Job Discussion Forums

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

I'd have:

got my CELTA before I started teaching.
recognised that the majority of the English teachers you meet in japan will be gone in two years, and sought more permanent connections sooner
spent more time playing guitar.

Tuan · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 38 Location: Netherlands

In my younger years, I wished I had:

1) Picked up 'Practical English Usage'
2) Picked up 'Essential Kanji'
3) A larger pile of cash (I still do think about this one... Wink

)

think_balance · Joined: 02 Jul 2008 Posts: 67 Location: Japan

Tuan · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 38 Location: Netherlands

ghostrider · Joined: 30 May 2006 Posts: 147

1. Learned more Japanese before coming and studied Japanese more consistently while in Japan. Took the JLPT each year, aiming for the next level.
2. Stayed only 2 years in Tokyo, then 1-2 years in Osaka. After 2 years in Tokyo, I felt like I was going through the motions.
3. Worked harder to save more money. I blew my abundant free time not doing anything productive.
4. Traveled throughout Japan and Asia more. Visited Australia. I had plenty of time to travel, just not the money.
5. Bought a nice SLR camera immediately. I spent a lot of time taking photos on a crappy camera. The photos my friends took with their SLR's were leagues better.
6. Took more videos. I didn't start taking video until my last year there.
7. Found a project to focus on that I could share on the Internet.

If I had decided to stay long term, I would regret not having been certified to teach in my home country, not having an English/Linguistic related master's degree, or just any master's degree. That would helped break out of dispatch or eikaiwa.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Learned more Japanese before coming and studied Japanese more consistently while in Japan.

Spent more time writing (not necessarily ESL/EFL related) as I have had the time during periods here and there.

Read more (am doing that now when I'm in the mood and have the time), both fiction and nonfiction.

Worked harder at finding a business for my wife to run and possibly setting it up for her (though I am afraid I would maybe have to do the work myself initially).

Networked more with people who are helpful and serious educators.

deadzenpoet · Joined: 06 Aug 2010 Posts: 71

Studied Zen Buddhism.
No regrets.

Pitarou · Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1116 Location: Narita, Japan

I've been here for little more than a year. I'm surprised by how few regrets I've had since I came to Japan -- my wife is a very smart Japanese lady, and she's saved me from a lot of pitfalls.

I started off working in an eikaiwa. I wouldn't want to go back to that, but it was a good, varied apprenticeship. Now I have three jobs teaching in a hotel, a Junior High School and a kindergarten, and I enjoy the variety.

Professionally, my biggest regrets are with the kids. During my year at the eikaiwa I taught a lot of kids classes and, frankly, I could have done a much better job. It was only after I started working in a really first-rate kindergarten that I understood what was possible.

Part of the problem was discipline. I always believed -- and still do -- that bad students are a reflection of a bad teacher, but this led me into thinking that, since bad behaviour was my fault, I should tolerate it. Now I know otherwise: even a 4-year-old can understand that he should respect his teacher.

Another part of the problem was that I didn't know the techniques to get the kids speaking as much as possible (and wasn't smart enough to figure them out for myself). It's only recently that I found the training I needed.

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

sabina · Joined: 11 Nov 2010 Posts: 75

Pitarou · Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1116 Location: Narita, Japan

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

jnanagirl · Joined: 01 Dec 2010 Posts: 15 Location: Hawaii

Advice to younger self:

1) Save more!
2) Pay off student loans. (could have done, just didn't)
3) Relax! Especially regarding expectations around the amount of English students will learn. Make the good effort, but the learning is really up to them.
4) Would have traveled more in Jaoan on weekends.
5) Study Buddhism.
6) Eaten more healthily - less sugar....

What I did right:

1) Learned quite a few kanji and operated in Nihongo fairly well.
2) Created good boundaries and "just said no" to enkais and forced socializing. Also locked my apartment door and didn't answer the phone when I needed down time on days off.
3) Had a serious, consistent yoga practice.
4) Ate every single thing offered to me during my first year. Second year - not!
5) Sat a 10 day silent meditation course outside Kyoto
(www.dhamma.org) - this was life-changing.
6) Opened my heart to the lovely people and students I met. Ignored and forgot about the a**holes.

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

Gone to Vietnam or China. For me it's not worth living in Japan. i would rather be just as poor as people in a poor country, than be in the bottom 1/3rd of Japan.

mzuri · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 78

Thanks for all of the thoughtful posts to the OP's question.

Hopefully will leave for my first EFL job soon. Though it won't likely be in Japan, the ideas are universal and I will take them to heart.