The lower level classes at the school where I work seem to get lower every year. Today being the day before the Golden Week holidays didn’t help much.

After a ho-hum year of classes last year that even I felt were boring I’ve decided to add more games to my classes to add some competition and some fun. The problem, and this is why I stopped doing games years ago, is that lower level classes often require explanations that are longer than the games and I can only simplify my language so much before using Japanese, which I won’t do in class.

Today I thought I had the perfect game: it was based on something in the textbook and it only required the students to copy numbers printed in the textbook and show them to me. I would then state how many they had correct and send them off to make changes. (It was, in essence, a simpler form of Mastermind.)

However, after having it work in two other classes, albeit both higher level, I was surprised when no one in the class understood what I wanted them to do. Usually one student gets it and educates the others. This time I explained it four times and no one moved. I got a couple uncomfortable snickers but no one even bothered to pick up a pencil. (Note: that’s not an exaggeration; every student sat as if he was frozen in place.)

Also keep in mind that this is the kind of class that prefers to complain that they don’t understand what I’m saying when I talk rather than actually listening to what I’m saying. They are the kind of class that answers “How are you?” when I ask “How are you?” despite them having had at least a year of English.

I abandoned the game and told them to practice a conversation. I also assured them there would be no games in the class.

If they don’t want any fun, I promise I won’t give them anything fun to do.