Job Discussion Forums

Squire22 · Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 68 Location: Shizuoka, Japan

I shall be living and working in Izunokuni shi in Shizuoka ken, in Nirayama town near neighbouring Kanami city apparently.

Anyone else in the area/been to the area? Any thoughts on it?

3 days to get ready for all this hasn't really left me much time to learn the katakana or hiragana just yet, it's a long flight though..... Smile

Cheers

Big John Stud · Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 513

You will have no problem at all. When I first came to Japan, the only Japanese Iknew was judo techniques and sushi.

Jazz1975 · Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 301 Location: Zama, Kanagawa

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

shuize · Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 1270

Jazz1975 · Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 301 Location: Zama, Kanagawa

stillnosheep · Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 2068 Location: eslcafe

You can learn your hiragana and katakana in a total of about 6hrs spread over three days for each. I know. I did it. Do a search for Learning the Hirigana for the method. I forget the author (though I remember the kana).

The kanji are going to be fun though...

MrCAPiTUL · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 232 Location: Taipei, Taiwan

If you want a good resource site to begin with, try here:

http://www.thejapanesepage.com

Very useful. I think it will serve you well.

FuzzX · Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 122

Not screwed at all. You`ll probably meet more people not knowing any japanese. You can get women to take you out to `teach you japanese`.
Smile

luckyloser700 · Joined: 24 Mar 2006 Posts: 308 Location: Japan

I'll say it again: Get a Japanese girlfriend or boyfriend. Who cares if you end up speaking like a member of the opposite sex? It doesn't matter if someone thinks you're gay if all you're trying to do is order at the local izakaya. If you plan on being here for awhile and mastering the language, you'll get around to making friends with members of both sexes and will learn how to speak accordingly.

Willy_In_Japan · Joined: 20 Jul 2004 Posts: 329

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

Willy_In_Japan · Joined: 20 Jul 2004 Posts: 329

"
Excuse me for noticing, but a JET is a native Japanese who is trained to teach English to junior high school students for their examinations. Many JETs can hardly even speak English.

He is not a trained teacher of Japanese, even if he is a native speaker. How much does the JET know about teaching Japanese to foreigners? About as much as the average GEOS teacher knows about teaching English to japanese.

You are better off learning from the girlfriend or out of the book in my opinion. "

Please excuse me for speaking in "GEOS SPEAK". Wink

In my BOE, the Japanese English teacher is called a JTE........your mileage may vary.

In GEOS, however, they have NETs and JETs.....'Native English Teacher" which teaches "Sprint 6, Sprint 7, and Sprint 8" as well as other Higher level "Active" text books.

The "Japanese English Teacher" is a Japanese native who teaches up to "Sprint 5" and basically handles the low level learners at GEOS using both English and Japanese in the classroom. The NET on the other hand, is supposed to teach exclusively in English....even with difficult concepts like "sarcasm' they wont even let us say 'hiniku' for example to save us pulling our hair out trying to explain it to someone who really should still be a 'JET' student.

You are right.......the JETs may or may not be good teachers. The same could be said for the NETs. I am sure most people who get hired by GEOS tend to take their role seriously and try hard to do the job to the best of their ability. However, a lot of it is on the job training. I had a lot of military instruction, so I wasnt a total novice at teaching, but I admit, I am a LOT better now than when I started teaching English.

The theory is that the JET takes his or her teaching skills and applies it to teaching the NET Japanese. BTW, you are also required to teach the JET and the Manager lessons in addition to your classes. I don't think they count as 'teaching hours' either. I guess the point that I am really making is that these promised Japanese lessons are really nothing to get excited about. There are 20 lessons, no cirriculum, and are not taught by Japanese language teachers.