So following a common suit, I decided to give you my schedule to show you what a day in my life is like.
6 am
Wake up in a leisurely cacophonous fashion with multiple alarms about half way through the hour. Proceed to dress in business casual attire, which right now is a nice sweater and slacks. Simplistic make up and brushing of hair follows suit. Warm up breakfast which is normally either onigiri or toast. After another two alarms, one warning me departure time is approaching and the next telling me to get of out the house, wherein I then bike a few kilometers to the bike garage near the station. And then walk to the station
The bike garage is normally an official place with some sort of covering where bikes in the hundreds are kept for your return. These places often will cost. Mine is either 200 yen a day or 4000 yen a month. Living in Kyoto has its expenses and this is one of them. Other places will be cheaper. My former city was about 2400 monthly for the bike parking, and I have even heard of some places being free. Either way, you typically need a bike parking garage elsewise you bike might be stolen or impounded. There are regular people who walk around to ticket or take your bike, so be careful!
Notice how I said most places above? My bike garage is some lady's house. The station is use is old and many of its features have been grandfathered into the new rules and regulations. This is because it is an extremely busy intersection, and to tear it up would be to wreck havoc with the city-goers. Also because it is so built up, there is no room for an official parking garage, so a few of the residents decided to make some easy money by using their first floors are bike garages for the commuters. There are 3 that I know of and they actually all very in price depending on who is closest. Mine is the cheapest.
7 am
I have just parked and getting to the station. I take a pretty early train for a bit less than half an hour to the city where I work. By choice, I do not live in that city, nor in a closer city, of which there are several. There is really good transportation in Japan therefore I can really have my pick of the pie in terms of where I live. And thus I live in Kyoto. Who wouldn't right?
From the station, I have a choice of walking or taking the bus. The bus always seems like a hassle; you have to make sure you are on the right bus, you have to figure out the times and the routes, it is all in Japanese, and then you have to wait for it and it actually ends up being about the same amount of time as walking. So I typically walk. Also as a side note, that is totally unlike Kyoto buses, which was much better organized and in English. The walking is just a few kilometers and I figure is a a good exercise and whatnot, at least that is what I tell myself.
8 am
Actually just before it, I arrive at school. There is not really a point for me to get to school this early other than that I like it. I just come in, get settled, open the laptop and plan if needed. I make/print my handouts if I haven't already, touch up power point, write in my blog, you know just anything. At 8:20 everyday there is a small morning meeting with the principal and all the teachers in the office. It lasts less than 5 minutes. Only my junior high school (aka middle school) does this. The bells rings and home room starts for the kids. The first official class is not until 8:45. I may or may not have class at this time. It all depends on my schedule.
Class mostly means me teaching a designated lesson/topic of the day. They usually make it a point to make my lessons to be conversation lessons so that the students can practice and hone their speech to a better perfection.
In my junior high school, I act as the main teacher and have complete run of the class. I teach the entire time on the designated subject, but you would be asked to do any number of things. One common complaint among foreigners is that they are merely a walking tape recorder for the lessons. Meaning they just repeat the words at the Japanese-English teachers command. A person might also be assigned to only one portion of the lesson, like a game, or activity, or maybe only even a 5 minute warm up. It totally depends on what a school needs you for.
My typical lesson will be something like a small warm up, the focal point of the lesson, perhaps a small bit of practice, and then an activity or game that I have designed to make the kids want to participate more as well as to better support the focal point of the lesson. For example a warm up might be some shiritori in English, followed by a page in the book where we discuss a dialogue where I will go over it the first time doing both parts and different voices depending on the day, and then we will go over it in English and then the more difficult points in Japanese. From there we will review the key phrase and I will make them come up with example of how to use it and change it (like would you like ~~?) and then I will have an activity or game for them utilizing that phrase. The Japanese-English teacher will be there the whole time and will support me when asked, but more or less leaves everything up to me. The aid of this teacher varies upon the teacher, some teachers are very supportive and some are pretty non-existent. I even have one who sleeps on occasion. Grading and Reading during my lessons is pretty normal. They are there though to handle the classroom behavior. I am no disciplinarian and since I am a gaijin, if something or dispute happens, it is always better to have another teacher there to mediate the problem and to be able to convey the problem to any other authority if necessary. For example is a fight breaks out between students, I can try to stop it but it is best that I leave it to the Japanese teacher, also my limited Japanese can't convey to the principal what happened. And of course they are there to make sure I don't do anything too ridiculous or our of order.
