Job Discussion Forums

[Alberta605]

Looking back at Japan I have to say that I won't be too sorry to make a change, but really only for employment reasons.

The 'Teachers' - Well lets be honest, they aren't really teachers at all are they. I think most real teacher training courses have hundreds of standards that need to be passed and are assessed by qualified professionals holding PhD's. What percentage of language instructors would pass this test? My take on these people, and I am guilty of making a horrible generalization here, is that they arrive degree in hand but really going nowhere in their own countries. After some time they begin to realize that people of significantly better social status (remember that 90% plus of the Japanese consider themselves to be middle class) are actually listening to them and perhaps even learning from them. Major head swell follows as does that palpable sense of self-importance most gaijin exude. Three words Keep It Real.
I see this happening where I work right now. A once personable young man 20 something has worked there for a little more than a year. Suddenly he becomes an expert on everything, his response to any remark more intelligent than he can make is 'I know'. He has taken to unsolicited report writing but such actions go down badly at that school. But, everyone wants/needs to be someone right?

Gaijin Managers

These are often bizarre and annoying. I met a recruiter for AEON and it was like being interviewed by a school boy with a ridiculous little stick on beard that might be sold at a joke shop. Others behave as if they actually own the place and pay the rent on the office suite. Instead of taking feedback on instructor performance from the students they observe a lesson and then dispense specific instructions on how it may be done much better in their solitary opinion. This is not the behavior of a good manager. A good manager surely would not be so arrogant and foolish to believe he knows everything. S/he would know that each instructor has a unique style and that as long as the students are happy then everything is going just fine. Give me a Japanese manager that leaves you to get on with it any day.

Gaijin Owners

Fortunately I've never worked in this particular situation although I've read plenty. One owner that's had plenty of air time recently is a Brian Miller from the New Village in Kobe, who sounds like a total ass pain.

So, it is nearly time to say goodbye to Japan and its fantastic public transport, outstanding food life, often incredibly delicious eye-candy and often amazing and confounding culture.

[G Cthulhu]

[Alberta605]

You should consider amending your post and swapping the word 'if' for 'when' (and 'were' for 'is' just for the sake of grammar zzz). 8 or 9 times out of 10 it is one, the other or a combination of both. (entertainment and/or business that is).

[anne_o]

You're certainly right about many of the foreign teachers and managers here. Complete losers and dorks who arrive here (Tokyo) and suddenly think they are cool. Most of the managers and people who have been here for a long stint have lost all of the little personality they might have once had, and become puppets in both their personal and professional lives.
This is what I've seen.
But the statements about not having qualifications or any success in their own country are so trite.
So are the stereotypes of Japanese men that Western men have been perpetuating for decades.....sorry, had to throw that in!
Academia and all of these teaching certification courses are highly overrated. I'm not saying that they are useless and don't make many better teachers....but, I really feel you need the personality to match.
I worked with an Australian girl in Thailand. We both taught 2nd grade. She has a degree in Education, I have a degree in Photography. Her classes were boring and the students learned less from her uptight personality and teaching methods that no one had ever heard of or cared about.
In my opinion, to be successful in this career, one needs and adaptable and creative personality. Many holding proper qualifications are academic drunks and so full of themselves that all of their ego and training get in the way of actually relating on a human level.
We are humans teaching other humans.
People take this job way too seriously sometimes.
Also, what is a success? Many of us never wanted to be 'successful' and enjoy the freedom of travel and experiencing culture while pursuing other interests, which in the end makes us much more interesting to learn from.

[Miyazaki]

Alberta,

I agree with everything you wrote. I see it left, right and centre. But what can you do about it? It is the way it is. 22 year old Australian Trainers and Assistant Trainers at NOVA on a working holiday visa or Bachelor of History degree telling 30, 40, 50 something year old teachers what to do and how to teach!

Most places are like this. And you won't escape it by going and teaching in Korea, Thailand or Taiwan - it's the same deal these places also!

Maybe time to get out, stand back and re-assess your 'career' options.

Good luck!

[gonzarelli]

reverse culture shock is awesome

[poohbear]

alberta i dont really agree w/ what u're saying AFTER returning to canada. i see the same stuff here, people pretending to know stuff they dont know at all & acting like they're king $hit cause they're in a managerial position that they dont like but are stuck w/ for whatever reason. how is this unique to japan? When u return to whereever it is u're from, this will slowly seep in and all the negative impressions u have of these "gaijin managers" u'll see in your country, except they're not gaijin anymore, they're very much local. cheers and enjoy ur return, like the poster above me said, reverse culture shock is gonna be lotsa fun.

[markle]

[poohbear]

[markle]

[ripslyme]

I know this is "the internet" and all, but is it too much to refrain from the chatroom speak on a ESL/EFL Student and Teacher discussion board? I'm not suggesting that one need write in the language in academia for an informal discussion of the ins and outs of teaching EFL in Japan. However, even if you have the most enlightened message, if it's full of

[poohbear]

lol i never thought of it at all like that, writing is just a medium for communication, since we were just communicating in an informal setting, i never considered for a second that i should use complete sentences or formalize my writing. this is the internet afterall and any other forum you'll see people writing like this. as for the student's reading this, well, welcome to the internet, besides i wasnt aware they're reading since this is a job discussion forum? we're mostly native speakers here and you dont need a special internet workshop to figure out "u" means "you". Maybe dave's esl forums is stricter than other forums, or people are just more prudish, but i'll try to be more mindful of it next time. cheers.

[Vince]

Maybe it was just the culture of the place at which you worked. I remember a couple of teachers who became full of themselves after starting a certificate or MA program, but most of them were realistic about their job and their place in Japan.

It's a bit much to generalize EFL teachers as losers back home. Many of them took EFL jobs right after finishing college, so they didn't have a chance to develop significant professional experience back home. That's not the same as "going nowhere." It's true that their degrees were often unrelated to EFL, but the job didn't require that ("any degree, training provided"). From overseas, these ads look impressive. So the teachers arrive in Japan, find out that the prospects aren't what they were led to believe, and just stick it out until they can move on to better things in Japan or go elsewhere. I've kept in touch with many of my former EFL friends, and most of them are back home doing well.