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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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 Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:12 pm Post subject: The disadvantages of teaching in Japan. |
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Apparently this is what teachers in Japan have to put up with.
Anything sound familiar? 
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- The belief that there is nothing (mixed levels, lack of a teacher�s book, lack of experience etc etc) that you can�t overcome with a gambarimasu can-do spirit
- Incredibly tired business students who really should be having a nap instead of coming to class
- The chances that the economy will slowly fade away leaving your yen worth nothing if you stay here too long
- The difficulty of investing that yen in a way to make them worth the effort even if the economy doesn�t shrivel up like the aging population�s skin
- Prejudice against mixed race kids
- Too many interesting books about Japan meaning your ETP magazines and linguistics books get dusty in a corner
- Split shifts and Saturdays (although that�s certainly not just Japan)
- Loads of potential cultural banana skins in the classroom and out (although you�ll probably be forgiven all of them)
- Being asked very personal questions
- Being asked the same bizarre questions like �Can you eat Japanese food?� and �Do they have four seasons in your country?� over and over
- The occasional student who takes two minutes of silence before each two word reply
- Some very dirty schools and kindergartens (because the staff are supposed to clean up but are overworked and there is no full-time cleaner). Very unexpected that one!
- Students who just want to chat but have nothing to talk about
- Replies to �How was your weekend?� usually being �I slept�, �I cleaned my room�, �Nothing special� or just a cringe
- Being far behind the rest of the world in terms of getting hold of the latest materials
- Some terrible locally produced materials, especially the self-study stuff in Japanese your students might be using, including stuff from NHK (�the BBC of Japan� my arse!)
- Some long and crowded travel (although your shift times might cut down on that)
- Some tiny classrooms
- Getting very sweaty in the summer before you even reach your front door
- Having to teach the phonemic script, how to do pairwork, classroom language, grammar terminology in English etc etc from scratch with each new student
- Some awful teaching your students have gone through from both native speaker and Japanese teachers, although that can make you feel like the total professional with very little effort�
- A lack of clear career paths (although again that is not exclusive to TEFL in Japan)
- A lack of CELTA and DELTA or equivalent teacher training jobs
- A lack of FCE, IELTS etc spoken examiner work
- The number of TOEIC classes, but I guess if you can make that exam interesting you will never have any fears teaching BEC�
- JALT being a bit elitist (but then there is ETJ for the rest of us)
- Japanese being tricky (but interesting)
- Never being able to admit that you are an Eikaiwa teacher at parties
- The substantial chances of another school chain or two collapsing like Nova
- University jobs being hard to get and with continuously reduced working conditions
- 30 classroom hours being a standard Eikaiwa week
- A lot of the workshops being aimed at Japanese primary school teachers with no knowledge of English teaching at all
- The British Council shrinking, closing down branches and closing down the library (also not just Japan)
- A particularly unpleasant Dave�s ESL Cafe forum
- Lots of low level students
- Some very restrictive school policies of things such as sensible use of L1 (although in other ways you are left on your own if you never get student complaints)
- Managers and the people who write the school rules getting used to 23 year old idiots and so treating everyone that way |
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/teaching/the-disadvantages-of-teaching-in-japan/ |
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ticktocktocktick
Joined: 31 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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| �Do they have four seasons in your country?� |
Aren't the four seasons unique to Korea? I bet the Japs stole them during the occupation. |
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expat2001
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| ticktocktocktick wrote: |
| Quote: |
| �Do they have four seasons in your country?� |
Aren't the four seasons unique to Korea? I bet the Japs stole them during the occupation. |
Even better , a few years ago , a journalist did a series of articles ,trying to prove that it was Japan that brought prostitution to korea. Before the occupation , Korean knew nothing of the worlds oldest trade |
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oldfatfarang
Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: On the road to somewhere.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Japan / Korea = same same. |
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valkerie
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Busan
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:30 am Post subject: |
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Ha - lived in Japan a long time before Korea. Yeah some things are similar but there is a whole lot more that is different  |
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Murakano
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:44 am Post subject: |
