So I’m at my local mall and see a run off the mill mall eikaiwa where some poor teacher is in a full suit and tie for some reason dance around in a “classroom” with kids where literally the entire mall can see.
Do people actually *want* their kids to be seen like that?
If all my education in education taught me anything is that too many distractions won’t help the kids focus. Having gawkers look at them the whole lesson can’t be fun for either the teacher nor the kids.
No way in heck would I let my kid be put on display like that.
16 comments
Lol this wouldn’t happen to be a mall in Shin-Kamagaya would it?
The mothers enjoy it because while the children are in the “lesson”, they can either talk to each other for a full hour about random BS or wander the “mall”.
I don’t enjoy being watched, I’m really self-conscious about my looks. But, professionally, it’s important to give up that sort of shame.
In regards to a kids behavior, it’s not a big deal. Kids can behave poorly. But the windows are soothing for the parents. Nobody is necessarily watching, but they could. I built my own classroom to teach in, and the first thing I told my wife was a must was a door for the class area with a large window. The parents are reassured that they can take a look anytime, and if the kid is misbehaving, they hear and can peek to see if it’s worth stepping in. I would have loved to have a window to the street, because that way parents walking by can see the high quality of my work, but the location wasn’t suited to it. Instead, my lobby faces the street.
As a side note, I know a public ES teacher working in a school renovated three years ago, and they took the walls off of all the classrooms! To make things “safe”, the school has only three walls on each classroom, all face the halls. Heating prices are nuts, noise is ridiculous, but the BOE who decided on it don’t have to teach there, so who cares? What they wouldn’t give for big windows!
While it sucks its part of the job for many. I have taught in malls before and it’s no fun but a good teacher is one who can handle on lookers and helicopter parents with out batting an eye.
As a reflective piece (having moved on a while back) my overall answer is no (as in I wouldn’t go back now). This is mostly because it was REALLY long hours (kids’ eikaiwa) and you were always hit with things like working ’till 10pm one night then being in at 8am the next morning for super genki kids (then working until 8pm that night without a rest). Also, there was always one sociopath assistant who loved trying to puppet me around & fight me to death (during class) about absolute bullshit, just to be a dick. When one left I’d get a few sweet months, then another would join kinda thing.
Was the EXPERIENCE fun though? Shit yeah!!! I’m really glad I got to go over to Japan, learn a language and meet lotsa awesome kids. Probably a common story… the actual kids were awesome and (as a qualified teacher) I was actually quite impressed by the lesson content/style. It was high energy but IMO kids validly learned lotsa stuff and enjoyed it. So that was rewarding… like I saw the same kids/families over 5+ year and seeing kids go from being shy/tired/(seemingly) disinterested (while asserting ‘YES I LIKE THIS TEACHER AND WANT TO STAY!!!) to speaking quality English with me was really rewarding. Speaking 15+ years later, that’s the biggest part I remember (the bullshit fades and becomes far less significant over time IMO but those faces / characters / good times don’t).
Frankly if I could remove 1 or 2 sociopaths from my experience (won’t go there) then it’d be pretty much a dream experience. That a big ‘if’ but I reckon the school itself was pretty cool.
looks like they took input from movie “cold fish”
Man I would always look on in horror when I went to the mall and saw them
OMG. This is the first time I am hearing of this. This is akin to the human zoos they had back in the 19th century. Eikaiwa has devolved into a literal ‘Clown show’.
Those mall eikaiwas that you described are just glorified daycares where moms drop off their kids while they go to a fancy cafe with their mom friends. I don’t think much learning goes on there.
Personally, I enjoy it. I’m never going to perform live on stage at The Budokan, so it’s the closest I’ll ever get.
Reminder: Eikaiwa isn’t education, it’s entertainment.
​
The fishbowl makes parents feel safe. They feel like their kids won’t be molested if the world can see them.
I used to work in a fish bowl at Nova. I used to have to dance to the ’hokey pokey‘ and ‘head shoulder knees and toes‘ while in a business suit plus we had all the strangers and parents watching. It truly summed up the “dancing monkey” term people use to describe eikaiwa teachers.
Ugh sounds like Nova Shin Urayasu New Coast😭. Took me almost 2 hours to get to that school from my apartment
The only I’ve seen of those is in Ito Yokado in Kiba, it looks horrifying. That’s not the one, is it?
Tbh if you are a seasoned teacher you don’t really pay attention to what happens outside of class. Im sure it must be weird/uncomfortable at first but you prob get used to it.
And besides dem bills need to be payd
They’re basically daycares for the moms to take a break from their kids.