Job Discussion Forums

[PAULH]

Abufletcher

Out of interest have you seen the 2003 survey done by the University Teachers Union on university teaching? I can send by mail if you are interested.

http://www.utu-japan.org/

Makes good reading and though while not disagreeing with what you are saying i cant help feeling you may be out of touch with what is happening on the ground with part timers and contract workers. Its very easy to say from a tenured teachers position but out in the trenches things are a totally different ballgame.

Just my two cents worth.

[abufletcher]

I apologize if I've come off with a "ivory tower" attitude, I really don't mean to. Believe me, I heard (and said) many of these same things when I was one of 120 "EFL instructors" at the Language Centre at Sultan Qaboos University (an a two year contract) and getting paid half the salary with half the perks of the "professors" in the English Department across the hall -- who were for the most part teaching EFL classes.

Everything you say about the current state of affairs with language teaching positions at Japanese universities is true. The crunch is definitely on and universities are looking for any way possible to cut costs and seem particularly eager to make those cuts in the salaries and benefits of language teachers.

I'm definitely not saying that teaching content is in any way harder, or higher level, than teaching EFL. Given my background that would be a rather silly thing for me to say. But I am saying that if I were a university administrator I wouldn't see the advantage (to the university) of using a scarce (and costly) tenured position to cover General Ed EFL classes when I could easily cover these classes with qualified people (MA + experience) under 2-3 year contracts. The number of content courses doesn't fluctuate all that much but the number of General Ed EFL classes will go up and down with the student population. Thus economically it makes sense to be able to increase and decrease the teaching staff along with the students as needed. Yes, this makes things tougher on the EFL teachers. An enlightened attitude would be to make fixed-length contracts renewable (as they are in the Gulf) as long as both parties are satisfied. The Japanese attitude of "finding a fresh gaijin" every couple of years is frustrating as well as insulting.

I'm also not sure I'd characterize "hiring from abroad" as "headhunting." Gordon was also hired from abroad for his (contract) university position. I'm the first to admit that I blindly lucked into my current job -- though it did take me 12 hard years of working to improve myself professionally before I got "lucky." I can't see any particular merit to a "hire from within" policy. EFL experience in any other country in the world is just as valuable as EFL experience in Japan -- perhaps more so if it includes doing things that just don't get done in Japan. Qualified is qualified as far as I'm concerned. In fact, I think it's very healthy to bring in people with an outside perspective who have not become accustomed to the "way things are" in Japanese education.

Of course one reason that there isn't much opportunity to teach "content courses" at Japanese universities is that there is an entrenched attitude that anything approaching content (and this can include classes in TOEIC and TEOFL) is best taught by a Japanese speaker (OK, let's be honest here, by a Japanese PERSON). This in turn is tied to traditional views on university education which see the podium-delivered lecture as the primarily means of instruction.

Anyway, I do apologize again if I've stepped on any toes. I do know what it's like to be down in the trenches. Believe me the mud on my boots is only just now beginning to dry!

[abufletcher]

Paul, no need to remove your post. This was an entirely honest venting and you made some fair points. Yes, it stung a bit but that's part of forum life.

[abufletcher]

Paul, I did just download the pdf and it looks like interesting reading. Though I do think it will be necessary to read with a critical mind, for example in the section on Gender the authors have this to say:

"Out of 330 respondents there were 220 male (66.6%) and 110 female instructors (33.3%) seeming to indicate a clear hiring preference for males. An alternative explanation might be that there were consistently more male applicants, yet the 2 to 1 ratio in male over female employees might seem to suggest a bias in hiring."

If our university is representative I'd say that male applicants MASSIVELY outnumber female applicants for internationally announced contract positions. We got something like 300 CV for one EFL contract position announced here on Dave's a couple of years ago and well over 2/3 of those applicants were male. Also this would need to be weighed against a generally higher percentage of male EFL teachers "overseas" all over the world - and a clear majority of female ESL teachers in the US. Jumping to the conclusion that this is simply the result of bias is unwarranted. Is there a bias against the hiring of male elementary school teachers in the US simply because statistically more elementary school teachers are female. Most male elementary school teachers will tell you it's a bull market and that school principles (not to mention the kids) are overjoyed to hire a male teacher.

BTW, the teacher we DID end up hiring out of all of these applicated was a 60-year old female from overseas. Our first choice was an EFL professional who happened to be in Japan but he took a full-time position just before we were able to make our (rather meager) offer.

[Zzonkmiles]

Well, here's my story.

I graduated with a BA in 1999 and received a job offer with NOVA in the winter of 2000. However, I turned it down so I could go to graduate school and ended up finishing my MA at age 26. My rationale for not taking the NOVA offer the first time around was because I knew that if I went to Japan, I'd likely stay there for a very very long time. So I wanted to get my other personal goals out of the way first and also make myself a more attractive candidate for better jobs in Japan. (Doing NOVA for several years was not so appealing to me, even though I certainly didn't hate NOVA at all.)

