THE Jamaican young people jetting off to Japan to be assistant language teachers this year have ambitious expectations.

Aside from the thrill of experiencing an entirely different culture, they plan to use the experience to elevate the standards of the local education system to meet that of first world countries like Japan.

At least that’s what some of them told the Sunday Observer last Tuesday evening at the farewell dinner held in their honour at the Seaview Avenue residence of ambassador Masahiro Obata.

Tamara Graham, a trained early childhood teacher, will be going to the city of Matsuyama to teach in an elementary school. Like her colleagues Damion Spencer, who heads the language and literary department at Moneague Primary and Junior High, and Suen Rowe, a teacher of 11 years, Tamara intends to take best practices back to the classroom.

And although she is not a teacher, former Observer reporter Kerry-Kay McCatty has no doubt that the experience will enrich her world view through cultural exposure and second language acquisition.

“I want to be proficient in Japanese before I leave and I think I can achieve that in two years. I don’t plan to stay longer because there are other things I want to do with my life like going back to grad school and then starting my profession,” said Kerry, who is headed to a senior high school in Kikuchi city.

For Graham, however, who feels that her calling is to teach, there is more emphasis on the pedagogical benefits of the trip.

“I expect to go there and learn from them because I admire their discipline and their structure and the way they have it down to a science,” she said.

“We (in Jamaica) don’t foster learning and independent thinking. Don’t get me wrong, I think our children are brilliant but they are forced into underachieving. The system stifles their ingenuity with this focus on rote learning. Rote is important but they must also know how to think. Ask any teacher now and they’ll tell you that children don’t know how to think. They can tell you anything out of the book but they can’t deviate,” an obviously passionate Graham continued.

Pointing out that part of their curriculum centred on solving technological problems, she added that it wasn’t that Asians were naturally gifted as opposed to Jamaicans, but that their teaching methods were conducive to independent thinking.

“Here, if the child pulls up the radio we tell him to leave it and say he’s rude,” she added.

As for Spencer, one of the three selected males in this year’s group of jetsetters: “Japan has become a world power in terms of education and technology and we cannot ignore that…and part of why I’m going is to seek out best practises for Jamaica.”

Notwithstanding the professional value of the experience to teachers and to the teaching profession, Suen Rowe, who has been in the classroom for 11 years, the time has come for her to see the world.

“When my experiences are rich, I will have so much more to share with my students,” she said.

Graham, Spencer, McCatty, Rowe and their peers leave for Japan on July 25. When the 18 new arrivals land on July 27, they will bring the number of Jamaicans currently living in Japan to just over 50.

Jamaica was the first Caribbean country to adopt the Japan Exchange and Teaching programme back in 2000. Since then, a total of 138 Jamaicans, including this year’s group, have participated.