In my elementary schools, classes run more or less the same. I again have the run of the class and teach the entire time. Some classes have books we teach out of, others don't. The Japanese-English teachers try to be as helpful as they can, getting the students to pay attention, behave, and participate, or if there is a special student, helping them be entertained with me lesson. These teachers often do not speak much English, but are very genial. The English level does vary though and so does their help and input in my lessons. You kind of just learn to adapt for who does what. I have one teacher who follows my every word and helps to translate difficult words like 'brave' from the story in the book.
My elementary lessons are a pretty much the same as my junior high school ones, but at a much lower level. I will have a warm up, the lesson topic or book topic, a short review and a game. For example a warm up is a chant or song often provided by the book, or as compliments of Youtube, and then I will get into the lesson and we will go over all the vocab for that lesson, if it is in the book, there are often some accompanying listening exercises that I will also do. I will then move into some review where I will change the words to ones not in the book so they might try to give some original answers. At this point I might call on some students to answer the question (example: what fruit do you like?) and then will progress into a game or activity that is simple and repetitive so they can remember and easily practice the target phrases.
12:15 pm; 12:35 pm
Lunch time! At this time, the first four class periods are complete. If I am at my elementary school, I get fed the school lunch for a grand total of 208 yen. If I am at my junior high school, I often bring my own lunch, or if I forget, I can order the bento from the bento shop that all the teacher order from for 400 yen. At my JHs, most teacher do not order the bento, preferring cheaper or more delicious food, but there are a few people who are constants on the daily order.
After this, but at no designated time, students have recess, which is greatly diminished in JHS.
The earlier time follows the elementary schedule with their 45 minute classes, and the latter time is the JHS schedule with their 50 minute lessons.
1:20 pm; 1:45 pm
Here, the earlier time signifies when JHS students hit the books for 5th period, and the latter time is elementary. See I told you they had an awesome recess. Elementary students even sometimes go home after lunch, which is not too unusual, and then come back for 5th period. Or if they are a very young grade in elementary, they might only have 4 classes and then the day is over for them. Elementary classes tend to vary between 5 and 6 periods throughout the week. At mine, I think most days are 5 classes and then they can go home, but on days when the first period is scheduled reading time, they have 6 periods.
3:10 pm
Classes are finished and then they have homeroom again to wrap up the day at JHS. Them some students go home, but the vast majority will have some club to attend to. They will go to this club until about 4:30 or 5. I am not really sure if there is a designated time for them to leave. I will occasionally attend the cooking club and the just come and go whenever. Sports teams are perhaps a bit more rigorous.
Since classes are over at this time, I would spend time preparing for the next day, or if I have already, I would spend it as I see fit. Sometimes I visit the clubs, who are always happy to have me, but recently I just study.
4:30 pm
This is my departure time. I am now allowed to go home. And unless I am wrapping something up, or in the middle of something, I am more often than not leaving right about this time. If you have an awesome school, or elementary school, they might let you go home a bit earlier.
From now, I will walk back to the station.
5 pm
I get on the train to head home. Typically during my commute, I listen to music, audiobooks, or more recently, podcasts like japanesepod101. Once I arrive at the station, I return to the garage, pick up my bike, and bike back home.