Anyway, I reinterviewed with NOVA a semester before I graduated and had the benefit of being interviewed by the same guy who interviewed me the first time. After passing that interview and finishing graduate school, I came to Japan via NOVA at age 26 with my MA and about two years of experience with tutoring Japanese and Korean students and another year of experience serving as a high school teacher's aide. In my final semester of graduate school, I also took a course in TEFL, which gave me some academic background and introduced me to different types of language teaching (Silent Way, audiolingual, total physical response, etc.). This information really helped me in the classroom. My knowledge of the Japanese language itself was restricted to about 50 kanji, both kana syllabaries, and only the present and past tenses (as far as grammar was concerned).

After nearly two years at NOVA, I was fortunate enough to be able to secure an actual teaching position at a senmongakko (technical college). I talked to my new boss about why she hired me instead of one of the other literally 100+ applicants for this position. She told me that my MA helped distinguish me (it wasn't linguistics, English, or TESOL, but rather journalism, which is only tangentially related). She also said my ability to speak Japanese (roughly 2-kyu level) helped and that my experience working with Japanese students (NOVA) was also attractive. Another interesting thing she noted was my conduct during my interview and teaching demonstration and the quality of my cover letter and resume. I include all this information to tell/suggest to you that "trading up" not strictly about qualifications, but rather a composite of attractive factors. I highly doubt I would have been selected for this position if I had come to Japan in 2000 with only a BA and with far less academic and professional experience. Luck also played a part in it, as I found my job in Ohayo Sensei, a publication that I generally did NOT read (since most of the postings in that publication are for the Tokyo area).

Anyway, I really enjoy teaching, but I also enjoy learning languages too. I know I can't rest on my laurels now, so once again I'd like to advance myself somehow. I've already been accepted into a linguistics PhD/MA dual degree program at my old university and I've deferred my enrollment for two years while I've been working in Japan. It's now just a matter of choosing when I will return to the US. I will either do it next summer (in mid-contract, with giving my employer sufficient notice, of course) or do it the following spring when my contract ends. I haven't decided yet, but this is a very nice decision to have to make--get a PhD or stay in Japan at my relatively cushy gig? It took a lot of work for me to have this kind of luxury though.

But why would I want to go back to school to get more training and qualifications if I already have a pretty good gig in Japan now? As I said earlier, I don't want to be in the classroom indefinitely. I'd like to be an administrator or language school director of some sort. Or I could use my linguistics training to enter other areas, such as political consulting, teaching basic Japanese at a university back home, or even starting my own linguistics program at an American university. So I have many options back home. But if I come back to Japan after I graduate (my wife is Japanese), I'd be armed with a PhD in linguistics, two masters degrees (journalism and linguistics), a TESOL certificate, and hopefully 1-kyu Japanese. So I should be competitive for the cushier gigs here as well if I ever needed to come back (which is a real possibility). By the way, I'm 29 now too and expect to finish my PhD when I'm about 35 or 36.

Before you come to Japan, you really have to decide if Japan/teaching English is just a temporary adventure for you (make some cash, "experience Asia," satisfy your wanderlust, etc.) or if it's truly a career for you. Teaching English in Japan generally only qualifies you to teach English in a foreign country or perhaps teach nonnative speakers in your home country. As others have mentioned, the competition for jobs is quite fierce, and the 23-year old FOB guy with a freshly minted BA is not going to have much luck competing with more established and more thoroughly credentialed teachers. If Japan is only a temporary step for you, then doing a year or two at NOVA should suit your needs just fine. If you're more serious about it, either come to Japan for a little while just to see if you like it before going back to school to get credentialed, or simply do what I did and hold off on Japan until after you've gotten your academic credentials first. In my case, my MA helped me get my current job and also helped me rake in more than 100,000 yen in salary bonuses at NOVA, for example (NOVA paid me a 5000 yen bonus each month because of my MA, which added up over time. Also, 5000 yen a month may seem small, but the other schools generally offer a smaller bonus or offer no qualification bonus at all.)

As for your age, I wouldn't worry so much about it. Better late than never, right? I think your age really becomes more of an issue if you return back home and try to enter a field that is entirely unrelated to teaching English. It would behoove you to advance yourself in other ways (outside of work) if you do come here and are thinking about staying for awhile. Learn the language, pay off your debts, learn something cultural that you can share with your friends back home, take distance ed classes, or whatever. Just don't think of Japan as an extended holiday that is paid for by your NOVA gig. The absolute worst thing you could do is come to Japan, languish here for 5 or 6 years at NOVA/GEOS/AEON/whatever, not save any money, not learn any Japanese, and then go back home and try to look for a job. That's a very good way to screw up your future and restrict your options.

Choose wisely.

