Com cards

It's only the first day of school and I've already got 3 classes!? There's no justice in the Japanese educational system. And I get to come home to yet another Simona-less evening too. Wonderful. Maybe the Raptors/Nets game would finish downloading by then and I get to see the Vinsane slap.

For the short 3rd trimester we are starting this communication card thing. Basically, to encourage students to use practical English outside of classrooms and make full use of my ¥3,000,000 (yes, I AM a multi-millionaire), they get a communication card/lottery ticket, which can be redeemed for prizes at the end of the trimester, for having a short conversation with me or writing a short letter. When an ALT's charm fails to motivate students' English use, bribe.

I have mixed feelings about this. It could be nice to have more interactions with the students. But it could also purge all contacts of sincerity given that it was, ahem, bought. Worse, I might just have to kill myself if I can't even bribe these teenagers to talk to me. Me! Look at me! Give me attention! Me!

Then again, maybe bribe was not really the point in this little exercise. According to Cultures and Orginizations (book I've been reading and I recommend heartily to anyone) Japan is at the high extreme of the UAI-index, which meant that broadly speaking, it's culture is extremely uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. High uncertainty avoidance can manifest itself in anything from xenophobia and higher levels of stress and anxiety, to more new car purchase relative to used cars and longer turnaround for cashing bounced checks. In schools, students are more comfortable in structured learning situations and concerned with getting the right answers rather than good discussions (these all ring true, but unexpectedly to me, Hofstede also generalized that strong uncertainty avoidance also meant that results are attributed more to circumstance and luck, rather than student's own ability).

I suppose that predicating conversation on communication cards provides the proper context of in which Japanese students feel more comfortable to participate?