Job Discussion Forums

[fion]

My problem:
In time for the sweating season, the university has rendered all aircons non-adjustable; the thermostat is set permanently at 26C.

(Opening a window is a problem as insects fly in and then the students start screaming and flapping their arms around. The hand-flapping confuses the killer moths, making it more difficult for me to catch them and put them outside. Catching the students and putting them outside might be a better option)


Thing is, I've always had the idea that 19C was the best temperature for teaching/learning, something to do with the neurons in the brain? Can't remember who told me this or when.

I've done a quick search, and most sources just recommend a 'comfortable' classroom temperature. Where a temperature is specified, it ranges from some place in Texas which boasts that their classes are taught at the 'optimum' temperature of 65F/18.3C (sounds like heaven to me, but I doubt if the students would stand for it) to other studies which reckon performance deteriorates above 75 or 80F, take your pick.

Surely there must be a solid answer somewhere to the simple question: what temperature is best for language acquisition?
I don't expect to have any luck with getting the thermostat changed - this is a Japanese institution - but there would be some satisfaction in knowing for sure I am right and they are wrong.

Any views on this? Is there an 'official' ideal temperature? Any research to back it up?

[gaijinalways]

Be thankful you have some ac. Some of the high schools and junior high schools still don't have it. Where I work, one place we can control it and we the teachers like it around 24. The optimum temperture for humans is 20-22 C. Some of the other places, we can't even put it on, so many of these days the school thinks it isn't hot or muggy enough to turn it on (like today, ugh).

[sidjameson]

I teach at one of the recently privAtised national universities. In Osaka, which has the hottest summers in Japan. Our semesters finish a little later than most I think. (July 20th) NO BLOODY AIR CON AT ALL. So thank yourself lucky.

I agree about the insect thing. If a foreign power wanted to destablize Japan in the long term all they would have to do is get secret agents to infiltrate any areas around schools of any description and plant insect collonies. In 20 years you would have a nation of totally uneducated morons.
Actually I just though of a way to keep undesirables ( salesman, NHK reps, ex girlfriends) away from ones home. tie a moth to a piece of string and pin it to the door.

[earthmonkey]

23 is good. It's good as a temperature, and just a good number in general.
Just think of 23 as an answer to the following questions. Then tell me if it's not a good number.

Q: What temperature is your classroom?
A: 23.

Q: How old is your girlfriend?
A: 23

Q: How many hours do you not work in a day?
A: 23

Q: How many drinks did you have before making this post?
A: 23

23 is good!

[king kakipi]

Q Earthmonkey, what is your IQ?
A

[king kakipi]

Try teaching at Toshiba. Preset at 28!!! To save money. Good way to lose weight......

[luckbox]

At my university, our classroom AC works fine. The problem is, when I try to turn it on, some students invariably go into cold shock, as though they'd just been transported to the North Pole. So I end up just keeping it off most often and sweating it out, especially after one student claimed to have caught a cold in my class the week prior. All kidding aside, it is an issue you should teat with respect. Japanese bodies seem to have different temperature thresholds than Westerners. And I think in the hot humid heat of Japan, there is something to be said about catching colds due to fluxuations from hot to cold.

[shikushiku-boy]

Interesting...I was looking at an airline review site...lots of
gaijin passengers complaining about hot, stuffy JAL flights.
It sounds as if JAL flight attendants would rather the gaijin
passengers keel over with heat-exhaustion, than turn down the
tempreture a couple of degrees.

Is it any wonder Jaqpanese people seem to suffer one cold
after another, when they sit around all day in over heated
rooms. The world isn't supposed to be the same tempreture
as onsen water.

[J.]

Actually, in some of the places I teach part time, we have just the option of low, medium, or high for the air conditioner and try controlling the temperature with those settings. There are inevitably places in the classroom where the air vents blast out the cold air ( and for some reason those are usually in the students' section ) and dead spots where it's hot as hades ( inevitably the places at the front where the teacher often stands). Maybe you've noticed, teaching is hot work; you burn a lot of energy and you are going to be comfortable at a lower temperature than people glued to their desks. My suggestions: Tell students teaching is hot work and ask them to bring sweaters to class, get them up and moving around with games or pair conversation, and yourself walk around the classroom whenever you can to get a cool breeze.

If all else fails, teach with an uchiwa in one hand and a handkerchief in the other. Or give extra credit for fanning you.