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used to live in Japan also...ah the Saturday work thing (for most Eikaiwas in and around Tokyo at least) on top of the whole sales crap/handing out flyers (GEOS/Aeon) ...hmm, the grass is not always greener  |
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Troglodyte
Joined: 06 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:34 am Post subject: |
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| expat2001 wrote: |
| ticktocktocktick wrote: |
| Quote: |
| �Do they have four seasons in your country?� |
Aren't the four seasons unique to Korea? I bet the Japs stole them during the occupation. |
Even better , a few years ago , a journalist did a series of articles ,trying to prove that it was Japan that brought prostitution to korea. Before the occupation , Korean knew nothing of the worlds oldest trade |
Do you have a link to it? I'd love to use it with my adult students. |
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wilson535
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:53 pm Post subject: Re: The disadvantages of teaching in Japan. |
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I am coming to the end of my final contract in Japan after working here for 2 years. Most of this stuff I have to disagree with, although some of it is definitely true. I've worked mainly in public schools and part time in a small independant language school. Most bad rumours tend to be hearsay from my experience, but I'll go into more detail below:
| nautilus wrote: |
| Quote: |
- The belief that there is nothing (mixed levels, lack of a teacher�s book, lack of experience etc etc) that you can�t overcome with a gambarimasu can-do spirit not sure on this one...whenever I had a work related problem people were always willing to help
- Incredibly tired business students who really should be having a nap instead of coming to class is this a big deal? they have to work a 15 hour day and then go to the eikaiwa for an english class. i would be tired too...
- The chances that the economy will slowly fade away leaving your yen worth nothing if you stay here too long possible i suppose but only relevant if you send money home...most jobs dont pay enough for you to be able to do this regularly!!
- The difficulty of investing that yen in a way to make them worth the effort even if the economy doesn�t shrivel up like the aging population�s skin no idea what you're talking about here
- Prejudice against mixed race kids sorry but this is bullshit....I've taught in 7 schools and never experienced anything like this. mixed race kids are all over tv and advertisements here, if anything, they are sometimes seen as fashionable
- Too many interesting books about Japan meaning your ETP magazines and linguistics books get dusty in a corner again, bad thing? i doubt most teachers here have linguistics books, though!
- Split shifts and Saturdays (although that�s certainly not just Japan) depends who you work for, but yup. weekend work is very common. split shifts are usually for adult classes.
- Loads of potential cultural banana skins in the classroom and out (although you�ll probably be forgiven all of them) again...you would have to be an idiot to worry about this. don't mention the atomic bomb and you'll probably be ok.
- Being asked very personal questions yeah this occasionally happens. most students are very polite though.
- Being asked the same bizarre questions like �Can you eat Japanese food?� and �Do they have four seasons in your country?� over and over the 'can you eat' thing is just asking if you like to eat something. that's how you ask it in japanese. the four seasons thing gets me though. it seems to be a thing older people like to brag about here. if there's four season then why is there no bloody central heating???
- The occasional student who takes two minutes of silence before each two word reply pretty sure shyness isn't a uniquely japanese thing
- Some very dirty schools and kindergartens (because the staff are supposed to clean up but are overworked and there is no full-time cleaner). Very unexpected that one! never, ever have I set foot in a school and thought it was dirty. this is just nonsense. in public schools the kids and teachers actually clean up for 15 minutes every day. they wash the floors, clean the board wipers, sweep up etc. in the eikaiwa the messiest people were the foreigners.
- Students who just want to chat but have nothing to talk about i have no idea what this means
- Replies to �How was your weekend?� usually being �I slept�, �I cleaned my room�, �Nothing special� or just a cringe see above
- Being far behind the rest of the world in terms of getting hold of the latest materials i can only speak from my own experience, but i disagree with this.
- Some terrible locally produced materials, especially the self-study stuff in Japanese your students might be using, including stuff from NHK (�the BBC of Japan� my arse!) no idea about this
- Some long and crowded travel (although your shift times might cut down on that) depends where you live, doesnt it. definitely crowded in tokyo though.
- Some tiny classrooms yep
- Getting very sweaty in the summer before you even reach your front door yep
- Having to teach the phonemic script, how to do pairwork, classroom language, grammar terminology in English etc etc from scratch with each new student i've never had to teach phonetics. in fact i can't even read them. i think this is probably the same across the board here. as for the other stuff...probably depends on the job. in public schools the japanese teacher of english teaches the grammar and in eikaiwa the focus is (usually) on conversation, so grammar is picked up naturally.
