GRIFTER’S TALES · BY COLIN LEE MACLEOD
The parent wanted English lessons. The child hadn’t necessarily asked for them. My job began with understanding the person in front of me.
The customer and the student
This is about my experience teaching children at an eikaiwa—an English conversation school—in Japan. Before I could work out how to teach a student, I needed to understand why that student was there.
Often, the mother was the customer paying for the lessons, while the child was the person taking them. The parents wanted their children to learn English. They saw it as useful, and as something cool for their kids to know.
That didn’t mean the children shared the same enthusiasm. Many of the children I taught didn’t want to study English. They were kids, and an adult’s reason for signing them up wasn’t automatically a reason that mattered to them.
Get to know the child
My starting point was to bond with my students. Get them comfortable with me. Find out what kind of person each child was, instead of treating the whole class as though everyone needed the same approach.
Was a child shy? Outgoing? Were they pushing other children around? I needed to notice how they behaved and how they related to the people in the room. That helped me work out how to bring them into a situation where teaching could happen.
There were several things to balance: helping the child learn, making the parents happy with the lessons, and getting through the whole experience myself. A relationship with the student made that work possible.
They’re kids. Play with them.
That is what I would recommend to another teacher: play with them. Every minute doesn’t have to feel like studying English. They can have fun with you. They can get to know you. That time together matters.
Then teach them something they enjoy—something they can actually learn and use. In my experience, that is when things can change. They open up to you. There is something in the lesson for them, beyond the fact that a parent paid for it.
The excitement comes when the child starts participating because something has caught their interest. You have a connection, and now you have a way to teach.
A place to begin
I wouldn’t start by asking a child to care about English simply because an adult says it will be useful. I would start by getting to know them, sharing some fun, and helping them experience something they enjoy doing with the language.
That was the approach I found useful in those children’s classes: build the relationship, find the interest, and give them something they can use.
Grifter’s Takeaway
Know who is paying for the lesson—and who is learning. Build trust with the child, make room for play, and help them learn something they enjoy using.
