As the Ministry asked me to go to Tokyo tomorrow, it meant today I had a 3 hour workshop in the morning in one city then another 3 hour workshop in the next city with only an hour in between. But the teachers were all really cool and after doing 2 hour workshops last week it was quite a relaxed pace ( for me ) to do 3 hours and we had plenty of time for Q&As and extra activities.

One of the key parts of my main motivation speech is getting Japanese teachers out of the victim mentality of thinking “Oh, we’d love to teach English, but we’ve got no budget and no textbooks and no equipment and no native speakers, and no training etc. etc. ” basically making excuses and passing on their responsibilities. With all the work I do with developing countries this really annoys me sometimes, especially the “We’ve got no money” line as Japanese schools are absolutely loaded! For example this morning the entire school was air conditioned and the presentation room had a fully built in audio visual system, that of course the teachers didn’t know how to use!

Then this afternoon I turned up and they had the projector set up and also an Interactive Whiteboard. Wow, I thought! If you haven’t tried an interactive white board with the GE CDs yet, have a go. It’s so good as instead of moving a mouse you simply touch the word or picture and it talks! It’s great for teachers teaching new English and its great in games where if kids forget a word they come to the front, touch the screen and hear it spoken.

So anyway I was looking forward to using the Digital Whiteboard and asked the teacher where power cable was. To which the reply was “Eh?? What do you mean “Digital Whiteboard”? We just use it as a projector screen.”

You what????!! These things cost a fortune and the teachers didn’t even know what it was, never mind how to use it! And they had lost the manual and drivers to use it with a computer so it was useless. Then they turn round and say they have no budget so can’t teach English!! Cheeky, cheeky. Japanese schools are sometimes just too rich.

But the actual workshop went well ( using the board simply as a projector screen!) and the head teacher agreed to make their Friday afternoon meeting English only. This is a great step for schools who are serious about English education. The teachers actually use the English they know in their meeting ( e.g. tomorrow we have an English workshop at 9:30 etc.), the kids see the teachers trying so try harder themselves, the PTA see the teachers trying so support them more and at the end of the year when new teachers come in, the current teachers see just how much their English has improved. In the first few stages a “Batsu Bucket” is needed where anyone who speaks Japanese has to pay 100 yen. This pays for a big party at the end of the first term. But it is usually empty at the end of the second term. Plus teachers who hate English really get to love it as meetings in Japanese often go on and on and on and on, but when everyone is speaking in English everything is really short and everyone can go home early!

So I’ll pop back next year and see how they get on, and hopefully they might have found out how to use all the expensive equipment they have!