Discuss the state of the teaching industry in Japan with your fellow teachers! Use this thread to discuss salary trends, companies, minor questions that don’t warrant a whole post, and build a rapport with other members of the community.
Please keep discussions civilized. Mods will remove any offending posts.
9 comments
Old teachers being jealous of new younger teachers. Why though?
Every teacher I’ve met here over the age of 45 is just miserable. They act as if teaching can’t be fun. We are way past the days of standing in front of the class, dragging on about a grammar point in the most monotonous way, with a monotone voice.
Then they come back to the office and say things like “these kids hate me” or “they just don’t pay attention”. Would YOU want to pay attention to you if you were in their shoes?!
Every single job I’ve had here that I’ve grown to hate has always been because of the teachers. It has never been because of the students.
Is there a limit to how much paid leave can roll over? I had 6 days left over in March. I should have received 15 new days in April but I only got 12 new days, so a total of 18 days. Is that right? I’m going to make sure to take all my paid leave this year in case.
I feel we should use the word adjustments for changes made to the textbook material for the benefit of the learner. Frankenstiening for adjustments made to the material due to it being unavoidable due to textbook format.
as a JET, I have some nice coworkers, but I have one that absoulutely hates me. I’ve been here for 3 years, and i’ve tried everything. It got so bad one time, she tried to rewrite my contract by herself and got in trouble. (there were some labor laws that she was breaking in the contract). I love my school and coworkers, but I am running out patience. She constantly yells at me for minor things. Like today, she yelled at me for not wearing a suit even though I NEVER wear a suit (unless ceremony of some kind or im told to in advance for something like a meeting or something like that). I also never get schedules of things happening that are important, again, like today, there is something going on, but I have no clue what it is because I wasn’t told about it.
This has been going on for 3 years and I just don’t know what to do anymore. Fuku-kocho has seen me get yelled at, and no one does anything.
What can I do?
Is ‘culturally sensitive’ the new big buzzword in Japanese teaching work? At my old job they cared very little what opinions you shared with the adults, so long as political or religious discussions were kept away from the kids. However, at my most recent job, they were incredibly worried about ‘microagressions’, often times in conversations where students or clientele were never involved at all to the point of paranoia. Now that I’m searching for a new job I keep seeing ‘culturally sensitive’ and I’m wondering where this is coming from or what it actually means.
Rather than making a new post about (though maybe I should?), I heard something very interesting the other day that gives me hope teaching jobs still have a future.
Talking with some Japanese people I met in a group for language exchange, they made comments that they’d tried online lessons… and were not big fans of them. They may have mentioned about how it was with Filipinos, but what I remember is that the lessons were online and for about 20 minutes, and they just did not like them at all. In fact, they much prefer face-to-face lessons… and there also seemed to be an implication that they also preferred it with a native (i,e, white and Western) speaker.
Now obviously this has its flaws- it was only a couple of people and I also have no idea how the lesson structure went, but the implication is that despite all the technological things that offer more opportunities such as AI or taking a lesson with someone in another country… there are still Japanese people who would still prefer an in-person lesson. That gives me a tiny shred of hope that teaching jobs aren’t going away anytime soon.
I’m disheartened. For certain reasons I still live in Japan but I don’t really want to be here, and dealing with such incredible pettiness and stupidity is really getting to me.
I was discussing a possible new contract with an institution, and the Japanese person in charge *thinks* she speaks English, but of course she does not, yet the communication is all in English. Her attitude then is to become a total bitch and treat me like an idiot when it’s her who doesn’t understand wtf I’m talking about *and* it’s her who can’t fucking express herself because she doesn’t know basic English.
Sorry, but working with Japanese people is the pits.
Hi, I’m currently in China, I’m figuring this might be my final year here. I’m wanting to find a job in Japan, but I’m trying to avoid places like Gaba, I’ve seen my share of bad horror stories of these places, and would much rather avoid these places at all cost. I’m hoping someone could point me in the direction of a place I could maybe go to work for.
Here’s that age-old question that applies pretty much worldwide in any industry:
Is getting a better salary and being in a desirable (to you) location worth having to deal with company bullshit?
Without giving too much away- as i am right now, I have things pretty decent. Granted, I am single with no kids… but I have taken efforts to improve myself and know that where I am now is a dead end. And I found a interesting opportunity.
Basically, the pay is much higher than what I’m making now, and it’s in a certain Big City that although I travel there a few times a month, I’d rather actually live there. And in some ways it’s a step up from what I’m doing currently. However, the Giant Red Flag is that it’s a certain Dispatch Company- one that is known to work with universities, although this is not the university program (about half of you should know which company I’m talking about).
Where I am right now, I’m a direct hire and have a very good working relationship with my company and boss, despite the pay being low. Having worked for two dispatch companies before, I know they’re terrible. Which is probably part of the reason I’m not trying for this other company so urgently. So the question is, is the higher pay and better location worth being with Dispatch Company management bullshit? I actually don’t have an answer.