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martinphipps
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 55
Location: Taiwan
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 Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:26 am Post subject: Some more questions about teaching in Japan |
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Besides TOEFL and TOEIC, what third party testing is popular in Japan?
Given the high turnover rate in Japan for foreign teachers, what incentives have been offered by the JET program to encourage teachers to stay on for three years or more? Are teachers offered more money after teaching the first year?
Martin |
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Brooks
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1369
Location: Sagamihara
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:55 am Post subject: |
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Eiken. Although the Eiken will be changed and/or replaced with a new test. The Japanese government is making a new test with Cambridge University.
Well with the pension scheme here, except for British teachers, it is a disincentive to stay longer in JET. Plus taxes go up too.
I recommend these books:
Dale Bay - Teaching English in Japan: A Professional Journey, by Sanyusha
Bruce Feiler - Learning to Bow
Teaching and Learning in Japan by Cambridge University Press
Thomas Rohlen - Japan`s High Schools by the University of California Press
Merry White - The Japanese Educational Challenge, by the Free Press
Roger Goodman - Japan`s 'International Youth' by Oxford (about returnees) |
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martinphipps
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 55
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:59 am Post subject: Some more questions about teaching in Japan |
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Giving me a list of books isn't going to help me much: the library here says it will only order one book at a time for me, so I will have to hunt down a bookstore here that sells books in English and see if there's anything there worth picking up.
But thanks anyway.
Martin |
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Nismo
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 520
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:03 am Post subject: |
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Yours is a lost cause, Martin. You can't interview first-hand, and you're prohibited from reading second-hand sources?
The incentive for staying on a second or third year is the same incentive as applying for JET in the first place: The opportunity to live and work in Japan.
Oh, by the way - Amazon.com ships internationally. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:17 am Post subject: |
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Many are getting paid too much to do very little in the first place. JETS know this and think where else can I be a human tape recorder and get paid a teacher's salary? Nowhere, I think I will stay for 2 more years. What other incentive would they need?
Most teachers in Japan do not get much of a raise year after year, if at all. I am getting paid less than when I first arrived in Japan (tax increase), doesn't mean I will leave. |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 12:31 pm Post subject: Re: Some more questions about teaching in Japan |
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| martinphipps wrote: |
Besides TOEFL and TOEIC, what third party testing is popular in Japan?
Given the high turnover rate in Japan for foreign teachers, what incentives have been offered by the JET program to encourage teachers to stay on for three years or more? Are teachers offered more money after teaching the first year?
Martin |
Someone referenced Cambridge University as making a new test. FYI, that is more likely to be Cambridge ELT (formerly known as UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate).
Also, your second question seems to contradict one major aim of the JET program and a key one in securing an annual budget larger than the defence spending of large nations to run it. This is that after three years, JET teachers will return to their own countries and 'sell' Japan as emissaries. Why then would they want them to stay? |
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Sadken
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 341
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Nismo wrote: |
Oh, by the way - Amazon.com ships internationally. |
Do you know how much more they charge to ship to Japan by any chance? Just wondering because I am coming soon and would like to be able to continue ordering stuff: comedy series etc. |
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Nismo
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 520
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Sadken wrote: |
| Nismo wrote: |
Oh, by the way - Amazon.com ships internationally. |
Do you know how much more they charge to ship to Japan by any chance? Just wondering because I am coming soon and would like to be able to continue ordering stuff: comedy series etc. |
Anywhere from $15 - $25. I've never payed over $25 for a shipment. Your most economical route is to lump at least 3 books together at once (I am talking fairly large books, like Art of War and SYNC theory, not a small detective novel). Sometimes you can find English literature on amazon.co.jp also, so you can save on shipping costs. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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| I have found that if you order through amazon.co.jp, book prices are a little higher,but if you order 1500 yen or more, shipping is free. Not everything on the main site (amazon.com) is on the Japanese site. |
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