The last week of school came very quickly and lately we have been quite busy at school.
We had a private tea ceremony lesson with our Japanese tutor. It was in the tea room in the high school. We watched a tea ceremony by the high school students and we got to try some Japanese desserts with our matcha green tea. We also got to give making matcha a try. It is quite difficult to sit in the Japanese "seiza" where you sit on top of your feet. After 30 mins of sitting that way, your feet and legs get numb, making it hard to stand up. I really wonder if the numbness gets better with practice. Nevertheless, it was quite enjoyable to drink the tea and see how it is done. There is such detail and precision with every step of the process, it is great to see the high school tea club members with such good concentration trying to preform this challenging task.
This week we also worked on packing up all of the pen pal presents from the Japanese students for the students in Nebraska. It took a couple days to get everything sorted into the right boxes as well as making sure that every present and pen pal letter was there. It was exciting in the end to finally put everything together and get it shipped off to Nebraska as we had a tight deadline to get the presents there before the winter break began. With all of the final projects and final tests in the process, I think some of the teachers were feeling the pressure! Some of the conflicts that happened before continued as there was a disconnect between the native English teachers and Japanese teachers on the goals of the lessons.
In the article, "Exploring Literature on Professionalism: Reflections from Language Teachers in Japanese Universities" by Tomoka Sato, it describes, "As a result, the English teachers in the language center do not completely align themselves with the academics in regular academic departments. However, when their commitments are highly recognized, they feel a sense of partial alignment." and "one of the crucial aspects of belonging to a community is having one’s ideas
accepted and adopted by members of that community". As I have noticed while being here, often times the native English teachers do not know what the students are learning in the regular English grammar classes so sometimes it is hard to teach the language communication classes without knowing what the students know exactly. I think if they knew this information, and if the classes reinforce each other, it could help the student to use what grammar they learned and put in into practice. Maybe this too could help the teachers on both sides focus their goals together.
The rest of the week, the students had final exams so we couldn't spend much time with them. We had a goodbye party with the English club members and we ate snacks and played uno. We also took the time to say goodbye to each class in the middle school and we took many pictures! We gave a message to each class as well and the students also prepared speeches for us in English. Before I knew it, the internship was ending. It was strange for it to end so quickly and I felt that I was not ready to go home yet! I had a good time during the internship and it was fun to work with the kids every day. I know I will see some of them soon in Nebraska but for the 3rd years who we spent the most time with, they will soon graduate and go to high school so I am not sure when I could see them again. It was especially hard to say goodbye to the 3rd years.
We still have another couple days to come to the school after the Kyoto trip but the students will not be there since they will be on their break after the finals .
We had a private tea ceremony lesson with our Japanese tutor. It was in the tea room in the high school. We watched a tea ceremony by the high school students and we got to try some Japanese desserts with our matcha green tea. We also got to give making matcha a try. It is quite difficult to sit in the Japanese "seiza" where you sit on top of your feet. After 30 mins of sitting that way, your feet and legs get numb, making it hard to stand up. I really wonder if the numbness gets better with practice. Nevertheless, it was quite enjoyable to drink the tea and see how it is done. There is such detail and precision with every step of the process, it is great to see the high school tea club members with such good concentration trying to preform this challenging task.
This week we also worked on packing up all of the pen pal presents from the Japanese students for the students in Nebraska. It took a couple days to get everything sorted into the right boxes as well as making sure that every present and pen pal letter was there. It was exciting in the end to finally put everything together and get it shipped off to Nebraska as we had a tight deadline to get the presents there before the winter break began. With all of the final projects and final tests in the process, I think some of the teachers were feeling the pressure! Some of the conflicts that happened before continued as there was a disconnect between the native English teachers and Japanese teachers on the goals of the lessons.
In the article, "Exploring Literature on Professionalism: Reflections from Language Teachers in Japanese Universities" by Tomoka Sato, it describes, "As a result, the English teachers in the language center do not completely align themselves with the academics in regular academic departments. However, when their commitments are highly recognized, they feel a sense of partial alignment." and "one of the crucial aspects of belonging to a community is having one’s ideas
accepted and adopted by members of that community". As I have noticed while being here, often times the native English teachers do not know what the students are learning in the regular English grammar classes so sometimes it is hard to teach the language communication classes without knowing what the students know exactly. I think if they knew this information, and if the classes reinforce each other, it could help the student to use what grammar they learned and put in into practice. Maybe this too could help the teachers on both sides focus their goals together.
The rest of the week, the students had final exams so we couldn't spend much time with them. We had a goodbye party with the English club members and we ate snacks and played uno. We also took the time to say goodbye to each class in the middle school and we took many pictures! We gave a message to each class as well and the students also prepared speeches for us in English. Before I knew it, the internship was ending. It was strange for it to end so quickly and I felt that I was not ready to go home yet! I had a good time during the internship and it was fun to work with the kids every day. I know I will see some of them soon in Nebraska but for the 3rd years who we spent the most time with, they will soon graduate and go to high school so I am not sure when I could see them again. It was especially hard to say goodbye to the 3rd years.
(The students took two weeks to finish this 1000 piece puzzle!)
(On my last day, I got a nice lunch box from the local store!)
We still have another couple days to come to the school after the Kyoto trip but the students will not be there since they will be on their break after the finals .
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