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Maitoshi
Joined: 04 May 2014
Posts: 718
Location: 何処でも
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 Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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| rslrunner wrote: |
| Maitoshi wrote: |
| That's what Japan does to rational people. It's not a place for rational people without a healthy dose of cognitive dissonance. |
Cognitive dissonance, by definition, makes rationality impossible! |
Exactly! |
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Maitoshi
Joined: 04 May 2014
Posts: 718
Location: 何処でも
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| Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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| rslrunner wrote: |
| Maitoshi wrote: |
| Why not? He's nuts. |
Matoshi, you resort to name-calling because you have nothing else of value to say. |
Fair enough, mate, though this is taken out of context.
Don't forget the question I responded to and the comment that followed.
How can you have it both ways?
Cognitive dissonance. |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:56 pm Post subject: |
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| rslrunner wrote: |
| People say, "You should have known that you would be treated like a cog in Japan." Well, I am dedicated to making sure that everyone understands that. |
In other words, I'd been living in a cave in My Grass is Greener Valley, but then I threw a dart at a world map and set off on an unfortunate misadventure. |
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rslrunner
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Posts: 252
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 2:46 am Post subject: |
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"Avoid cultural mannerisms....avoid distracting habits....avoid distracting extremes...." When new hires are told this during the initial training week, what does this mean? When you strip away the vague veneer of this admonitions, I interpret it to mean, "Stop being the person you really are, and become the person we insist that you be instead."
This is quite a lot to ask of anyone. Is it worth it? Only individuals can determine that for themselves.
But there is no room for beating around the bush, or rationalizations, or cognitive dissonance. The stakes are too high. |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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| rslrunner wrote: |
"Avoid cultural mannerisms....avoid distracting habits....avoid distracting extremes...." When new hires are told this during the initial training week, what does this mean? When you strip away the vague veneer of this admonitions, I interpret it to mean, "Stop being the person you really are, and become the person we insist that you be instead."
This is quite a lot to ask of anyone. Is it worth it? Only individuals can determine that for themselves.
But there is no room for beating around the bush, or rationalizations, or cognitive dissonance. The stakes are too high. |
Perhaps you'd like to spell out quite how you'd be the person you really are. Would you merrily pick your nose in front of the students whenever it had the slightest tingle? Vent excess gas in class (better out than in!). Roll your eyes and sigh at every boo boo the weaker students make? Tell the too-talkative ones to shut up and stop hogging the floor? Punch the really rude one on the nose? Litter your speech with idioms peculiar to your regionalect? Pop open a beer while doing a crossword, to make it more like a laid-back chat down the Lamb and Flag? Or do you just mean you'd have your own opinions (but obviously keep them to yourself a lot of the time - can't always be too honest and blurt out what we really think, especially while teaching!).  
But yeah, training (any training) can lay things on with a trowel, and a lot of what transpires in classrooms is quite forced and unnatural (and I would argue, thus less effective than it could be, especially in terms of "lowering the affective filter" blah blah blah), but it would truly be an extreme to give an individual carte blanche without first having the vaguest inkling of what they might think appropriate. The natives here can be extremely skittish, and simply "being yourself" might not be the panacea you'd like to imagine it would be (tho much would depend of course on exactly what one's personality, default behaviour etc etc was like...but therein lies the rub and potential problem!). What makes you the expert, especially on teaching in Japan (which you didn't actually do any of!)?
Please note that I'm trying to encourage some actual discussion, and in general, here. I'm not interested in hearing yet again how evil Aeon is, because the same charges could, if one really put one's "mind" to it, be levelled against almost any outfit. |
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dove
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Posts: 271
Location: USA/Japan
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, the AEON training covers a lot of material and methods and there are many things to prepare. But you don't have to be perfect....Japan is the land of putting forth an effort, making a show of it. And if you do so, you'll get through it. Yeah, there will be things that make you want to roll your eyes, but most people know to do that in the pub in the evenings. This is no different from any corporate training in the USA. Yes, it is strange bedfellows when education and corporate interests meet. But it's best not to analyze it too much and just get on with it. Most people seem to realize this and they do just fine during the AEON training. |
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rslrunner
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Posts: 252
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 6:06 am Post subject: |
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| dove wrote: |
| Yes, the AEON training covers a lot of material and methods and there are many things to prepare. But you don't have to be perfect....Japan is the land of putting forth an effort, making a show of it. And if you do so, you'll get through it. Yeah, there will be things that make you want to roll your eyes, but most people know to do that in the pub in the evenings. This is no different from any corporate training in the USA. Yes, it is strange bedfellows when education and corporate interests meet. But it's best not to analyze it too much and just get on with it. Most people seem to realize this and they do just fine during the AEON training. |
What are the things that would make you roll your eyes?
From my perspective, it is precisely because the initial training week is so radically different from typical corporate training that a deeper analysis must occur.
Obviously, analyzing the entire week-long process is not advisable when one is going through it: there is not enough time. But to say that such an analysis shouldn't occur at all is to leave one's critical faculties at the door, and to willfully choose an unexamined life. This is, in my opinion, bad advice.
Isn't this precisely the place where these types of things should be discussed? |
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Maitoshi
Joined: 04 May 2014
Posts: 718
Location: 何処でも
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:24 am Post subject: |
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| Yes, it is, RSL! Good to see you back, as the boards were a tad quiet over the holiday. Did you have a good summer? |
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rslrunner
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Posts: 252
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| Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 12:43 am Post subject: |
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| Maitoshi wrote: |
| Yes, it is, RSL! Good to see you back, as the boards were a tad quiet over the holiday. Did you have a good summer? |
Hi Matoshi, my summer was fine. Thanks for asking.
