I haven't taught any English to anyone since about 1993. I've been teaching Japanese now for about 4-5 months. I'm extremely comfortable teaching Japanese. I have no shortage of lessons. I don't use a textbook -- I just teach according to what I think the student at the particular time needs to know. I adjust my teaching to how they're doing, how well they understand -- lots of variables.
But English?
Believe it or not, I was recently contacted by an extremely amiable Japanese man, around 36 years old, who just moved to Montreal a couple of months ago. His story is complicated, but basically, his wife is Russian and is completely fluent in Japanese. They have two small children.
If I'm not mistaken, they came here from Japan. Like I said, his story is so unusual and complicated, I really haven't quite digested everything he's told me so far. I met him yesterday, and -- yes, you're reading it right -- he wants me to teach him English.
I asked him why on earth he'd want someone who speaks Japanese to teach him English, but he has a huge point, one I've been harping on to anyone who ever wants to listen: Read My Lips: I'm only going to say it 1,000 times.
If a student of a language does not even understand the simplest sentence in that language -- is at the level of, or lower than, "This is a pen," THERE IS NO POINT IN HELL TRYING TO TEACH THEM IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE.
In other words, if 90% of my Japanese students came to my class, and I started babbling in Japanese -- ONLY speaking Japanese and not a word of English, as some "educators" highly recommend, they would LEARN NOTHING AT ALL.
When cI was teaching English in Japan, some of my students knew about as much English as you or I know Navajo. Trying to teach them Navajo IN Navajo would have been a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.
Thus, I always want to laugh when I am subject to a Japanese teacher (it's been a long time since I took Japanese lessons, and that was with regular students of Japanese at McGill, not some YMCA evening course) who decides to teach the lesson entirely in Japanese.
It's such a TOTAL waste of time that they should be physically removed from the classroom and be restrained from ever teaching again.
Yes, for sure -- teaching a 5th year Intermediate/Advanced Japanese class entirely in Japanese is highly recommended. But to a bunch of people who can barely say "Watashi?"
Well, it seems that Kawakami-san (his name, delightfully, means "River God") has exactly the right idea.
It's MUCH easier if he takes English lessons from me than from someone who neither speaks, understands, or has any interest in the Japanese language. BECAUSE I WILL KNOW WHEREOF HE IS UP AGAINST, and I will be able to patiently explain difficult concepts to him in terms of Japanese, such as, say, "filler words" in English as opposed to filler words in Japanese. I will get this across to him 100 times faster than someone who speaks no Japanese and therefore WASTES HIS PRECIOUS TIME AND MONEY trying to stumble through a simplified English explanation.
It would be like you suddenly being stranded on a desert island, and a native appears.
Sure, you COULD go through Hell and high water trying to explain where you had come from, that you were hungry, thirsty, needed some medical help and access to a phone, using universal gestures and hand signals -- maybe after a half hour of this he might grunt and lead you to the local zoo, but wouldn't it be much easier if he said "Hey dude, don't worry about a thing! I'll take care of ya."
?
So, Kawakami-san, in his infinite wisdom, has made an incredibly sagacious choice. In fact, I am probably the ONLY PERSON in Montreal who has taught English to Japanese in Japan and is now teaching Japanese to English and French speakers. So in a way, you might say he's hit the jackpot.
There's only one big problem: I've totally forgotten how to teach English. And you can squelch that guffaw. YOU try teaching English to someone who barely understands a simple phrase. I guarantee you and your student will have a fantastically frustrating time.
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