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.
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I just got confirmation that I have been blacklisted by Interac Kanto South. I may apply to another company again in a few months, but I’m never putting that company on my resume again.
Watching Chris Broad’s latest video with a guy who’s taught for 10(?) years in Japan, initially with eikawa and man, even though I’ve heard those jobs can be shit, some of his stories are crazy (and involve literal shit)!
Interesting though how he (Peter) came in with basically no expectations or rose-coloured glasses and still managed to stick it out for so long, even when he had to stoop to stealing toilet paper. As much as I love Japan, there’s no way I’d have stayed for even 1 of his first 5 years lol.
Here’s a syllabus and translation question – how do you translate SWBAT -> “Student will be able to”?
Masters degree finished now I need to get published. Realized I probably should have while I was doing my masters but was busy. Any tips?
I’m looking around for jobs and have found a lot of them! I have heard back from a bunch! However I am trying to get into a better situation than then one I am in now (mainly, not having a real break (10 mins between classes that we’re supposed to be interacting with the kids for 6 hours straight) and having to travel 2 hours at least once a week, by car).
I’m still relatively new to job searching in Japan, so… what are some questions I should ask schools that will help me determine the real situation there? Obviously I will inquire about basic things such as hours, break time, travel time, etc, but **are there any questions that can show the true colors of a place?** And if so what kind of red flag answers are there?
I think I am serious about early childhood education, so most of the places I’ve applied to advertise themselves as Kindergartens or Preschools… but I know that that isn’t necessarily regulated here. One in particular looks good on the outside–definitely seems like it will have long hours but I don’t mind working a little more if I’m satisfied in other aspects of the job. But the Glassdoor reviews for that school are mixed with some being very very good and some saying to run away. It’s got such a generic name that some of them are not even for the school in Japan, though, so it’s hard to know what I’m looking at.
Also in regards to that, what route should I go in terms of getting more education for that field? I am not very well off and at the moment as things are I don’t think I could devote time to a master’s program, but I am not against that. **Would CELTA help me in any way for teaching young learners?**
A couple of days ago, a teacher from another department came into my department’s shared office space. He came in to complain about how his previous group of students were so lazy, didn’t have their textbooks, and some of them didn’t even have paper to write on. He said that he told them (paraphrasing) “look, I know some of you don’t even care about English” and so on.
And… I think sometimes you just need to put your big boy pants on and keep moving. Some kids don’t have their textbooks? Fine, pair them up with students who do. No paper? Make them boot up their devices and write on Word. *Improvise*. Don’t air your feelings out at them. They pick up on it and will respond in kind.
I like canva but company is really going hard into it from power points to lesson plans. My wrist hurts from having to drag and design every dang documents I make.
Does having a masters open up any decent part time gigs?
Just finished and trying to get a few publications for next years hiring but was wondering if there was any decent part time work on weekends one could get with a masters.
Anyone know the name of the LINE chatbot that translates Japanese into English? I’ve seen some students using it during class and want to see how accurate it is.
Just a small PSA but I talked with my school about another teacher who is supposed to be coming to work for us from outside the country. They can’t seem to get her in the country and Tokyo has been telling the school that it’s because the teacher needs N3 Japanese.
I don’t know if that’s just an excuse they’re giving out to my school but it could be that anyone without N3 Japanese is going to be walled out of the country for awhile. Buckle up if so.