- Some awful teaching your students have gone through from both native speaker and Japanese teachers, although that can make you feel like the total professional with very little effort� some public school teachers are rubbish, others are really good. the same is true with foreign teachers here except the bad ones have no training whatsoever and can be cringe-inducingly bad. the same is probably true in korea and other places.
- A lack of clear career paths (although again that is not exclusive to TEFL in Japan) yeah, this is definitely true. seeing washed up 36 year olds working the same jobs as fresh graduates (and often earning the same amount of money) makes me cringe...it's a little scary actually.
- A lack of CELTA and DELTA or equivalent teacher training jobs yep...there is very little benefit to having any tefl qualifications here and there are rarely higher paid opportunites for those who do.
- A lack of FCE, IELTS etc spoken examiner work no idea about this
- The number of TOEIC classes, but I guess if you can make that exam interesting you will never have any fears teaching BEC�the TOEIC test is very popular here, never had to teach for it personally
- JALT being a bit elitist (but then there is ETJ for the rest of us) not a member, no idea
- Japanese being tricky (but interesting) true, but again, this isn't a bad thing. challenge yourself. the sense of accomplishment gives me a boner.
- Never being able to admit that you are an Eikaiwa teacher at parties lol yup, i wouldn't either!
- The substantial chances of another school chain or two collapsing like Nova [/b] very possible...GEOS also went under recently. the JET program will possibly be axed soon too. the industry is on it's arse. [/b]
- University jobs being hard to get and with continuously reduced working conditions i've heard this is true...much better options elsewhere
- 30 classroom hours being a standard Eikaiwa week 30 hours at least in some places.
- A lot of the workshops being aimed at Japanese primary school teachers with no knowledge of English teaching at all lol, yes. stupid, stupid, stupid. english is becoming mandatory in primary school from next year, and ALTs are being given the squeeze. Have fun with that.
- The British Council shrinking, closing down branches and closing down the library (also not just Japan) no idea...i've never had any need for it
- A particularly unpleasant Dave�s ESL Cafe forum you should read the gaijinpot forums sometime
- Lots of low level students yep
- Some very restrictive school policies of things such as sensible use of L1 (although in other ways you are left on your own if you never get student complaints) depends on the job. never had a problem personally
- Managers and the people who write the school rules getting used to 23 year old idiots and so treating everyone that way. yeah. pay peanuts and you get monkeys. people generally don't come to japan to teach now. any teacher worth his salt will be working elsewhere.
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http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/teaching/the-disadvantages-of-teaching-in-japan/ |
[/b] |
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oskinny1
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Location: Right behind you!
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 11:43 pm Post subject: Re: The disadvantages of teaching in Japan. |
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| wilson535 wrote: |
| I am coming to the end of my final contract in Japan after working here for 2 years. Most of this stuff I have to disagree with, although some of it is definitely true. I've worked mainly in public schools and part time in a small independant language school. Most bad rumours tend to be hearsay from my experience, but I'll go into more detail below: |
You and I lived in two very different Japans. |
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wilson535
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 12:12 am Post subject: |
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can you elaborate?? I guess working as an ALT and full time eikaiwa is a very different way of life. the thing that bothered me the most about teaching here was playing second fiddle to incompetent co-teachers whose english level was 'just good enough', leading to boring lessons for both the students and me.
what negative experiences did you encounter outside work? again, i can only speak from my own experiences but the people who tended to do the most complaining were the people with the biggest attitude problems. |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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| Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 12:16 am Post subject: |
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| I don't deskwarm, give stickers or play hangman - I teach. |
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Steve_Rogers2008
Joined: 22 Mar 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 12:27 am Post subject: |
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| Louis VI wrote: |
| I don't deskwarm, give stickers or play hangman - I teach. |
So you're advocating being a boring teacher?  |
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Space Cowboy
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Location: On the blessed hellride
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| Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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| valkerie wrote: |
| Ha - lived in Japan a long time before Korea. Yeah some things are similar but there is a whole lot more that is different |
+1. The similarities seem to pale in comparison to the differences. |
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