Student-Teacher Interactions

One thing that continues to interest me is the way in which students and teachers in Japan interact. If they were in the US, their behaviors would probably result in the students getting detention and the teachers being sued. At the very least. Meanwhile...in Japan its just hilarious.

One day last week I ate lunch in one of the 3-nen-sei (9th grade) classrooms. After he finished eating, the home-room teacher, a somewhat pudgy middle-aged man, came up to the lunch group I was sitting with and stood behind one of the boys.

The homeroom teacher points to his victim and say, in broken English, "He is good boy. He has best smile of all students."

In the fashion typical of my students, the boy looks at me and emphatically says, "No no no!"

This does not deter the homeroom teacher. He continues, "He has best smile...He has...many lovers." And he points around the classroom.

The student decides to return the favor and tell me about the teacher. "He is very big boy. He is biggest boy." The teacher agrees to this assessment and continues to try to talk about the student. Since the verbal responses didn't work to get the teacher to stop talking, the student gets out of his chair and pushes the teacher against the wall to try to get him to stop. The teacher wrestles in response and goes on to tell me random amusing nonsense about the rest of the lunch group.

At least the homeroom teacher practiced his English...