Job Discussion Forums

[taikibansei]

[abufletcher]

First of all, I have to say that I really don't understand the hostile tone. But anyway.

[gaijinalways]

I second Abu. Even myself, I have worked at 5 unis (4 currently), and haven't seen any program that is well organized in Japan . Nor have I seen any Japanese university that is trying to hire better qualified permanent full time teachers (or especially the two combined). Unlike Abu, I live in Tokyo and because I have a lot of contact with part-timers, I hear a lot. If you wanted to, you could advertise your uni, but do it in PMs if you want to keep some privacy ! But don't attack the other people who just ask about your 'excellent' program !

[taikibansei]

[taikibansei]

[PAULH]

For what its worth, this year I will be starting at Doshisha University, which is one of the top five private universities in kansai. I have worked in the Womens University and the Junior college between 1996 and 2000


While I dont know what Abu's definition of a good program is, Doshisha has fully tenured, non-contract professors as well as contract professors. What i have seen of the campus and facilties (state of the art CALL equipped rooms, and all the bells and whistles. All part timers have TESL masters degrees and the tenured faculty had phDs.

Are you talking about the quality of teachers? the actuall content of courses? Doshisha has a lot of part timers as well as 2-3 tenured foreigners in each department. Many students want to be taught by Japanese professors. Courses run the gamut from Information technology, cultural studies, literature, video, ESL, conversation-type courses. English is NOT the only department in the university and the campus itself (Kyotanabe) is miles from any urban center (40 minutes from Kyoto or Osaka). Prestigious school, lots of money spent on its program, but in the final analysis its only as good as its teachers and the schools reputation among its students

Baseball player Furuta Atsuya is an alumnae, as is pop singer Kuroki Mai.

[sidjameson]

I taught at Doshissha women's university, I think, about 5 years ago. It was a Spring class run by ECC. All that I can remember was that I had never seen so many wealthy, great looking young women in the same class room. You are a very lucky man PaulH.

[taikibansei]

[abufletcher]

Thanks for all the input. I've heard good things about Doshissha as well -- though never anything specific.

I guess when I was thinking of a good EFL program I was thinking in terms of a well-organized general ed English program rather that "English Departments" or all the other sorts of departments that foreign faculty end up in. I suppose this was in the context of this thread where we were talking about positions for new MA's rather than faculty positions. To get into a "department job" I think someone with only an MA would also have to have LONG YEARS of university EFL experience, a few publications, (and probably a lot more Japanese that I have).

On the other hand, an MA and a couple of years of experience should be enough for a short-term contract position teaching general ed EFL.

My own department is reasonably well organized (or has been at various times in the past) but the general ed classes are a disaster. Personally, I don't think it would be any loss if the university simply abolished the 1-year of foreign language requirement -- or made students take German or Tagolog or Spanish or Chinese instead.

Our department has its own first year EFL courses and they are not too bad, we just don't have faculty particularly able to teach them since I'm really the only person in the department with an EFL background.

Congrats Paul! :

PS. So once again we see an forum battle resulting from a simple lack of a common shared definition. Sorry. cry:

[PAULH]

[taikibansei]

[Gordon]

I think I see a tear... nope just the toyu.

[gaijinalways]

[womblingfree]