BOSS
I know a 16-going-on-17-year-old Grade 11 Japanese high school girl named Narumi. She attends a special high school for science and technology in Tokyo. She and her classmates are all very bright people aiming for careers in science, industry, academia and professions like medicine. Because of the nature of the school and the nature of gender in society, only a little more than 10% of the student body is female. It’s obvious at a glance that the boys far outnumber the girls. 10% is a common figure for women in Japanese business, corporate offices, academia, professions and politics. I see the numbers that I’ve read about in the news reflected in my classes - classes of 36 students with only four, five, or six girls.
I’ve taught Narumi for a couple of years. Her English is very good and her personality is confident, outgoing and demonstrative. Plus, she’s cute. I quickly noticed when I first met her in Grade 10 that she was a Boy Magnet, or flypaper. When the Japanese teacher and I walk into class, she was surrounded by a cluster of boys. They took their seats, we taught for one hour, had a ten-minute break, and returned for one more hour of English. When the break started I noticed that the same boys immediately flocked to her and stayed close by until the lesson resumed. Interesting. I wondered what the other girls thought of this, or if they thought anything at all about it. But I didn’t know who, or how to ask, or even if I should. So, I let it go. As a teacher I am a professional observer of young people.
That was last year. This year I see less of her. I still teach her class once a week, but only for a single 1-hour class, not a double like in Grade 10. At this particular school, the Grade 11 programme emphasizes English presentation skills, to familiarize the students with presenting various topics in English, using computer media. The students spend a lot of time working in groups and preparing Power Point presentations. I proofread and correct their texts as quickly and best I can, and I make suggestions about photographs, illustrations, fonts and colors that can be used. Since I have to listen to their presentations and look at their Power Point slides, I want them to be as entertaining as possible. Otherwise the experience can be brain-numbingly dull and tedious. When they are working in groups on their computers I patrol the room observing their typing, checking their English, spelling, watching for typos, etc. I try to help tweak the spelling or grammar, but it’s important that their presentations look and sound like they were done by Japanese teenagers, not by a middle-aged English-speaking Canadian man.
When the time comes to make their presentations before the class, the Japanese English teacher and I together evaluate them, plus I have to think up questions tailored to each presentation and judge their answers. All of this is a huge amount of work that is ongoing throughout their school year, and they don’t enjoy it much. They prepare and deliver at least two of these presentations per year. Even three times, if there is time.
Recently, Narumi and her group (all boys) were working on a presentation about Japanese Traditions. I observed them periodically as I patrolled the room looking at other groups working on other presentation topics. I noticed that Narumi was the only one typing on a computer, and all ‘her’ boys were lounging in chairs around her. Narumi was typing the script. Narumi was choosing the pictures. Narumi was pasting and saving. Narumi was talking and laughing.
I noticed on the first slide of the Power Point show she had written the full names of everyone in her group under a title. I like that. A mundane detail like that is commonly overlooked, but it’s important. But instead of writing her own name she had just typed “BOSS” in full caps. The boys seemed to like that. “She’s BOSS,” they said, grinning.
Yep, that’s about the size of it.