6 pm
Arrive home and be lazy for some time. Video games, checking the computer, reading, catching up on a TV series. And then if it is not Tuesday or Thursday I will go to the grocery store to get some things for cooking. Something very different in Japan is that I go to the grocery store every day. The refrigerators are much smaller here and it is actually not so common to buy in bulk. I am almost surprised to see 12 packs of toilet paper being sold. It is extremely typical to want to cook with fresh ingredients, thus there are many grocery stores to support everyone's daily visit. There are of course a few super stores, or at least in Kyoto, where they sell things that you might want to stock up on since those products wont be sold in you more local stores. Those stores are also usually a bit farther away. I am talking like a 10 minute drive. Yeah. That, is considered far away here. The normal grocery stores are usually about a 2-3 minute bike ride from my apartment, and I have 3 of them in that range to give you an idea of how convenient they are.
7 pm
I am cooking, or running if it is a Tuesday or Thursday. And following suit, I am eating. On my running days, dinner is still cooked, but usually a more simple affair.
8 pm
More relaxing, or possibly studying.
9 pm
Shower time. Like the Japanese, I have been showering mostly at night. This is actually largely due to I hate waking up early and to wake up any earlier and shower just seems like hell. I still believe that morning showers are way better though. When I lived closer to my schools, I would shower in the mornings, so this is purely because I live farther away and have longer to commute now.
Following is doing whatever I want time, unless it is my one day a week where I clean and do laundry, in which case I do that.
11 pm
Roughly. Its bed time.
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Friday, March 1, 2013
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Aye Aye Captain!
There is a stereotype that started probably somewhere around the time of WWII and has since been provoked by anime, that Japanese girls wear sailor outfits to school.
Well I am here today to completely confirm these reports. My students sport these super traditional outfits that have probably never been modified since the schools open some 50 years ago now.
They have actually two different outfits: a summer outfit and a winter outfit. The girls have a white short-sleeve affair during the summer. Their shirt has a sort of a collar/black flap with cream detail around it. The shirt zips up in the front and is embellished with a scarf they wear about their neck (but under the back flap) and ties around front. They all wear a navy blue skirt of varying heights, but that is only because they hike them up. Lastly, they also sport black (or white but that is extremely unpopular and only seen as a last resort) knee high socks. In the winter the color of their top changes to a navy blue with long-sleeves and a red detail about the collar. When it gets really cold, they will wear a cardigan over their outfit that is often black, navy or brown (colors for which is not mandated).
Of course the men have two different outfits too, just theirs are hardly any different. Their summer outfit is black pants and a white short-sleeve button down, while their winter one is much of the same, only with a long-sleeve white t-shirt and an added black overcoat with gold buttons with the symbol for middle school on each (δΈ).
All of the students of any gender and grade have a little colored plastic name plate that says their last name sewn upon their lapels. The older students who have since ripped theirs off, have glued safety pins to the backs of theirs. The colors of the plaque represent grade level of the students. The colors are blue, white, and green. The students do not get new plaque each year with new colors, rather the old colors are recycled and the new students will get the graduated students old color.
In addition to normal schools clothes, students get a set of P.E. clothes that are navy shorts with red strip detail down the sides as well as a shirt that sports their name and often class number. The P.E. clothes also have a pants set especially for the winter. If students are in a club they may acquire other gear and clothing through that club, but those are put through special order and are not school assigned. They are also typically a little nicer looking.
A little about changing. My schools is extremely old as I mentioned, therefore this practice may be out of date for newer and nicer and certainly private schools. But at my school, when it is P.E. time, it is a combined effort of two classes. All of the girls will file into one room and the boys into another. There are curtains to block the windows that face the corridor as well as the outside, so that no one can see them changing. Though for the girls many of them might wear their gym outfit under their school outfit, especially when it is cold.
Students only get one set of clothes and must wear them all week and not get them dirty. They are also mandated to wear them at all times on the campus. I cannot say how many set of P.E. clothes they get, but seeing how dirty they get after playing volleyball one afternoon, I certainly hope it is more than one.
Other schools, newer ones, have adopted other manner of dress for their students. Really cute uniforms in my opinion. A high school near me has their students sporting sweater vests and has bows around their necks. Of course with skirts and blazers (in the winter) as well. The mens suits are upgraded as well and slightly more professional looking and blazer-like jackets. This particular schools does a rather cute thing and the different colored bow-ties and bows all represent a different grade, so there is a mustard yellow, a navy, and a deep red. I don't know which color is for which grade as I do not work there, I just live really close to see them all the time.
