The English Teacher
Copyright© 2026 by DutchMark13
Chapter 4
James was pleased by the way things were going in his classroom, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing. While he felt he had prepared well, nothing could have truly readied him for the variety of personalities that sat before him in his various classes.
Teaching English to intelligent students, whether young or old, presented its various challenges, but he embraced them with determination and a sense of humor. Through his interactions with his students, James not only taught them English but also learned valuable lessons about patience, perseverance, and the beauty of cultural exchange.
On his third day James stood at the front of the classroom of advanced beginners, most of them still in high school, marker in hand, as his students stared at him expectantly. James had quickly learned that ‘advanced beginners’ was a relative term. While their reading and writing in English was very good – especially their knowledge of grammar – their spoken skills lagged far behind, especially their vocabulary and pronunciation.
He had learned that the Japanese schools taught English like a ‘dead language’, much like American schools taught Latin or Greek. The teachers in their schools were all Japanese, who knew the written word intimately. However, they had rarely been exposed to native speakers, and so their spoken English was childlike at best. At worst, it was gobbledygook, what was often referred to as ‘pidgin English’.
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