Twice in the last week I have been tactfully corrected on the gender of my students. There was never a question in my mind that two my Zamami fifth-graders were girls. One has long hair and a feminine voice, the other only hangs out with the girls and has a hermaphroditic name and haircut.
I have been living on Zamami for over three months! I was so blown away to find out about the first mistake (from a teacher) that I started analyzing other students. I came up with a fourth grader that looks boyish but dresses with a lot of pink (I still don't know..). But I wrote an email to my predecessor a few days ago detailing my problems with one of the fifth graders and I consistently referred to that student as 'she.' He wrote back with the correction and right now I am sitting here in shock.
It would be like learning all the numbers as a child and then at age 8 somebody telling you that you're one off. How do you look at the numbers again without feeling betrayed - and how long does it take to relearn? At the end of last week I was still unable to see the masculine traits in my first mistake.
How many other students am I wrong about?
3 comments:
Not that being referred to by the wrong gender pronoun was bad enough, but now you are calling them your "mistakes"? That can't possibly go over well either.
fortunately 'mistake' is hermaphroditic.
i thought part of the intent of teaching in Japan was that you wanted to strip down some of your american-imposed cultural norms? shame on you for assuming only girls have long hair and wear pink!
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