Teachers Should Teach

I have already discussed my feelings on Japanese education before, but here's another post on it. I thought the worst of it would be last semester, but it appears that I was a bit optimistic. This semester, it is not detrimental to my education, but I do think the way that my literature teacher runs his class is inefficient and not useful. Perhaps it is due to my American upbringing, but I could not be a teacher in the Japanese education system.

Even being in Hawaii, I've had a lot of great teachers. They've taught (or tried to teach) me all kinds of subjects, from mathematics and chemistry, to Japanese language and Hawaiian political issues. All of these teachers have one thing in common: They all taught their subjects. That is, with their knowledge and training, they tried to impart information about a subject to me, someone who knows little or nothing about it. And I think that's the way it should be. Teachers arent just picked up off the street, given a textbook with directions that say, "SAY THIS". Rather, they are chosen to teach because they are able to show they have mastery in a subject, and fully understand the material.

Unfortunately, my literature teacher would disagree with my beliefs. He has only lectured twice, and one of them was simply about the class structure, like how the semester would proceed. The actual "teaching" of the class is left to us students, who have been divided into groups and need to translate an old text written in an archaic script, and present it to the class. As a result, we are responsible for teaching the class what's going on in the story, what the important points are, etc etc. Interpretation differs from person to person, so I suppose it's not a bad thing that we're made to do that. But what really grinds my gears is that he gave no instructions or lessons on how to read the text. The script is called Man'yogana, and it has the most cursive character shapes you will ever see. It differs from modern Japanese in many ways, most importantly in that the same sound is represented with different characters. However, professor has not taught us how to read the text, how to determine its sound, nothing. It would have been nice to have short passages to use as practice. The only "help" he has given us is assigned two textbooks that catalogue every manyogana. Although difficult to use, it is my only lifeline.

Each group is required to present on its section, and this is where I have problems again. The presentations are the most boring presentations I've ever had to sit through. All they do is simply read off the handout which they distribute before class. That's it. There's no Powerpoint, no slides, not even a chart with pictures on it. This compounds the problem that I dont understand a word they say. The old Japanese is impossible for me sometimes. The modern Japanese is a bit better, assuming they enunciate and speak at a moderate pace, at a reasonable volume. However, they dont always do that, so I spent last class sitting in the back thinking very angry thoughts. Way back in elementary school, when I did my first presentation, we were told to be entertaining, using slides (whether plastic or digital), and speaking clearly so everyone in the room could understand you.

I honestly dont know why I should stay for the entire class. First of all, the actual professor doesnt say a word about the class subject, so it's not like I'm missing lecture, or the thoughts of a wise scholar. Secondly, since I have to read the handout to understand anything, I dont need to stay for the presentation, which is just the audio version. I could just stay for attendence, pick up a handout, and leave, because that's exactly what my mind is doing. I'm all for self-study, and I have really got to step up my game, but Japanese education is ineffective, to me. To this lazy American, it's the blind leading the blind, which benefits no one.