この偽光: Day 2: To Teach and To Learn (教えると習う）

Yesterday evening, after I finished writing the first blog, I went to the church to observe Murray while he taught a couple English classes for children. These children were in the age range of 6-8 years old, so I’m not quite ready to teach them yet. The English obviously requires more explanation than it would with teens or adults, and my Japanese still isn’t quite at that level. Still, I love watching and participating when I can. Murray introduces me to students old and young as “Ethan-sensei” which I always find amusing.

My role is to introduce myself to the children very slowly in English in very plain terms. “My name is Ethan McGonigal. I am 20 years old. I am from America. From the state of Virginia. I have one younger brother. I have one younger sister. I have a pet dog.” All this is said very deliberately and slowly, of course, as the children grasp to understand as much as they can. Then Murray quizzes the kids on things I said with questions like, “How many siblings does Ethan have?” He also gives them the opportunity to ask me questions in English. Some kids are very shy and won’t say anything, but others are more interactive. There was this one girl who wouldn’t stop grabbing my hand or giving me high-fives. I’ll ask them questions in English too, and if they’re simple enough they can usually respond to a certain degree. The rest of the class consists of Murray quizzing them on their Roman letters, writing words on a whiteboard so that they can be read aloud, or playing games like Simon Says. Most of the kids always seem to be having lots of fun and it’s great to watch them learn little by little. Some funny stuff does happen though. I think my favorite moment was when Murray wrote the word “eat” and one girl blurted out “pineapple!”

Later on we did a class with two boys around the age of thirteen. Murray says I’m more likely to be able to take over that class alone since it’s taught out of a textbook, and doesn’t require as much advanced Japanese as teaching a children’s class. As long as I can follow the textbook I should be okay. I think I can probably handle it. Another class I got to help with on this evening in particular was with a Japanese businessman in his mid-fifties. He is the head of a certain department in his company, and they sent him to take lessons from Murray since they’d like him to do more international travel. This requires better English of course. His English knowledge is actually pretty good for a Japanese, but his pronunciation is stereotypically lacking and he fails to understand a lot of idioms and expressions. Murray teaches him out of a textbook as well, and it would seem he would like me to eventually perhaps take over this class at some point as well. I actually feel quite comfortable with it, because I only need explain advanced English concepts using simple Japanese and simple English, which I can do. He’s a very friendly man who asked me questions about my life, but also enjoyed telling me about his latest business endeavors. It was a lot of fun getting to talk to him, so we’ll see how that whole gig goes in the future.

It’s interesting how even though we’re teaching English classes, you can feel the subtle drive of ministry behind it all. Even the fact that we’re doing them inside the church is a bit influential in and of itself. Just because of that fact that the Japanese have to walk inside a church with religious imagery everywhere must be a bit strange for them in and of itself. The children in these past few classes have been invited to an Easter party on Sunday evening (since the weather was nasty on actual Easter Sunday). We plan to do an Easter egg hunt and then a resurrection message. The Christmas party was apparently quite successful, since Christmas is big here in Japan. But Easter is not—So it looks like the turnout is going to be much lower. Murray asked many children today if they could come, but the response was quite often a very quick “Muri muri muri.” （むりむりむり。） — Basically, “Impossible,” or “I really can’t.” I could see the disappointment in Murray’s face and it was honestly quite disheartening.

Interestingly enough, the older gentlemen we taught’s wife is a Christian—And quite a strong one by what I’ve heard from the Trim’s. He is not, however, so that’s a huge ministry opportunity right there just to be examples and expose him to Christianity. The textbook we use for him is a Christian text with verses, so that’s a start. It would be nice if we could get him to come to church, but many Japanese businessmen don’t since it’s their only day off. For him it’s no exception, it would seem.

There are many cultural barriers here to overcome, and many of them simply do come from the workaholic culture of Japan. Work comes before anything else, church included, and it can be hard to get Japanese to even one service because of it. As stated previously, many just want their mornings off. Some husbands actually forbid their wives from coming because they want one day to be pampered with undivided attention. A sad state of affairs.

Only the Lord can turn us to Christ, as we know. It’s simply our job as the instruments to be good friends and neighbors to the Japanese until they come to us with real interest—I think the Trims have been accomplishing that very well. I hope to do the same.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.