Job Discussion Forums

[MrCAPiTUL]

To those who are treating teaching as a profession, you have my deepest respect! Quite honestly, I'd love to learn about how you've made it so far in the field. Or, what you've done/are doing to become successful at your profession. I'm really interested in strategies you've used to accomplish what you have, your stories, advice, retirement planning strategies, child adjustment strategies, etc. I'm thinking very long term and welcome the input. Thank you in advance.

[johanne]

Well, I first came here 13 years ago, straight out of university, and got a job teaching ESL to kids. I had zero training and just followed the lesson plans prepared by the Japanese teachers. Continued working in ESL, mostly with kids, but sometimes adults, for the next four years. Through experience, I learned to plan my own lessons and think I got pretty good at the job. After 4 years though I was quite bored teaching ESL (it was the same thing over and over again) and decided to return to Canada and get a teaching certificate.

In getting by BEd and then teaching in a public school classroom, I realized how little about teaching I really knew. I could plan a great lesson, but that is just one aspect of what a professional teacher needs to do. So I learned, mostly on the job, how to assess properly, how to make lessons flexible enough to give extra practice to the weaker students and extensions to the stronger ones. I learned how to evaluate in order to see who really understood the concept and not just the formula, or "trick" for getting the right answer. I also learned to deal with parents - this is a big one in a real teaching job. I learned about learning differences and disabilities and how to make each student feel successful. I learned to write meaningful reports that could pinpoint the students strengths and areas for improvement. I could go on and on, but the basic point in that the teaching I had done in Japan prior to getting qualified was excellent in giving me an idea of what teaching is and helped me find a profession I love, but it did not in an significant way prepare me to become a public school teacher.

Anyway, after teaching in Vancouver for 5 years and acquiring the above skills, I landed a job at an international school here in Japan. To do this I wrote to about 20 international school in and around Tokyo in November and offered to come for an interview at my own expense in January for jobs starting the following September. I got 5 interviews and 3 job offers. The job I took is very similar to what I was doing in Canada. I'm paid on a salay scale that recognises my experience in teaching public school in Vancouver, but not my experience teaching ESL in Japan (it wouldn't recognize ALT experience either), which I have to say I agree with for the already stated reasons. The benefits include 14 weeks paid holiday and 90% tuition deduction for my daughter. If you are a certified teacher who truly enjoys her job, this is the type of job you need to aim for, in my opinion, otherwise you will be bored out of your mind. Also, the after-tax salary is very good, and if you can't save a good chunk of money you are living a very nice lifestyle.

As for kids, when we arrived the local all day kindergartens (hoikuens) were full so my daughter went to the international school for most of the year. She will start attending hoikuen this April so she can become fluent in Japanese. Her Dad is Japanese so this is important to us. We are planning for her to return to the international school at around Grade 4, as long term we preper a more western style of education. This is strictly our choice - others opt for international school the whole way through and other still the Japanese system the whole way through. It's a very personal decision. As for adjustment, my daughter has adjusted very well after a couple of teary weeks when she first started going to school. I'm expected perhaps another week of tears when she started the hoikuen, but overall she has had little problems with her new life. I haven't thought too much about retirement but some of my older collegues have and they set up mutual funds and other investments with their savings. At my school the school with match your retirement funds up to 5% of your salary.
I hope this helps you. Feel free to PM me if you want more specific details.

[PAULH]

[Glenski]

Am I a professional teacher? You judge.

I entered TEFL at 41, so it's obvious I had a whole other career beforehand. Totally different. Regardless of my presumed good ability to use and understand English, I got a TESL certificate (and it was well worth it).

I started teaching in a sort of eikaiwa. Stayed there 3.5 years. Next step was to work part-time in a private high school and supplement that half of my income with private lessons.

A year later, I was hired full-time at the same HS and had to drop all of my private lessons for lack of time.

Three years later, here I am. The HS contract can no longer be renewed. I did more than show up for classes; it was important for me to learn how the HS system worked, so I did my best to do that. Everyone, and I mean everyone, at my school is sad to see me go, and a few even tried to get the higher-ups on the board to retain me in any way possible. No go, but it showed me how much they cared and how valuable they perceived me. I persevered during those HS years to learn what I could about aspects of TEFL that interested me, too. I attended only a couple of meetings locally, but I made a presentation at one. I've written a few measly articles online in the EFL world, plus made considerable contributions to forums like this.

My next job starts in a week. Full-time university job. Lecturer to start, but with publications, I can be promoted to assistant professor. This job was achieved after (as Paul put it) lots of perserverence -- sent out about 3 dozen applications since June last year.

I agree with most of what Paul wrote, and I hope my story in TEFL helps point to some manner of career guidance. To me, a teacher constantly strives to improve his craft and himself/herself, not just to show up in a classroom and present a lesson. If you are looking for stability in a TEFL career, you will need qualifications and probably more than just drifting from job to job, or you could take a big plunge and try setting up your own school. Look down the road at least 10 years for your planning, not just a year or two. Learn about what you are going to do when you retire, whether in a foreign land or after you have returned home. Figure out how to save your money for the distant future because you just might find yourself in a country like Japan where you need to work uninterrupted (and contribute to the pension plan uninterrupted) for 25 years, in order to collect on it, and in Japan savings accounts only offer a measly 0.02% interest rate.

[abufletcher]

Most of the stories above can be summarized as "came to Japan and then become a professional" whereas, my own story is probably better described as "became a professional and then ended up in Japan."

I went the very traditional route of doing an BA then MA (linguistics) before ever leaving the US. I was initially interested in the Middle East but anywhere (including Japan) would have been fine. With an MA most people go directly into university-level EFL and the large language centers of the Gulf were a perfect training ground. There is a lot to be said for working in an environment of up to 120 other EFL professionals ALL with an MA. In this environment, I cut my teeth on communicative language teaching, process writing, English for special purposes, skills based reading, test design, academic listening, CALL, etc. All this was the expected norm at the places I worked in the Gulf.

I was in the Gulf for almost 12 years and it was certainly a great ride! Towards the end though I was looking for a way out of the "language instructor" grind and so took my first step on a career move to "professor" by taking a job as at a Mexican university teaching Applied Ling, History of English, Grammatic Analysis, Child and Second Language Aquisition, English-Spanish Contrastive Linguistics, etc. I was earning less than a 1/4 of my Gulf salary. I was woefully ill-prepared for the job but by the end of the year I had pulled myself up to a whole new level.

It was this job that netted me my position in Japan. Once here I started on a Ph.D. to complement my somewhat strange new-found status as a tenured Associate Professor (now Full). Now that I have my Ph.D. at hand, I'm not really sure what's next.