Good news, bad news

My objectives in writing this blog don't include the desire to run everything down, so I took some time today to find a good article about EFL after I read the first one. The first one is about privatization of English language education. The second, more upbeat is about a homestay program in Iowa.

The JET program was suposed to function as a method for bringing bright, young native speakers of English to Japan to live in communities and teach English in schools. The program has failed to live up to its expectations for a plethora of reasons, but boards of education still want foreign faces in their classrooms. Some schools have resorted to contracting "teachers" out from various English conversation schools, says and article in the Daily Yomiuri Online. Education from the lowest bidder. There we go. Reminds me of "Armageddon" when Rockhound, Steve Buscemi, says as they are about to blast off to blast the incoming 'steroid...

You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?

You know we're trying to help thousands of kids enjoy their learning experience enough to invest time and effort in developing their English language skills with one homesick unemployed business school grad provided by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it.

The second, more upbeat article was one about a homestay program in Iowa. That kind of experience is so good for learners, I wish every kid in the country could have some kind of experience like this abroad. I took a group of college students to Dubuque, Iowa once, and it was just a great experience. The kids matured so much in one month, and they also managed to learn some English along the way. In the scheme of things a month is pretty short, but the experience that they had was one that they will never forget, and will hopefully serve as a base that they can build on.

Of court decisions and population trends

The courts here have their blinders on, and I suppose this reflects the temperment of the population in general. The Japanese Supreme Court issued a ruling that reinforced exclusion of foreigners from management in civil-service positions. Her father is Korean and her mother Japanese. My guess is that she retained only her Korean citizenship.

In a nation with a falling birthrate and rapidly aging population, experts are saying that, should current trends continue, Japan will be left with large gaps in the workforce in the not-so-distant future. --Asian Times Online

And what does that population actually look like? That is what really got me started on this this morning, an NHK radio report on population statistics. This Japan Today article relflects the numbers pretty well.

Japan's population rose to 127,687,000 in 2004, up by 0.05% from a year earlier, according to a government preliminary report on estimated demographic shifts obtained by Kyodo News on Thursday.

There is also a good Japanese article on the subject, 男性人口、戦後初のマイナス, (Male Population, First Drop Since the End of World War Two)

It shows that a large number of able bodied men (figures for women not given) are working overseas.

new texts for the new year

From April the English teachers in this faculty will be using new texts for our classes. For the Communication Class we will be using Linda Lee, Kensaku Yoshida, and Steve Ziolkowski's book, J-Talk, published by Oxford University Press. Having not used it before, I don't know how it will work out. I have done an activity similar to that in the first unit with my first year classes. It is about names. Theoretically it involves students explaining their names in English. To me that is a great activity. I really got excited about it when I started. I was not really prepared for the apathy on the part of the students. They don't know what their names mean. They don't know why they have these monikers, why their parents stuck them with these tags. And they really don't seem to care for the most part. We'll see how this year's crowd works.

For the Basic English classes, we'll be using Jack Richard's Interchange, Intro, the third edition. This is a very well supported book, with lots of helpful stuff, but really expensive. I would feel sorry about it if most of the students didn't have cars that their parents bought for them, put the gas in, and pay both insurance and taxes for.

I am also thinking about having students buy the first of a series of books in Japanese about English that I really like. It's called　「ビッグ・ファット・キャットの世界一簡単な英語の本」、(Big Fat Cat's Easiest English Book in the World), by Mukoyama Atsuko, Mukoyama Takahiko, and Takashima Tetsuwo, published by the Gentosha company. I think the students could really use a fundamental review of the really simple, important stuff before we begin anything. I really like what they have written and how they explain the language. It is super useful.

not in the writing mood

Recently work has not been as hectic. There are no classes, and there are few meetings. There has been my work on the Advanced Japanese Studies program, but that hasn't been too bad either. Just in a slump I guess.

Maybe it has been the weather. Who can explain it? Just a slump. Hope this breaks it.