Our winter outfits!
Well I am here today to completely confirm these reports. My students sport these super traditional outfits that have probably never been modified since the schools open some 50 years ago now.
They have actually two different outfits: a summer outfit and a winter outfit. The girls have a white short-sleeve affair during the summer. Their shirt has a sort of a collar/black flap with cream detail around it. The shirt zips up in the front and is embellished with a scarf they wear about their neck (but under the back flap) and ties around front. They all wear a navy blue skirt of varying heights, but that is only because they hike them up. Lastly, they also sport black (or white but that is extremely unpopular and only seen as a last resort) knee high socks. In the winter the color of their top changes to a navy blue with long-sleeves and a red detail about the collar. When it gets really cold, they will wear a cardigan over their outfit that is often black, navy or brown (colors for which is not mandated).
Of course the men have two different outfits too, just theirs are hardly any different. Their summer outfit is black pants and a white short-sleeve button down, while their winter one is much of the same, only with a long-sleeve white t-shirt and an added black overcoat with gold buttons with the symbol for middle school on each (δΈ).
All of the students of any gender and grade have a little colored plastic name plate that says their last name sewn upon their lapels. The older students who have since ripped theirs off, have glued safety pins to the backs of theirs. The colors of the plaque represent grade level of the students. The colors are blue, white, and green. The students do not get new plaque each year with new colors, rather the old colors are recycled and the new students will get the graduated students old color.
In addition to normal schools clothes, students get a set of P.E. clothes that are navy shorts with red strip detail down the sides as well as a shirt that sports their name and often class number. The P.E. clothes also have a pants set especially for the winter. If students are in a club they may acquire other gear and clothing through that club, but those are put through special order and are not school assigned. They are also typically a little nicer looking.
A little about changing. My schools is extremely old as I mentioned, therefore this practice may be out of date for newer and nicer and certainly private schools. But at my school, when it is P.E. time, it is a combined effort of two classes. All of the girls will file into one room and the boys into another. There are curtains to block the windows that face the corridor as well as the outside, so that no one can see them changing. Though for the girls many of them might wear their gym outfit under their school outfit, especially when it is cold.
Students only get one set of clothes and must wear them all week and not get them dirty. They are also mandated to wear them at all times on the campus. I cannot say how many set of P.E. clothes they get, but seeing how dirty they get after playing volleyball one afternoon, I certainly hope it is more than one.
Other schools, newer ones, have adopted other manner of dress for their students. Really cute uniforms in my opinion. A high school near me has their students sporting sweater vests and has bows around their necks. Of course with skirts and blazers (in the winter) as well. The mens suits are upgraded as well and slightly more professional looking and blazer-like jackets. This particular schools does a rather cute thing and the different colored bow-ties and bows all represent a different grade, so there is a mustard yellow, a navy, and a deep red. I don't know which color is for which grade as I do not work there, I just live really close to see them all the time.
Our winter outfits!
And in summer:
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
School Culture Festival
This is actually what I meant to make my last post about before I got on a tangent and lost track!
Previously, I was not allowed to post this due to the paranoia of the school, as one of the students might be caught by a facial recognition and pinned to a misdemeanor and in addition tracked back to this school. But now these students have graduated and I have no idea as to where they have run off.
The school festival at my school happens early in the second semester, around the September time frame. This is a very big event for the school. They have the dance team involved, the art club making decorations, and everyone is singing. I have since been told that our school is very big into singing and that many other schools celebrate their culture day a bit differently than ours. I do not think that singing is really a big part of our school as so much as it is a tradition. If you look at our choral club, you will notice it has only 5 or so members(whom, I might mention, did not get any of the leading roles except for one of the Megs), but the music teachers seem to push their program very hard and have all the students under lock and key.