[Glenski]

[Gordon]

Zzonkmiles, another option for you is to do your PhD by distance. You can do it p/t and still work in Japan. Many positives and you don't lose your job and still be here to job hunt for an even better job.

[PAULH]

Im doing mine by distance through Birmingham. Expensive, a lot of work but at least i get to go to the UK once a year. I would suggest you forget about girlfriends and dating, much less wives while you do it as it requires a lot of time and dedication.

Temple offers a D.Ed at Osaka and Tokyo campuses.

[abufletcher]

Zzonk has an interesting story to tell. I can imagine having gone that way. I wish sometimes that I had thought about doing an Ph.D. earlier. Well, I suppose I DID think about it and figured (several times) it wasn't for the likes of me. It took me almost 20 years to decide otherwise. Maybe it took me those 20 years to become the sort of person that Ph.D.s ARE for.

As far as whether to "go or stay" (also known as the "on campus vs. distance" debate), I'd say it really boils down to a question of marketability. My Ph.D. is, I suppose a "distance" degree in the sense that I did it while still working in Japan. However, the University of York has no official distance program and I did exactly what a British student "in residence" would have done. I might as well have been living in Doncaster for all it mattered. Most British Ph.D.s (or D.Phils.) are pure research degrees.

But try telling that to search committees in the US. In terms of landing a tenure-track assistance professorship in the US, I don't think there is any doubt that a Ph.D. from an American university will get you much further. In the US, an on-campus program is designed to both guide you through the process while providing practical training in the job of being an American university professor along the way. You will, in concert with your supervisor, manage resources or laboratories, write grant proposals, serve on editorial boards, write several qualifying papers which will qualify you to teach in areas outside of your specialty once you have your degree, you'll possibly co-write and co-present a paper with your supervisor at a big national conference, and maybe even TA (in practice "teach") a graduate seminar or two. Your supervisor's connections will (if you play your cards right) become your connections.

In the UK, I feel, that most doctoral programs still operate much more on the model of the "gentleman scholar" who toils away anonymously and without much input from supervisors then presents evidence of his or her brilliance after some agreed upon period of time.

But then if you're really doing this for the sake of a job you need to be extremely mercenary about which specialty you choose. I'd say testing and literacy are the two fields most likely to get you a job in the US today. Educational technology and topics related to education and society/ethnic groups (as they relate to K-12) are next. There are a few programs offering a Ph.D. in program direction but there's aren't many director positions out there -- and most aren't jobs that anyone would want to have for very long. Just take a look through the job announcements on the AAAL board and you'll get the drift pretty darn fast.

A Ph.D. per se, on it's own, won't get you much of anything. Coupled with a focused publication agenda, the right personality and connections, and the right sort of experience and it might get you through to the interview stage for a tenure-track job. For most of us we do a Ph.D. because we just can't imagine standing still or doing the same old thing until we're old and grey. And that is a satisfying and honorable goal in its own right.

To the original poster I say this: If you don't want to end up participating in discussions like this when you're pushing 40 (or 50), you'd better look for another long-term career!

[gaijinalways]

Getting the degrees, publishing, networking, improving your Japanese, all of these will help in getting jobs. That and slowly building up experience in the teaching areas that you want to work in.

As to the uni jobs, they are getting much harder to come by. Bad jobs with bad schedules at crappy schools are still out there (and often bad pay), but the better stuff has a lot of CVs chasing them. And the schools are cutting back by offering more limited term contracts with fewer renewals possible for both part-time and full time jobs. And some universities using agencies to hire people as they can more easily drop the classes

As to Abdu's earlier comments about who he'd like to see teaching classes, yes, that bias toward Japanese nationals is silly sometimes. I have seen Japanese nationals teaching British culture classes, while the full time British lecturer taught the lower level English classes (that makes a lot of sense). Of course the full timers tend to take the better classes, though some of the new full timers have complained about their schedules sometimes (not that I think the part-timers have better ones, I just got stuck with a single class on Fridays for the next academic year. Now I have to try and find something to go with it as it is far from ideal to be travelling 1.5 hrs each way to teach a 90 minute class).

[abufletcher]

[Gordon]

Yeah, abu your commuting time is a real killer. What is it 4 minutes door to door?

The joys of country living in Japan is that even if you do have a drive, it is a pleasant route. It takes me about 15 mins to drive on a quiet country road, never with any traffic. I could never live in a big city in Japan.

[Nismo]

If, as has been mentioned, it's not what you know, but who you know, then there is no real clearly defined path to success.

I�ve met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, �Why?� Why did I insist on the path I took? Didn�t I realize that credentials are sacred, unique snowflakes of special unique specialness? Can�t I see how there is only the one path to teaching English? I look at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God�s got this all wrong. Credentials are not special. Credentials are not crap or trash, either. Credentials just are. Credentials just are, and what happens just happens. And God says, �No, that�s not right.� Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can�t teach God anything.

[abufletcher]

[abufletcher]