いいねぇ～ 。。。 しかしこれはなんとなくいつか何処かで見たような。。。
ちょうど１０年前、大学院のクラスの教え子たちが、そのクラスのひとりが誕生日だったので、授業内（というか厳密には授業が終わったタイミングで教室内）で
ハッピーバースデー to ◯◯！
と歌ったので、
今回、怒りを覚えなかったのは、その歌を歌っていたのがうちのゼミ生ではなかったからだ。ゼミ生があんなふうに歌っていたら、また１０年の時を経て再びブチ切れたか、あるいはもう歳なので、笑って済ませたかは自分でもよくわからない。
--
Do you have shame?
(E-mail addressed to the class of 外国語教授方法論 2005) July 2, 2005
Dear all,
In case you don't know, I am quite tolerant of my students irrespective of their abilities as long as I see them making due efforts. However, it blows my mind to see someone in the teaching profession behaving substandardly.
What I cannot tolerate is that many of you are not even TRYING to improve your English. If I mention "th" or "r" and if you are UNABLE to produce those sounds even when you are being careful, that will not infuriate me, though it is a problem. But if you do not produce "th"s or "r"s, which you are ABLE to produce when you pay due attention, you are just being lazy and negligent of your professional responsibilities. That's what angers me.
Seriously, you should be ashamed of that "HUppy BARSday" song, if you are seriously considering becoming an English teacher. Don't even try to make an excuse by saying that you were deliberately singing in katakana, or were just trying to have some fun in class.
If one needs to choose between two teachers, one who reads English properly but only does grammar translation, and the other who speaks katakana-English but tries some fancy teaching methods based on some pedantic SLA theories, the first one will be the less evil.
I am happy, and sad, to tell you that many of the undergraduate students in my English class can and will speak English much more like English than many of you. If you think it's a problem, now is the time to get serious. If not, don't bother; but please do not harm your prospective students by becoming a teacher.
You are in a vicious circle: katakana teachers produce katakana students, some of whom, like you, become katakana teachers themselves. Thus, the system perpetuates itself... but should it?