Thus, our culture festival was a Japanese rendition of select scenes and songs from Phantom of the Opera. Which is a personal favorite so I was quite happy. This is a performance put on by the 3rd years at the school. Earlier in the show, the first and second years did a choral concert singing 5 or so songs a piece, making the 3rd years performance much like a grand finale.
Since my first and second years are still students at this school, I will not put up the videos of their performance until, likely, years later. But here is the magnificent performance of Phantom of the Opera!
Previously, I was not allowed to post this due to the paranoia of the school, as one of the students might be caught by a facial recognition and pinned to a misdemeanor and in addition tracked back to this school. But now these students have graduated and I have no idea as to where they have run off.
The school festival at my school happens early in the second semester, around the September time frame. This is a very big event for the school. They have the dance team involved, the art club making decorations, and everyone is singing. I have since been told that our school is very big into singing and that many other schools celebrate their culture day a bit differently than ours. I do not think that singing is really a big part of our school as so much as it is a tradition. If you look at our choral club, you will notice it has only 5 or so members(whom, I might mention, did not get any of the leading roles except for one of the Megs), but the music teachers seem to push their program very hard and have all the students under lock and key.
Thus, our culture festival was a Japanese rendition of select scenes and songs from Phantom of the Opera. Which is a personal favorite so I was quite happy. This is a performance put on by the 3rd years at the school. Earlier in the show, the first and second years did a choral concert singing 5 or so songs a piece, making the 3rd years performance much like a grand finale.
Since my first and second years are still students at this school, I will not put up the videos of their performance until, likely, years later. But here is the magnificent performance of Phantom of the Opera!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
A day in the Life of a Student
This is a really cute video a Korean student made of his student life.
yes that sums it up.
But in a Japanese JHS...
Yeah, yeah, for all you who watch any kind of anime...it is more or less exactly like that. There are rows of students. There is assigned seating (typically boy girl boy girl but sometimes a row of boys and a row of girls). There are the window seats that everyone wants, accompanied by windows that they are allowed to open as they please. On the other half of the classroom there are the windows to the hallway, that also have opening functions. This is a semi popular hangout spot in the ten minutes between classes, where another classes students come for a visit.
Speaking of these windows, they are also accompanied by curtains that can be shut when the students are changing into and out of their gym outfits, as they have separate changing areas for guys and girls. A larger curtain adorns the outside facing windows which is also covered at this time, but also whenever the touch screen is in use.
A bit of an irregularity in many classrooms and a large step forward, my school had large touch screen TV's in every room. For myself, I personally put them to use for powerpoints and short video clips and such when relevant to the lesson. These TV's are hooked up to a laptop that every classroom and teacher desk in the school sports (for more on this charming hardware please check out ). The laptops are stationary objects and never moved from their classrooms.
In the convenient location of next to the television, is the teachers domain. In my classrooms, the teacher prevails over the class upon a mini stage. This stage is perhaps half a foot high and deceptively easy to fall off. Just ask me! This stage is always on the right hand side in every classroom. Essentially all the students west.
Behind the teacher is a 3 meter or so long blackboard...greenboard? well it is a chalkboard. I hate chalk. The chalkboards are magnificent and beautiful and can move up and down and are occasionally concave so that students from either side will not have a hard time seeing the opposing side of the board. However, it is these chalkboards that I find the most behind the times. Even my middle school had SOME whiteboards. Maybe it is just because I hate chalk (have I mentioned that?), but I cannot stand these blackboards even more so than the laptops. Also with these boards come the chalk dust. The chalk dust that covers EVERYTHING. There is a permanent coating on the floor that makes the floor boards very soft. Soft enough to run and slide on. Soft enough to slip off the stage.
There are cubbies at the back of the classrooms. They are filled with papers and other school artifacts that go untouched. The students book bags all resemble plastic sports bags that guard their desk. Girl will occasionally have fashionable bags instead, especially if they are not on a sports team. These bags are deceptively expensive and are treated...well like a regular school book bag - slung around, plopped down, tripped over (ok the last one is largely me, but they are like obstacles in a katamari game!). They actually have hooks on the side of their desk which is used for a smaller bag is they have such an item.
