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.
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The number of university students in those mandatory first-year English lessons who cannot form a simple SVO sentence or even count to ten is reaching new heights of absurdity. I understand that this is a somewhat common issue for English teachers in Japan, but do these students learn nothing from eight years of English instruction in primary and secondary school? It seems like such a tremendous waste of their time.
I feel the way students in my area learn romaji affects how they comprehend English spelling. When they learn Kunrei-shiki (the students in my area learn that system), they learn し＝si, じ＝zi, しゃ＝sya, etc. It causes words that use the same sounds to be mispelled pretty consistently (syampoo, zingle, [I can’t think of better examples because I’m tired]). It’s a hurdle to get them to unlearn something that goes against how they learned their native language. Do others notice this?
Is 280,000 a month a good salary? Insurance included (school is based in Osaka)
Just 3.5 years of experience at another high school.
Got the Eiken, Jr. results back a couple days ago for fourteen of my eikaiwa students that took it. Two took gold level (both scored over 90%), five took silver level (all over 80%, three over 90%), and seven took bronze (three below 80%, three above 90%).
Biggest problem according to my business partner that proctored it was getting the kids to trust that they could take a higher level. Unfortunately they have that common mentality that they need to get 100% on a test or they messed up somehow.
I feel beaten down by the joy talk coordinators. Japanese evaluation model: 95% of the job they’re doing is amazing but this 5% let’s only talk about that! Let’s make them feel like he’s not doing anything correctly.
Employers that are skeptical of applicants that have changed jobs multiple times while also refusing to offer anyone a permanent or even full-time contract. Yeah, makes total sense.
Total first world problem, but it’s so frustrating…. unsolicited textbook samples from publishers.
Yesterday I arrived on campus and there was five envelopes from publishers in my mailbox. Two of them were from publishers that I requested inspection copies of, but both of those envelopes included not only the books I requested but also a note from the rep basically saying “here are couple of other titles I thought you also might be interested in!” Not great, but I understand. They were textbooks similar to what I am considering so I guess I’ll give them a consideration.
The other three envelopes were “new titles for 2024” including from publishers that I’ve never done business with. I looked at these books and some of them are for courses that I don’t teach using methodologies that I don’t use. I’m really, really not interested in them.
Anyway, I go off and teach my 2nd period class and I come back to my office and there is an envelope leaning up against the door. I open it and it’s a catalog, business card, and sample textbook copies with a note from a sales person saying “I was doing a campus visit today and I missed you. Here are some books I think you might be interested in!”
I have a lunch meeting and then 3rd period. I get back to my office from class and there plastic bag hanging on my office’s door knob. It’s from another publisher’s sales rep. Same thing as before, “I was doing a campus visit” blah blah blah.
SDG issues aside, I can’t help but wondering if this system even works. Do people really get an unsolicited copy of a textbook and go “wow this is good I think I’ll use this next year.” I’ve never done that. When I need a new book, I go out and look for one. I don’t wait for someone to send me one. And maybe it’s just me, but I am really suspicious of anything that a sales person is trying to sell me. I’m much more critical of textbooks I didn’t ask for and far less likely to adopted them.
In the end, I have a stack of 17 textbooks, 14 of which I didn’t ask for, that weren’t in my office the day before. So frustrating.