YOSHIKAWA, Japan — While most Jamaican students hear Reggae mostly in their homes, in dancehalls or on the radio, the pulsating and often hypnotoic music that distinguishes Jamaica from the rest of the world, is being used in at least one Japanese high school to teach students English.

The teacher, of course, is Jamaican. And, like his more than 36 colleagues now in Japan teaching English, Garcia Chambers’ lectures have a strong Jamaican component.

Chambers is an assistant language teacher, or ATL, at the Matsudo Kokusai High School located in the Chiba Prefecture, just outside the Japanese capital, Tokyo.

The school’s principal, Seiju Aihara, told the Observer that the institution was an international high school and was blessed, not only with resources, but with four ALTs, who have been assigned to the facility.

Chambers’ creativity has been encouraging more students at the senior high school to study English.

For example, Chambers, who has 14 English Language classes each week, on Wednesday afternoon conducted two sessions using various teaching aids to encourage the Japanese students to participate.

In the first session, he used five clips from the Walt Disney movie Cool Runnings — based on the true story of the Jamaican bobsled team to the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Students, who all had individual monitors and headsets, were required to fill in missing words on a script given to them while sections of the movie were being shown.

They then were expected to discuss the theme in the movie — Determination and Accomplishment; Humour; Disappointment; Pride and Joy; and Struggle.

In the second class, with a new set of students, the youngsters were taught words and phrases and were then expected to indicate the important points and read the passage by themselves.

Chambers also uses Reggae music as a teaching aid in his language classes.

He came to Japan last year on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme, under which participants are not only required to teach English Language in Japanese schools, but through which Japanese students can learn more about other cultures, including Jamaica’s.

A native of the western parish of Trelawny in Jamaica, Chambers credited his success to the years he spent in the Jamaican classroom at Alpha Academy in Kingston, where he taught sociology.

He holds a Masters Degree in Politics from the University of the West Indies, Mona.

“Students want to speak English… and the idea is to get the students at a certain comfort level… and they are having fun,” he told the Observer.

He noted, however, that unlike some other ALTs who have to travel to various schools for classes, his situation is more ideal as he only goes to Matsudo. This, he said, allowed him to spend more time with the same students.

His workday starts at 8:15 am and ends at 4:15 pm.

“There are different aspects… listening, speaking, writing and grammar, but more emphasis is placed on oral communication,” said Chambers.

On Wednesday, 30 enthusiastic Japanese students, including one boy, stood up in class and confidently recited, in English, a short passage that was taught to them an hour earlier.

Most pronounced the words correctly and were happy to be learning a new language.

Chambers explained that emphasis was also placed on sharing different aspects of the Jamaican culture, which encouraged students to want to learn.

“(In Japan) it is a different world, but it is highly rewarding and fulfilling,” he said, noting that boredom can seep in so he has to come up with new ideas to make the classes interesting.

The students spoke highly of Chambers and the way he conducted his classes.

Matthew Lewis, an 18 year-old student from Australia, said he taught very well. “He is very good and very helpful.”

Midori Masaka, said she found English to be difficult, but said she was having fun learning to speak the language.

“It’s fun, enjoyable… and I now have a better English ability through this programme,” added Ena Sonoda.

For Yumika Iwata, a second year student: “Mr Garcia’s class is very enjoyable. We can never be tired of it.”

Rina Kurihara, also a second year student, said she found the English classes to be unique and enjoyable.

Kaori Sunagawa’s only comment on the English classes was “His (Chambers) smile is the best.”

Meanwhile, Midori Karauch, a language teacher at Matsudo who shares six classes each week with Chambers, remarked that his “energetic style” had motivated the students.

“I think he uses some type of magic,” she quipped.”

Her sentiments were echoed by vice-principal Yoshimitsu Tanizawa; and teachers Kazumasa Komatsu, Hiroyuki Takenaka and Akimoto Komito.

The school’s principal, Seiju Aihara, was proud of the knowledge students were gaining about other cultures from the assistant language teachers and expressed the need to get more foreign teachers to his school, including some from neighbouring South Korea.

Of the other language teachers at the school, two are from the United States and the other from France.

Twenty-five foreign students attend the school, which has 920 students, 70 per cent of whom are girls.

But while Chambers has been doing well at the Matsudo Kokusai High School, a spokesman at the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (Clair), the agency which administers the JET programme, believes enough is not known about Jamaica by the Japanese people.

“There is little knowledge about Jamaica and little known,” said Takairo Inoue, assistant manager for the implementation division of the JET programme at Clair. He noted that some Japanese believe Jamaica is a Spanish-speaking country, and invited more Jamaicans to apply to participate in the JET programme.

“They (Jamaicans) are excellent. Talented. And the Japanese Government values them highly,” said Inoue.

The JET programme is now in its 17th year, but Jamaica was only invited in 2000 to start sending participants.

Thirty-nine have joined the programme to date, including 16 who came to Japan earlier this year, according to Inoue.

He said JET, which started with 600 participants, now has 6,300 from 41 countries.

Almost 300 are accepted each year, he said.

Participants are usually contracted for a year, with the possibility of securing two-year contracts.

JET participants also participate in various school activities as well those in their local communities. Some even conduct English classes with adults in communities.