Do I really know my ABCs?

I knew that I had a lot to learn about teaching and kids when I came to Japan. But I foolishly thought that when it came to matters of English, I would be somewhat of an expert. But it’s the little things that get you, and Japan has found a few ways to make me look like I don’t know what I’m doing in English class. Besides just randomly forgetting my own language at times, I’ve had to relearn some pretty basic stuff that has been changed to help my kids learn.

When we first started the alphabet song I found myself in a difficult position. I didn’t know how the song went. This was a bit embarrassing as this is a song I had learned in kindergarten or perhaps younger. But the song had been changed. Everything was the same until we got to the letter L. In the version we all know and love it gets a bit quick with the letters L, M, N, O, and P all sounding like one big mess. It almost sounds like one word “ellemeno” followed by P. Now I’m sure that as a child this was tricky for me to master and that, like most kids, I was skilled in the art of mumbling along during the parts I didn’t really know well. And since it’s rather a mess, they changed it to help my kids learn. Now it’s just 3 letters: L, M, N. These are said slowly on the same beats as L, N, and P in the original. It actually fits the flow of the song better. Of course, this throws the rest of the song off. In the original we have Q, R, S, pause, T, U, V. The Japanese version cuts the pause to fit seven letters O-U. The original ends with W, X, pause, Y and Z. The Japanese version is V, W and X Y Z again cutting out the pause.

And now we get to the fun part. The ending of the version I learned as a child was “Now I know my ABCs; next time won’t you sing with me?” I’ve heard several different versions here. My favorite says “Happy, happy, I’m happy. I am singing ABC.” I like this one because happy is a useful word for the kids to know. The other main version I have heard just repeats the beginning of the alphabet A-G again and the ends with “I can sing my ABCs.” I don’t like that one as much because it sort of makes A-G seem more important than the other letters. And once the kids get to the end, they should be able to stop singing letters and feel accomplished, not have to start all over again. I will admit that once I got it down this version was a TON easier to teach my kids. It just really threw me off when I got here because the alphabet song was not something I had been expecting not to know!

On a related note I read the alphabet no less than 96 times one afternoon while grading alphabet tests. I have never sung that song so much in my life…

Another thing I had to relearn was how to play Rock Paper Scissors. This game is law here, and I had gotten used to playing the Japanese version. But I got the bright idea my first year to teach my little kids how to play in English when I was asked to teach some kids games from America (Heads up, Seven up is a winner every time, as is Duck Duck Goose). But then I had a dilemma. Whenever RPS comes up in America I always had to ask the other person how they play. Do they do “Rock Paper Scissors shoot!” or do they throw on scissors? Do they prefer Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock? You have to be sure its fair and that you’ll be throwing at the same time. I wasn’t sure what version to teach them. Now things are a bit more set because in the fifth grade textbook we have an entire lesson that includes the game in English and it’s on the CD. However, I have never seen RPS played the way we do the English version here in Japan. Not only is the order different from what I normally do (Rock Scissors Paper) but then we count to three for some reason and throw on three.

Now I kinda understand why this was done this way. In Japanese the rhyme for the game is in two parts that kinda fit into three beats each for a total of six beats (sai/sho/ wa gu/ jan/ken/pon). Adding the one, two three at the end gives the English version six beats as well and gives the kids a familiar cadence to associate the game with. Also it reinforces the numbers 1-3 (and numbers are the focus of that lesson). But if the intent was to give the kids a genuine glimpse of American pastimes it slightly misses the mark. If any of my kids ever meet an American child and reach out to them through the wonders of a shared game, they are going to be slightly disappointed because the American kids probably won’t know play that way. However, it might not really be that bad. Since we do have several versions in the US the kid might be able to adapt quickly and the two could have fun together despite all that. Annoyingly, there is now a new song for English janken on TV. It’s on a show called "Eigo de Asobo" or "Let’s Play in English." And their version has them play, “Rock, paper, scissors, go!” I’m not sure if any of my kids watch that show, but if they do I’m worried they might get confused.  But then I suppose we can all just relearn it together.