Seeking Your Experience and Insight on Teaching in Japan

BKaemingk · Post by **BKaemingk** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:52 am

I am currently looking at traveling to Japan to teach conversational English. I have Elementary Certification, and majored in Earth Science. I would prefer to not be in a major city, but if anyone could share a personal experience and give me some direction it would be much appreciated. There are a lot of opportunities, where have your experiences taken you?

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:06 pm

If you look under the Asian forum in Dave's job forum you will find a lot of experiences and what to bring, what to pay for and what to expect. I, personally, just take the first job up on Dave's job board and try to get a private school because they treat you like family. It is the luck of the draw though and could possibly go very wrong. I guess I was just lucky. I find that people who enjoy their life at home but who want to expand their experience are usually happy wherever they are and are flexible enough to enjoy the differences. The people who are running away from difficulties just meet more and don't have as much support overseas. Japan usually requires a degree in teaching EFL, ESL or any of the other abbreviations. You won't get a good job without a degree and will probably get sent home by the government without a recognized certificate - not just one of the weekends things.

BKaemingk · Post by **BKaemingk** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 8:09 pm

Sally,
Thanks for your reply. I hadn't realized there was a forum specific to international travel until I did a little more exploring. Where in Japan did your travels take you? This will be my first experience overseas, and at this point I am feeling as though my first offer will be the one I choose. Having visited the other forums I have read a number of horror stories. Do you know where I might find a list of schools that are "black-listed" that is I would not want to teach at. I consider myself to be very flexible and open minded, yet I do not want to be cheated or discriminated against - as some have indicated in their experience. In other words I want to be knowledgeable on the school to which I will apply. I have no doubt that wherever my path takes me, I will gain new understanding and broaden perspectives. I am currently waiting to be placed on the international job forum list. Thanks again,
Braeden

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 5:44 pm

I think the best paid is the JET program. They will probably put you in a little city almost by yourself. You do get to go to PD days with fellow JETs though and of course, transportation in Japan is excellent so you can spend weekends in the closest city and meet lots of English speaking people. There are a lot of email contacts. Did you look on Job Forum under Asia, Japan because the sticky notes on Japan are excellent? I was in Kawachinagino, south of Osaka. It was at the end of the southern trainline from Osaka and was a "small" town of 180,000. We were right on the line of hills that end the Osaka valley and there was one walk across the top of the hills for 50 miles that was breathtaking. You literally were walking on the path on the top of the hill with the hill going down on both sides and views of both valleys. It starts at Mt. Kongo. Wherever you go though will be beautiful as they preserve their mountains and there are parks everywhere. I think there are some warnings about the bigger chains in the Japan Asia job forum. They used to require that you stay in the school during your working hours even if you weren't teaching. You get people who have a chit for that chain so you might get someone who was travelling and just stopped in for their lesson and you might not get the same people all the time. That is kind of frustrating because you are supposed to follow their textbook and just check off their lesson even if they don't really know previous lessons. Private schools have people who have been coming for years and small groups of people who have had lessons together as a kind of social club for years. They often have parties and outings as a school and celebrate holidays as though the teachers and staff were family. If you don't like that kind of thing, it may seem that you are working for free but if you enjoy it you will get to know more about their culture and make good friends. I always took the view that I was there to meet Japanese friends rather than just make new "English" friends but of course, you can do both and sometimes just need to speak English at a regular speed with someone who can understand. Hope that you get something fabulous.

mesmark · Post by **mesmark** » Sat Jul 09, 2005 5:29 am

Braeden - I've been in Japan for almost 6 years now and I've watched them come and go. It's my honest belief that you will get from the experience what you bring in. If you are enthusiastic, enjoy teaching, like people, and are open minded you'll have a great time and a wonderful experience whereever you are teaching.

Some people come over for the money or simply to travel. Those people have the most difficult time and generally bring a lot of frustration on themselves. I mean can you imagine the nerve... your boss asking you to work outside of your purposed 22 hours a week... your boss asking you to pay ridiculously high but acurate electricity bills... communication barriers with your boss who speaks English as his second language... making you stay at school when there's no class even though they are paying you an anual salary of 30K... I mean, come on... Things like these are generally the core of the horror stories (behind the hype.) Also remember that a lot of people come over here straight out of college and have little or no real world living/working experience.

As far as jobs go, the JET program is the sweetest deal but rahter boring. You are just the assistant in every class and therefore most jobs require little of you and I thought I was going to slip into a coma of stupidity due to the boredom. With conversation schools you are the main teacher and you prepare the lessons and run the show. It's much more interesting and challenging. Large chains have a curriculum like Sally said so it is a little more mechanical and controled by the top. Privately run schools are almost too free if you don't know what you're doing.

However, I think the privately run schools are the best choice. Like Sally stated they are much more like a family and your opinions and ideas count for a lot more.

I live and run my own school in Nagano. Nagano is very beautiful with a lot of small towns. If you are thinking about a school in the Nagano area you can PM me and I'll let you know if I know anything about them.

I have a website for my school. It has a taste of what small conversation schools are like. www.marks-english-school.com This might give you some insight and help you.

You wont need anything more than your degree to get a job, but more competetive positions might require a TEFL . You will need a masters degree in anything, if you want to work at a university.

I hope that helps.

Mark

aga · Post by **aga** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:26 pm

hello!
I'd like to know if it is difficult to teach english in Japan, especially the th-sound. Does it couse a lot problems to Japanese students, how do they manage to learn it.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 5:50 pm

Actually, I found that students never had trouble with the th sound in the middle of words and once I pointed that out to them, didn't seem to have trouble with it at the beginning. It is the l and r that are difficult or are held to be difficult but again they say the l and r fine in the middle or end of words so they soon learn that they can say it and that makes the stress less for them. The most difficult thing was adding vowel to every consonant and that is harder to break them of in reading.