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"kids com" magazine interview with GenkiEnglish.com - February 2001

RG = Richard WJ = Will

Where did you get to know each other?
RG：	We both spent 3 years in Ehime on the JET programme, so the first time we met was at Tokyo Orientation in July 1997.
WJ：	And during the 3 years in Ehime, although our towns were 3 hours drive apart, we often ran into each other at parties or meetings.
RG：	But it wasn't until this year that we thought about joining forces and doing the Genki English tour.
What was the best thing about being on the JET programme?
RG：	With JET there is so much that goes on, and so many new things that you experience then it is impossible to say! Everyday something new or unexpected would happen. At school my biggest achievement was probably the internet project with NASA, or the Christmas CD that my shougakusei played, sang on and produced.
WJ：	For me ...I went from being able to speak only English to being able to communicate with a whole new country -125 million potential new friends! When I arrived I couldn't understand what was going on around me, 3 years later I knew every student in town and could chat to them in Japanese. Sure -I was far from perfect, but when people saw me making an effort, they felt more comfortable about their own efforts in English. The biggest achievement for me was that the kids, and everyone in my town, no longer saw me as "the ALT" but as a teacher, a colleague, friend and a fellow human being. Everyone felt comfortable approaching me for a chat, or just to hang out and joke around. The objective of JET is "Internationalisation" and I think by forging so many friendships, even as one person I achieved this. Now I always think of Mikame as my second hometown!
RG：	Actually, doing a live TV programme on NHK almost every week in my final year was probably the most exciting thing I did!!
What did you do before coming to Japan? Did you find your previous experiences useful whilst in Japan?
WJ：	Hmm, ha ha ha , OK, (pause), (thinking) As a lawyer, I had to appear before judges and present arguments. This is sometimes a nerve-wracking experience, but it sure builds confidence. After appearing in court, giving a speech to Japanese teachers or teaching a class full of ichinensei isn't as scary anymore! The 5 years I spent acting in and directing the Law Revue at university meant that my classes were always dramatic and fun, and my students always looked forward to them.
RG：	I think for me that going to university in France really helped. For people who haven't lived abroad before, coming to Japan could be pretty strange! At uni I was always doing presentations, and I was chosen to present my final year project at the National Congress of Physics, plus all the music concerts that I used to do, made sure that I don't get bothered by performing (or making a fool of myself!) in front of people!! As for teaching kids? I suppose if I really thought about it, it could be a bit scary. But my brain is that of a 6 year old's anyway so I just think "OK, if I was a kid in this class, what would I want to do?". Japanese kids aren't any different from anywhere else in the world. Relaxing, smiling and enjoying everyday is the way to go!
What was the motivation for starting Genki English?
RG：	In Ochi-gun, Ehime, we have a pretty advanced Shougakkou programme, with loads of very genki ALTs and lots of training seminars, mainly due to the influence of Tange Sensei who used to work at the Imabari Educational Office. So from the start I had lots of other ALTs to learn ideas from. As time went on I was asked to take charge of training new ALTs and also Japanese teachers, and I guess that's how Genki English started. 2 years ago I had a big meeting and had too much material to include on a handout, so I decided to put it all on the web, and that's how the homepage started. ALTs always tend to lose handouts, and this way they could go and read the ideas and things at their leisure. But then, as it was the net, loads of other teachers started using it. Every week I was thinking of new lessons, the songs and things, so kept putting them all on the web. I always figured I should share my ideas with other teachers, just as others had given me great ideas in the beginning. From then on everything just kept snowballing. I often had people ring and say "Hey, I wanna join your seminar, where is Ehime?", but of course when they found out they realised it was a touch too far!! So that's where the idea of a national tour began!!
WJ：	I was the first ALT in my town, and had to create a programme for teaching at shougakko from scratch. I too banned the use of katakana and got the kids to learn English through games, and role-playing activities which made lessons fun and educational, and had them speaking lots of English. I heard Richard's songs and found that they fitted perfectly with what I was doing. And what's more the kids could practice even when I wasn't at school!
RG：	Now we have visitors from all over the world and we're always talking to lots of people, so Genki English is becoming more defined. Now it means using songs, games, having the kids move and speaking and being confident in English whilst learning about the World. I've always taught in a genki style, the word "genki" just seems to sum it all up so perfectly!!
What were the reactions to your shows and teaching seminars?
RG：	I think they are very surprised! We are not called "Genki" English for nothing!!
WJ：	It always makes me laugh to see how much fun teachers have moving around the seminar room pretending to be cockroaches, monkeys and elephants during the Gokiburi game!! Sometimes it's hard to hold the video camera steady!
RG：	It always seems that most Japanese teachers don't realise just how good the kids can be. In the shows, we can teach the kids for 45 minutes, do 5 songs and whole load of English and the reaction is usually a surprised "Oh, you really could do it!". Well, yes!! Being genki and teaching the kids properly means you can do a lot of things.
WJ：	Sometimes at the beginning of a seminar the teachers look very serious and think itﾕs going to be a normal lecture -Genki English seminars are different!! Everyone has to play the games, sing the songs and do the activities, and they immediately find out for themselves how much fun and effective shougakkou English can be.
RG：	Some teachers are also surprised at how serious the "core" of Genki English is. We do everything in a fun way, but every single part of Genki English has a sound educational objective. The fun things are a way to teach. Playing a game for the games sake , or songs with lyrics that are not useful has no educational value at all. First choose your objective and then use songs or games to teach it!!
