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Great Teacher Umikun
Joined: 28 Mar 2004
Posts: 63
Location: Back in Japan
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 Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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| bradley wrote: |
| It's easier to get a visa in Japan than Thailand. |
� or Turkey. The Turkish government rejected my work permit application because my university, an accredited state university, wasn�t on their list despite my having a Master�s degree.
Oops! ごめんなさい! That was negative. ^_^ |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 2:14 am Post subject: Re: Japan was a blast! |
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| dmocha wrote: |
Japan was a blast!
I made a ton of money!
It took a while to make connections but once I did my network kept me in work.
My gaijin network was mostly NON-teachers. This meant I didn't have to listen to a lot of whining and whinging.
(that's a hint  )
When, after nearly two decades, it started to get sour, I left. Japan didn't go sour, I did. Too long in one place...same old same old
After I got back to Canada, and only then, did I fully realize just how good Japan had been to me.
You can't step in the same river twice. |
A ton of money? Not so much anymore.
For me, I like living in Japan, but don't like working here so much. I have actually done some interviews for some Japanese businesses, and I am not sure I want to do that. Work life here is actually pretty bad. Just read a yahoo article, saying that the Japanese work the 2nd most(hours wise) in the world.
Teaching Eng is easy, but kinda pointless unless you can snag a Uni job. |
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Shimokitazawa
Joined: 16 Aug 2009
Posts: 458
Location: Saigon, Vietnam
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| Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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Living among the Japanese and working with the Japanese is not for everyone. It can be a huge adjustment (I'm speaking in terms of those coming from Western culture).
That being said, many westerners still have fruitful careers here either in language education or otherwise. Frankly, the longer one stays and becomes established with friends, family and career the harder it is to leave Japan. Which makes sense. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:01 pm Post subject: Re: Japan was a blast! |
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| rxk22 wrote: |
| Teaching Eng is easy, but kinda pointless unless you can snag a Uni job. |
So, teaching English at a university is...what, then? Many/Most uni jobs end up as glorified eikaiwa jobs in the oral comm classes, unless the teacher has the smarts to adjust the curriculum. And, even in other courses like reading skills, composition, TOEIC prep, etc., the attitude of students is pretty poor. They struggle to get into college, then figure they can coast for 4 years because they get hired afterward on the basis of the school's credentials, not their grades. It's pretty hard to manage such an attitude, even when you have students whose majors demand English (like mine).
This year is the worst crop of freshmen I've seen in the past 5 years. Almost every kid who comes to my office to ask advice or something just stands in the doorway, points to their curriculum book, mutters the name of the course, and dies there in agony unable to utter a single word of English. I am not exaggerating.
Not pointless?
Admin sets passing grades at 60%. Pretty darned weak.
Even when students don't make the grade, admin often says pass them anyway.
Attendance is supposed to be 80% in order to complete the course (that's a minimum of 12 classes taken out of 15 offered), but admin often says to ignore that just to give the student credit.
Kids can actually skip English classes altogether if they get a certain TOEIC score, but that score doesn't guarantee a thing for their fluency. And, even if they skip the courses as an undergrad, they may face mandatory courses later as grad students, but with no courses before that, their TOEIC "fluency" plummets noticeably even in a year, so figure how bad it gets in 3-4 years.
Uni jobs are not the holy graille that many think they are. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:11 am Post subject: Re: Japan was a blast! |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| rxk22 wrote: |
| Teaching Eng is easy, but kinda pointless unless you can snag a Uni job. |
So, teaching English at a university is...what, then? Many/Most uni jobs end up as glorified eikaiwa jobs in the oral comm classes, unless the teacher has the smarts to adjust the curriculum. And, even in other courses like reading skills, composition, TOEIC prep, etc., the attitude of students is pretty poor. They struggle to get into college, then figure they can coast for 4 years because they get hired afterward on the basis of the school's credentials, not their grades. It's pretty hard to manage such an attitude, even when you have students whose majors demand English (like mine).
This year is the worst crop of freshmen I've seen in the past 5 years. Almost every kid who comes to my office to ask advice or something just stands in the doorway, points to their curriculum book, mutters the name of the course, and dies there in agony unable to utter a single word of English. I am not exaggerating.
Not pointless?
Admin sets passing grades at 60%. Pretty darned weak.
Even when students don't make the grade, admin often says pass them anyway.
Attendance is supposed to be 80% in order to complete the course (that's a minimum of 12 classes taken out of 15 offered), but admin often says to ignore that just to give the student credit.
Kids can actually skip English classes altogether if they get a certain TOEIC score, but that score doesn't guarantee a thing for their fluency. And, even if they skip the courses as an undergrad, they may face mandatory courses later as grad students, but with no courses before that, their TOEIC "fluency" plummets noticeably even in a year, so figure how bad it gets in 3-4 years.
Uni jobs are not the holy graille that many think they are. |
Haha I hear ya. I went to Gaidai, and about 95% of those kids just hung out for 4 years. It was my first time in Japan, and it amazed me how people whose major was Eng, couldn't speak it at all.
Anyhow I guess my pointless point was the salary. At least in Uni you can get a raise and/or advance your position. While as an ALT/eikaiwa ou have to claw your way up into being a trainer. Which really means a slight raise, for a lot more work. Basically at a uni you have 2 yen to rub together
That's interesting how this year is much worse than a lot of others. My 8th graders this year were chuckleheads, while the 7th graders were pretty good. Wonder how and why that happens. |
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Kirkpatrick
Joined: 27 Feb 2008
Posts: 205
Location: China
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| Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:16 pm Post subject: |
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| I agree getting a working visa in Japan is not that difficult at all. My employeer filled out the paperwork and I took it down myself. Easy as pie. Try Turkey for Visa B.S.. I have been here 2 years (hoping to leave soon) and have never been able to get a working visa. I have all the right credientials too.. Social life is better in Japan too. |
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Mr_Monkey
Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 661
Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu
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| Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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I take issue with the suggestion that teaching English is easy - it's not, particularly in Japan where you have to deal with ingrained attitudes to the language and language teaching that serve only to make a teacher's life more difficult than it already is.
If teaching English were easy, why do so many Japanese learners - I'm talking about adults - have the communicative competence of a dog?
ELT in Japan has failed on a scale of truly epic proportions. |
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