Post by burlives on Apr 20, 2005 18:10:56 GMT 7
I lectured a class today on their responsibility toward the Japanese.
It all started last week when planning this week's lessons I decided to cop out and show a movie in the listening class instead of prepare some set of activities. I set a minimal skills lesson as a lead in to the movie for the first class and discovered that I have been pitching my lessons too low: they aced the minimal skills thing and I asked them for feedback on what they wanted for their future work. We worked a few things out and then watched the movie, Love Actually. It was fun.
The next class came on time. They were excited. These are third year university students and English majors. One boy -- a 21-year-old man who manages to be both feckless and boisterous -- was in more than his usual high spirit. He had a document about which much was being said. I understood enough of the Chinese to grasp that it was a denouncement, perhaps a petition of some kind. And then he turned to me and began to say that these days there is an important something-something, but I stopped him there because I already knew it was about Japan.
I told him that if he wanted to talk about Japan in my classroom he would have to be responsible. It was knee-jerk thing to say. I said it because I was looking at a veneer of leadership whose interest in the subject was the colour it added to his day. I saw a willing disregard for culpability and it offended me. The class plainly was being organised, and their engagement with the world was such that they could be organised by remote control. The one thing in their favour is that later on it was possible to see the struggle between students of being young and searching and being crippled and Chinese.
I started out with 1979. China loves peace, right? China invaded and occupied Vietnam in 1979. They were pushed out after a month.
I moved on to the post-WWII French-German history commision. I aksed if China and Japan would ever make one.
I had the direct attention of more of those students than I ever have had before. Sitting behind their language lab desks they watched me over their cubicle walls. Chinese don't let you come back from a thing like that. They remember. It's been a while since I riled up that mean side of their young people's spirit, and I'd forgotten what it looks like.
I tried to claw my way back. China has a right, I said. They agreed. When China becomes the strongest country, what will China do, I asked. China has a responsibility, I said. China has a right to be angry, and a responsibility to be calm. I told them that from outside China looks frightening. China is becoming stronger and the common people talk of killing Japanese.
I set up the lead in to the minimal skills task, but the boys -- sitting up the front! -- wanted more talk. In English! Finally one boy piped up directly to me. When China becomes strong, we will spread peace. We do not want to kill the common Japanese because we know they are innocent and it is only their leaders who do wrong.
And then we watched Love Actually. Our cold eyes pored over the good-natured innuendo, swearing and sexual courtship. They were only ready to laugh when Hugh Grant danced through Number 10 Downing Street to "It's Raining Men."
It all started last week when planning this week's lessons I decided to cop out and show a movie in the listening class instead of prepare some set of activities. I set a minimal skills lesson as a lead in to the movie for the first class and discovered that I have been pitching my lessons too low: they aced the minimal skills thing and I asked them for feedback on what they wanted for their future work. We worked a few things out and then watched the movie, Love Actually. It was fun.
The next class came on time. They were excited. These are third year university students and English majors. One boy -- a 21-year-old man who manages to be both feckless and boisterous -- was in more than his usual high spirit. He had a document about which much was being said. I understood enough of the Chinese to grasp that it was a denouncement, perhaps a petition of some kind. And then he turned to me and began to say that these days there is an important something-something, but I stopped him there because I already knew it was about Japan.
I told him that if he wanted to talk about Japan in my classroom he would have to be responsible. It was knee-jerk thing to say. I said it because I was looking at a veneer of leadership whose interest in the subject was the colour it added to his day. I saw a willing disregard for culpability and it offended me. The class plainly was being organised, and their engagement with the world was such that they could be organised by remote control. The one thing in their favour is that later on it was possible to see the struggle between students of being young and searching and being crippled and Chinese.
I started out with 1979. China loves peace, right? China invaded and occupied Vietnam in 1979. They were pushed out after a month.
I moved on to the post-WWII French-German history commision. I aksed if China and Japan would ever make one.
I had the direct attention of more of those students than I ever have had before. Sitting behind their language lab desks they watched me over their cubicle walls. Chinese don't let you come back from a thing like that. They remember. It's been a while since I riled up that mean side of their young people's spirit, and I'd forgotten what it looks like.
I tried to claw my way back. China has a right, I said. They agreed. When China becomes the strongest country, what will China do, I asked. China has a responsibility, I said. China has a right to be angry, and a responsibility to be calm. I told them that from outside China looks frightening. China is becoming stronger and the common people talk of killing Japanese.
I set up the lead in to the minimal skills task, but the boys -- sitting up the front! -- wanted more talk. In English! Finally one boy piped up directly to me. When China becomes strong, we will spread peace. We do not want to kill the common Japanese because we know they are innocent and it is only their leaders who do wrong.
And then we watched Love Actually. Our cold eyes pored over the good-natured innuendo, swearing and sexual courtship. They were only ready to laugh when Hugh Grant danced through Number 10 Downing Street to "It's Raining Men."
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