I don’t know what it is, but there always seemed to be a funny feeling about today’s workshop. I got there a touch early, and they put me away in a room until 15 minutes before the workshop, where I then had to rush a bit to prepare in time. And it also turns out they had workshops this morning and yesterday. I really wish they would have let me attend as I would have been able to watch, find out what the teachers strengths and weaknesses were and then do a workshop that helped them out.

So anyway we start off, and after the Warm Up I did the “What’s your name?” song. And I was getting a really strange vibe. Not the usual “Oh this is too difficult” vibe, but something else. So I asked what the problem was and they said that the guy who gave them a lecture yesterday told them never to teach “What’s your name?”. “Err… so why’s that then?” I asked. They replied that the guy had said it was too impolite, “Ah, I see. But that’s cool you simply put “Excuse me” in front of it!” I said, and they replied that he had told them they had to teach “Would you mind telling me your name please?”. Eh? Oh my goodness, as if any child would ever say that! But this guy was a university guy so his word is gospel!

For the record, I teach “What’s your name?” because it’s the first question an ALT will ask a kid, and they need to be able to respond to it, I highly doubt they’ll get very far if they wait for “Would you mind telling me your name please?”.

Anyway, when I asked who it was it all made sense, he’s one of these so called “experts” who’ve never taught a kids lesson in their life, but he’s a university lecturer, so tours the country and everyone has to listen to what he says. We have met before, when NHK were making the Genki English documentary, he was on next at one of the conferences, and NHK were told they had to pretend to be filming him so “not to hurt his feelings”!!

It does get me annoyed though that people like this get away with what they do, going confusing everyone with daft stuff and undoing all the good work everyone else does ( I wonder if the CIA pays his salary????). And a lot of the rest of the workshop today was fixing things that they’d been told by him yesterday ( e.g. they were told not to worry about pronunciation. Which is good, they shouldn’t worry. But they were told it doesn’t matter if the pronunciation is bad, as long as the gusto is there! Oh dear.).

But the teachers were into what I was talking about, and they seemed reassured about more things after I’d finished. Part way through they were getting a bit tired, so I did the “Why do we do this?” speech and that really perked them up so at the end I could go through all of their questions. There were also some higher level teachers here, and it would have been great to go through more games and ideas, but without all the background and reasons then it’d be just fun & games without a purpose. So maybe next time I can come and help out more.

So I thought it was an OK workshop, but it could have been better. Even to have started with a blank canvas, rather than having to undo stuff. But the teachers seemed to enjoy it, calling it a “Super Dynamite” workshop, so I guess I can’t complain. And it was the first time to be officially in the prefecture, so I guess it’s a good start! There are 2 new 4th year JETs here who seem pretty cool, and the teachers seemed very good, so Kagawa should do well.

This week I’ve also really felt the big difference between what’s out there material wise and what teachers actually need. Talking to publishers about what they want to sell, and to teachers listening to their needs, there really is only Genki English that is actually designed to help elementary school teachers. And with making new materials as well, elementary school presents a whole new set of challenges, and there’s so many more things that I want to make!

But I really need to get the Genki English name out more. It’s all about empowering the teachers, giving them the tools and confidence to do good for their kids, not giving them daft silly phrases to teach. So that’s what I need to work on next, making sure everyone knows about GE so they can listen to the different view points and make up their own minds.

But for now I’m on the train back to Kyushu. It’s been a long 3 weeks on the road, but lots of crazy fun with lots of crazy different people and hopefully I’ve made a small difference in a few places. And from tomorrow I’ve got 4 days holiday, so I’m jetting off to do some watersports and then lay on a beach all day. So I’ll see you all next week!