Above the cubbies is yet another of my favorite chalkboards with the daily schedule on it. As well as paper posting of anything important, but ignorable.
These students themselves, have 6 classes a day each class lasting 45 to 50 minutes. The time depends on the school and if there are any important up coming activities that they have to practice after school for (like field day, school festival, graduation...). Classes start at 8:45 but for the fifteen minutes before that they have home room. The class that the students start in is essentially their homeroom and more or less the students will always stay in that class and the other teachers will come to visit that room. However there are a few classes that have their own room, like science, cooking, home economics, there are a few English classes that go to the actual English room ( we have 2), and well P.E. but really how could you even consider doing that in the classroom. Ok, so there are less classes actually in the classroom but all these classes and the ones that take place in the classroom rotate throughout the week. There are 4 morning classes and midday, the students lunch for 30-45 minutes each day and if they are in elementary school they then get to have recess for another 30 minutes. In middle school they are expected to bring their own lunch, but my elementary school provides lunch for the students. Following lunch there are two more classes and a homeroom closing that the students then go through before being officially released for the day.
Psyche. Afterschool, students are required to join a club. Such as handicrafts/cooking club, art club, judo club, chorus club, ping pong club, soccer team, baseball team, tennis team, basketball team, badminton team, volleyball team, or the track team. Whew I think that is all the teams and clubs. Notice how we do not have kendo. How sad. They typically stay at school until around 5pm (they get there around 8am).
These activities and schedules and even setting is largely based on a JHS setting, I tried to throw in a few elementary examples, but if you are curious for more information, please don't hesitate to ask me!
yes that sums it up.
But in a Japanese JHS...
Yeah, yeah, for all you who watch any kind of anime...it is more or less exactly like that. There are rows of students. There is assigned seating (typically boy girl boy girl but sometimes a row of boys and a row of girls). There are the window seats that everyone wants, accompanied by windows that they are allowed to open as they please. On the other half of the classroom there are the windows to the hallway, that also have opening functions. This is a semi popular hangout spot in the ten minutes between classes, where another classes students come for a visit.
Speaking of these windows, they are also accompanied by curtains that can be shut when the students are changing into and out of their gym outfits, as they have separate changing areas for guys and girls. A larger curtain adorns the outside facing windows which is also covered at this time, but also whenever the touch screen is in use.
A bit of an irregularity in many classrooms and a large step forward, my school had large touch screen TV's in every room. For myself, I personally put them to use for powerpoints and short video clips and such when relevant to the lesson. These TV's are hooked up to a laptop that every classroom and teacher desk in the school sports (for more on this charming hardware please check out ). The laptops are stationary objects and never moved from their classrooms.
In the convenient location of next to the television, is the teachers domain. In my classrooms, the teacher prevails over the class upon a mini stage. This stage is perhaps half a foot high and deceptively easy to fall off. Just ask me! This stage is always on the right hand side in every classroom. Essentially all the students west.
Behind the teacher is a 3 meter or so long blackboard...greenboard? well it is a chalkboard. I hate chalk. The chalkboards are magnificent and beautiful and can move up and down and are occasionally concave so that students from either side will not have a hard time seeing the opposing side of the board. However, it is these chalkboards that I find the most behind the times. Even my middle school had SOME whiteboards. Maybe it is just because I hate chalk (have I mentioned that?), but I cannot stand these blackboards even more so than the laptops. Also with these boards come the chalk dust. The chalk dust that covers EVERYTHING. There is a permanent coating on the floor that makes the floor boards very soft. Soft enough to run and slide on. Soft enough to slip off the stage.
There are cubbies at the back of the classrooms. They are filled with papers and other school artifacts that go untouched. The students book bags all resemble plastic sports bags that guard their desk. Girl will occasionally have fashionable bags instead, especially if they are not on a sports team. These bags are deceptively expensive and are treated...well like a regular school book bag - slung around, plopped down, tripped over (ok the last one is largely me, but they are like obstacles in a katamari game!). They actually have hooks on the side of their desk which is used for a smaller bag is they have such an item.
