Job Discussion Forums

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[rxk22]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Well, keep in mind that they are PAYING you to be there. It isn't a punishment. It's part of the job. So there's not really a whole lot you can do about it (except use your vacation leave... unless they tell you that you can't take it then). If you are lucky and don't have to come in, then that doesn't come off of your vacation leave.

(I don't know any senior high school JETs who had to go to their school- but that doesn't mean that there are none. Every junior high school JET I've known has had to sit at their board of education- so there wasn't a gym to go to, but that doesn't mean that EVERY junior high JET ALT has to sit and rot at their BoE, either)

[rxk22]

[Glenski]

Being paid to sit in an office is one thing. IMO, it's what you make of that time that counts.

Got Internet? Use it to get lesson plans and study Japanese.
No Internet? Study Japanese from books, and use paper to dream up lesson plan ideas. Get ideas at home first on your home Internet connection if you have to, but don't just sit and look bored or use the Internet for mindless entertainment, especially if you are being paid to be there.

There's no excuse for sitting around doing nothing and making yourself and other JET ALTs look bad.

[rxk22]

[Glenski]

What is "sitting and doing nothing"?
Uh, from posts on the BigDaikon it's pretty obvious. People (not everyone) literally can be found surfing the Internet all day, and BD even has had messages posted outside the forum showing people how to get around various school Internet censors. Surfing is taken to mean using the Internet for purposes unrelated to work or adapting to the culture here.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Keep in mind that HALF of all JETs leave at the end of their first contract. That means that they only have one summer of sitting at the Board of Education- and since they arrive at the end of July or beginning of August, then it's the first thing they do when they get here (and very often they'll be sitting around at the BoE for the last week or so before they leave- usually they spend that time furiously making notes and emailing to the successor who may or may not ever get them- and for the successor, getting set up living is the first thing on their mind. Or else they are already concentrating on their next step- whether it be graduate school {the most common thing}, looking for a job in their home country, travelling around or going to another job in Japan {probably far more common for CIRs, but probably the least common for ALTs- especially ALTs who are leaving at the end of their first year, because that means they'd decided back in December or thereabouts that they wouldn't be staying- after only a single term actually in school}).

It's kind of hard to plan lessons for a class you've never met but are half-way through the school year, teaching a level you've never taught before and don't know what it consists of (assuming that, like most JETs, they haven't ever taught at a junior high school in Japan when they get here) and the students are very likely are L1 speakers of a language that you may know four words of and that's about it and everything you've been taught about the culture seems to be directly at odds with virtually everything you can actually see. What you CAN do is go through every single thing that you received from the predecessor (that may be good for about thirty minutes or so) and the books that CLAIR provided in the orientation (another couple of hours- and most of it won't be particularly useful- except "Team Taught Pizza"- which if you didn't buy at the orientation means you probably made a mistake, unless you have a bit , or more than a bit, of experience). There is no guarantee that anybody at the BoE will speak English, and it's very likely that the ALT won't be told what to do. They'll be shown their desk, told to sit down, maybe handed a cup of green tea or coffee - ETA but since it's summer, probably ice wheat tea- and then left alone in a room full of apparently busy Japanese people who also apparently don't speak English (both of these things may well not actually be the case). Japanese office workers (and teachers) are required to look busy. Period. A foreigner may not know the difference between a Japanese office worker who IS busy, and a Japanese office worker who LOOKS busy. How would they? It may be their first time in Japan, or even East Asia. Japanese Teachers of English may or may not want to even meet the ALT before September.

Also, for most foreigners, the teachers room and the BoE are extremely uncomfortable places to be in because they/ we often feel like we are under a microscope- even though 90% of the time nobody is watching you- because of the open office arrangement. Most JETs have very little work experience and may have never worked in an office setting before. So it's uncomfortable. Those who DID work in an office setting before (like me) either had their own office (like me in one job) or shared an office with a single other person (like me in another job) or had a cubicle (like the people in PR companies that I worked with) which gives some semblance of privacy. The open-office format (especially the one where the highest ranking people sit perpendicular to the lower ranked people so they can always see what they're up to) is not all that common in other countries- for the simple reason that it's extremely uncomfortable (and therefore people will quit to work for the same money, or even slightly less money rather than put up with it). And it's very hard to study a language when you are extremely uncomfortable- the affective filter and all.

And if you're staying for a following year, you may well have already planned everything you need for the following term in the last week or so of school when you often have no classes and so are sitting around at your school. You may also be one of the many human tape-recorders and the JTEs not only don't want you to do anything for classes, but resent it if you do and so veto it after pretending to look over it because they don't want to change anything they've done in the past for some unqualified newbie who'll likely be gone in a year. Sometimes ALTs may be asked to start editing the speeches for the speech contest in the summer as well- especially if they are going into their second or higher year for that BoE.

The greatest effect most ALTs have in their schools is in improving JTE English by speaking to them in natural English and talking to students in the halls after class (at elementary school, especially, if you are at a public school and aren't playing with the kids in the playground, and the kids aren't inviting you to play with them, then IMO something is going very, very wrong)- joining a club is good, but I think floating from club to club is better so that you gradually get to know far more of the kids- besides, club activity is work for students- if they've already spent two years working hard to become good at kendo or whatever, they don't want to have a raw newbie who doesn't even speak the language there EVERY SINGLE DAY.

[Glenski]

[seklarwia]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Glenski]

Got a lot to respond to there, Gambatte, and I'll try to make it succinct. I think we are crossing wires on a few things here.

The reason I joined the discussion was to point out that many JET ALTs are seen as lazy and that they don't make use of their down time. Posts from BigDaikon support the fact that this is true in many cases. Most? Dunno, but it's a widespread phenomenon.

JET hires people to do a job, and it is PR on the surface, yes. JET calls it internationalization. It also involves tough things like getting used to team teaching. The point I wanted to make overall was simply that ALTs need to demonstrate that they can take charge of their time without presenting a bad image. Is it easy? No. Is it something they should still strive to do? Yes.

Do you agree with that much?

Planning lessons shows one is trying to fit in and do the non-PR part of the job. Yes, many JTEs don't let ALTs do much actual teaching, so what I'm saying by lesson planning covers a big area, from actual info gap activities to reading up on second language acquisition or team teaching strategies.

Putting things together for the next incoming ALT is also worthwhile and not a waste of time. The things seklarwia posted are also all good examples.

ALTs get lots of training, you said, but that is throughout the year. I suspect there is darned little early on, and that is an important time for an ALT to show that they are taking charge to learn things on their own.
maps and directions to their sites
key L1 and L2 words for classroom use
making templates for various activities
writing a journal for personal use or presentation

As for the impracticality of hiring enough ALTs with sufficient language skills, perhaps this is where JET should have from the very start decided that there needs to be a minimum and/or to provide training to reach that point. The government is considering giving 5-year visas to people who can prove certain language ability, and that's related.

[rxk22]

[Mr_Monkey]

[rxk22]