Job Discussion Forums

[RingofFire]

I was fortunate enough to be allowed to intern at an ESL department in a middle school for the past few months here in NY before I take off for Japan - this is the second time I'll be working there after a two-year stint at an eikaiwa the first time. For the most part I observed classes but got to substitute on two occasions when teachers were absent and others couldn't fill in.

I think I'll finish up my internship here with a much greater respect for teachers stuck with teaching K-12 in any content area, especially ESL. Salary-wise, it's somewhat higher than teaching in eikaiwa, but such a salary is still difficult to live on in NY, and one would be hard-pressed to find a comparable starting salary in a place that would have a lower cost of living in my opinion. Motivation among students varies but the bright students are at times carried down by the marginal students who have no interest in picking up English. I also found the paperwork and responsibilities to be more extensive as there are various other activities outside of class that require teachers' attention as well.

So I compare this experience to my time in Japan. The paperwork at my first eikaiwa was daunting, of course, and I've definitely lost time trying to complete the daily requirements, but I never had to attend teachers' and administrative meetings on a regular basis, and I never had to review lesson plans with my peers post-training. In terms of my classes, I feel I had a lot more freedom to teach what I wanted to when I was in Japan, as opposed to the teachers I observed; administration at this school was definitely more demanding than that at my old eikaiwa. Progress in a K-12 is measured by a strict timetable, while I could always recommend to my eikaiwa students new classes based on their rate of improvement.

(I'm not even going to try to inject in detail my thoughts about language schools in NY - what I will say is that I prefer various other language learning settings to some language school environments I've experienced)

If one were to read this board, one could easily have the operating assumption that teaching at eikaiwas is so much worse than teaching in a formal educational setting. While I agree that the former is no picnic, I think the point remains that if one working in Japan were to look to remain a teacher, they would have a difficult time looking for easier or better working conditions.

Further, if I were to compare the typical middle school student in my school to the typical eikaiwa student I've taught, I really would have a hard time deciding who would eventually become the better speaker in their second/foreign language. At first glance, neither student seems comparable to the other because the latter takes language classes in addition to classes he's taken in formal education. But the former student has regular exposure to the target language due to the environment in which he lives, and has more class time per week than your typical once a week eikaiwa student. If a teacher were to pick which student he could teach (few of us do, if ever, but all of us think about it), and given that teachers here talk much about working conditions, it wouldn't surprise me if many preferred the Japanese student of English.

I think what I want to say is this: I ended up not liking, and in fact ended up hating, many aspects of my first eikaiwa job (on the whole, the experience was rewarding and useful, and the teaching itself was something I came to love). However, I think I would hate even more being a language teacher here at home unless I am at a high enough point in my career where I could cherry-pick the opportunities that offer the least resistance.

Finally, I think about how I used to feel in my low points during my first stay in Japan. It was in one of those low points where I decided to quit and come back to the States to regroup and try again. But as I look back, it seems to me that I was never as low or frustrated or fatigued as some language teachers I've worked with here in NY. A few (a blessed few) never get tired and are always up to a challenge, but the ones who aren't, are the ones who talk in absolutes. Absolutes as in "I haven't slept in forever" or "I don't think I've ever stopped writing or planning or whatever since I came to work here."

(this is why I find some of the threads here quite laughable; they are comparable to what I've known personally about eikaiwa, but they seem minor to me compared to what these teachers do)

So, these are just some unofficial, unscientific observations and conclusions (and rant, I'll admit), but I wanted to get it out there, and all are welcome to challenge them.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Interesting. A lot of us in Japan aren't actually working at eikaiwas though.

BTW, I'd be interested in reading about what the private language schools in New York were actually like.

[Symphany]

Ringofire, I can't say I've worked at both Eikawa and Public schools here in Canada, but I hear what you're saying. EFL and ESL seem to be almost two completely different fields. I haven't seen alot of ESL jobs here that I would be that much interested in. I take your word for it about the drag teachers in public schools face with ESL. I'm not sure it even has that much to do with the school system itself but that the problem stems from society and how (North American society in general) views English as a language, and English as a second language. The Japanese people I met were always saying Japanese is a "difficult" language to learn and people that I got to know were always ready and willing to help "teach" me the language. I wonder if things are anything close to the same here in Canada (or the US). EFL is highly valued by many Asian societies, whereas in Canada and the US, although its vital for proper integration into our societies, it just seems to be pushed onto the backburner.