I think anyone who wants to excel during the training week can and should benefit from the preview that I provided in this thread.
Of course, I think anyone who wants to excel has to come to far different conclusions that I did when I went through the original training week.
Surely we can agree on that. |
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kpjf
Joined: 18 Jan 2012
Posts: 385
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| Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Surely we can agree this thread has had its day. Alas, surely "Johnny" RSL Runner would disagree! |
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rslrunner
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Posts: 252
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| Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 9:05 am Post subject: |
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| kpjf wrote: |
| Surely we can agree this thread has had its day. Alas, surely "Johnny" RSL Runner would disagree! |
Well, I hope that others can benefit from the information in this thread, and perhaps others can provide insight about the training week in the future.
The first question is whether it is worth pursuing in the first place. Different perspectives can help individuals make that decision.
The second question is how to perform well during the training, if that is what one is committed to doing. Providing people with advance notice about what to expect can only be to their benefit. |
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Lamarr
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
Posts: 190
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| Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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My advice for training week is:
1. Turn up on time
2. Dress smart
3. Smile and at least feign buckets of enthusiasm (through the alcoholic haze)
4. Don't say or do anything that might potentially irritate a customer: no personal topics or comments, that kind of thing
If you can follow these golden rules throughout your Aeon career (and the same applies to other eikaiwa) then success is waiting. Don't worry about teaching: that's just a bit of extra fluff added on top to maintain the educational facade.
Remember, above all, you're a functional gimp for the powers-that-be behind these rackets to fleece bucket-loads of cash off people (which is then probably siphoned off into offshore bank accounts, and used to fund other rackets overseas, or buy quality real estate in prime locations like Malibu, or the Gold Coast).
Unless you see yourself as a lifelong, semi-functioning gimp, treat these places like the dirty joke that they are. Use THEM in a way similar to how they use you: make a bit of cash for yourself, see Japan, have some fun, or get a visa then do something better. |
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tizzy
Joined: 28 Oct 2015
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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| rslrunner wrote: |
I think anyone who wants to excel during the training week can and should benefit from the preview that I provided in this thread.
Of course, I think anyone who wants to excel has to come to far different conclusions that I did when I went through the original training week.
Surely we can agree on that. |
I'm starting with Aeon in the new year so I certainly do appreciate your preview, many thanks.
You might be interested to know that Aeon provide a sort of "background/intro to Aeon teaching" document before departing for Japan now, not sure if they had that for you, although not indepth, only 8 pages or so. The emphasis in the pre-departure info given seems to be more on customs and practising English grammar/spelling, which I can see makes sense as it wouldn't be effective use of the training time. |
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rslrunner
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Posts: 252
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| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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| tizzy wrote: |
| rslrunner wrote: |
I think anyone who wants to excel during the training week can and should benefit from the preview that I provided in this thread.
Of course, I think anyone who wants to excel has to come to far different conclusions that I did when I went through the original training week.
Surely we can agree on that. |
I'm starting with Aeon in the new year so I certainly do appreciate your preview, many thanks.
You might be interested to know that Aeon provide a sort of "background/intro to Aeon teaching" document before departing for Japan now, not sure if they had that for you, although not indepth, only 8 pages or so. The emphasis in the pre-departure info given seems to be more on customs and practising English grammar/spelling, which I can see makes sense as it wouldn't be effective use of the training time. |
I got the same checklist of items to cover at the beginning of the trip.
I also received the conditions of the contract, which lays out, in 80 pages and small print, every possible contingency for employment.
What is never provided is any information that would allow one to perform better at training. You simply don’t have the chance to use one’s cognitive skills beforehand.
There is a reason for this: Aeon does not want people to utilize their cognitive skills beforehand. They want employees to undergo behavior modification, which means seeing how they react when poked with a stick. The goal is conformity first, competence second.
I was very interested in the methodology before arriving. I was not that interested in the behavioral requirements, and viewed it as something that should be bypassed quickly. But the latter is what matters to Aeon. If that kind of thing isn’t for you, then please, do not make the same mistake I did. Look elsewhere.
However, if one craves a situation where one can lets others decide who to be, what to do, how to act, then Aeon would be very happy to mold you in their own image.
Bottom-line: the goal, from the first week until the end of your contract, is behavior modification. I would enjoy hearing from anyone who tells you otherwise. |
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rslrunner
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Posts: 252
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| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Lamarr wrote: |
My advice for training week is:
1. Turn up on time
2. Dress smart
3. Smile and at least feign buckets of enthusiasm (through the alcoholic haze)
4. Don't say or do anything that might potentially irritate a customer: no personal topics or comments, that kind of thing
If you can follow these golden rules throughout your Aeon career (and the same applies to other eikaiwa) then success is waiting. Don't worry about teaching: that's just a bit of extra fluff added on top to maintain the educational facade.
Remember, above all, you're a functional gimp for the powers-that-be behind these rackets to fleece bucket-loads of cash off people (which is then probably siphoned off into offshore bank accounts, and used to fund other rackets overseas, or buy quality real estate in prime locations like Malibu, or the Gold Coast).
Unless you see yourself as a lifelong, semi-functioning gimp, treat these places like the dirty joke that they are. Use THEM in a way similar to how they use you: make a bit of cash for yourself, see Japan, have some fun, or get a visa then do something better. |
My problem with this advice is two-fold. First, one should not use other people. Period. If you are inclined to try to use people, you should walk away instead.
Second, it is impossible to "use" them, except by saying one thing and doing another. That is psychologically unhealthy, and it goes a long way towards explaining my passion about this topic. They have the upper hand, once you get to Japan and until you leave. Anyone who thinks that they have somehow won in this game is suffering from self-delusion. |
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