Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

This has been posted all over. my question for everyone who has said that the OP should be an intl school teacher, how come everyone else hasn't? I'm assuming people giving advice are TEFL teachers, why have t you gone back and put in the time to become an intl school teacher?

[Maitoshi]

I guess because I have been spoiled by the uni teaching schedule.

[SunShan]

Guys, I posted this on multiple boards, which was a mistake. Please post onto Newbie forum thread 'advice on my career path', from now on.

Thanks for all your advice.

[naturegirl321]

[nightsintodreams]

[HLJHLJ]

[naturegirl321]

[Maitoshi]

I think it also blurs the lines more than just a little when so many of the Eikaiwa are opening their own "international" preschools/kindergartens. At least they are calling them this, but there doesn't seem to be much regulation at all in terms of curriculum, instruction, et cetera.

[Futureal]

The terms "international" and "preschool" don't seem to be subject to regulation, and a lot of run-of-the-mill kids' eikaiwas seem to be calling themselves for the same reasons that other eikaiwas call themselves "academy" or "institute".

[nightsintodreams]

It seems I do have to argue my point after all.

An international school will probably use a foreign curriculum, English will be the language used in and out of classes by the vast majority of teachers and the students will either be foreign or rich Japanese brats...so...

If you're going to a country to learn about a culture and language and that is your number one priority then an international school is not your best option.

I'm sure there are many great things about working at an international school, but learning the language and culture of the country you're in is not one of them. That is common sense.

[Maitoshi]

From what I understand, there are Japanese language and culture courses at the elite international schools, though the primary language of instruction in math, science, etc. is English.

[Maitoshi]

[nightsintodreams]

I don't know what position you have in EFL, but I'm the only non-Japanese person at my school. I'm surrounded by regular Japanese people and hear Japanese for pretty much eight hours a day, the walls are covered with posters in Japanese, the library and classrooms are full of books written in Japanese, the school newsletters and information are all written in Japanese, the school announcements are in Japanese, the children often need something explained to them in Japanese, the staff meetings are conducted In Japanese and the lesson planning meetings I have to lead are also done in Japanese, even the school lunch is usually some kind of Japanese food.

I imagine that's very different from ones experience at an international school. If it's not then why are people paying thousands of dollars to send their kids to such a school?

Apologies: ranting on an iPhone isn't good for my grammar

[Maitoshi]

[nightsintodreams]

I'm contractual and usually have 4-5 lessons a day. There's a lot of down time at the beginning and end of terms and I manage to find time to do lesson planning within my eight hour schedule, it's extremely rare for me to not be able to leave on time.

I think pretty much any job at a public school provides you with a Japanese environment though, even if it's only working for a dispatch company like Interac. Maybe that's not something that's high on a lot of other teachers' priorities, but I like it and would certainly never want to work at an Eikaiwa ever again.

Like most jobs in Japan, this job has a limit of five years, so I have considered doing a masters at some point, but I decided it was just too much money and a rather large investment of time that could be spent doing something else.

What I hear from a lot of people is that it's getting increasingly difficult to get into university teaching nowadays, I wonder if it's really worth it. Having said that, I keep enough money banked so that if I were to change my mind sometime in the future then I could still go for it.