Poetry Panic

Yosuke had some bizarre homework tonight. It was for ESL of all things. I think I may have mentioned this, but the ESL program at his high school is a joke. The teacher is almost entirely worthless. He doesn't learn anything. He's never had ESL homework before today.

Well, today's homework assignment reinforced my low opinion of this teacher. Yosuke was given 14 types of poetry and had to write one poem of each type. Fourteen poems! In one day! Can you imagine anything more insane? It was a daunting task, even for a native speaker.

And that's not all. Some types were easy - haiku, free verse, etc - but some were more complex. For example, one was a sonnet. He was supposed to write a sonnet - can you believe that? In case you're not familiar with them, they're fourteen lines long, they have to rhyme, and each line is ten syllables long. They're considered one of the more difficult types of poetry to write, and it's simply insane to ask an ESL II student to write one.

Anyway, Yosuke and I got through the poetry the best we could in two hours. He had a lot of trouble rhyming, so when I left he still had the limerick and sonnet to finish. I hope he managed okay.

His poems were pretty bad (most took complaining about homework in general or the poetry assignment specifically as their topic), but a couple turned out well. One of the poems he had to write was a ballad, which I explained was like a love poem/song. He said, "Like Romeo and Juliet?" and I explained that the whole play wasn't a ballad, but some of the soliloquys are similar to ballads. So we came up with this poem (Yosuke used food as a topic for several of his poems):

Wherefore art thou, food?
Deny thy father, Vending Machine, and refuse thy cost;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my snack,
And I'll no longer be hungry.

You can find the original here for comparison.

So the homework was hard, but we managed to have some fun with it. Darn that ESL teacher, though!

Forgetting High School

Recently, Yosuke's Geometry class has moved on to material that I don't remember at all. It's kind of embarrassing having to ask him to teach me how to solve the problems! Whoops. I really should check out a Geometry book from the library and pre-teach myself each section beforehand. I will definitely do that for Algebra II this summer since the class will be intensive. Situations like this remind me of how much high school material - math, science, history - that I've forgotten. One of the perks of tutoring is that I'm forced to review all this stuff that I wouldn't otherwise.

Summer Project

The other day, I was thinking about my growing frustrations with Miki. On the one hand, she's become more open to being tutoring. While she's never been unfriendly, it was clear at the beginning that she resented my presence. Now she's much more laid-back, and she even enjoys herself occasionally. On the other hand, though, she continues to resist learning English. She won't speak English unless it's repeating or reading something. I know her English level is low, but she is able to make simple sentences. She just refuses to try.

I thought a possible solution to this would be to make her write a journal. I would have her write a little bit every day or perhaps every other day in English. I think I would use an online journal - perhaps Livejournal or Blogger - so I could check it and comment outside of our tutoring sessions. I would also have Yuki do this as well. Yuki doesn't refuse to speak English, but she's just so darn shy that she hardly speaks at all.

I haven't figured out the details (for example, will I give them prompts to respond to, or could they just write about whatever they like?), but I'm excited. It seems like an excellent way to finally get these two girls to use a lot of English.

My Fascination With History

Okay, so I never really went out of my way to take extra history classes or read any history books, but I've always had a soft spot for the subject thanks to a couple of influential teachers. On the other hand, Yosuke's least favorite subject is history. I think it's because how dryly the subject is approached in Japan - just memorization of dates and such.

We don't often work on history together because his teacher takes time to give him some individual help, but occasionally we find ourselves catching up on his assignments. In the rare instances where we're working on history and have some extra time, I'll usually take time out from filling out worksheets to go over one or two topics in detail. Thankfully, Yosuke doesn't seem to mind the diversions and is open to having conversations about whatever history topic I latched onto.

For example, when he was studying WWI, there was a short section in the textbook about the runaway inflation in Germany. I tried to explain how burning the paper currency became cheaper than buying fuel, and while I'm not sure he totally understood (I remember myself that inflation is a difficult topic to grasp at first), the idea certainly captured his attention.

Today we talked a bit about political parties and Nazis. At one point, we were talking about Kristallnacht and he asked me, "Who was wrong - the Nazis or the Jews?" Hmm, what could you say to such a question? I just turned the question back on him and made him answer it. He eventually came to the conclusion that the Nazis were wrong. I wonder if his lack of opinion on Nazis until this point is a cultural thing?

Book Recommendation

I read the most lovely book yesterday. It's called I Am A Pencil by Sam Swope, and it's about a writer who spends three years volunteering to help a group of gifted kids improve their writing. He begins when they are in the third grade and works with the same group until they finish fifth grade.

What's especially fascinating about the kids is that they are all either immigrants or the children of immigrants living in Queens, New York City. There are so many nationalities, languages, and religions, and one of the themes of the novel is the children's and their parents' struggle to maintain their cultural identity amid the chaotic mix.

The author, Swope, uses his interactions with the children and parents to create a rich narrative about each child's life and situation, and he colors and augments these narratives with excerpts from the children's (often surprisingly good and mature) writing.

