No Brainer

The other day, I was riding the train and saw a little girl sitting with her mother a little ways away from me. She was looking at some English books and appeared to be reading them. Luckily, the train was sort of empty so I was able to lean in their direction to get their attention without having to shout. - Most Japanese are shy, so I didn’t want to embarrass her. This mother was not shy about me trying to get her attention. I asked her in my best Japanese what kind of books her daughter was reading and where she got them and before I could say another word, she and her daughter moving from their seat, across the isle and down the car from me, to right next to me where we could talk freely without disturbing anyone else.

The mother sat down beside me and introduced herself to me in Japanese. She told her daughter to introduce herself to me, too, but in English. She did. She then told me her daughter was 4 years old and that she was going to an International school in Osaka. She asked if I it was okay for her daughter to read the books to me. I was delighted! For a 4-year old to be able to read in Japan was simply amazing to me. I have yet seen anyone that young be able to read English. So she did. She sat right beside me, opened her books and began to read.

The books were very simple English, two to four words per page, easy to memorize and very simple. But after seeing her go through about 8 or 9 books, one after another, I realized she was actually reading most of what she was going through and not just repeating from memorization.

It was all I could do to contain myself. I was so amazed! I was beginning to wonder about my teaching methods and why my students have not learned as well or as quickly as her. But after hearing that she practices every single day, I realized how she was able to read so well.

I have been in Japan for over 11 years now. Very few junior high school students spoke English, hardly any elementary students even knew the ABCs and most kindergarteners had never even seen a foriegner. But that has all changed since then.

Most junior high and elementary students know their ABCs, some can even read and some even speak pretty good English. While most are not close to being pera pera, fluent, the love or like for English has grown and is not viewed as some boring class like it used to be viewed.

In a few years, when kindergarteners that are learning English now are in junior high, it is going to be very interesting to see what level of English they are at and how well they are able to speak. The little girl on the train, if she continues to practice and go to a school where she speaks English everyday, is going to be working for an English school or running one of her own before she graduates high school! But for Japanese people to be fluent in English, it is going to take much longer than 10 years at the rate most are learning English now…and may possibly never happen. But time will tell. Check back with this blog in 10 to 20 years for an update!

I’m not really a huge TV fan. If there’s a game on, most any sport will do, I’ll probably watch, but even that’s not all that fun if it’s a sport I’m not really into. I love watching baseball, football, surfing, tennis, skiing, basketball and Xtreme sports. Oh, and I can’t forget soccer, although, I’m not a huge fan. I have come to like soccer more now that I live in Japan. Soccer is a very popular sport here, so it’s on TV quite a bit.

Japanese game shows are pretty fun to watch, and some are downright hilarious! Dramas though are not my cup of tea. Lots of women in Japan watch Korean dramas. My wife even watches. Korean dramas are pretty safe shows to watch, but the dramas from the states are about nothing but sex and revenge.

When I go to America, I never watch TV programs other than the news or sports, and even then, I hardly watch because I’m usually on the go so much I don’t have time. If I did find the time to sit down in front of the TV, I would probably not watch American shows becuase they are mostly about sex, drugs, homosexuality, power struggles or something else that just doesn’t appeal to me anymore. They are a waste of time and probably one reason so many Americans these days are so fat. They sit in front of the TV way too much mesmerized by it all.

News is even a waste of time these days because it has become more of a show than news. Most American news channels are more concerned about the number of viewers than the quality of the news they report, one reason why so many news companies have to retract from previous articles.

The best form of entertainment is the Internet, friends, and family, in reverse order of importance. My kids are extremely entertaining and they are much better to watch than TV dramas, news or even sports!