[Like a Rolling Stone]

i　Like to teach in tropical conditions so I keep the air con off. I had some problems before when kids swtitvhed it on and then some said they were too cold so I switched it off then some kids were too hot. Now i open all the windows and doors and have a gentle tropical breeze and i keep a box of tissues to wipe down my sweaty brow. i keep my jacket on to hide sweat stains

[JimDunlop2]

Personally, I don't care. If there's an air conditioner in the room... It gets USED. At home especially. I don't care how much it costs. 10,000/month electricity bill? So be it! I want to be comfortable.

They can have my aircon remote control when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

[poof]

It was only a few weeks back here in Korea that I saw some promotion somewhere for some special cooling headsets. It boasted that having a slightly cooler brain can enhance your study capabilities. Perhaps someone can search for it on the Internet - I need to go to sleep now. But, rest assured, the love of heat is a Korean phenomenon, too. I have to share an office with Koreans and whilst us foreigners are currently dripping with sweat and going into heat shock, the Koreans tell us to switch off the fans because it's too 'cold.' They even put on a pained, shivering look to suggest they will fall sick if that damn fan is left on for a second longer... I personally think that the addiction to hot rooms/saunas/onsen serious affects the long term natural regulation of body temperature. And it affects WOMEN only. Sigh. Perhaps we can assign Japan's global ranking as the poorest English language learners to having too hot bodies. What d'ya think?

[JimDunlop2]

The easiest way to get around such senseless BS is to present them with the logical alternatives....

I.e. I'm so hot my goolies are gonna melt into the floor, and you say it's too cold in here. Well, I'm happy to take my pants and shirt off to cool down or YOU can put on a sweater. I can swing either way, babe. Choice is yours!

[fion]

Thank you all for good suggestions! The Korean cooling helmet sounds good. I don't think I'll be removing any more clothes in the classroom, I'm already down to the minimum!

[cafebleu]

Fion and other posters - there is no mystery or significance in the lack of cooling systems in many classrooms (kindergarten/primary school/junior high school/university/college etc). It boils down to these factors in Japan -

A miserable Scrooge-like attitude to spending money, and a weird attitude to discomfort especially towards those under the authority of someone - ie students.

If you ever teach anywhere else you'll see classrooms full of hot, miserable children/adolescents who have to endure acute humidity on top of the very hot summers in most parts of Japan. There are usually no airconditioners and no fans.

During my time in Japan I encountered this unnecessary and bloody minded attitude that students and their teachers didn't count and that being so uncomfortable somehow had no bearing on the state of mind and performances of both students and teacher.

When I first went to Japan the iiwake (excuse) that was given to me was no cooling systems in govt schools was due to no money. You'll encounter that binbo (poor) mentality throughout Japanese society where lavish spending goes on irrelevant things that boost images or look good but the essentials are neglected. A bit of nouveau-think.

The fact is the real reason for this is lack of priority - reflecting that there is not money to assist with students learning in comfortable environments although there is money to waste on many public projects that don't see the light of day in other more fiscally responsible countries.

It also reflects a nasty mentality that belongs to the feudal past - make the underlings gaman (endure). Students are not considered to have any kinds of rights in Japan. Therefore there will be an airconditioner usually in the staff room of public schools but not in the classroom.

The same thinking is found in many private kindergartens - I was shocked by the appalling conditions for the littlies at a Buddhist run kindergarten I worked at for a while.

Buddhists monks/nuns are chiefly business men and women in Japan and the woman who was my boss told me over 2 years that the students just had to put up with 35 degrees in the classroom. Plus terrible humidity.

I finally had enough and told her nicely that I would work there if they bought fans for the 3 classes I taught. I told her where she could buy 3 great fans for about 3,000 yen but she baulked. I said sorry - I can't expect children to learn in such conditions and it explained why they were so restless and didn't want to partipate during the real summer season.

She said it wasn't possible so I resigned that day after classes. I wasn't on a contract, I only taught 4x a month there, and so I felt no obligation to stick around under such conditions.

As for the excuse that the Japanese are able to endure what westerners can't in terms of temperature - seeing so many Japanese with sweat literally pouring down their faces, wet hair and clear distress at the heat over a number of summers during my time in Japan while I didn't feel so bad despite coming from the UK, showed me what that theory was worth. Zilch.