Hi everyone! I'm Shehan. I wanted to share my experience with the program in the first week.

It was tough! I've been commuting from Katakuracho to Shinjuku for the past week, which ends up being a 90 minute commute one way. Additionally, I'm pretty sure that my group was one of the weaker English speakers in the program. It was very difficult to get them to talk, and they were more likely to open up a pocket dictionary rather than ask us their question - and I can't imagine how tough this trial-by-fire is.

But I learned a lot. I learned about perspective, and to be creative in moving the group along, in communicating my words with simpler words, and occasionally with pictures. I've tried to explain to students the meaning of "passion" as "burning the midnight oil and trying very hard to get the future you want". I think my students in particular gained confidence and became friends with one another, even though I didn't feel as close as did others by the closing ceremony. However, I wrote them good letters and they gave me an awesome letter in return!

I wanted to talk about one student in particular and his life mission speech. Working with him was a challenge. He didn't have any particular passions. After nearly forty minutes of back and forth in English, I realized that he didn't particularly enjoy any subject. He most valued money, being "the boss", and living a comfortable life. At one point, Yuuki-san jumped in to guide his thinking, and they spoke in Japanese for a while (while I tended to other students). I jumped back into the conversation to feel out a few subjects - namely starting up a business, or being a consultant. 

The gears really started turning when we revisited his "Issues Around Us" speech, where he wrote on the pervasive NEET/hikikomori issue in Japan, where adolescents/adults are social shut-ins that have forgone further education or employment. I suggested making a presentation that seeks to remedy the NEET problem. This is where I stopped, and he began. His presentation was on making a hypothetical company to reach out to Japanese hikikomori and induct them into the workforce. I thought it was awesome because it addressed a very real Japanese problem and presented a potential solution. He only started writing a speech after the 11:30 mark, so I was really impressed to see that he had accomplished a unique and thoughtful presentation, despite his limited English. 

I was afraid that my student would have nothing to say, but I was proven wrong. Yuuki-san can attest to him being a tough case, but I think that experience really showed me that these students can still be very intelligent and aware of the world, even if their English skills may not reflect that. I heard many cool presentations about visiting the world or studying chemistry (I'm a chem major!), but my experience with him was on a different level. I am a lot more confident in my ability to tease out ideas from students and help them develop a passion. Whether or not my student actually makes his startup is a different question altogether, but he pulled through to make a presentation despite his weaker English and time crunch.

That was a lot, but I wanted to share this experience with someone! Yuuki-san is awesome and really helped me out. Thanks for hearing me out. Looking forward to the next few weeks!

Cheers,

Shehan

Come on Out had its first cooking night yesterday! Ohki-san and others taught us how to make thick wheat flour noodles (udon) and homemade rice balls (onigiri). We made our onigiri with spam and pickled plum and wrapped them in seaweed.

Onigiri can have many different types of the food inside of them. At konbini, you’ll find onigiri filled with tuna (They call it sea chicken!), fish roe, salmon, kelp, turnip wasabi, chicken, and even straight mayonnaise.

Udon is served hot and in a broth made from soy sauce, dashi, and mirin.

Pouring out the udon.

In Japan, you’re supposed to slurp your noodles to show that you’re enjoying the food. Some people were almost too good at it!

Group photo. The kids helped us out—they were adorable!

By Paige Goetz

Interns and students play a guessing game. 

The second week of the program brought a few surprises and many tears. I had two new Japanese high schools students, Shu and Souto. Shu came in with an amazing wealth of English vocabulary but no way to connect the words into sentences- even by the end of the first day, it was astounding to see how much progress he had made in terms of speaking and how much he had already grown to love asking questions. Souto was a bit shyer and very nervous about speaking at first, but as he warmed up to speaking with the other two interns and me, he quickly got more comfortable and loved sharing ideas and talking about his daily life. Together, I think the two of them encouraged each other as well.

We kept a running vocabulary list throughout the week, teaching the students words like “combine” or “residual” and having them repeat the words and use them in sentences during class when they wanted to explain something to us. I believe this really helped them not only with skills in explaining concepts in English, but also helped them practice sounding out unfamiliar words and encouraged them to continue growing their English vocabularies!

Throughout the week, we covered complicated topics like ideas for helping the Tokyo 2020 Olympics be a success and ways to help the world use more clean energy. Our group found simple ways for every Japanese person to save more energy, whether it was turning off the lights when not in the room or not using as much water when you shower. In addition, my students were fascinated by the idea of AI (Artificial Intelligence) being used in electric cars, and wanted to find a way to combine both ideas into one energy saving vehicle. 

We quickly found that giving presentations was going to be the biggest challenge for these two- both were incredibly nervous onstage and had not yet gained the confidence to speak English in front of a larger group of people. The first presentation was rocky; however, the next day, they worked even harder to ask us questions on how they could improve. After we watched (via youtube) Steve Jobs and Malala Yousafzai give speeches, our group reviewed how to give a great speech and hold the audience’s attention. For their final speeches on their life missions, Souto and Shu borrowed things like Steve Job’s confidence and Malala’s repetition of important phrases to enhance their own speeches.

I also gave a presentation in front of the class this week- on my major at University of Chicago and on how it connects to my life mission. I think my presentation went okay- I definitely need to find a better way to explain how economics and my other major, Law Letters and Society, work together to form my life mission, but I think the students had fun with the economics logic puzzle I introduced to them. I hoped that my being on stage would help my students become more excited about getting on the stage themselves.

The Life Mission speeches Friday afternoon were a stark and amazing contrast to my student’s behavior during presentations earlier in the week. They had transformed from shy and nervous to excited and eager to share their missions with the class. Shu volunteered to be one of the first students to present, bounded onto the stage to present, spoke clearly and thoughtfully, and as he sat back down in his seat, asked us if he could present to the class again! He wanted to create a nonprofit to help send wasted resources in countries like Japan and America to war-torn countries. Souto did his presentation on his life mission using math and science- to make a more practical and easy way for people to listen to music. His idea, using audio waves on different frequencies for different people, was something I could barely explain myself in English, yet he excitedly shared his ideas with the class, giving examples until all of the interns and students were nodding along with his enthusiasm. 

Drawing out an explanation. 

All in all, we were so incredibly proud of these two for not only conquering their stage fright, but improving so rapidly in English in under a week. These students have once again shown me that I need to be a better teacher in order to keep up with how fast they can learn.