I gave the book four and a half stars. It fell short of being a five-star book because I thought the writing could have been a bit tighter, but that's just me being nitpicky. This was a great book, and I definitely recommend it!

I picked it up randomly when I was in the public library the other day. I was browsing the educational/test-prep section looking for a book that would help Yosuke with taking standardized tests in English. I didn't find anything, although I did pick up several books about teaching. The one I'm reading now is called Genius Denied. I might post about it when I finish.

Waiting For Miki

One day last week, Miki had to stay after school to work on a group project. Her mother thought she would be home soon, but Miki ended up not coming home until after I had left. Instead of tutoring Miki, I helped her mother with her ESL work for the hour-and-a-half session. Her mother has a great sense of humor and is really smart, so it was lots of fun to work with her. And of course, teaching someone who wants to learn rather than someone who is being forced to makes all the difference. I wouldn't say I prefer adult learners, but it was nice to have a change of pace.

Basketball Camp

Yuki's ESL teacher recommended against her taking Geometry over the summer, stating that her English level was just too low. I agree that her English is lacking, but I feel like she can manage math, especially since she'll have me helping her. I feel a bit guilty about it, but I told her mother that my opinion is that Yuki can take Geometry regardless. I don't know if Mrs. Kikugawa will decide to register Yuki despite the ESL teacher's concerns, but if she does, I hope I don't end up regretting my advice!

If she doesn't take Geometry, I suggested a basketball camp instead as a way to keep up the English practice over the summer, and Mrs. Kikugawa was enthusiastic about the idea because Yuki had already expressed interested in basketball camp. She missed the registration deadline for the camp offered through her middle school, but I assured Mrs. Kikugawa that there were other options, and I said I would do a bit of research on it.

I tried the YMCA first, but there were no summer basketball happenings. I got a bit worried that there might be nothing, but silly me - I live in Chapel Hill, for Pete's sake. A second, more general, Google search resulted in four possible camps. I'll print them off and talk to Mrs. Kikugawa and Yuki about them tomorrow.

I'm probably more interested than any other person would be because I remember enjoying basketball camp myself (in elementary or middle school?). I hope Yuki can also have some enjoyable experiences and, of course, get some excellent English practice.

Google Reader

If you don't know about Google Reader, you should definitely check it out. You can use it to check all of the blogs or webcomics you read without having to visit each individual site. It's quite useful if you subscribe to a blog written by someone lazy who might go more than a week without updating...

I'm Still Here

Sorry about the lack of updates! I just moved, and there's still no Internet access at the new place. I've also been exhausted.

Tutoring is going great. I'm looking forward to an exciting summer. Yosuke and Yuki are gearing up to take some demanding summer courses. They're both showing a lot of ambition. They remind me a bit of myself when I was in high school. I'm worried about Yosuke's course load in particular, as he's planning on tackling both English II and Algebra II, but I believe that because it's his choice to take the courses, he'll make it through.

I'm not sure what Miki will be doing - probably nothing, if she has her way - but I imagine her mother will want me to continue our English lessons.

My Best Friend?

This week, Yosuke has been working on writing journal entries for English class. Last night, we worked on one with the following prompt: "It is often said that dogs are man's best friend. Do you agree? If you could choose one animal to be your best friend and to talk to, what animal would you choose? Why?" (Can you believe this is a high school assignment?) Anyway, Yosuke wrote that he agreed because he had a dog back in Japan that was very important to him. He also chose this dog to be his best friend; his reason was that he would like to be able to talk to the dog to find out what she thinks of him, what she is doing back home in Japan right now, and what she would like to do. Very sweet, right?

After the tutoring session was over, I chatted with Yosuke's mother a bit about the dog. I asked her why she didn't bring the dog to the US with the family. Mrs. Kikugawa paused for a moment trying to find the right words and finally offered the explanation "She isn't polite." She explained that the dog is scared of humans and often bites. I mentioned my own dog that occasionally has problems with biting strangers, but Mrs. Kikugawa clarified that the dog bites both strangers and family members, and not with harmless nips like my dog, but often hard enough to draw blood. What a traumatized dog!

I commented that I was surprised that the dog bites even family members, and Mrs. Kikugawa said that the dog especially likes biting Yosuke! Apparently, Yosuke used to tease the dog when he was young. I couldn't help laughing! It makes me want to ask him about the journal entry. Does he like the dog even though she doesn't seem to like him at all? Or was it all just a convenient lie to get through a school assignment? Probably the latter!

March Madness!

I found out today that Yuki enjoys playing basketball.

Earlier this week, I noticed a basketball by the front door. I had intended to ask whose it was, although I figured it belonged to Yosuke because he's into sports, but it slipped my mind. Then today when I was tutoring Yuki, the subject of basketball came up and she told me it was her ball. I asked her if she was interested in joining a team, and she said she wanted to try out next fall when she's in high school. I hope she's good enough to be on the team because I would really like her to play. Playing a sport on a team or club is a great way to learn a foreign language, or so I'm told. It has to do with focusing on the sport rather than the language, so that you lose your inhibitions and nervousness when speaking.