Thursday, March 19, 2009
WHAT DO YOU WANNA DO WITH YOUR LIFE?
My classes are over! If only that meant I didn't have to go to work anymore...
Yes, Tuesday was my final day of teaching for the semester. Before you flip out, remember that the Japanese school system is broken into three, rather than two, semesters, and this one ends next week. Starting in early April the new school year will begin and I'll probably be teaching students again by the time you Americans are paying your taxes. Now that I mention it, I guess I'm supposed to pay taxes too? Don't want to keep the Wall Street executives from collecting their precious fucking bonuses, now would I?
Ugh, let's not go there. With the end of the school year upon us, our theme in English class this semester for the older students was "My Dream." Basically, we taught them a few job names in English (fire fighter, dentist, pilot, etc.) and then asked them the big question we all love to pose to small children: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Now that all of the children have answered that question, I present to you the unscientific, off-the-top-of-my-head results.
Boys were mostly about sports. I can't tell you how many times I heard a boy tell me he wanted to be a baseball player or a soccer player. Other popular choices were ping pong, rugby, auto racing, and there was at least one who wanted to play in the NBA someday. Most of those who expressed an athletic interest mentioned playing in America or Europe, possibly in the Olympics as well. I think they recognize that being a pro baseball player is fine, but being a Major League ballplayer is where it's at. Sadly, there was significantly less interest expressed in domestic sports like judo or sumo.
Another surprise was how few boys said they wanted to be a farmer. Not only was it one of the words we practiced, making it an easy choice, but I work in a rural area where most of these kids grow up around farms. Either they all are "reaching for the stars" and hoping to get out of Hana Town someday or farming just isn't a "cool" job to tell people about. Still, there was a lot of interest in fishing which is basically farming without the soil. I guess an island nation is going to have a lot of respect for fisherman, even though Hana Town is in the mountains with no ocean in sight.
Lots of boys picked fire fighter and policeman as potential careers, most of whom were sons of said professionals. Guess that's the same as it is in the States. I remember all the boys in my class who were into the fire/police departments had parents who were already working in those fields. I'll bet there's a lot of pressure to follow in dad's footsteps in both countries. Will I encourage my son to become a teacher? Will I still be teaching when my boy is old enough to even understand what he wants in life?
There were more than a few boys who talked about science, typically choosing archaeology (for the dinosaurs) or astronomy (for space). A few said they wanted to be astronauts. Others mentioned the Japanese Self-Defense Force and carpentry. Comedy was, unsurprisingly, another popular vocation. Not only was "comedian" one of the words we practiced, but Osaka is seen as the comedy capital (or should I say komedy kapital, nyuk nyuk?) of Japan. Nearly all of the performers on television are from the Kansai area and the dialect is closely associated with laughter. Note to Japanese students everywhere: using Kansai-ben is a sure-fire way to put a smile on a Japanese person's face.
Girls were tragically limited in their employment aspirations. At least 75% said they wanted to be a teacher of some kind. Most of them talked about work in a hoikuen (the Japanese equivalent of day care/nursery school) because they "love children." The remaining girls typically wanted to get into the makeover business: hairdressers, beauticians, fashion designers, make-up artists, nail artists, etc. A few entrepreneurs wanted to run their own bakery, flower shop, or clothing boutique. You see the pattern, right? All of the girls' interests are essentially hobbies and completely compatible with being a housewife. If that's what they really want, I'm not going to condemn them for it, but I hoped a few of them would aim their sights a bit higher. At the very least, I thought the recent high-profile coverage of Japanese female athletes (Ai Miyazato, Ai Fukuhara, and the 2008 Olympic softball team have been television mainstays for some time now) would draw a few girls into sports, but hardly any of them expressed any curiosity in athletics.
So what don't Japanese kids want to be when they grow up? The American standards of "doctor" and "lawyer" were ignored. Only one boy wanted to be an architect (which is what I wanted to be when I was in elementary school). For all their aesthetic talk, not a single girl wanted to be a model and I can only remember one mentioning acting or singing. And not a single student, boy or girl, said they wanted to be prime minister. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, seeing as how Japanese prime ministers have such fleeting cultural relevance (in two years I've seen two resign and the third is heading south in a hurry), but I can't help but think back to my childhood and how presidents and other political figures were so dominant. Yet when I suggested the idea early in the exercise, most students laughed. I think that's a bad sign.
But my favorite story of all this came on Tuesday when I was teaching my last class of the semester, specifically a large fifth grade class. They had actually memorized their presentations and so they were coming up in front of the class one by one and delivering their speeches pretty quickly. One boy got up and said "I want to be a yakuzaishi," which is Japanese for "pharmacist." But all I heard was "I want to be a Yakuza" and I kind of freaked out. Some quick follow-up questions made it clear that I was WAY OFF, and everyone had a laugh when they realized what I thought he said.
To think, I almost had Henry Hill as a student.
