Not my own experience but my French teaching colleague at my old eikaiwa told me that the VAST majority of lessons are true beginners, as in they know nothing of the language so you have to start from the ground up. Often because they want to go to the country on vacation, bored housewives who find it romantic etc. Compared to English lessons where most students will have at least SOME experience. Also there is a much smaller demand so the other language teachers had to travel every day, unlike the English teachers who were based at one school.
I guess it depends on the location but it’s pretty much the same, to be honest. I’ve taught Spanish quite a few times and it is pretty similar to english. I used a textbook, we focused on basic stuff since most people kinda know the alphabet so we had a good jumping-off point, and did an even amount of conversation practice as well as hard grammar textbook stuff.
Big difference is that most people who want Spanish over English have a reason for it. They often are a lil more focused on it but again, it varies.
I did some teaching in my mother tongue. I’m Swedish. This was during a time when my Japanese was super super low and the student didn’t know any English. Why she wanted to learn Swedish? I still don’t know.
The material was really REALLY bad. Books for Swedish beginners in Japanese are basically non existent so the school had some basic stuff put together. I ended up doing my own stuff in the end anyways.
It was hard, but that was mostly my own fault (didn’t study Japanese enough) and the fact that there were no teaching material whatsoever.
The pay was ridiculously high tho for an inexperienced teacher. I don’t remember exactly but I got something like 8-9k per lesson. One lesson was 50 minutes.
“But in English it’s ***, why is it not the same ?”
I teach Spanish and English. Student is self motivated, has colleagues who speak Spanish in a multinational and has actually improved immensely. If you speak another language that you learned at school I recommend teaching it so you don’t ‘lose it’.
I was a Spanish major in university and I’m so thankful I started teaching it here because I forgot A LOT and have since gotten back to a level I’m satisfied with.
somehow French is a popular language? I’ve worked in a private AND international school (different schools) and they both always have French as a third language.
I’m currently working as a real estate agent it’s tough sometimes
I teach one small language course at my university, mostly for fun since the students only get “free credits” (whatever than means) for it. It’s by far the most enjoyable class I teach. It attracts a small number of students each semester (3-10) who are either intrigued by the language or planning to study abroad in the country in which it is spoken. Expect one student a few years ago, everyone is a true beginner, so we start from the very basics – pronunciation, greetings, my name is, and the like. In fifteen weeks we usually get to a low A1 level, working on basic self-expression and a few extras like understanding the local currency, traditional holidays, very basic customs, ordering food at a restaurant, etc. We only work on spoken interaction, there really isn’t a time or place for reading or writing, unfortunately. In class we use almost exclusively the target language, unless I have to take a moment to actively explain something (e.g., customs). In that case I need to repeat the same thing in both English and Japanese, since there is no common language (usually I have a mix of native or near-native Japanese speakers and false beginners in Japanese, so they need English support). I try to avoid it as it wastes time. The materials we use are also trilingual. I have developed most of them but I do borrow a couple of listening activities from textbooks or online materials. I use Duolingo for homework, but I don’t work it inside my grading system. It’s just there to make students will good about doing a little bit in the language, or thinking about the language, every day. For grading a give a 10-minute mini-test every fifth class meeting. What else? It’s pretty enjoyable, really a nice change of pace compared to the fairly advanced English courses or senmon courses I have to teach most of the week. It’s refreshing to go back to the basics once a week. Also, I get to speak my native language a bit, which is not something I can say happens every day in Japan.
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Not my own experience but my French teaching colleague at my old eikaiwa told me that the VAST majority of lessons are true beginners, as in they know nothing of the language so you have to start from the ground up. Often because they want to go to the country on vacation, bored housewives who find it romantic etc. Compared to English lessons where most students will have at least SOME experience. Also there is a much smaller demand so the other language teachers had to travel every day, unlike the English teachers who were based at one school.
I guess it depends on the location but it’s pretty much the same, to be honest. I’ve taught Spanish quite a few times and it is pretty similar to english. I used a textbook, we focused on basic stuff since most people kinda know the alphabet so we had a good jumping-off point, and did an even amount of conversation practice as well as hard grammar textbook stuff.
Big difference is that most people who want Spanish over English have a reason for it. They often are a lil more focused on it but again, it varies.
I did some teaching in my mother tongue. I’m Swedish.
This was during a time when my Japanese was super super low and the student didn’t know any English. Why she wanted to learn Swedish? I still don’t know.
The material was really REALLY bad. Books for Swedish beginners in Japanese are basically non existent so the school had some basic stuff put together. I ended up doing my own stuff in the end anyways.
It was hard, but that was mostly my own fault (didn’t study Japanese enough) and the fact that there were no teaching material whatsoever.
The pay was ridiculously high tho for an inexperienced teacher. I don’t remember exactly but I got something like 8-9k per lesson. One lesson was 50 minutes.
“But in English it’s ***, why is it not the same ?”
I teach Spanish and English. Student is self motivated, has colleagues who speak Spanish in a multinational and has actually improved immensely. If you speak another language that you learned at school I recommend teaching it so you don’t ‘lose it’.
I was a Spanish major in university and I’m so thankful I started teaching it here because I forgot A LOT and have since gotten back to a level I’m satisfied with.
somehow French is a popular language? I’ve worked in a private AND international school (different schools) and they both always have French as a third language.
I’m currently working as a real estate agent it’s tough sometimes
I teach one small language course at my university, mostly for fun since the students only get “free credits” (whatever than means) for it. It’s by far the most enjoyable class I teach. It attracts a small number of students each semester (3-10) who are either intrigued by the language or planning to study abroad in the country in which it is spoken. Expect one student a few years ago, everyone is a true beginner, so we start from the very basics – pronunciation, greetings, my name is, and the like. In fifteen weeks we usually get to a low A1 level, working on basic self-expression and a few extras like understanding the local currency, traditional holidays, very basic customs, ordering food at a restaurant, etc. We only work on spoken interaction, there really isn’t a time or place for reading or writing, unfortunately. In class we use almost exclusively the target language, unless I have to take a moment to actively explain something (e.g., customs). In that case I need to repeat the same thing in both English and Japanese, since there is no common language (usually I have a mix of native or near-native Japanese speakers and false beginners in Japanese, so they need English support). I try to avoid it as it wastes time. The materials we use are also trilingual. I have developed most of them but I do borrow a couple of listening activities from textbooks or online materials. I use Duolingo for homework, but I don’t work it inside my grading system. It’s just there to make students will good about doing a little bit in the language, or thinking about the language, every day. For grading a give a 10-minute mini-test every fifth class meeting. What else? It’s pretty enjoyable, really a nice change of pace compared to the fairly advanced English courses or senmon courses I have to teach most of the week. It’s refreshing to go back to the basics once a week. Also, I get to speak my native language a bit, which is not something I can say happens every day in Japan.