Before I came to Japan, I knew that I wanted to teach English for my CIP activity.\u00a0 When I finally arrived in Japan and started the CIP process, I encountered no difficulty in deciding where I was going to teach; everything was easier than I could have hoped for and KCJS already had well-established connections with schools.\u00a0 I started to hit a few bumps in the e-mailing stage, but only with respect to waiting for responses.\u00a0 So, after practicing my written \u656c\u8a9e for the first time in Japan, I finally started my dream CIP of teaching at Kaisei Middle School (\u958b\u6674\u4e2d\u5b66), located near Kiyomizu-dera.<\/p>\n
As I explained in my first, Japanese blog post, teaching on my first day at Kaisei did not start out so smoothly.\u00a0 The seventh graders, contrary to my ideal expectations of Japanese middle school students, were incredibly raucous and disrespectful to their teacher.\u00a0 Throughout the entire fifty minutes some of the students did not stop talking, and others were running around the classroom or sleeping.\u00a0 To my greatest surprise, however, was that the teacher did absolutely nothing<\/i> about the chaos.\u00a0 I stood in the crowded classroom, jaw-dropped, and waited for her to explode in a disciplinary rage at any second.\u00a0 I myself considered telling one or two boys to sit down and be quiet, but before I knew it the clock struck 3:20pm and the students were free.\u00a0 When I returned home after my first day, I thought to myself, Do I really want to teach here?\u00a0 Can I actually make a difference in this kind of hopeless environment?<\/i>\u00a0 Luckily, I decided to do my best and be patient, and I am extremely glad to write that I am thankful I hung in there.<\/p>\n
As the weeks of my study abroad experience passed by and I commuted every Monday to Kaisei Middle School, the classroom setting seemed less and less harsh.\u00a0 I acquired a second class to teach as well, meaning I could practice my week\u2019s teaching with better-behaved eighth graders before facing the rowdy pupils of room 7-2.\u00a0 So, each week I asked individuals questions in English, helped answer students\u2019 questions about worksheets etc, and tried extremely hard to encourage students to participate.\u00a0 Eventually I started practicing my Japanese as well by trying to better explain things to students who were not as skilled at English.\u00a0 Meanwhile, little by little I was becoming more familiarized with who the students were and the dynamic of their relationship with the teachers.<\/p>\n
This leads me to what I gained the most from my CIP.\u00a0 Contrary to my original dream back in the United States, I did not learn how to fluently speak Japanese and teach angelic, diligent middle schoolers how to speak English.\u00a0 What I did learn, which falls in line with my personal theme of studying abroad with KCJS, is that there is way more than meets the eye during first encounters.\u00a0 The Japanese students were incredibly unruly the first time I met them, and they proved to change very little week after week.\u00a0 However, every time I spoke \u300c\u82f1\u8a9e\u30a2\u30b7\u30b9\u30bf\u30f3\u30c8\u3067\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3059\u300dthrough the gate\u2019s doorbell and stepped foot into my slippers at Kaisei Middle School, I was about to witness the students surprise me in some way.\u00a0 I started to see that some of the most misbehaved students were actually the ones who were participating the most, albeit in decibels higher than what is safe for human ears.\u00a0 Furthermore, I saw that many of the students truly cared about learning English, and even more so about learning in general.\u00a0 They were excited to start class with personal questions for me in English, and they always asked their teachers to chat with me in English so they could observe.\u00a0 I quickly came to realize that I misjudged my students on week one, but I was happy that this was so.<\/p>\n
The CIP component of KCJS may seem like another task on a checklist of \u201cthings to do,\u201d but it actually was a crucial part in making the theme of my time abroad become whole.\u00a0 Teaching English at Kaisei Middle School helped me learn even more not to judge people based on first impressions, stereotypes, and preconceived notions.\u00a0 It taught me that everyone needs an extra chance or dose of attention in order to see his or her true personality and potential.\u00a0 Upon realizing this, I was able to conclude that while Japan\u2019s culture and language are very different from that of the U.S. in many ways, the people of each country are at the core very much the same.\u00a0 I truly hope that I was able to teach many students at Kaisei Middle School, or maybe even just one or two.\u00a0 However, I can say with conviction that I entered the building as \u201cDenton-sensei\u201d determined to teach English, but I will be flying back to America as a student who was taught the universal language of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before I came to Japan, I knew that I wanted to teach English for my CIP activity.\u00a0 When I finally arrived in … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080