鼓勵多語種交流的日本國際學校

The pupils were chatting away but neither of the two teachers had to raise their voice. Anyone who has had to sit through the tedium of classes in Japan, where normally you can hear a pin drop, would have felt green with envy.

學生們在聊天，但兩位老師都沒有干涉。只要是領教過日本靜得掉根針都能聽得到的沉悶課堂的人，都會對這樣的景象感到無比嫉妒。

“That doesn’t look right. How about changing this word?” one pupil says to a classmate in English. “Why don’t we make the photos bigger for the presentation?” says another in Japanese.

一個同學用英語對另一個同學說：“這看起來不對。把這個詞換掉怎么樣?”另一個同學用日語說：“要不把這些圖片放大一些，方便演示?”

The nine to 11-year-olds were collaborating while switching between English and Japanese — an everyday scene at the New International School of Japan in Tokyo. “If you visit any other international school, some have signs saying ‘Speak English’,” says Steven Parr, the headmaster. “Language-use rules are very common. Usually they say ‘speak Japanese only in the Japanese class and speak English everywhere else’.”

這些9歲到11歲的孩子們夾雜著日語和英語進行協(xié)作，這是日本東京New International School of Japan的日常景象。校長史蒂文•帕爾(Steven Parr)表示：“如果你去其他國際學校參觀，你會發(fā)現有些學校會貼出‘說英語’的告示。規(guī)定學生可以使用何種語言是很常見的。通常他們會要求‘只有在日語課上才能講日語，其他時候都要講英語’。”

Instead, his school, where 70 per cent of students are from mixed nationality or foreign families, encourages translanguaging: using more than one language at the same time. “Language is a tool for expression,” says Mr Parr. “The kids can think, speak and do research in any language.” Sending children to international schools is popular with Japanese parents who can afford to give their offspring an edge associated with knowing English.

在帕爾的學校里則不是這樣，70%的學生來自異國結婚的家庭或外國家庭，學校鼓勵跨語言化：同時使用一種以上的語言。帕爾說：“語言是表達的工具。孩子們可以用任何語言思考、表達和研究問題。”會英語能夠帶來一種優(yōu)勢，在有能力讓自己的孩子具備這一優(yōu)勢的父母中，將孩子送到國際學校是非常流行的做法。

Japan has a low level of English proficiency and is ranked 59th of 63 countries for language skills by IMD, the Swiss business school. The number of students at English-language international schools reached 12,452 this year, up 27 per cent from five years ago.

日本人的英語水平較低。在瑞士洛桑國際管理發(fā)展學院(IMD)編制的63個國家語言技能排行榜中，日本排名第59位。英語國際學校的學生人數今年達到12452人，較五年前增加了27%。

Yet as more parents realise that just speaking English is not enough in an increasingly globalised world, so the appeal grows of a comprehensive, multi-cultural approach to education such as that offered by New International, which charges four times as much as Japanese private schools. Says Akihiro Nojiri, a senior manager at a consultancy, whose six-year old son is at New International: “We came to think that truly international talent must be proficient in their mother tongue and in English, as well as having a deep understanding of multiple cultures.”

然而，隨著越來越多的家長意識到，在一個日益全球化的世界中，只講英語是不夠的，所以像New International提供的那種全面而多種文化的教育方式日益受到青睞，New International的收費是日本私立學校的4倍。咨詢公司高級經理Akihiro Nojiri說：“我們逐漸認識到，真正的國際化人才必須母語和英語同樣熟練，而且要對多種文化有深刻理解。”

The school, founded in 2001 by Mr Parr, who was keen to try new teaching methods after working at another international school in Japan, takes students from kindergarten to the end of secondary school. It receives applications for its summer-school from China, Singapore and the US. New International is also in line with the Japanese government’s policy goal of nurturing “global talent” as the country comes to grips with the limitations of an ageing, shrinking population and the need to look overseas for future growth.

