Job Discussion Forums

[gaijinalways]

Emboldened by a previous interesting, MOD EDIT I was wondering about something I notice with teachers here in Japan (I can only extrapolate about other areas as I have been in Japan the last 13 years). Many of the teachers seem to fall into two camps, those who sometimes court controversy, and those who seem to work hard to avoid any hint of it. What I am specifically talking about is the topics you introduce into your classes.

Of course, sometimes I am working on basic language I think students need to have, but when it comes to additional language, I don't think it always helps to have students be unaware of topics that might crop up when they visit parts of the world. that and just because something is controversial, doesn't mean they should be ignorant of it simply because it might be more difficult to phrase an opinion about it (emotionallly that is).

But also these are often hot topics that though contentious, are being discussed in other places. Of course, some will not seem very controversial for your student (like many questions about religion in Japan, where people are often members of several religions at once).

So what topics are taboo for you as a teacher to have discussed in class?

[Glenski]

Pretty much everything when I'm dealing with any undergraduates, since they can't handle the vocabulary. Even many grad students can't.

Ex.
First-year student asked me what the verb "cause" meant. Uh, you're a science student and don't know that...?

[Ariadne]

I'm in China and some topics are strongly discouraged, like Taiwan and Tibet and religion. I'm personally very interested in the huge influence that parents have on their college age children here so I often bring up subjects that relate to that, like marriage and choosing a major. The kids giggle if I even suggest that they might have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, so I don't think we'll be talking about sex anytime soon. They don't seem to read much news so it can be tricky talking about current events. As someone else mentioned, the students often don't have enough vocabulary to really discuss some issues and it can be easy to have misunderstandings.

.

[mozzar]

I've been thinking about this as well. From what I remember of my psychology A level, controversy can help students learn as it's more emotional and will help them retain the information better. I don't consider any topics to be taboo as long as they're discussed in a sensible fashion. I never set out with contentious issues in mind but in the last few weeks classes have somehow diverged into such topics as peadophilia and incest.

I tend to use it as an opportunity to show appropriate language to use for sensitive contexts. This only really becomes discussed with intermediate+ students.

[denise]

Controversial topics in the Gulf??? Stay away!!! No discussion of religion, relationships/dating, sex... only very limited discussion of anything political... best to stick to safe things like family, hometowns, how wonderful life in the Gulf is, etc.

And I haven't played music in my classroom in three years now.

d

[ntropy]

God I miss being able to use music in the classroom.

[tommchone]

In China, I am contractually forbidden to discuss government and religion. The students can, but I can't; and, of course, even they have to be careful what they say about the Chinese government.

[gaijinalways]

Vocabulary is a problem sometimes, yet I still have students ask amusing questions. I was covering some Japlish (Japanese-English) examples last week, and we were covering the phrase 'play catch'. Now for the usual meaning, Japanese often say "play catch-ball".

I also included the meaning that Japanese think "play catch" means, which means 'to go girl hunting/pick up girls'. I taught them these phrases after asking if the students knew the equivalent Japanese phrase for the previous. So after that was cleared up, one honey asked me, " Teacher, did you ever do any girl hunting here in Japan?" Of course I smartly answered, " Not (yet) at this university". (she knows I'm married).

I have also taught with this thread.

http://www.volconvo.com/forums/politics-government/22021-bombing-hiroshima-nagasaki-act-terrorism.html

http://www.volconvo.com/forums/

This of course is with an intermediate level seminar class. We were debating about Terrorism, this was used as an initial opening thread.

I don't try to scare my students away, but I'm not afraid to open up cans of worms.

I also use music in class, I like to listen to punk, rock, whatever. Sometimes I use stuff that's easier to pick up the lyrics from, other times I play what I like while they're doing non-speaking exercises or during the breaks between classes (we've talked about music as a topic in all these classes, genres, instruments, etc..).

We don't talk about religion generally as religion is not a 'hot' topic in Japan as most Japanese have very flexible ideas of what religions are. As to government, one of my students is doing a presentation on the current Prime Minister, don't expect to hear anything controversial, but I do hear dissenting voices, especially when we talk about MEXT (The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology), which controls a lot of what goes on in all schools in Japan.

My students have heard plenty of 'interesting' language, I just try to make sure they understand what some of it means .

PS in the opening post, the mod edit went after 'th3read', not sure why that would be edited?!

[gaijinalways]

Wow, scared everyone off ?

I know, my students are afraid usually to discuss their dating habits too. But,　you can get students to open up, it just might not always be what you expect. A simple questions such as "What kind of job would you like to do in the future?" brought this one response;

I want to be a police officer. My father was a police oficer and killed by the Yakuza when I was 10. He told me that some people have to protect society from bad people, so I want to do this work too.


Scared me !


I also had a student on one of my class blogs in my Business English class start carrying on about N. Korea. I told him we would discuss politics in class (as I feel government is of course a major influence in business), but it should be brought up when appropriate (the question thread that he introduced it in, it really had no bearing, so I later deleted it).

Everyone still also avoiding their students at their school festivals (granted you can eat only so much festival food) and or local coffee shops?

[natsume]

[gaijinalways]

[Chris_Crossley]

[Deicide]

[denise]

[Deicide]