| |
Recently I went to Tokyo for an annual English Teachers in Japan Expo and Book Fair. At this event lots of fellow teachers gather to listen to presentations, meet publishers’ reps and try and snaffle some free samples of new textbooks. My wife and I primarily go for the last of these reasons. I haven’t actually done any networking or much in the way of getting to know my peers at these events, because, well, they all rather look like the people I pray to God I am not – you know, the sort of people you’d expect to still be teaching English in Japan well into middle age. There are far too many chinos and backpack combinations for my liking.
I arrived early and did the rounds of the publishers’ booths, arranging for as many free samples of books as they would allow to be sent to me. At previous conferences I have tried to act the professional and attended a few presentations. On occasion they have been quite informative and educational, but the problem is that the presenters always seem to want a bit of audience participation to show how their book or materials work in the classroom. Last year I recall that in one crowded presentation we had to turn to the person next to us and read a paragraph in the manner described by the presenter. Hence he would say, “Softly,” and we had to read it softly, “Angrily!” and we would change mid-sentence to read it in that manner. I was ever so grateful that I had my wife next to me as it was somewhat discomfiting to see pairs of grown men, who had only just met, reading passages “romantically” to each other.
And that’s the major issue I have with these presentations – the fear of being asked to participate in an activity, or, worse still, a song! In fact, at the book fair, I was considering going to a presentation about some children’s readers I am thinking of buying, but when I spoke with the rep about them, she said, “And I know you will just love the songs!” Oh, how she misjudged me! Because, through traumatic experience, I have discovered that it is necessary to avoid like the plague any presentation which claims to help you, “Liven up your kids’ classes” or “Energise your lessons with songs and chants” and such like. Disregard this advice and you may well enter a room only to find yourself ten minutes later forming part of a human circle and being the unwilling participant in the hokey cokey with a group of bald-headed forty-year-old men you have never met before.
| |
