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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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 Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 10:53 am Post subject: |
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| steki47 wrote: |
| It is a rather limited role (walking dictionary, dancing bear, etc.), but it can be an easy life. |
I've heard some lucky gaijin university instructors say that it's basically semi-retirement or retirement on the job.
Work 7 months get paid for 17 months.
The Iron Rice Bowl. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 10:58 am Post subject: |
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| steki47 wrote: |
| they seem to have a very fixed, narrow image of what a foreigner "does". |
Show them a photograph of an Chinese Canadian or Indo-Canadian, like in the Toronto elections at the moment where one of the candidates is not only Chinese Canadian but a woman!
The Japanese are puzzled and don't really know what to say.
They think all Canadians and Americans are white.
Actually, Canada doesn't even register with the Japanese, they have no concept of another country even existing north of the 49th parallel. They have no concept of it.
I had some students do a home-stay in Montreal and they returned telling me that there were so many black people!
aha!! |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 11:09 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| They think all Canadians and Americans are white. |
At my previous JHS, we taught a lesson with a Mexican-American character. The ignorant JTE gave a (partially) innaccurate explanation of what that means. Then a student asked about me and the JTE said that I was born in America so I am simply an American.
I stepped in to explain that I am technically a European-American. Think I made her lose face. She was pretty cold to me after that.
Actually, I may disagree with part of your post. At the same JHS, we read about discrimination in the old US. Showed a picture of a "Whites Only" drinking fountain and the JTE talked about the horrible racism in the US!  |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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| steki47 wrote: |
| I worked at the same JHS for two years and got asked about my "ability" to eat sushi repeatedly. |
That one always gets me -- that people think of eating certain foods as an ability rather than a preference. I know in Japanese it's phrased that way, but it still irks me when said in English.
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| Looking at your examples, I get the feeling that these Japanese see us a permanently temporary |
Yes, definitely. That's why often the first question Japanese people ask foreigners is "How long will you stay in Japan?" -- as if there is necessarily some pre-determined end point. Then, of course, there's the (oft-discussed) limited contracts for most positions open to foreigners. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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| steki47 wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Looking at your examples, I get the feeling that these Japanese see us a permanently temporary |
Yes, definitely. That's why often the first question Japanese people ask foreigners is "How long will you stay in Japan?" -- as if there is necessarily some pre-determined end point. Then, of course, there's the (oft-discussed) limited contracts for most positions open to foreigners. |
Teaching English in Japan, especially at the eikaiwa level, was never meant to be more than a 1 - 3 year job.
They don't want us here forever. |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 9:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| They don't want us here forever. |
Well, they want English teachers to come but not any one individual to stay. Reading between the lines, they want a steady rotation of new teachers every three years (a la JET).
Reminds me of certain TV/Hollywood make celebrities who marry a hot 25YO, divorce her a few years later and marry another hot 25YO. (Thinking Johnny Carson here.) They don't want mature, experienced partners; they want cute young wives. Likewise with English teachers. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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| steki47 wrote: |
| Reading between the lines, they want a steady rotation of new teachers every three years... |
I agree with that. Gotta keep them fresh!
Maybe I read this on the old Gaijin Pot forums, but someone who was a university instructor once posted there that s/he had even heard a Japanese professor say that ideally they should get a new gaijin English teacher every 6 years. Because after 6 years, foreign teachers lose some of their gaijin-ness!
I think the Japanese professor who said this worked at Waseda. Some real gems come out of Waseda, I hear.
But yes, they by in large expect us to go home and definitely don't want us to stick around forever. The problem is, however, many gaijin decided that they wanted to make a career out of it and stay indefinitely at jobs that were never meant to be more than a 1 - 3 year gig. |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 12:28 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| Because after 6 years, foreign teachers lose some of their gaijin-ness! |
Debito posted a story of an American woman who was fired from her uni job because she had been in Japan too long and so was not qualified to teach Foreign Studies! |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 3:27 am Post subject: |
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| steki47 wrote: |
| Debito posted a story of an American woman who was fired from her uni job because she had been in Japan too long and so was not qualified to teach Foreign Studies! |
I read about that, I think, a long time ago.
