Talking Earthquakes & Fission in Japan

This would be one of the more unusual presentations I have every given. It was to Japanese students learning English, and it was with my daughter and a class she works with as a JET in Sapporo in Japan. The brief was - as you can see - Nuclear Power, earthquakes, New Zealand and Japan. Managed to weave into this a YouTube clip with the All Blacks haka before they played Japan....

There is a tall poppy thing that goes on in the classroom. No matter how hard you try it's quite hard to get a student to say anything - or even ask anything - though one student did ask me what my hobbies were and how old I was. My daughter had encouraged me to bring some chocolate rewards. In fact I found some chocolate coins wrapped in All Black silver paper from the Warehouse. Very popular.

This is a little extract from my presentation. After explaining nuclear power (and that our very own Sir Ernest Rutherford was the first to split the atom), my job was to explain that water cooling is a critical part of a nuclear power station, and that when tsunami knock that out, you rapidly go into a nuclear melt-down. It was interesting. Believe me... And afterwards the students wrote their reactions - in English - and I thought you would enjoy them as much as I did: - I could know how to make power from an atom. Also, I could know about New Zealand and Auckland! I want to go there someday! - Tatsuki Eto - When I heard that Scarlet's father comes, I didn't expect what kind of father comes. In this class, he teached us very simply, so we understood easily. I didn't know that he was a teacher, so I didn't know why a ordinary father knew a lot of things about scients. I enjoyed very much! - The video of athletes dancing a strange dance was very interesting. I could learn about nuclear energy - Yusuke Sawada. - This class was interesting for me. The pictures of Scarlet were cool. I was suprised at height of nuclear power plant. I guess it was difficult to cool down its reactor because it was too big. New Zealand is nice country because they use clean energy. We have to learn from New Zealand but it is difficult for us to clean energy because our population is too large. - Thank you for speeching. I didn't know about system of nuclear power plant well honestly, but I could understand it very much. I wish I had more opportunity to study interesting subject such as this lecture. - Masato Tanaka - Today, I could understand what nuclear power is. I don't agree to use nuclear power generation so I think New Zealand is very nice country. I'd like to stop it in Japan too. - The lecture was very interesting for me. At first, I could see a lot of pictures of city and region in NZ. These picture were unique, so I had more interest in NZ. Next topic was nuclear power. I have examined about the accident in Tohoku area, so I had much information, but your explanation was easier to understand than the internet. Thank you very much! - I felt interesting this class. I learned more earthquack and nuclear. Also this teacher teaches very well. Japanese teacher should learn his teaching style. - I can learned about New Zealand and electric power. Especially I was interested in that hydraulic power is main power generation in New Zealand. I thought that Japanese had to try saving electric power more. I think I missed my calling.