I’m excited about this potential opportunity, but also a bit nervous. I’m from the United States and I’m not sure what kind of culture shock I’d be in for. Can anyone share their experiences?
Edit: I have been a preschool teacher for the last two years, and I have degrees in education and child psychology. Being around children is not new to me, but living abroad would be.
5 comments
These companies are just diaper changing stations. All you are going to do is sing songs and change diapers.
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Oh, and the pay is shit.
1. Do you have experience teaching?
2. Do you have experience working with young children?
3. Do you know any Japanese?
4. Have you been to Japan before?
5. Have you been outside the United States?
6. Is the position with a school or for a company that dispatches people to schools?
The answers to all of these questions will be relevant and allow people to give you advice. If the answer to the last question is “dispatches people to schools,” though, your duties will likely include little more than 20- to 30-minute bouts of leading the kids in simple songs and chants. If the answers to questions 1-3 are all “no,” you’re unlikely to get the job anyway because it’s likely most other applicants will be more attractive to whoever is hiring. If the answers to questions 4 and 5 are “no,” you should post something to u/movingtojapan.
I used to teach kindergarten and nursery for Heart Corporation 6 years ago so idk if it has changed or not.
What I did there was play games, keep the kids preoccupied, sing songs, and get headaches at the end of the day because kids are kids and they scream, punch, kick, throw things when they’re pissed off and kids get pissed of pretty fast.
Bring pain killer medicine. The medicine here is pretty weak compared to western. Check the import ban laws first to make sure your medicine is fine tho.
Also English picture books are a good idea. Those are hard to find here.
I dispatch to Kindergartens.
It’s nice to go to a new city everyday. Morning lessons are 15-30 minutes just repeating and songs.
Afternoon is more indepth and paying customers.
It’s pretty good.
Little kids can’t concentrate for long. Keep it short, interactive, alternate between body movement and calm times.
Don’t underestimate how long it takes little kids to do “simple” things like cut-out or coloring in. They still don’t have the fine motor skills for that stuff yet.