I have been blessed to have two amazing work sites, Hongo Student Center attached to Hongo Lutheran Church and Bunkyo Katerina Dormitory attached to Koishikawa Lutheran Church. I teach at both, and have amazing students at both of these sites. My placements, my co-workers, and my students have been amazing and for that I am so thankful. My youngest student was 3 when she started and my oldest student just turned 87, so needless to say I teach the spectrum. Teaching students with such a varied age has been remarkably amazing. I’ll begin with the youngest and work my way to the oldest.
This year at Hongo we started a new children’s program. We have classes for kids from ages 3-6 years old. My youngest student Kaede is probably one of the cutest and smartest students in her class. She learns so quickly and is a very tactile learner, which means she loves to touch you, hold your hand, give high fives, and dance around the classroom. It’s hard to rein her back in because she’s so cute you don’t want to stop her from doing whatever it is she is doing. (I thank Charity’s dance class for her love of dancing!) Because of her prior attendance in Charity’s dance class, she was fairly comfortable with being around foreigners.
Her younger brother, Yuki…was another story. He must have been just a few months old when they started coming to Hongo, if he so much as looked at one of us he would burst into tears. He was a momma’s boy, and no one could look at him or hold him. His mother explained that only she, her husband and her mother, could hold him without him crying. Watching him grow up has been amazing! I love kids, which should come to no surprise to any of my friends in the States. I love them and always want to hold them. Yuki was no exception; we slowly worked our comfort up with one another so I was no longer scary. That was a huge milestone, to gain his trust. Our last week of classes, I had walked out of the classroom for a minute to grab some candy and Yuki saw me, smiled and ran over to me with his arms up in the air. I immediately swept down picked him up, and carried on with what I was doing. His mom commented on how much he loved me, and that single action done by a one year old, made my week. To have these kids grow up with us at Hongo, and to have become so comfortable around us is an amazing feeling. The relationships are being formed from a young age.
I have so many stories about the young children I get to teach, I could write an entire blog on kids, but instead I’ll just put in a few pictures.
The next age bracket would be my college students at Katerina. These girls have been absolutely amazing to teach, talk with, hang out with, and get to know over this past year. It deeply saddens me to watch some of them graduate, and move out because that means they will no longer be my students. When I first started teaching at Katerina the friendships were slow to form and the conversations in English class were a little dull. As the semesters progressed the conversations got quite serious; the decentralization of power of the former Soviet Union, the corruption of foreign governments, woman’s rights, gender equality and lack thereof in Japan, and WWII and the misleading information students are taught in Japan about their countries involvement. I mean…wow. Talk about some serious topics. These girls have matured in their thinking capacity, their willingness to bring up things that impassion them; their willingness to open up and talk freely with me, watching their progress has been amazing. I have hung out with several of these girls outside of class and they are a joy to be around (not to mention close to my age). The relationships formed in these classes have been deep; we have talked about deaths in our families, relationship break-ups, moving to new places, and the ups and downs that come with being in college. We can bond on a real level, because we have real things in common. Working at Katerina has allowed me to have complete freedom in what I teach in class which has been instrumental for helping me learn to teach. The classes have been so easy to teach and there is never a dull moment. I am so thankful to have this as an assignment, I truly love working at Katerina and having wonderful conversations with the girls.
My next age bracket jumps a few decades as I teach my “old lady” classes. These women range in age from 50 to 87 years old, so while 50 isn’t that old…87 is, lol. These women have also taught me a lot. We have discussed the stereotypes that their generation grew up with, their perceptions of the war and how that still affects their daily lives, we have rejoiced in new grandchildren being born, and mourned family members passing away. I have come to think of them all as grandmothers. These classes for me at Hongo have been very rewarding also because we do a lot of activities together outside of class. It can be as simple as going to lunch together, going to someone’s house for tea, shoe shopping, or taking a day trip to Nikko. We have gotten to know one another a lot better by being outside of the classroom, and I am thankful we are encouraged to have those types of relationships.
I have been blessed to work with a wide range of students with a very large age range. Each group of students has taught me different things, and I hope in return I have taught them something as well. Friendships and relationships are so important in the Japanese culture in order to trust one another. By working diligently and being honest with my students and taking a true interest in their activities, and spending time we them we have laid down a real stable foundation for relational ministries. By these students getting to know me, I hope they have a better understanding of what it means to be a Christian, not only by what I teach them in class but by my actions inside and outside of the classroom. It’s not something I turn on when I walk into Hongo or Katerina, but rather something that is an ever pervasive guiding force in my life, and that is something I hope they can see. I have been blessed with my work placements, and I think these past few weeks I have realized that more than ever. I am truly grateful this spring to be living and working in Tokyo with the amazing people God has put into my life, and for that I am thankful. Heres to another successful and fulfilling year of teaching!