帕爾在日本的另一所國際學校工作后渴望嘗試新的教學方法，于是在2001年創(chuàng)立了New International，招收從幼兒園到中學的學生。它的暑期學校接受來自中國、新加坡和美國的申請。New International也符合日本政府培養(yǎng)“全球人才”的政策目標——日本正在努力應對人口日益老齡化和縮減帶來的局限性，以及向海外尋求未來增長的需求。

Ironically, by sending children to schools like New International, parents technically break Japan’s education law, which obliges parents to send their offspring to regular “Article 1” Japanese schools. Japanese parents with children in international schools are often called by education boards, which ask why their child is not at a Japanese school.

具有諷刺意味的是，父母們把孩子送到New International這樣的學校，嚴格來說違反了日本的教育法，后者要求家長把孩子送到《第一條》(Article 1)規(guī)定的日本普通學校。把孩子送到國際學校里的日本父母往往接到教育委員會的電話，問他們的孩子為什么沒在日本學校里就讀。

One such couple are Mizuki Hirai and his wife Ayumi, whose children aged 10 and seven are at New International.

Mizuki Hirai及其妻子Ayumi就是這樣的一對夫婦，他們的兩個孩子(分別為10歲和7歲)就讀于New International。

Ms Hirai says: “It’s not that I am against sending kids to Article 1 schools. Even if some people think I am not providing my children with compulsory education, I’m confident that it’s a quality education.” Her husband agrees. “Our eldest had a South Korean friend who could speak Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese,” he says. “We had hoped he would develop his English but he was so inspired by his friend that he learnt Korean. It’s not what we had in mind, but it is international nonetheless.”

Ayumi表示：“不是我反對把孩子們送到《第一條》規(guī)定的學校。即使有人認為我沒有為孩子們提供義務教育，我仍然確信他們在接受的是優(yōu)質教育。”她的丈夫對此表示同意，他說：“我們的大兒子有一位會講日語、英語、韓語和中文的韓國朋友。我們本來希望他會提高英語水平，但是他受到他的朋友的激勵，學習了韓語。這跟我們設想的不一樣，但它仍然是國際性的。”

New International is keen to emphasise that English is not the be-all and end-all of developing global talent. “Language skills could be important, two or more languages is obviously great,” says Mr Parr. “ I also think social skills, being able to see things from a different point of view [is important].” He says the school’s multi-age learning environment helps hone these skills. Classes include pupils from three grades with the older ones helping the younger ones. Once they move up a year, they return to the bottom rung. The aim is to prepare pupils for careers in which they may have to assume different roles at different times.

New International熱衷于強調，英語并不是開發(fā)全球人才的終極要義。帕爾表示：“語言技能可能很重要，掌握兩種或兩種以上的語言顯然很棒。我認為，社交能力、從不同的角度看待事物的能力也(很重要)。”他說，學校的多年齡學習環(huán)境有助于磨練這些技能。課程包括三個年級的學生，年齡較大的學生幫助年輕的學生。他們一旦升了一年，就會回到最下面一級。這樣做的目的是讓學生為不同時期承擔不同角色的職業(yè)做好準備。

The school also eschews Japan’s much criticised rote-learning in favour of an interdisciplinary approach. Pupils are given a theme at the start of a 12-week term in which they learn various disciplines. If the theme is, say, water, they learn maths by measuring rainfall, alongside Chinese characters related to water. “Japanese schools tend to make you remember one definitive answer and that doesn’t happen at this school,” said Minako Yamamoto, 16, who spent three years at a regular primary school before joining New International. “When you are told to memorise an answer before knowing the joys of learning, that makes you hate studying.”

學校還采用了跨學科學習方法，避開了日本備受批評的填鴨式教學。在為期12周的學期初，會確定一個主題，在一個學期內，學生學習各種不同學科。比如說，如果主題是水，那么他們會通過測量降雨來學習數學，以及學習與水相關的漢字。16歲的Minako Yamamoto在進入New International學習之前在一所普通小學呆了三年，她說：“日本的學校往往讓你背一個明確的答案，而這所學校不會這樣。如果你還沒了解學習的樂趣，就被告知要背一個答案，那會讓你討厭學習。”