That was majority the answer given by the Mihara Junior High students when asked about English. They would rather be in a science lab or do their maths than translate Japanese text into English (which is normally the case, especially during English reading class here in Japan). I pitied them.
No wonder I saw 4 'notorious' students in the 8th grade during my school visit to the same school yesterday. Those students might be demotivated by the class and resorted to not participating in class (one of them was sleeping throughout most of the lesson!) This is a very rare case, considering the fact that Mihara school is an attached school to Hiroshima University i.e. the students are the cream of the cream in this prefecture. Furthermore, the school was having a big event, which was the national level research day. Hundreds of teachers, university lecturers and educational authorities from all over Hiroshima prefecture were present. I pitied the teacher even more. She must have put in a great effort to teach English to a bunch of students who do not see the need for learning the language.
I have been to more than 10 schools since coming to Japan, most of them elementary schools. I feel that elementary school students are more eager to learn English as the subject is not compulsory to be taught at that level. As communication is the main focus, English appears to be more fun, unlike the rigid lessons the high school students had to endure. Translation method is still the main focus in high school as they need to prepare for the university entrance examination.
Today, I witnessed how a bunch of thirteen year olds, who just started to learn English a few months back, struggled to translate a Japanese folktale, written in old Japanese, to contemporary Japanese, and to English language. The result? Don't ask.
the entrance
the school
the limo and the chauffeur
the strugglers after class was over
the visitors
the not-so-interested-in-the-lesson student
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