Yes, Tuesday was my final day of teaching for the semester. Before you flip out, remember that the Japanese school system is broken into three, rather than two, semesters, and this one ends next week. Starting in early April the new school year will begin and I'll probably be teaching students again by the time you Americans are paying your taxes. Now that I mention it, I guess I'm supposed to pay taxes too? Don't want to keep the Wall Street executives from collecting their precious fucking bonuses, now would I?
Ugh, let's not go there. With the end of the school year upon us, our theme in English class this semester for the older students was "My Dream." Basically, we taught them a few job names in English (fire fighter, dentist, pilot, etc.) and then asked them the big question we all love to pose to small children: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Now that all of the children have answered that question, I present to you the unscientific, off-the-top-of-my-head results.
Boys were mostly about sports. I can't tell you how many times I heard a boy tell me he wanted to be a baseball player or a soccer player. Other popular choices were ping pong, rugby, auto racing, and there was at least one who wanted to play in the NBA someday. Most of those who expressed an athletic interest mentioned playing in America or Europe, possibly in the Olympics as well. I think they recognize that being a pro baseball player is fine, but being a Major League ballplayer is where it's at. Sadly, there was significantly less interest expressed in domestic sports like judo or sumo.
Another surprise was how few boys said they wanted to be a farmer. Not only was it one of the words we practiced, making it an easy choice, but I work in a rural area where most of these kids grow up around farms. Either they all are "reaching for the stars" and hoping to get out of Hana Town someday or farming just isn't a "cool" job to tell people about. Still, there was a lot of interest in fishing which is basically farming without the soil. I guess an island nation is going to have a lot of respect for fisherman, even though Hana Town is in the mountains with no ocean in sight.
Lots of boys picked fire fighter and policeman as potential careers, most of whom were sons of said professionals. Guess that's the same as it is in the States. I remember all the boys in my class who were into the fire/police departments had parents who were already working in those fields. I'll bet there's a lot of pressure to follow in dad's footsteps in both countries. Will I encourage my son to become a teacher? Will I still be teaching when my boy is old enough to even understand what he wants in life?
There were more than a few boys who talked about science, typically choosing archaeology (for the dinosaurs) or astronomy (for space). A few said they wanted to be astronauts. Others mentioned the Japanese Self-Defense Force and carpentry. Comedy was, unsurprisingly, another popular vocation. Not only was "comedian" one of the words we practiced, but Osaka is seen as the comedy capital (or should I say komedy kapital, nyuk nyuk?) of Japan. Nearly all of the performers on television are from the Kansai area and the dialect is closely associated with laughter. Note to Japanese students everywhere: using Kansai-ben is a sure-fire way to put a smile on a Japanese person's face.
Girls were tragically limited in their employment aspirations. At least 75% said they wanted to be a teacher of some kind. Most of them talked about work in a hoikuen (the Japanese equivalent of day care/nursery school) because they "love children." The remaining girls typically wanted to get into the makeover business: hairdressers, beauticians, fashion designers, make-up artists, nail artists, etc. A few entrepreneurs wanted to run their own bakery, flower shop, or clothing boutique. You see the pattern, right? All of the girls' interests are essentially hobbies and completely compatible with being a housewife. If that's what they really want, I'm not going to condemn them for it, but I hoped a few of them would aim their sights a bit higher. At the very least, I thought the recent high-profile coverage of Japanese female athletes (Ai Miyazato, Ai Fukuhara, and the 2008 Olympic softball team have been television mainstays for some time now) would draw a few girls into sports, but hardly any of them expressed any curiosity in athletics.
So what don't Japanese kids want to be when they grow up? The American standards of "doctor" and "lawyer" were ignored. Only one boy wanted to be an architect (which is what I wanted to be when I was in elementary school). For all their aesthetic talk, not a single girl wanted to be a model and I can only remember one mentioning acting or singing. And not a single student, boy or girl, said they wanted to be prime minister. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, seeing as how Japanese prime ministers have such fleeting cultural relevance (in two years I've seen two resign and the third is heading south in a hurry), but I can't help but think back to my childhood and how presidents and other political figures were so dominant. Yet when I suggested the idea early in the exercise, most students laughed. I think that's a bad sign.
But my favorite story of all this came on Tuesday when I was teaching my last class of the semester, specifically a large fifth grade class. They had actually memorized their presentations and so they were coming up in front of the class one by one and delivering their speeches pretty quickly. One boy got up and said "I want to be a yakuzaishi," which is Japanese for "pharmacist." But all I heard was "I want to be a Yakuza" and I kind of freaked out. Some quick follow-up questions made it clear that I was WAY OFF, and everyone had a laugh when they realized what I thought he said.
To think, I almost had Henry Hill as a student.
Labels: Japan, JET, predicting the future, teaching
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I'd like to work in some area of computers, not sure what specific area yet though. But I have plenty of time (Im 16) Just learning as much as I can about computer. Websites atm lol
These students were sixth graders between 12 and 13 years old, so they were bound to have more adolescent fantasies than practical work idea. I also suspect they don't have much computer skills (this being rural Japan) but they seem to know way more about computers than I did when I was their age. Who knows where they will end up?
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