Naha Nishi English Camp

Go Team! On Thursday I volunteered at Nahanishi (aka, smart kids' school) English camp. I taught 4 hour-long classes to groups of 20 students each, on the subject of my choice. Which was American Thanksgiving. I was giving them the watered down version of Thanksgiving, but you will all be proud to know that I did manage to get the words religious minority, and genocide onto their vocab sheet, tucked away somewhere between mashed potatoes and squash.

The difference between these students and my own students was simply amazing. Stunning. Earth-shattering. These kids all sat in the front of the class, and listened. They all wrote "Ms. Joyce's class" across the top of their handout when they got it. They took notes on their own. They understood what I was saying and could ask questions in English. They were so well-trained that all I had to do was begin to point at the flashcard stuck to the board and they all shouted "CRANBERRY SAUCE!!!!" as if their very lives depended on the stuff. Above is a picture of me after class with the Nahanishi dance team (my favorites out of the crowd). They took a liking to me because I told them about my step-sister dancing for Mariah Carey, and they thought it was SUGE!

At the end of the day, they presented the volunteers each with a bouquet of flowers... sniffle. It was a good day. On the ride home I mentally compared my own students to Naha Nishi's and decided that despite their short-comings, I still love my Ginowan kiddies most. For one, they could whoop those Naha Nishi softies' asses any day in a fight, and though they may not know how to study, when offered candy my kids are a LOT faster at crossword puzzles.