Job Discussion Forums

[sidjameson]

I was just wondering if others have taught in other countries and can compare the teaching situation. Are Japanese students THAT bad? I've been here 6 years and to be honest I find them ok, but I do teach at a high level uni and jhs. When I move on will I notice the difference. Of course in comparing we must be careful. Compare like with like. If you taught uninterested engineers here but went on to teach "flirting in English" at a modeling school in Milan it might be wise to mention it.

[Gordon]

Sid, you will find a world of difference between Japanese students and almost anyone else. I've taught in Korea at all ages and levels and also 6 years in Canada teaching immigrants and foreign students. Like you, I'm teaching at a uni here and frankly I was appalled at the low level of English and interest here. I can live with a low level (we all start somewhere) but apathy is another matter. I really miss having discussions with students and hearing them debate or contradict one another. I also miss having students from different ethnic backgrounds share their experiences. Maybe I'm just having a bad week, but its hard to instill some life in students when they don't want to do anything more for themselves.

[grace]

I can strongly sympathise with Gordon. After teaching eager foreign students in Canada, and working in Mexico and Italy, where most of the students were expressive, lively, and fun to teach, I'm really bored and discouraged with Japanese students' apathy. I sure do miss teaching in Latin cultures! However, I am the one who decided to come here to experience the Asian culture!! Grace

[denise]

I teach university-aged students in a university setting. (Intensive English--not quite uni classes--the Ss have to pass through our program in order to get into the university.) Now that I have been here almost a year and have become a bit more comfortable in my job, I do see ways to get them to participate, but still... SHEEEESH!!! What bothers me more than the lack of participation is the lack of academic curiosity. Really, it's not their fault, since all through their youth they were basically taught to memorize rather than think, but I still expect students who are planning on going to an American university (that's what my program prepares them for) to realize that there is a different way of thinking and to make some effort to think accordingly.

Several of my recent classes have centered around the media and current events, and thankfully the students knew enough of what's going on in the world to be able to discuss. Still, I am shocked at how little they seem to want to challenge themselves. Recently, one student mentioned that he enjoyed reading. "Woo-hoo!" I thought. Until he continued by saying, "I read comic books, magazines, and so on."

Oh, and for the sake of comparison, I also taught university-aged students in the Czech Republic. They weren't always gregarious/verbose, but they certainly had opinions and were willing to debate. I think... (Maybe I'm so disillusioned now that previous experiences seem perfect by comparison.)

d

[Brooks]

I was speaking to a sales manager from Oxford last Friday. He is from Brighton and taught in Osaka for a few years. He was surprised that I am in my fourth year at the same school.
He said, "you must have a lot of patience."

Yes, I must have learned it. I have taught in Morocco, Poland, and Russia.
It is different here in Japan for me, partly because I have almost only taught teens. But I have to work harder here, and I am forced to be more creative.

Teaching in Morocco was good but the pay was not.

Last month I had considered using American Headway with my students but I thought the book would be too hard for them. Not that I don`t like the book. I used Headway in Casablanca and it was fine for those students, mostly because the students didn`t have any hang-ups about speaking English in class, and weren`t anxious, uptight, or afraid to make mistakes.
I find that my students generally need books with many speaking exercises. Even if I could find the perfect textbook for me, it doesn`t matter as long as I have some students who aren`t motivated to learn.

[shmooj]

I have been blown away by the general standard of people's English here in Seoul - not only in the classroom but in all walks of life. Granted, it is the capital city of the nation and it may be just that the students where I work are particularly motivated being one of the most expensive places you can study. However, I have to say that I think I would approach teaching Japanese students again with a bit of foreboding now.

[Gordon]

[Mike L.]

[Brooks]

A woman I used to work with spent about a month outside Pusan in Korea last year, doing teacher training. She noticed that the Korean English teachers used English in the classroom and that Koreans overall seemed generally better at English than Tokyo people.

At my school many Japanese English teachers don`t want to speak English and they teach English like it was a dead language like Latin.

A Japanese woman who works at Oxford was at a conference in Bangkok where she met Oxford representatives from east Asia. She learned that in Korea and Taiwan, the books sold tend to be at a higher level than the books sold in Japan. In Japan it seems that the overall ability of students is going down. Why is this?

[shmooj]

[6810]

Denise, Mike L.,

When teaching english in Japan myself, I too encountered the same apathy and laziness. Of course you come up with whatever you can to make the experience worthwhile, even if only yourself when confronted with such situations.

Now, although slightly off-topic, I'm not teaching english anymore, I teach in cultural studies in Australia.

This is what I've learned.

Students in Oz, especially younger ones, early twenties are as equally if not more apathetic than their Japanese counterparts. They do very little, say less and think analytically even less than the former. When challenged, they are openly resentful of having been challenged. Others yet, despair for the ignorance they lost once they had to critically think about things. This behaviour, in my opinion, is generally eveident in people around this age because they really don't care why they're there. Mature age studnets are often lively, engaged and very vocal. They get their money's worth. found this to be true in Japan teaching english also.

This attitude is not limited to twenty somethings. A good friend teaches in a local high school and fiinds all the same things to be true.

Now, I'm no fuddy-duddy, at the age of 26 I'm the youngest academic at my institution. It's not like I'm trying to bitch about the youth. Because I AM the youth! But the apathy I believe, stems from the reasons for why students are in the class room.

people often report more "rewarding" teaching experience from less "affluent" nations. Of course, because there is a hunger, a desire to learn. People are generally doing what they are doing for a reason!

Which is not to say that Japanese students aren't doing their english studies for a reason. It's just that they are doing them for different reasons. There is also a culture of learning in Japan where english is considered more or less a hobby. The hunger for learning then is of a different kind.

So the challenge is, how to inspire?

I just think of that old Krishnamurti quote:

"If you want to inspire others, be a flame unto thyself."

[shmooj]

[Lynn]

I taught children in Japan and Korea. The biggest difference was the Japanese "gaijin complex". Korean children didn't have this at all. Their English was limited, but they used every word they knew to try to talk to me. (in English)

[lajzar]

[markle]

I haven't taught in Japan but I get the general feeling that it's much the same as what I encountered in Thailand (only much better paid). I attribute the apathy mostly to a lack of need to do well in English. Not to be confused with 'want to' or 'would like to' but a 'need to' in terms of career or social advancement. The ESL industry has been very good at scaring people into thinking that people is important but the economic and social imperatives are not there. The fact that English is a cumpulsory part of the Education curiculum has little impact, since it's just another hurdle to be overcome then forgotten, like algebra. I also look to the 'grandparents' factor, if the eldery population has a general ability with the language then it's passed on better for whatever reason.