Slight Changes

Mrs. Kikugawa's English is much better than I thought. Either I misjudged her initially or she's progressed a lot recently. Or both! Anyway, this makes me very happy. She expressed a desire to start speaking English with me rather than Japanese. This means I'll lose my free Japanese practice, but I'm so happy to be helping her. When she doesn't understand something, she asks and we talk about it. She doesn't give me that glazed look and tune me out like the kids might do. That's the difference motivation makes, I suppose. The kids are learning English because they have to for school. But she wants to learn, so she's much more fun to teach.

Overall Good Day

Today was overall pleasant. I worked with Yosuke for one hour and then with his mother for the second hour. I don't usually tutor Mrs. Kikugawa, but when I went to her house today she asked if I would spend an hour with her because she was behind in her ESL class.

Yosuke was alright today, but I had this one really frustrating moment.

We were working on a geometry word problem and I couldn't get him to just concentrate on reading the problem to set it up properly. The problem involved a rectangle, and one of the dimensions was 9cm and the other you had to find by setting up a proportion with a similar rectangle that was 2cmx3cm.

Now, if you were careless, you might glance at the problem and say the 9cm is the long side of the rectangle, so the other side is 6cm. That's what Yosuke did, which I was expecting, so I asked him why he made the long side of the rectangle 9cm. He immediately changed his work so that the short side was 9cm. No, that wasn't good enough - I wanted him to read the problem and find for himself where it tells you which side is which. It was stated fairly clearly (the exact phrase was "9cm on the shorter side" and I know he can understand that). So I asked him this time why he made the shorter side 9cm. He pointed out that the problem asks at the bottom for the student to "find the length of the longer side." That's an okay response, but it's not good enough. It could just as easily as said "find the unknown side," so he needed to be able to figure it out without relying on that guess. He just kept repeating that answer, even though I told him to read the problem slowly and carefully. He just refused to read it! The word problem was only about 3 sentences long.

Finally, after pressing him for a suitable answer, he found the part where it said "on the shorter side" and I accepted it and we moved on. Please, Yosuke, next time when I ask you to read something carefully, just do it and get it over with!

Whew, sorry about the rant. I should add here that even though it was frustrating for me, I don't convey my frustration to the kid I'm working with. I'm actually very patient. But that doesn't stop me from ranting when it's all over!

Otherwise our session was not frustrating, and working with Mrs. Kikugawa was actually pretty fun.

Music and Learning

I've often wanted to use music for learning a second language. It seems like such a powerful tool - you can find a song in a second language you enjoy listening to, learn some or all of the words in the lyrics, and then listening to the song is as educational as listening to those language-learning conversation tapes. The great part, of course, is that when you do repetitions, you're not forcing yourself to listen to a boring, awkwardly scripted and perhaps even unnatural conversation again and again; you're doing what you probably would do anyway - listening to a song you like.

The English textbook Miki and I have been using is nearing the end, and I suggested that we move onto learning with song lyrics. Unfortunately, she was only able to provide me with two English songs she likes. I need to introduce her to more music so she can find more songs she likes, but now I'm faced with the realization that I'm woefully out of touch with the middle school music scene. When I was that age, my friends and I were into Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys (no, really!). I wonder who the pop icons are nowadays?

Mrs. Kikugawa's ESL Struggles

I don't talk about it much, but often (once a week or so) after my usual tutoring sessions I'll talk to Yosuke's mother a bit about English and ESL. (Come to think of it, I mention her enough that she deserves her own nickname. I'll call her Mrs. Kikugawa.)

She's taking a free ESL class for adults at a church, and she usually has a question or two for me. I love how it works out - a bit of free tutoring for her, free (much needed) Japanese practice for me. I enjoy the discussions, too. We complain about the difficulty of learning a second language while simultaneously complimenting each other on her progress.

Mrs. Kikugawa doesn't speak much English - I'm not sure if it's lack of confidence or ability - but she appears to be pretty decent with grammar based on the work she's shown me. I really respect how hard she is working. She's a homemaker, so she doesn't really need to learn English because she can get by without it. In fact, she may be fighting a losing battle. She'll be back in Japan in three years. Is three years enough to learn English for an adult? Most of her time is spent at home, immersed in a Japanese-speaking environment. As far as I can tell, her only English practice comes from the ESL class.