Above the cubbies is yet another of my favorite chalkboards with the daily schedule on it. As well as paper posting of anything important, but ignorable.
These students themselves, have 6 classes a day each class lasting 45 to 50 minutes. The time depends on the school and if there are any important up coming activities that they have to practice after school for (like field day, school festival, graduation...). Classes start at 8:45 but for the fifteen minutes before that they have home room. The class that the students start in is essentially their homeroom and more or less the students will always stay in that class and the other teachers will come to visit that room. However there are a few classes that have their own room, like science, cooking, home economics, there are a few English classes that go to the actual English room ( we have 2), and well P.E. but really how could you even consider doing that in the classroom. Ok, so there are less classes actually in the classroom but all these classes and the ones that take place in the classroom rotate throughout the week. There are 4 morning classes and midday, the students lunch for 30-45 minutes each day and if they are in elementary school they then get to have recess for another 30 minutes. In middle school they are expected to bring their own lunch, but my elementary school provides lunch for the students. Following lunch there are two more classes and a homeroom closing that the students then go through before being officially released for the day.
Psyche. Afterschool, students are required to join a club. Such as handicrafts/cooking club, art club, judo club, chorus club, ping pong club, soccer team, baseball team, tennis team, basketball team, badminton team, volleyball team, or the track team. Whew I think that is all the teams and clubs. Notice how we do not have kendo. How sad. They typically stay at school until around 5pm (they get there around 8am).
These activities and schedules and even setting is largely based on a JHS setting, I tried to throw in a few elementary examples, but if you are curious for more information, please don't hesitate to ask me!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
If at first you don't Succeed...
try and try again.
Ok I AM a bit of a go-getter. But some things in life are hard and you have to decide how much you want them. As you must know if you have read anything else on here: I work in Japan as an ALT. Don't let the title fool you. When I teach, I assist in nothing. I have the full class time to make the biggest clown of myself and teach those peanut-eaters (the gallery) as much English as I possibly can. However there is only one of me and 500 of them. Therefore I am spread out quite a bit and cannot be any one grade let alone class's English instructor. (For me in my JHS there are 3 grades, 6 classes per grade and 2/3rds of the grades have split classes, therefore 12 classes in English per grade.)
It is a great job. Let me tell you. I have wonderful students, who really appreciate me and what I do. And they try very hard to communicate with and please me. I have great teachers that I work with and a very helpful and generous company (especially with the vacation time). However, all of this, it was no easy task to acquire.
Many people have the misperception that Japan hires anyone, and that they are always looking for English teachers. This is just not true. First off, when you come here and try to speak to most anyone, they are extremely hesitant to speak to you. And even then will typically do so in very broken poor English. This is because Japan does not have as big of an emphasis on their English program as you might think. Sure they started early integrating it in their school systems, but they spread their teachers thin, having them go to multiple schools and seeing their students only once a month.
What most people do not know, is that there are way more (tens of thousands more) English teachers in Korea. Any given Koreans' English is almost bound to be better than any given Japanese persons. They study way harder there. Almost until 10pm at night. Additionally, I saw my kids, the same ones, 3-5 times a week.
Yes, Japan has marvelously integrated English into almost every useful public system and have become a slight degree more foreigner friendly than Korea in that one aspect. But Korea is catching up. Rapidly.
The point of this, is that Japan English teachers are not that prevalent and if you want to see prevalence, then you should visit Korea. So yes, the Japanese English teachers are a bit renowned. They were the first country to do anything like it, which opened a whole bunch of jobs for people like me. But over time, as more and more people became interested in these positions, they have been able to become selective about who they can choose. Oddly the surplus of interest and the competition of Korea does not mean it creates more jobs for the English teacher. Jobs here are on a slow incline. If you check the stats of foreign teachers in Japan of the years, you will notice a very slow incline, where in Korea is is more like a radical Everest sized spike. As such, actually acquiring a Japan in Japan can be rather difficult.
