鼓勵(lì)多語(yǔ)種交流的日本國(guó)際學(xué)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(xué)生們?cè)诹奶?，但兩位老師都沒(méi)有干涉。只要是領(lǐng)教過(guò)日本靜得掉根針都能聽(tīng)得到的沉悶課堂的人，都會(huì)對(duì)這樣的景象感到無(wú)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(gè)同學(xué)用英語(yǔ)對(duì)另一個(gè)同學(xué)說(shuō)：“這看起來(lái)不對(duì)。把這個(gè)詞換掉怎么樣?”另一個(gè)同學(xué)用日語(yǔ)說(shuō)：“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(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)進(jìn)行協(xié)作，這是日本東京New International School of Japan的日常景象。校長(zhǎng)史蒂文•帕爾(Steven Parr)表示：“如果你去其他國(guó)際學(xué)校參觀，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)有些學(xué)校會(huì)貼出‘說(shuō)英語(yǔ)’的告示。規(guī)定學(xué)生可以使用何種語(yǔ)言是很常見(jiàn)的。通常他們會(huì)要求‘只有在日語(yǔ)課上才能講日語(yǔ)，其他時(shí)候都要講英語(yǔ)’。”

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(xué)校里則不是這樣，70%的學(xué)生來(lái)自異國(guó)結(jié)婚的家庭或外國(guó)家庭，學(xué)校鼓勵(lì)跨語(yǔ)言化：同時(shí)使用一種以上的語(yǔ)言。帕爾說(shuō)：“語(yǔ)言是表達(dá)的工具。孩子們可以用任何語(yǔ)言思考、表達(dá)和研究問(wèn)題。”會(huì)英語(yǔ)能夠帶來(lái)一種優(yōu)勢(shì)，在有能力讓自己的孩子具備這一優(yōu)勢(shì)的父母中，將孩子送到國(guó)際學(xué)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(yǔ)水平較低。在瑞士洛桑國(guó)際管理發(fā)展學(xué)院(IMD)編制的63個(gè)國(guó)家語(yǔ)言技能排行榜中，日本排名第59位。英語(yǔ)國(guó)際學(xué)校的學(xué)生人數(shù)今年達(dá)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(lái)越多的家長(zhǎng)意識(shí)到，在一個(gè)日益全球化的世界中，只講英語(yǔ)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(fèi)是日本私立學(xué)校的4倍。咨詢(xún)公司高級(jí)經(jīng)理Akihiro Nojiri說(shuō)：“我們逐漸認(rèn)識(shí)到，真正的國(guó)際化人才必須母語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)同樣熟練，而且要對(duì)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(guó)際學(xué)校工作后渴望嘗試新的教學(xué)方法，于是在2001年創(chuàng)立了New International，招收從幼兒園到中學(xué)的學(xué)生。它的暑期學(xué)校接受來(lái)自中國(guó)、新加坡和美國(guó)的申請(qǐng)。New International也符合日本政府培養(yǎng)“全球人才”的政策目標(biāo)——日本正在努力應(yīng)對(duì)人口日益老齡化和縮減帶來(lái)的局限性，以及向海外尋求未來(lái)增長(zhǎng)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?jìng)儼押⒆铀偷絅ew International這樣的學(xué)校，嚴(yán)格來(lái)說(shuō)違反了日本的教育法，后者要求家長(zhǎng)把孩子送到《第一條》(Article 1)規(guī)定的日本普通學(xué)校。把孩子送到國(guó)際學(xué)校里的日本父母往往接到教育委員會(huì)的電話，問(wèn)他們的孩子為什么沒(méi)在日本學(xué)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(duì)夫婦，他們的兩個(gè)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(duì)把孩子們送到《第一條》規(guī)定的學(xué)校。即使有人認(rèn)為我沒(méi)有為孩子們提供義務(wù)教育，我仍然確信他們?cè)诮邮艿氖莾?yōu)質(zhì)教育。”她的丈夫?qū)Υ吮硎就?，他說(shuō)：“我們的大兒子有一位會(huì)講日語(yǔ)、英語(yǔ)、韓語(yǔ)和中文的韓國(guó)朋友。我們本來(lái)希望他會(huì)提高英語(yǔ)水平，但是他受到他的朋友的激勵(lì)，學(xué)習(xí)了韓語(yǔ)。這跟我們?cè)O(shè)想的不一樣，但它仍然是國(guó)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(qiáng)調(diào)，英語(yǔ)并不是開(kāi)發(fā)全球人才的終極要義。帕爾表示：“語(yǔ)言技能可能很重要，掌握兩種或兩種以上的語(yǔ)言顯然很棒。我認(rèn)為，社交能力、從不同的角度看待事物的能力也(很重要)。”他說(shuō)，學(xué)校的多年齡學(xué)習(xí)環(huán)境有助于磨練這些技能。課程包括三個(gè)年級(jí)的學(xué)生，年齡較大的學(xué)生幫助年輕的學(xué)生。他們一旦升了一年，就會(huì)回到最下面一級(jí)。這樣做的目的是讓學(xué)生為不同時(shí)期承擔(dān)不同角色的職業(yè)做好準(zhǔn)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(xué)校還采用了跨學(xué)科學(xué)習(xí)方法，避開(kāi)了日本備受批評(píng)的填鴨式教學(xué)。在為期12周的學(xué)期初，會(huì)確定一個(gè)主題，在一個(gè)學(xué)期內(nèi)，學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)各種不同學(xué)科。比如說(shuō)，如果主題是水，那么他們會(huì)通過(guò)測(cè)量降雨來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)數(shù)學(xué)，以及學(xué)習(xí)與水相關(guān)的漢字。16歲的Minako Yamamoto在進(jìn)入New International學(xué)習(xí)之前在一所普通小學(xué)呆了三年，她說(shuō)：“日本的學(xué)校往往讓你背一個(gè)明確的答案，而這所學(xué)校不會(huì)這樣。如果你還沒(méi)了解學(xué)習(xí)的樂(lè)趣，就被告知要背一個(gè)答案，那會(huì)讓你討厭學(xué)習(xí)。”