I'll make a point of trying to help her more, and maybe see if I can get her to speak English with me so she can have a chance to practice. The only reason I haven't is that I imagine if I spend too much time helping her, she'll want to pay me for it, and I don't really want to earn a tutor's pay for being a conversation partner. Anybody could do that! I'd just like to continue helping her for free, especially considering that she provides me with the only Japanese practice I've ever gotten in the US.

Rewards and Motivation

I was looking for this article for a different reason, but I found it was related to tutoring so I thought I would link to it here:

Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator

The basic premise is that if you pay someone to do an activity, they become less likely to do that activity on their own. This cute joke illustrates the point nicely:

An elderly man, harassed by the taunts of neighborhood children, finally devises a scheme. He offered to pay each child a dollar if they would all return Tuesday and yell their insults again. They did so eagerly and received the money, but he told them he could only pay 25 cents on Wednesday. When they returned, insulted him again and collected their quarters, he informed them that Thursday's rate would be just a penny. "Forget it," they said -- and never taunted him again.

This article has relevance both for me and my students.

In one study, girls in the fifth and sixth grades tutored younger children much less effectively if they were promised free movie tickets for teaching well. The study ... showed that tutors working for the reward took longer to communicate ideas, got frustrated more easily, and did a poorer job in the end than those who were not rewarded.

In other words, volunteers performed better as tutors than those being paid.

While I find myself occasionally getting frustrated and having trouble communicating ideas, I think for the most part I've managed to avoid this pitfall. (I've been aware of this psychological quirk thanks to a class I took in college.) Whenever I find myself thinking of tutoring as a job and wishing that the hour would end soon, I try to trick myself into thinking I'm just a volunteer. It doesn't work perfectly, but it helps the time go by faster when I'm bored or frustrated.

Now, how to use this psychology to benefit my students? I don't directly give rewards for good performance such as grades or treats, but I do praise good work. After reading the article, I wonder if I praised the students too much, but I'm not convinced that's the case. After all, the article makes the following distinction:

There's a difference ... between saying, "I'm giving you this reward because I recognize the value of your work" and "You're getting this reward because you've lived up to my standards."

The first one is good or at least okay, whereas the second one is the motivation killer. Luckily because my students don't have to worry about meeting any expectations or getting passing grades when they work with me, I think I'm safe from destroying any motivation they might have. At least, I hope so!

V Day

Sorry about the late update. I've been forgetful this week, and there's not much going on.

Valentine's Day was fun. The night before I went to the mall and bought some small chocolaty things and gave one plus a little Valentine card to each of my students. They were all surprised and appreciative.

I really like the little Valentines Day cards that every store sells around this time. I tried to pick out easy ones with no puns. Maybe they could figure out a pun, but I doubt they would really put that much effort into reading a Valentine card, so I wanted to keep it really simple. Miki's card was just Taz (the Tasmanian devil from Looney Tunes) spurting gibberish (because he can't speak English, y'know?). It occured to me later that she might not get the joke; she might think he's just saying words she hasn't learned. Hmm.

Dumbed-Down Books

I have a love/hate relationship with those versions of classic novels that are simplified for little kids. On the one hand, it's great for ESL students to be able to enjoy a classic that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. On the other hand, all the things that made the classic so likable in the first place are taken out - the beautiful writing style, the descriptions, the complexity.

Yuki has to read a book and write a book report for her Language Arts class. There is a list of books the students can choose from, so she doesn't have unlimited freedom. Her ESL teacher gave her a dumbed-down version of Little Women, and we read some of it together. I was less than impressed, but c'est la vie. The original version is practically a tome.

