Today, I ate lunch with one of my third year middle school classes. After a year, they have finally overcome their shyness to ask me questions. It started innocently enough, "what's your favorite food, what's your favorite restaurant and celebrity." All well and good. Then it turned serious.
One student asked in Japanese, "Do you like Korea?" I replied with an enthusiastic yes, and that I'd be travelling there this week..
His face crumpled up in slight disgust as I leaped for excitement about my upcoming trip. Noticing that the rest of my current lunch party did not share the thrill I felt, I asked him why.
From what I could gather with my low level of Japanese and his gestures to make me understand he said,
"Korea thinks Japan is bad. And so I don't like Korea."
Another student asked me if I knew about the Senkaku Island situation.
"Yes, I know about it"
They then began to discuss the situation and my friends, the conversation made me cringe and I wanted to hide in the deepest crevice of the Earth and seek confinement away from it.
Korea was bad. China was bad. Those countries are just horrible places.
I became silent then...Of course in English I formed all that I wanted to say, but it proved to complicated to translate into Japanese. I feebly attempted to say, "but we're all humans, right" To this they reflected a bit, but if it had any affect, I don't know.
Then the conversation geared towards everyone's travel plans for the weekend.
I left, put my tray away, and quickly got on the computer to write this.
I don't know the situation with the Senkaku Islands very well. All I know is that there is a dispute between China and Japan and it seems to be escalating. I thought it'd be something that would blow over soon, but I couldn't be more wrong. The television connection does not work in my home, so I'm unaware of the Japanese media's representation on the matter. Might I assume that it is not a very objective outlook if my students are thinking this? And I also don't know how Korea plays a part(someone enlighten me).
I fear that the conflicts of governments are trickling down to the young and now they're forming dangerous thinking concerning people of different cultures. And people wonder why I concern myself with media representations of racial, gender, and sexual minorities in the States.
However, I don't want to debate the Senkaku Islands.. This is where I open up the discussion and ask for help and advice. The chapter on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is coming up in the textbook and I feel that it will be as important as ever before for them to understand this movement. Because my students are forming negative and destructive opinions about a people, a culture, a country that they have little information on and have never visited. This scares me beyond comprehension.
So, my friends, ALT or not, how can I make this chapter more than just an English lesson? If I can, I'd like to connect the message of Dr.King's speech to the current situation. I'm not looking for an overnight miracle, but I do want them to start thinking seriously about their world. At least a little.
So far I have videos on the bus boycott, "The Long Walk Home," with Japanese subtitles. I also found the movie Amistad, also with Japanese subtitles, that can help give some context to American history and slavery. And after that, I'm stuck....
Feel free to comment on the page, e-mail me, or comment on the facebook post.
My e-mail, Julnoel5@aol.com
