Howdy ho doparoonies. How goes it? So yes, after a year and a half at my main junior high school in Japan, I have been given permission to start an English Club. Huzzah! It is an un-official club, meaning it will meet only once a week on Fridays for about an hour. At the moment, it seems like I have about 5 members, all girls unsurprisingly, and the first meeting will be on the 11th.
With that said, in addition to my net research, consulting with my supervisor, and the few things I’ve picked up in my brief teaching experience, do y’all have any ideas of what could be some good activities for the first lesson? Or even the lessons beyond that. All contributions are welcome. Basically, I’m asking for some help is what
I’m thinking back to my high school days in Spanish club for inspiration. Usually our teacher would bring in a snack food from a Spanish-speaking country (churros, tapas, etc) to munch on. We would talk about current events in the Spanish-speaking world, but it wasn’t lame or onerous because there were no tests or grades.
You could bring in some quintessentially English/American/Canadian/Irish/Australian snack food, perhaps. Like poutine for Canada ;). And discuss current events in those countries.
I’m an American. Years ago I was invited to an English Club when I was staying in Sapporo few a few weeks.
It took place in the evening at a large hall of some sort. There were about 50 Japanese people there and a handful of invited English speaking foreigners.
The meeting lasted about 2 hours from say 7pm to 9pm. The whole point of the club was that everyone HAD TO speak English during the 2 hours. It was good practice for them because almost all of their English studies at school involved reading and writing with very little if any conversation.
I was really impressed as I walked around and saw small groups of Japanese speaking English to each other.
You could always ask the girls what they would like to gain from the club- conversational skills, learn about the media/culture, music, customs, etc. Cooking may be a good hit, just some basic recipes that show the diversity of American cuisine (fwiw all of the Japanese girls I’ve hosted dinner for LOVED guacamole and chips.)
On a random note, I remember going to this club at Kyoto University that I thought was some English club. “Make new friends! Eat food!” and whatnot was printed on the pamphlet. Then I saw in the corner, later on of course, the teeny tiny Learn about Buddha! By the time I realized it wasn’t so much a friendship club as a conversion attempt, I was halfway across the country attending a Buddhist seminar. :smack:
It was a unique experience, the seminar, but never expected that to happen to me!
In China, I used my English club as a front for some serious mentoring. My students were bright, but they didn’t get exposed to a lot of different perspectives on life. I used my time for free discussion, and would try to guide the kids to discuss some pretty heavy topics, letting them run the show and mediating as needed. I found that often, they are feel comfortable sharing things in a foreign language or trying out new ideas that they may not in their own language and context. As an outsider, you can have enormous power as a confidant who is “outside of” the daily social system the student inhabit, and they may put a lot of trust in your (or may not, I have no idea what Japan is like).
I did a lot of career planning stuff, having them do stuff like draw their life goals 5 years from now and then explain it in English to each other. I took them to meet successful business women in the community. I tried to keep things thought provoking, challenging, and useful even beyond the English content. I did lots of hypothetical questions, what-would-you-do scenarios, and informal debates. I used this time to tackle issues that might be to sensitive for the classroom…divorce, sex (maybe less advisable in your case,) troubles with friends, eating disorders, etc.
It got kind of intense, but it was some of my best and most useful time with my students. We all grew a lot together over those years.
Okay. I see junior high. Obviously my suggestions are not appropriate for that level. But I think it would be good to look at some mentoring opportunities here. Beyond their school subjects, students are learning how to be a part of society. As a foreigner, you can offer some interesting perspective to the dialog.
With that age group, I’d do a mix of English learning games and cultural stuff- celebrating holidays, talking about life in your country, etc.
I’m not a fan of add-on. What I am a fan of is open, honest, discourse. I’d snag some other Americans and ask your students what THEY want to know about Americans. Values, biases, and assumptions. Ask them. It’s good stuff.
Why? What’s wrong with the Japanese Club at Virgania Tech, the University of Calafornea, or Flurida State U?
Anyway, my understanding is that the biggest need is conversational exposure. Is there a pen pals-like program where you can match the students up with native speakers in, say, Vermont, Ontario, or New South Wales? Maybe international teleconferencing with foreign kids would be good.
And also, what is so obvious about the club being all girls? Is this an all-girls school, or is this something that boys just don’t do in Japan?