Japanese Negotiation

When I acquired my first tutoring job, I had just graduated from college. I didn't have experience with teaching in any form. My only qualification was my mediocre Japanese abilities. I knew good tutors could charge $20/hour or more, perhaps up to $40/hour for specialized teaching. But when Yosuke's mother asked me what hourly pay I expected, I asked for $15/hour. She offered $20/hour, but I told her that I didn't have enough experience and $15/hour seemed more appropriate. She insisted on $20/hour, and I accepted.

I once read that this is the way Japanese people negotiate: they will offer more than you ask for. I'm not sure if the reason Yosuke's mother offered me $20/hour was cultural; it could be personal - she valued her son's education enough that she thought it was worth more than $15/hour. Perhaps if I had tutored Miki first and negotiated my pay with Miki's mother instead, I would be making $15/hour.

I'd like to think it's a combination of both - cultural and personal. Yosuke's mother has always seemed both very friendly and very Japanese.

When Frustrations Become Something Else

My job is fun and easy because I get to build relationships with my students and watch them progress. I know what I'm doing is working, albeit slowly, and I don't lose hope. Unfortunately, not all teachers are so lucky.

I have a friend who is doing the JET program, where he assists English teachers at public schools in Japan. He wrote in his blog that yesterday, one of the English teachers he worked with committed suicide by jumping from the junior high school building:

"I finally found someone to tell me that the one who fell was one of the teachers at my school – the English teacher I was about to call – and that it was suicide. After an incident with a trouble making student that morning he said "I'm tired." and jumped out of the window in the middle of a class."

It's one of those shocking stories you just hope and pray isn't really true.

To say that his students were the cause of his suicide would be untrue. The teacher obviously had emotional problems, and in Japan, it's nearly impossible to get diagnosed for depression. But it makes me thankful for my job. Sometimes I feel that my work is too small scale to matter. So what if I teach three kids to speak English? But I'm grateful for my position - it may only be three students, but the relationships I build with them are very special to me.

I wish my friend's English teacher had not viewed suicide as the only way out. I can only hope that his death helps lead to improvements in the Japanese medical system.

Let's Relaxing

Despite my frustrations, I really enjoy tutoring Miki. I can't decide if I'm more like Yosuke or Miki, but I think Miki reminds me more of myself. Yosuke is rather straight-laced, and while he appreciates a good laugh every now and then, for the most part he keeps the tutoring sessions formal. Miki, however, can relax and have fun.

Her interactions with her mother also remind me of myself. For example, today her mother served us some yummy chocolate mouse stuff. Miki was too busy to eat hers while we were working, but when we finished she grabbed it and walked around eating it. Her mother said, "I wish you would sit down while eating that," and Miki sarcastically sat down on the floor right where she had been standing. It was a funny little gesture, and it made both her mother and me laugh.

Miki is such a sweet, lively girl that I can't help being fond of her. Now, if only she would stop resisting learning English...!

Science Book Shenanigans

Yuki and I didn't get to finish Sugar Cane today, unfortunately. She had some science homework that took up all of our time. Strangely, the science topic was the same one that Miki just learned a couple of weeks ago. Yuki is in the 8th grade and uses a standard 8th grade science textbook. Miki uses a standard 7th grade text book. The portion that Yuki is studying is, word for word, the same in Miki's textbook. They don't go to the same middle school, but they're in the same school system. I'm still not sure what the explanation might be. But in any case, it was helpful because I had experience explaining it very simply to Miki, so I was on the ball with simple English and easy examples to teach cells and the characteristics of life to Yuki.

Leisurely Day

Today was a fun day. I only tutored Yosuke, and we spent most of the time studying for his geometry test tomorrow. It's really fun to teach someone with a natural talent in the subject. To use an analogy, if you want to teach someone to fish, you would normally show them how to bait the fishing rod, wind-up, and then later how to remove the fish from the hook. Teaching someone with a natural talent, on the other hand, is like taking them to the pier, showing them the rod and bait and seeing how they work it out on their own. If they make a mistake, you only need to show them why it won't work, not the correct way of doing it. They can figure out the correct way on their own.

We also finished Act II of Raisin in the Sun, which has the dramatic climax. Yosuke was actually interested in the play for the first time! It's so much easier to teach him when he's interested because then he'll actually think about it.