Many people have the misperception that Japan hires anyone, and that they are always looking for English teachers. This is just not true. First off, when you come here and try to speak to most anyone, they are extremely hesitant to speak to you. And even then will typically do so in very broken poor English. This is because Japan does not have as big of an emphasis on their English program as you might think. Sure they started early integrating it in their school systems, but they spread their teachers thin, having them go to multiple schools and seeing their students only once a month.
What most people do not know, is that there are way more (tens of thousands more) English teachers in Korea. Any given Koreans' English is almost bound to be better than any given Japanese persons. They study way harder there. Almost until 10pm at night. Additionally, I saw my kids, the same ones, 3-5 times a week.
Yes, Japan has marvelously integrated English into almost every useful public system and have become a slight degree more foreigner friendly than Korea in that one aspect. But Korea is catching up. Rapidly.
The point of this, is that Japan English teachers are not that prevalent and if you want to see prevalence, then you should visit Korea. So yes, the Japanese English teachers are a bit renowned. They were the first country to do anything like it, which opened a whole bunch of jobs for people like me. But over time, as more and more people became interested in these positions, they have been able to become selective about who they can choose. Oddly the surplus of interest and the competition of Korea does not mean it creates more jobs for the English teacher. Jobs here are on a slow incline. If you check the stats of foreign teachers in Japan of the years, you will notice a very slow incline, where in Korea is is more like a radical Everest sized spike. As such, actually acquiring a Japan in Japan can be rather difficult.
For Example, let's have a look at my personal experience:
I actually was accepted and hired by the first company I applied to...Interac, for those who need reminding. At first, I didn't hear back for weeks. And the position wasn't even a guarantee when I did finally hear back. In the mean time I made the most of my time and I applied to a few other companies. 45 to be exact.
It is one of those things that I just wanted bad enough. I taught for a year in Korea and discovered I loved the work and the kids, which is crazy since for those who know me, they know I typically want nothing to do with kids. Which is still true! ...Asian kids are just different. And cute. Anyways I wanted to continue that, only in Japan.
Japan is super competitive for jobs and very often only accepts applicants who are applying from within the country, since there are enough of them, English speaking natives in Japan looking for jobs. If you are job hunting and dead set on Japan. Then my advice is to move over to Japan first and then look for a job after. And then get your stuff sent to you. By hiring people who are already in Japan, the companies can often get around not having to sponsor your Certificate of Eligibility for your visa. Not that it is difficult, it is just a nice lot of time and investment into a person to get one. Additionally, they can usually interview people in person when they live in Japan, which is a bonus to them, it gives them a certain amount of security that you will not cancel or run off once you get to Japan. Apparently Japan just doesn't have contracts like Korea and it is very easy to break contracts with very minimal consequence. Basically they are glorified toilet paper.
So if you are serious about applying and finding a job in Japan. It can be done. I actually got more than one offer. And I did it with my preferred placement running against my odds. I wanted, in particular, placement in the Kansai region, which is extremely difficult since so does everyone else. As such, the region can have a nice fat lot of people to pick from. The less picky you are the easier it is for you.
When I told you I applied to 45 places...I wasn't lying.
there is more down there...trust me
I didn't just make all these up, I did this so that I could keep track of the ones I applied to so that I wouldn't reapply to them. Also it helped me to get a good comparison of all the ones I applied to.
Funny story
As an after thought, I decided to include an embarrassing story of one of the places I applied to. What you first need to understand, is that for a lot of these places, you apply by email by sending your resume and cover letter and photo and whatever else they may want of you to a listed email address. They sort through the herds and find the finest goose of the flock. Regardless, in the process, instead of sending my cover letter, I sent this document. YOU WHAT!? Yup. Can't take that one back.
But oddly enough, two or three weeks late, I got a reply from the school. They were most amused, and appreciated my organization and my perseverance. I turned around my situation and got several interviews and a job offer out of the craziness. Though I did not take the offer, it kind of goes to show that...umm...crazy good stuff can happen.
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