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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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 Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 8:40 am Post subject: |
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Just curious: what are your professional teaching qualifications re. being qualified to teach English?
I know you have taught in the US and have previous experience in regular schools, but what is the sum total of your experience as a language teacher and what are your qualifications to this end? CELTA? SIT?
teaching in an international school and teaching English speaking skills to a bunch of 14 year olds who dont speak the same language as you are two different things. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 8:41 am Post subject: |
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Adam,
Yes, check that JET site again! JET ALTs may have titles of Assistant Language Teachers, but they are assistants first. Go to www.bigdaikon.com for info directly from some of them.
And, the JET site itself contains some history of the program. I suggest you read it carefully. JET was intended to promote internationalization, not English teachers. If they wanted English teachers, why are they not allowed to teach solo? Experiences vary, but you don't see a lot of JET ALTs leaping to the defense of people who say that most of the time they have very little to say in the lesson planning, let alone in any serious carrying out of lesson plans. It's a lot like Paul says.
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| My criteria for unprofessionalism is a job that pays me for looking like an American instead of my teaching and/or language skills. |
Sorry to say this, but that pretty much describes JET jobs and eikaiwa positions. If you have any teaching experience and want to improve/utilize it, look for international schools, elementary schools, high schools, and such.
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I know all of my 160 students first and last names. I call their parents on a regular basis. I care about my students. I work 50-60 hours per week when I'm contracted at 38. Tonight I spent 1 hour writing a letter to a parent why I thought her daughter, who is African American, should read To Kill A Mockingbird and not dismiss it as a "racist book".
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Wonderful, indeed. However, you are going to find that level of communication nearly impossible with Japanese parents because of the language barrier. Learning the names is not as easy a feat, either, even when they write them in romaji. And, if you are a high school teacher in Japan, expect to have 15 classes of 30-45 students (450- 675 students). I do. I teach 16 classes and finish at 3:40 every day, but meetings and lesson planning and (mandatory) extracurricular activities and preparation for zillions of events (festivals, graduation, entrance ceremonies, exams, etc) keeps me in the building until 7pm or later 5 nights a week, plus every other Saturday. I can't say whether this is the case for the majority of private high schools, or what the typical hours are for public school teachers, but it's a heads-up on how much time you MIGHT have to devote. Many times at my school teachers work 7 days a week and well past 10pm. Call it what you will -- dedication, inefficiency, bureaucratic hurdles -- but it's possible.
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Contrary to what people believe, JEt is not an English teaching program but an exchange program where Japanese students can learn to mix and interact with foreigners.
I find this shocking. Are you serious? Why do they pay US $32,000 per year for the equivalent of a foreigner petting-zoo? |
Yes, it's true. The appeal of having foreigners in classrooms is that strong here. Some people have never laid eyes on a foreigner, which means you could really be in the deep rural areas. This may have serious repercussions on people who are not prepared for culture shock in such situations.
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| The Eikaiwa jobs seem much more difficult to get for people in the US wanting to move to Japan. They seem like a good back-up possibility should JET seem too unprofessional, boring, easy, or annoy me with commutes to too many schools each week. |
Eikaiwas can very easily fit all of those categories. Many people brand them as "edutainment" centers instead of language schools. What you get depends on the luck of the draw and how well you do your research.
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| What I meant was this: how do people make the shift from a job that begins in August (US teaching job or JET) to a job that begins in April (Eikaiwa job). Do you go unemployed for eight months? Break your teaching contract with the US school or JET? I'm missing something... |
As a JET ALT, you are hired from August to July. So, what do you do when July rolls around at the end of your contract? You start looking for work a little sooner, obviously. Just because some eikaiwas run on an April start date, it doesn't mean they are that beholding to it. Typically, high schools and universities and such hire for that start date, but eikaiwas have ads posted all the time, practically year round.
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| The X-factor with JET is class size and the number of different classes per week. |
In my opinion, the X-factor with JET is what type of JTE you work with. Expect roughly the same number and size of classes in every public school on that program. Whether your JTE lets you plan lessons (with or without him), does more than serve as a human tape recorder, etc. will make or break you. Look at all the free time the ALTs have to post on www.bigdaikon (and just look at the boredom in their posts). If they have that much free time, why do they complain when they could be studying Japanese or something else, assisting another teacher, joining a club, proofreading materials, job hunting, etc.? |
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