Job Discussion Forums

[shibainu69]

Of course I am qualified I have 4 years post MA TESOL experience and have been teaching academic writing at universities for 6 years in total, I have a distinction in my masters and 4 publications with about 2 more to be published this year. I also am halfway through a PhD so its a given I will get a job pretty much anywhere. I realize there are people more qualified than me in Japan and in the UAE but I think my quals and experience would be somewhere in the intermediate range.
What Im doing is asking the questions then I can make an informed descison and then not too many nasty surprises. Thats how most people operate last minute no plan, but I don't.

[nomad soul]

Here's why your experience is confusing:
From one month ago:

[Eisenhorn]

[shibainu69]

cause Japan is the opposite of an ATM its like a vortex that sucks whatever money you earn into the government so they can go and spend millions in hostess bars and play golf
oh and the I forgot then they spray you with radiation and feed you nuclear food
apart from all the hot girls Japan sucks

[Eisenhorn]

Other than the 4000 year old culture that you can readily and easily enjoy.
Other than being able to have your 5th day of instruction be for research and publications. (which you won't get here)
Other than what appears to be 16 hours of contact teaching and the ability to duck out earlier than the 40 that is required here (endless committee meetings, having to be available on the beck and call of the students)
Other than having students who 'respect and fear' their instructors.
Other than having the freedom of access to information
other than the freedom of discussing different points of view,debating politics and the ability to have some critical thinking.
Other than having very predictable public services, including holidays.
Other than having a very efficient work environment, public sector and education sector.

You are right. Other than all that listed above, Japan sucks.


My last posting in Japan was paying about 3/4 of what I make in the UAE. The cost of living was higher in Japan though. But with that said, the cost of living in the UAE is about what it is living in the states/europe or canada.

[Eisenhorn]

YOu wanted to know the holidays. From my friends school (who teaches high school). (I post this because they linked the primary/secondary schedules with the tertiary schedules last year.)

Eid Al Adha 13Oct. 2013 ‐17Oct. 2013 (now this will probably start after work on Thursday oct 10th and end on saturday oct 19th. BUT*** as with everything, who knows.. generally we don't know until they tell us. So it could shift several days in either direction.)

November 5th is Islamic new years. (again it could shift due to the sighting of the moon)

Winter break starts friday the 13th of December and lasts until Saturday the 4th of January. (usually teachers at all levels will have a week in there that they must report to work)

January 14th is the Prophet's birthday.

For the high schools/grade schools Thursday the 13 through Sunday the 15th of February is a mid semester break. Teachers won't get any time off for that.

Spring break is after work on Thursday March 27th until Sunday April 13th.. But often teachers have to be there for a week.

The 27th of May is another holiday.

According to my friends calendar, they are in school until JULY 2nd.

Their calendar is here.
http://www.rakacademy.org/images/pdf/BC_pdf/Calendar_2013_14.pdf

[shibainu69]

The grass is always greener on the other side.
But the only culture I am in daily contact with is disgusting chain store restaurants, convenience stores, packed out commuter trains, pachinko parlors and people walking around like zombies all the time.
Sure there is kabuki, boring, tea ceremony boring, sumo, boring, judo, boring, calligraphy, boring. The only thing I would miss is hot springs.
Yes 4 days a week work is great and contact hours is about 20, but there are committees ceremonies, meetings with egotistical colleagues who won't shut up. You also don't need a day off to write publications I can write one in about 10-12 hours if I really get on task.
Can you tell me about this freedom of information thingy? wouldn't a VPN work? I can't get netflix here, so freedom from information also exists in Japan to a point.
Critical thinking with Japanese university students, you are having a laugh aren't you? the most critical thing they think of is what brand of bag to bring to class. I haven't had a deep intelligent opinionated conversation with 1 Japanese student or person in 7 years here and that's not racist its a fact.
I appreciate your Japanese nostalgia and you are kind of right on some points but I feel its more of a yearning to past days, its not really objective.
I think you are nice guy, but I complain about everything, so it doesn't matter where I go. I'm going to moan, but when I go to the bank and instead of 2000 dollars of savings a year there is 30.000 it will shut me up for a few minutes.

[veiledsentiments]

[Gus Barkley]

I guess it is just an amazing coincidence that the winter break happens to fall over Christmas and the spring break moves so that it happens to fall over Easter.

I see this as a Muslim country being respectful of their large number of Christian employees, not merely a coincidence. Also, as someone teaching at a federal tertiary institution I hope they go back to the old system of giving the break at the end of the semester (middle of January). I don't like having three weeks off only to return for two weeks and then give finals.

[veiledsentiments]

Sadly, I don't think that this is their intention at all. As I mentioned, these two holiday breaks came about mainly because of Ramadhan - and both Eids - moving into first semester - and now back into summer. In the next couple years, it will be moving back into the second semester. If I was a betting person, I would expect that things may very likely go back to the way that they were before...

But, that is a few years in the future...

VS

[sicklyman]

[shibainu69]

Hello friend,

I didn't label the whole Japanese race, you did that, I just said what I have experienced in 7 years here. Are you calling me a liar? Why would I post random lies on a forum, that's absurd. Those are my observations, I'm sorry I have offended you. That is not racist sorry its factual information.
Lots of black people play basketball is not racist its factual.
I feel like you are sugar coating it though because I have colleagues who like you say they are having deep intelligent conversations with students, but those colleagues are actually people who have no friends or girlfriends, no hobbies and dread the weekends and when they wake up on a Monday morning they think yes, thank god I will have some human contact. I am sure many people know the type.
I have really nice students who are pleasant, kind, honest good people, you can leave your cellphone bad wallet on your desk and its there when you come back but I am not going to lie and say they can have debates because they can't.

Where did you teach in Japan, which university, that also is a factor.
I also disagree that Japan doesn't need me, clearly it does since it is employing me. I didn't go to Japan begging for a job I saw a job posting begging for people.
I'm 28 how can I be burned out, I am bored of living in Japan after 7 years because I have done everything I want to do here. Oh and tea ceremony is very boring its so boring I don't even want to try it.

[2buckets]

When I worked in Japan, mostly as a male host in a nightclub in the Gion district of Kyoto, I had a wonderful time and got to see Japanese culture in a way that few foreigners ever do. My job was to speak English with businessman over expensive liquor and Japanese culinary delicacies that I normally couldn't afford. Got to hang out with Geisha, Maiku, hostesses, businessmen, and even the occasional Yakuza who took me as their guest all over the country, to tea ceremony, sumo, kabuki, gagaku and all those other boring cultural pursuits that I found very interesting.

I did a lot of private tutoring with businessman I met on the host job and had lots of interesting and in depth conversations and discussions with them, including touchy subjects like Japan's part in WW2.

I arrived in Japan with a $10 travelers check, left with tens of thousands of dollars, and never cashed that travelers check. I loved it and have few bad things to say about it.

Any place is what you make of it.

[sicklyman]

Cultural burnout is when you start justifying your own negativity by blaming the culture that has welcomed you, provided employment and left your wallet on the desk rather than stealing it. When someone is suffering from long-term cultural stress like this, their communication changes to reflect the fac that "You" are not the problem, "they" are. Alas, your posts are full of this kind of language.

Could it be that you have lost the ability to engage with the culture in an objective way? Perhaps your students seem not to possess the ability to engage in deep opinionated conversation because you have pre-judged them as objects, not people. If so, is it any wonder that this results in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you are unable to see the value in one of the deepest and most profound cultures the world possesses, can I humbly suggest that it is time to move onward and away...

Do keep a copy of this thread though. It may well make an interesting reflective read in a decade or two.