What were the most surprising, and most enjoyable, things about being on tour?
RG：	Surprising thing? Err. I did have one Head Teacher saying "Oh, our students don't need to learn about the World, we don't need any foreigners here!"
WJ：	Or the Kouchou that said "We had one American girl visit us last year, so we don't need any more internationalisation".
RG：	The best thing for me was the first time we did a show for over 200 kids in Aomori. Having just loads, and loads of children all smiling, singing out loud and moving in time to the "Left and Right Song" was pretty impressive!!
WJ：	No matter how tired I get from driving the Genkimobile, dancing and singing with the kids during "What's your name?", when the kids come up to me smiling widely and wanting to do the actions with me, I always get a new burst of energy! And at the end of the song I feel even genkier!! When I see how happy the kids get, I feel that I've done a good days work.
What were the most difficult things?
RG：	Schools that don't think about the kids, but think purely in terms of paperwork, schedules and impossibilities. If they are teachers the kids education should be number one!
WJ：	On the tour I've run into people who say "I can't do that". This always disappoints me, especially when they haven't even tried! Don't set artificial limitations, try and you'll be surprised at how much you can do!
RG：	Everybody who ever had doubts about Genki English, or thought that what we do is impossible, and then saw the seminars or shows has had their minds instantly changed!
WJ：	On a more practical note, having the brakes fail coming down a steep mountain road in Gunma was a bit of a scare!
When and how (or why) did the Genki web site start?
RG：	See above! The website is the main part of Genki English! When I first started there were no materials available to teach English in shougakkou. Even now, the majority of books and CDs that are available in Japan simply aren't usable in shougakkou. They're maybe fine in jukus where you see the kids often, but in shougakkou with 30 kids for one lesson a week, I had to design my own curriculum and think of my own ideas! The songs came about as I found that most English songs were too difficult to teach, and most of them used English that you'd never use in real life (for example, have you ever heard anyone say "Twinkle twinkle" in real life?). So I took the target English from each of my lessons and made a song! I put the first ones one the homepage as MP3s and got a huge response! But I also got a load of teachers saying "But we don't have a computer in the classroom, wont you make a CD?". So that's where the CD idea came from, which at the time was a big project to undertake.
What sort of people access the site?
RG：	The main people who use it (and there are several thousand every month) are mainly teachers. Half of them are in Japan (both ALTs and Japanese teachers), and the other half visit from over 50 different countries!! Since I put the talking pages on there, a lot of teachers have been using them in class.
WJ：	"Cute" things are immensely popular in Japan, so I thought the Genki English characters Mr. Monkey and Aygo would appeal to students even at the high school level. ALTs certainly take to them!
RG：	So that's why we got the idea of starting the "Kawaii Eigo" page, it's a page just for students to use! As we also have some of the songs on the page, there are also a lot of parents who use the site at home - a sort of "Genki Homework". It's amazing that I get emails from Siberia, or Hong Kong, or Argentina or all over the world. A while ago a journalist asked me how many students learnt English by using Genki English games and ideas. I thought about it... if several thousand teachers use Genki English every month, then there must be several 100s of thousands of kids that are using Genki English!! That's what makes it worthwhile!
What have you got in store for the year 2001?
WJ：	Good question!! The tour we did from September till December we did on a volunteer basis. Selling the CDs paid some of our petrol bill, but obviously we can't live on our savings forever!!
RG：	With the new curriculum in Japan, there is an amazing opportunity. If shougakusei are taught correctly, using fun, interesting ideas then they can easily grow up to be really good at English. But more that this they have the chance to grow up to be "kokusaijin". This is a really important thing to be doing now.
WJ：	I always had a lot of fun designing fun lessons for junior high school too - I emphasised speaking, and using English in real life situations, and my students got used to roleplaying, pairwork and games in which they USED English to COMMUNICATE!!! (The whole purpose of language!) I plan to upload a whole lot of my JHS lesson plans to the website for everyone to use.
RG：	I have loads of ideas for Genki English. On the internet I now have songs, games and talking pages, but who knows what we will be able to do this year! We've just started using video, which is exciting! I want to make Genki English into a TV station! You'll choose your target English and then have videos to show the class, video games, songs and teacher training videos all available online! The internet is limitless!
WJ：	The atmosphere is electric during our shows, and the more people who can experience that, the better!!
RG：	And after doing shows with hundreds of kids, I want to do shows with thousands!
WJ：	The dream?? For the two of us to do a Genki English show in the Budoukan with thousands of kids, and Morning Musume as backing singers!
Do you have a message for the readers?
WJ：	People are people, no matter what country they come from. Sure, we have different cultures, but we are all human beings - we all work and play, laugh and cry, dream and hope. Sometimes if you don't speak someone else's language, it's easy to forget this. But once you start learning another language you also come to understand the culture that lies behind it. Barriers to understanding start falling away.
RG：	My message is : Confidence, Confidence, Confidence!! As teachers you are very special people. The things you teach your kids will stay with them forever. Have confidence in yourself, and the kids will see this. This isn't a case of teaching just English. We now have the chance in Japan to open the children's minds to the World. They will go out with the skills, abilities and confidence to communicate with people from any walk of life, or place on the planet. Understanding each other is the key to future success and peace for everyone. Seize everyday, and every opportunity, always have faith in yourself and your kids. If you put your mind to it, you can do anything!!!! Be confident, be happy and above all be genki!

Copyright (C) 1999/2023 by Richard Graham www.GenkiEnglish.com