WHEN Evonie Blake Lee moved to Japan from Jamaica to teach English, she was surprised that many of her students were reserved and had limited knowledge about life outside the “land of the rising sun”.

A passionate educator who believes in transforming lives beyond the standard lessons taught inside the classroom, she said she has helped to change this reality for her students, building their confidence and making them citizens of the world.

“I remember going into the classroom for the first time, and I just had these eyes staring at me with no reaction. You ask a question, and you tell them, ‘Come on, raise your hand,’ and nobody wants to answer, nobody wants to stand out,” she told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

Blake Lee said this was a major culture shock for her because, in Jamaica, students are more outspoken and willingly participate.

“In Japan, there is this culture of community. It’s not about the individual, it’s about the group. In the classroom, you won’t find students wanting to stand out. If everybody’s quiet, they’re just going to be quiet. You won’t find where students want to just share their opinion because it shouldn’t just be one person’s opinion, it’s everybody’s opinion and everybody’s on the same page,” she explained.

“Once I understood the culture, I could plan specifically, so I ensured that they realised this classroom is not Japan, this is our classroom. I allowed them to feel as if it’s okay to have different opinions, it’s okay not to be right all the time, and it’s totally fine to make mistakes.

“In establishing that, then, over time, I worked on building their confidence to the point where they wanted to participate; they wanted to share their opinions,” Blake Lee said.

An English language and literature teacher in Japan, she said she’s learned that the job of an educator is not just to stand in front of a classroom and follow a syllabus.

So, having observed that her students were in a bubble of their own but showed interest in learning more, she said she got to work.

“As an educator, I want to focus on not just making them perfect Japanese students who will stay here in Japan, I want to open up their eyes to the world. I want to give them a wider viewpoint so they know that, ‘Yeah, you can be a patriotic Japanese person, but there’s nothing wrong [with] learning about different cultures’.”

“There’s nothing wrong in travelling and widening your world view, because, yes, you live in Japan, but we live in the world, and we’re citizens of the world, so try not to be so cut off from the rest of the world, and that’s really my focus — getting them to share their viewpoints on issues that are happening not just in Japan, but issues happening in Jamaica.

“I’ve seen it truly impact the way they see the world, and they develop that level of curiosity and critical thinking, so that’s why I say it is more than just teaching English and literature, it is letting them realise that we’re looking at these subjects and having these discussions for a greater impact because we’re world citizens,” she explained to the Sunday Observer.

Blake Lee shared that, during her sessions, she often asks students about global current events, which they now openly discuss. However, she said it is her role as an unofficial ambassador for Jamaica that she most enjoys, as she shares aspects of her culture with her students.

“They want to know what language is spoken in Jamaica, and they want to know about Creole, about Patois, and they want me to teach them how you say ‘hello’… [and] ‘goodbye’. Sometimes I’ll be walking around after classes, I’m probably walking the corridor, and then I hear a group of my boys saying, ‘Evonie, wah gwaan?’ and it just brings me joy,” she said laughing.

Blake Lee shared that she began her journey as an English teacher in 2009 in Jamaica. After nine years in the Jamaican classroom, she felt an intense call to do more and fulfil her lifelong dream of living in a different country.

The educator said that she felt called to Japan, recounting a childhood memory that cemented the country as one of her must-visit destinations.

“I had an aunt who visited Japan for a couple of months, and when she came back, she spoke gloriously about Japan. She said if ever there were a perfect place, it would be Japan, and that stuck with me. I remember she brought back some souvenirs and I had a map of Japan. It’s still in our living room back home in Jamaica.

“I thought about it and I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ve heard about Japan, the culture just seemed very interesting.’ I wanted to learn more about it and just the thought of learning Japanese, to me it was a challenge that I wanted to take on. It just seemed really exciting. I figure that if I lived in Japan, it would definitely add a new layer to my life,” she recounted to the Sunday Observer.

When she shared the dream with her then fiancé, now husband, Blake Lee said he was supportive, stating that wherever she was, is where he wanted to be.

They bypassed the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme due to the lengthy wait time, searched online for a few jobs in Japan, and submitted the necessary documents. Before they knew it, they were on a one-way flight to Japan.

“We gave everything up, and we came here. I will not say it was an easy transition, because leaving your job, leaving everything behind, and saying goodbye to family, was difficult. But there was this kind of hopefulness; there’s this optimism that I’m going to step into something greater,” said Blake Lee.

When she landed in Japan, every day was filled with new experiences and challenges navigating a foreign city. However, she met some of the more than 1,000 Jamaicans living in Japan and found community.

“Just being able to communicate in our mother tongue, Patois, was so freeing, and then on top of that, when we talked about your experiences, it made me realise that my experience or the struggles that I’ve faced were not unique, so I felt better about myself and better about my own journey because I realised I’m not in this alone,” she said.

“I remember meeting up and playing Jamaican music and cooking Jamaican food. I remember the first time I didn’t even know that I could cook Jamaican food here, because when I went to the supermarket I didn’t know what to buy, and so when we met up, and we’re like, ‘So I can eat jerk chicken here and I can find ways to get some ackee,’ then I’m like it’s really possible,” she added.

While her initial plan was to spend a year in Japan, Blake Lee told the Sunday Observer that she fell in love with the people and culture of the island and cannot see herself leaving any time soon.

In a message to other educators seeking to pursue a similar path, she reminded them that the job is more than teaching a subject, but making an impact on the students’ lives.

“I believe that as educators, if we can find joy in what we do, then it allows us to go above and beyond where we start to not just see the subject, the students, the exams, but we see the full picture — which is we’re educators. It’s more than just the subject. It’s about moulding lives. It’s more than just where students are now, it’s about where they will be in the future and the contribution that they make,” she said.

Evonie Blake Lee interacting with some of her students after one of her classes in Japan.

Evonie Blake Lee (right), who left Jamaica for Japan after nine years as an educator in the local school system, makes a point to one of her students in the ‘land of the rising sun’.