a perfect paper. Not one. Mistakes ranged from a few left-out articles and misspelled words (only a few students) to leaving the entire section blank (several more than the former group). I would expect it from the seventh graders, but these are the kids that have been formally studying English for almost three years.
Of the kids who actually wrote something, a large percentage constructed sentences that were completely incomprehensible. For instance: “Mt. Fuji is know how you very excited.” and “Mochi is like math.” (I think the later is actually supposed to read “I like mochi very much”, but the student not only changed the direct object to the subject and confused the verb, but also misspelled “much” as “math”. I have no idea what the first sentence is supposed to mean.)
Part of the problem (aside from the zero emphasis on using words to form original thoughts in English language education) is that bad grades end up meaning very little (at least for the kids who get them). Let me explain. First, the Japanese do not fail students. No matter how badly a student does in class, they will always move up to the next grade. No one gets held back. Second, the population of small towns (like mine) is shrinking. Therefore, high schools are getting less competitive (the kids in Japan need to apply to high schools like Americans apply to college). While the very best high schools are still difficult to get into (the ones in Kofu), the local high schools (Minobu High School, for example) are willing to take anyone in order to increase enrollment. So, the kids at the top of the class want to do well in order to stay competitive for the best high schools. But, for the kids at the bottom of the class, there’s zero disincentive for getting bad grades. Those kids that never bothered to study English (either because of stupidity or laziness) can afford to leave most of their English term exams blank. They’ll be passed to the next grade even with 0%. In the past, having the grades to get into a decent high school were motive enough for students to work hard, but now, those schools that used to be selective will take anyone. No wonder the local high school ALT complains that her kids are stupid…
Anyway… Because of the testing there were no classes today, and therefore, nothing for me to do (except, of course, a half-hour of paper grading). So, I spent most of the day learning a bunch of Japanese adjectives. By far the most useful: tsumaranaina – boring. As in: Kyo wa tsumaranaina hi deshita.
6 comments:
Hahahaha. Dude please post more of their answers.
You gotta reach these kids, you know like Michelle Pfeiffer in that movie Dangerous Minds. Except it would be Quiet Polite Minds or something.
I'll start with saying this comment has nothing to do with this post. This comment is intended to confirm that I, Alexis, have, in fact, visited your blog. And I, Alexis, feel you should be at the love table. I wish you luck and many happiness from Chicago
Hi, lol that English is terrible! Ha ha. Yeah I heard their credit situation is very tight too. They've got a lot of bureacracy about credit cards and bank accounts, because they actually have this unspoken culture where they can't really close bad loans. Instead of just chasing after people for payments and liquidating mortagaged assets which is their legal obligation(like duh), they just let it go because of a face issue and they don't want to ruin the life of the defaulter. So the only way they can protect themselves is by being nonsensically restrictive in the first place.
I'd say not too worry too much about the grades. The Japanese just want to learn English as a status thing (or to console themselves that they are equivalent to a Western country) but really have no passion for it. You should use to time to roam the countryside and not let these nonsense kids irritate you.
Any cool Japanese films you caught? When there's a good Japanese film, its really unique and good.
Hey Alexis, glad to see that you've visited the blog. I am honored you would, and I hope you continue to in the future.
Hey Darren. I think you've hit the nail on the head. (Both in terms of the bank stuff and the learning English stuff.) English is just a novelty here. They have no real use for it (being that most Japanese never have any contact with the outside world - most insulated place ever!).
I haven't gotten to see any Japanese movies (at least not in the theaters). I don't think there's anything good that's out. I think if there was, I would have heard about it. But yes, when Japanese films are good, they're really good. And when they're bad, they're horrible. Let me know if you hear about something worth seeing. And I'll do the same.
Wait. Their English is Way Better than my students! I'm seriously not joking. And English is very important to my kids. After grading their first essays, the teacher and finally said, "Yup, they actually are retarded."
They were writing an essay on how to eat healthy. No joke, this was one of the sentences "eating is the bible dried fruit another winner."
What the fuck?
I feel like half of my students are not going to pass to fifth grade, but either they don't care or they can't do anything about it.
Let's have a bad english duel.
Wow. How is that possible? I mean, they speak English, don't they? At the very worst, wouldn't they just write the way they speak? Is their speech totally unintelligible?
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