Job Discussion Forums

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Imseriouslylost]

[Sadebugo]

[parrothead]

I don't know if I would call ALT "school teachers". They are assistants to Japanese English teachers, both of whom often don't really know what the role of the ALT should be. Many Japanese English teachers don't know why an ALT is there or they don't want one there. Many don't want to be teaching English at all, but they don't have a choice. The ALT is often unsure of his or her responsibilities and is usually left to devise games or activities that are too often too complicated for the students to understand. It's no wonder so many junior high and high school students say they dislike English.
To the OP, if you're teaching a class once a week or once every two weeks, perhaps you are setting your expectations too high. From my experience, if a student is "acting cool" or trying to get laughs, it's because he doesn't understand enough and that the teacher is teaching over his head. It's a kind of defense mechanism. At the end of the day I think a child wants to "get it" and wants to feel like he is succeeding.

[The_Hanged_Man]

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

Text deleted

[ghostrider]

I agree that, at least some, eikaiwas try to break their English teachers down. They don't want their staff leaving ultra-confident and well trained. They want broken people who can't leave because they're only trained to teach out of a text book. They use these ridiculous complaints against you, knowing they mean nothing and you can't do anything about it usually.

ALT is only better in that you get more holidays, work during the day, get weekends off, and aren't micro-managed everyday as you are in an eikaiwa. You're more likely to get promoted in eikaiwa though. You may work at the same pay in ALT indefinitely. I'd personally shoot for higher goals while here if you planned to be here more than 3 years.

What isn't discussed here much is Oral Communication jobs in private schools. This is what I do now. You can make more in these positions, get more benefits, pay raises, etc. They're somewhere between ALT and being a professor or working in an international school. They're also highly competitive obviously, and don't hire teachers from abroad nor those without teaching experience.

[ghostrider]

Anyway, to address the original poster's question, students are not angels here either unless you get lucky teaching Oral Communication at an elite private school. Such positions exist. I've substituted at such schools myself and some of my coworkers have been lucky enough to get a job at these schools.

The vast majority of positions are ALT, meaning you'll have little responsibility or control over the classes. You're an "Assistant" to a Japanese English grammar teacher. If you're lucky, you'll be assigned only a few schools, to a few Japanese teachers, and these teachers will be effective in controlling discipline. Most likely you'll have many different JTE's, usually in average or below average schools, most of them not being that effective in controlling discipline. Not only will you have rowdy and talkative students, but also you'll have no control over the discipline at all. In some ways, you can make the most of this and brush it off since you're not responsible for these problems, but it's not a very motivating position to be in for the long run. Both the JET Program/Japanese Education Ministry and dispatch companies realize this, and I think have gone the easy route in encouraging turnover rather than develop an effective system for foreign employees and the students.

Quite sad. Perhaps with a new government in place, they'll get around to improving how English is taught in schools here, or they won't worry about it as it isn't a top issue for voters.

Anyway, to even get a remotely normal teaching position in a school here, you need to aim for the private school English jobs (not ALT). They tend to only hire from within Japan and only those who have experience. You have both direct hire positions (most difficult) and private school dispatch companies (still difficult to get a position with them). Qualifications actually help in regards to these positions. The level of the private schools varies quite a lot though, as they're actually affordable for many parents here. Some private schools are actually worse than the local public ones as they're designed for kids who couldn't make it in the public schools or were kicked out for extremely bad behavior, which is not an easy task to accomplish here.

[steki47]

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

Text deleted

[steki47]