[samurai007]

Good story! My students always seemed to know me, the embarrassing thing was when I didn't recognize them! But I rotated between 22 different JTEs/classes at the 2 schools combined, and I was lucky to see the same class twice in a month. It made it hard to really get to know many of the students, though they'd often say hi to me around town, etc.

But I remember 1 girl at the Technical school... she would often seem bored or fall asleep in class. One day my JTE in the class suggested that we try very easy debates... The student and I would go back and forth, 1 sentence at a time, in order to practice listening and reasoning. I thought it might be too hard for the class, but the JTE said let's try. None of the kids wanted to try it, except that 1 girl. The JTE picked the topic "Which makes a better pet, cats or dogs?" and she went right at it, choosing dogs as I recall. Her English was excellent, and she seemed to understand and respond to each point I made. The whole class was shocked and applauded her. After class, the JTE explained that he'd made the assignment knowing she'd volunteer, and that she was very gifted with languages. She had taken part in the finals of an all-Japan English language debate competition. Unfortunately, she was either not as good in other subjects, or just got nervous on tests, and so she'd failed to qualify to attend the Academic school. She tended to sleep in class not because she wasn't interested, but because the level of English there was so far beneath her she got bored.