English Talent Show

While I was in college, I started developing a strange habit. I developed a sense of things I felt a well-rounded person should be able to do, and I forced myself to do those things. As with most things, it started with broccoli. I forced myself to eat it almost every day, and soon began to like it. Then I moved onto other foods I was being picky about, and now I can eat about anything.

Before joining JET, I knew I needed some leadership skills, so I started the Japanese Club. That was a year and a half of fun events with lots of not-so-fun planning. I started realizing that I don't like doing things in front of a group of people, which explains why I hated doing piano recitals when I was younger. It's not that I don't want to do it, I just get really nervous when the time comes.

Yesterday, we had an English Talent Show at Shioya Elementary. This was an idea that a 5th grade teacher had. She approached me at the beginning of the school term last year and said she wanted to do this in the 3rd semester. I agreed and did my normal thing up until the 3rd semester started in January. Since then, I have not been teaching the kids anything new, only getting them ready for this event.

There were three groups: the 1st/2nd graders, the 3rd/4th graders, and the 5/6th graders. The 1st/2nd graders sang some songs and said things like, "Hello. My name is Shuto. I'm 7. Thank you." The 3rd/4th graders did the Hokey Pokey and did longer self-introductions. The 5th/6th graders did a skit and had me drill them on biographical details (When is your birthday? Where are you from? Do you have any brothers and sisters?, etc.).

I remember doing little performances for parents when I was in school, and I never liked doing them (probably that performance anxiety thing). So when I started getting these kids ready for the talent show, I began to wonder, maybe teachers made me do this kind of thing because they enjoyed doing it. Maybe some do, but around the second week of practicing, I discovered that I didn't.

The talent show was last Wednesday. Before it began, I was worried about not being able to squeeze everything into one hour. But like all events that have a director who is awesome enough to have the kids completely ready, everything went smoothly and we finished 10 minutes early.

The only thing that apparently didn't go smooth was me. I had to give a little speech (in Japanese), to the audience after the show was over, and afterwards, all the kids were making fun about my nervousness. I was cool in the head, but in these kinds of situations, my hands and voice shake.

One of the teachers asked me if we do we do lots of talent shows and the presentations in America. I said we do a little, but not nearly as much as the kids do here. These kids are ALWAYS doing some kind of presentation or another. I know when they grow up, they'll be able to talk in front of a group of people with no problem.

I now know why teachers made us do presentations, however infrequently. I am now going to put myself in a position to be in front of a group of people as often as possible. And for the record, I think presenting and teaching are two different skills. I like doing the latter and need to learn to like doing the former.

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Below is a quick Youtube of two 2nd graders giving their self-introduction. I brought my camera with the intention of filming almost everything. But everything went a lot faster than it did in rehearsal, and I completely forgot about it. Sorry.