Hello again. I have heard conflicting advice as to whether an ALT should bring gifts of some kind to give there students, fellow teachers, principal, company, etc. What is your beliefs in this regard, and what would you recommend bringing? And if you don’t recommend bringing anything, why not?
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For some reason, I was told that ALTs can’t bring candy/treats from their home countries for students. It’s probably due to allergen concerns, but apparently we’re still allowed to bring goodies for the teachers. So that’s a start.
I don’t see why small non edible gifts would be a problem, although it could get expensive very fast if you’re assigned to multiple classes and schools
Ridiculous. Why not focus on education instead of giving students worthless garbage? After you have dished out your garbage the lesson will be half over. Also, don’t forget to hand out your crap to students who were absent in the gift giving lessons in subsequent lessons.
I never received gifts from a teacher. Nor did I give teachers gifts – another ridiculous US custom which is sadly spreading to other countries. And when you arrive in Japan leave your tipping custom behind. Don’t start tipping the staff in Doutor or Japanese ladies of the night when you get here.
Here’s the reasoning behind the rule: if you give one student a gift, you must give all students a gift; it’s only fair. This means that the gift must be safe for the students and meaningful. It’s difficult to get such a gift in large quantities enough for each student, so most people advise against it.
As for the teachers’ room, おみやげ is a very good gesture and goes a long way in regards to relations between you and the other teachers. おみやげ often takes the form of a small snack from your travels. Something individually wrapped is best in my experience.
The difference here is that teachers are less likely to worry about allergies and more likely to see the gesture rather than the gift.
My school doesn’t allow the teachers to give snacks often and we have 600+ students. I’d recommend going for unique stickers from America. Stickers are the thing that keeps students going
No gifts for students unless you bring enough for everyone and it can’t be foodstuffs. I’ve brought bookmarks and stickers before. They went over OK.
For the teacher’s room snacks or drinks (think one serving pouches of coffee/tea/vitamin water powers) are always popular. Problem is that individually wrapped is best and not all foreign snacks come in easy to pass out baggies. You can get around this by buying big packages and portioning them out into cute little bags from Daiso.
Things I’ve brought from the us that the teachers liked: blackberry taffy, stick honey, cheese goldfish, Swiss Miss cocoa, chex mix/snack mix/Snyder’s pieces.
Students? HELL no.
Teachers? Only the vice principal and principal, and maybe your JTEs.
ALT omiyage culture is a total mistunderstanding. You’re not supposed to give it when starting a job. It’s an apology gift for taking leave, not a celebratory thing.
One of my daughter’s American teachers brought new shiny pennies back from her summer trip. They were a big hit with the students and she incorporated them into a lesson. Can’t get much cheaper than that per person. It became more of a souvenir than a gift, so no need for kids to reciprocate.
Give all that shit to your fellow ALTs. They’ll appreciate it more.
As someone else wrote, it’s not really a custom here to give gifts when starting a job here (despite your good intentions). People will often bring back some kind of small confection for their coworkers in their section after taking a trip, but to give a gift upon starting a job is not customary.
Moreover, since you mentioned your company, I’m assuming you’re working for a dispatch company and are not directly hired by a board of education or a private school. If that’s the case, a big no to giving a gift of any sort to your company who is skimming anywhere between 25 and 50 percent of the fee the client is paying to have you work for them or for the board of education or the school that is not willing to offer you any kind of job security by hiring you directly. Once you’ve started working, if you have a good relationship with your co-workers in your section or with the teachers who you team teach with, you can bring them back omiyage after taking a trip somewhere (but don’t feel obligated to).
As for students, rather than giving gifts, you could award small prizes, like stickers, if you play any kind of games in class. However, don’t feel obligated to do this either.
For students, I recommend erasers with American symbols such as the flag, the statue of liberty or superman/spiderman/batman. And remember to bring more than enough to give to all the students. You can use the extra as prizes for classroom activities.
When worked for Interac from 2018 to 2020 and Interac also stated that it’s not a requirement to bring a gift for the teachers. I did it anyways. I brought all the teachers Almond Roca since it’s produced in the city that I lived in. They sold it at Costco and I bought 2 of the largest box they had. When I got to Japan, I went to Daiso and bought gift bags for my 4 schools and divided it up between the 4 schools. Also I bought Starbucks coffee grounds for them too. Again bought at Costco.
I had to do a short day of presenting myself to the schools to the teacher. 1st meeting was with the Principal. Gave him the gift bag and told him it’s for the teachers.
Starting of the school year started very well and teachers were helpful to me throughout the 2 years I’ve been there. Each time I go out on travel or go home, I always bring back a gift for all of them.
It’s really up to you how you feel about bringing something for them.
I brought back my junior high students (and teachers) a large bag of a variety of sweets from Costco in the US.. easy.. and fun to try and explain…
For someone working with Interac, will be leaving in a few weeks, how many coworkers would I potentially have to pass out little gifts to ? since I’m not sure about the size of my school or maybe number of schools yet.
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Also would brining Hot Sauce packets be tacky ? since I could bring a box full of them.