The language barrier has probably been one of the hardest parts of living in Japan.
My Japanese is very limited, so everyday tasks sometimes require a surprising amount of effort. Reading a yogurt container, figuring out a restaurant menu, understanding a sign, or trying to work out what someone is asking me can become its own little puzzle.
By the end of some days, I’m genuinely tired from it.
It has given me a small glimpse into something I want to remember as a teacher. I obviously don’t want to pretend that spending a few months in Japan is the same experience as being an English language learner in a Canadian school, but it has helped me understand just how exhausting it can be to function all day in a language you don’t fully understand.
A student can be thinking incredibly hard even when very little is visible from the outside.
That is something I want to carry into my teaching. If a multilingual learner seems quiet, confused, or slow to respond, I don’t want my first assumption to be that they aren’t trying. Sometimes simply understanding what is happening around you is already taking an enormous amount of energy.