The Akasaka Alliance
...written on 2001-02-20, @ 09:32:27
Tue February 20, 2001 I went to Akasaka a couple of weeks ago and I meant to record what happened there. I was to teach/review comparisons and superlatives. I took my "Gogo loves English" alphabet cards, pictures of my friends, and other materials.
I drew a small circle on the board and asked the class if it was a "small circle." I've done this particular subject matter in many other classes and I usually make it quite obvious that it is a small circle and a few students usually raise their hands when prompted by me. When they do this, I draw an even smaller circle, making little circle noises as I do so, and I turn around, point to the new circle and ask if IT is a small circle. At this point about half of the class is wise to me and just sits still, but the other half is convinced by my sincere looks and gestures and the almost microscopic nature of the last circle that I couldn't possibly go any further, and they raise their hands. That's when I put on my "satisfied Grinch face" and with an evil giggle, make a dot on the board. So then I have the small, smaller, and smallest circles all in a row.
It took some prodding, but this class followed my routine. Then I pulled out the animal flashcards, passed them out and asked them "Who has a pretty animal?", "Who has a fast animal?" etc. Each group would come up and we would arrange the animals in comparative, superlative order.
I don't know when it happened. I didn't see the collusion agreed upon and disseminated, but I watched as the entire class voted on what animals/things were the fastest, (going from slowest to fastest): jet, cheetah, cat.
I smiled incredulously. I wasn't sure if they weren't understanding or if they were indeed fooling with me because as I said, no one looked at each other, no one whispered to each other, they just all voted as one. This went on for a couple of rounds and I finally went on to another activity after I applauded them on their astuteness and creativity. I could tell they were very pleased with themselves.
I think this says a lot about the Japanese classroom. Ivan said he went to Ampachi the other day and while one class was great, the other class acted as if they had never heard English before. I feel that the majority of our classes select their personality either consciously or subconsciously. In these classes, deviation from the selected norm rarely occurs, so a quiet class will remain a quiet class no matter what you do. It was supremely interesting to see this in action in the context of the game we were playing. I think I was the one who learned the most in that class.