She (or they) were teaching at Akita University or Akita International University and a group of them were shown the door for no reason other than to bring in a fresh batch of gaijin EFL teachers and to tweak the contract terms for gaijin instructors.
There may have been another case in Hokkaido, also, about an American woman who was fired (not-renewed) by her university after several years of service for no reason other than she had lost her gaijin cache after being in Japan for so many years.
Remember, these are supposed to be highly educated Japanese professors in the humanities that are thinking like this!
Unbelievable. |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 5:11 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
Remember, these are supposed to be highly educated Japanese professors in the humanities that are thinking like this!
Unbelievable. |
I see the Japanese as more schooled than educated. But I see your point! |
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RM1983
Joined: 03 Jan 2007
Posts: 360
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| Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| steki47 wrote: |
| Solar Strength wrote: |
| They don't want us here forever. |
Well, they want English teachers to come but not any one individual to stay. Reading between the lines, they want a steady rotation of new teachers every three years (a la JET).
Reminds me of certain TV/Hollywood make celebrities who marry a hot 25YO, divorce her a few years later and marry another hot 25YO. (Thinking Johnny Carson here.) They don't want mature, experienced partners; they want cute young wives. Likewise with English teachers. |
To play devil's advocate here though, I can see sense in this. The most I've worked somewhere is 3 years and even with it being at a school about 25 times more exciting than any I've seen here I still got a bit jaded and tired. There was a new batch of teachers every 6 months or so as we expanded and they always brought a bump in the atmosphere and quality.
A lot of them were new teachers and very keen to try new things as well as put into the extra curricular side of things to bump up their standing and CV.
Put it this way, I havent taught uni before but I would do it for lower pay than someone who has been teaching it for ten years, I'd do it for te experience. Also, although I probably would run into some problems without experience, I'm pretty sure I'd be more enthusiastic and keen to do a good job than someone been there ten years.
It might just be me but I can see big value in rotating teachers like that.
I guess the big shame is there is nowhere for the experienced ones to progress to |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 1562
Location: Kawasaki
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| Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:35 am Post subject: |
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I do not agree. While some new teachers could be earnest, others have taught at other places and really do not make an effort to be better teachers.
By that I mean shoddy lesson plans, a lack of testing and grading, and a tendency to let students out of class early. |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 9:59 am Post subject: |
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| RM1983 wrote: |
| [The most I've worked somewhere is 3 years and even with it being at a school about 25 times more exciting than any I've seen here I still got a bit jaded and tired. There was a new batch of teachers every 6 months or so as we expanded and they always brought a bump in the atmosphere and quality. |
I understand this, and I think this is why teachers in primary and secondary schools are transferred every few years, especially at the beginning of their career. However, I think this is much more likely to have a positive effect in a situation where teachers are in a shared staff room with lots of contact with each other. In a university, where each person has their own office, and goes and teaches their own courses, with potentially minimal contact except for in meetings, I think there's less possibility for the type of effect that you describe. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 11:33 am Post subject: |
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| Yes new teachers are often more enthusiastic, but being "genki" doesn't make them a good teacher. Which is what Japan is sorely lacking. |
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PO1
Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 136
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| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:37 am Post subject: |
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I've always been interested in this idea of "genki" vs. actual ability. I feel like there have been cases where some students prefer having a genki teacher who is super fun rather than a teacher who can actually teach them to speak English. You can be both obviously, but there is sort of a double standard with foreign teachers always needing to be entertaining while Japanese professors can just teach and not worry about the students smiling and having a good time the whole class.
It's like teaching a foreign language (specifically English) always has to be fun, but teaching physics or law can be boring as it wants to be as long as students are getting the material. I'm curious how teachers of Spanish, Korean, Chinese, etc. are expected to teach here? Do they have to be genki the whole time?
If I was learning Japanese from a teacher, my preference would probably be a no nonsense teacher who helped me learn rather than a fun teacher who I sort of learned from. I have a friend who took Japanese from an older guy and the guy was super strict and didn't allow any sort of English whatsoever. He said he learned more from him than he did from younger teachers who wanted to be his friend. |
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