Working for a Junior High School in Japan

N is for “New Job Titles”

This post is meant to be an informative view of what it is like to be an ALT at a Junior High School in Japan. Please keep in mind that not everyone’s experiences differ widely but this should give you some sort of general overview of what the job entails

Routine

Working in a school in requires an early start and some places you will have to arrive in school around 8am. This does not necessarily mean you can leave any earlier and expect your leaving time to be anywhere from 4-5pm.

Typically, you will teach around 4 lessons a day, though sometimes it will be less sometimes more. I have had days where I have taught for all 6 lessons and personally I prefer these to days when I only have 1 lesson.  Lessons are 50 minutes long.

The rest of the time you will be sat at your desk in your teachers room, often (but not always) without access to the internet. You can use this time to sort out your paperwork, plan and prepare materials you need for your lessons.

At private companies, you will usually be allowed all school holidays as personal holiday times. With the JET programme you can only take 2 weeks holiday leave a year.

Lessons

Junior High School lessons in Japan are extremely routine and textbook based. It is not unusual for a JHS ALT to only be given 10 minutes of a lesson to plan an activity, if they are given any specific time at all. In some schools, you will act merely as a tape recorder and not actually plan any of the lessons yourself. In other schools, or with other JTE’s, you may be allowed to design half or even the whole lesson yourself around the grammar point they are studying in the text book. In my school, I work with 5 JTEs. With 1 of them I consistently plan the whole lesson, with 2 of them I do between 15 – 30 minutes of the lesson, and with the last 2 I am usually a tape recorder but am allowed to include the occasional activity. I also teach a special needs class, where I plan the lessons entirely and with complete freedom. These are by far my favourite lessons.

Co-workers

At JHS you are far more likely to have co-workers that speak more English than say Elementary where there are no specific English speaking teachers. I have always found my co-workers to be friendly and helpful, but this is not always the case. Japan is A LOT about politics and not really much about any actual teaching skill. Get the co-workers on your side and you are sure to have a pleasant time working in Japan. Try to learn their names, give them a big smile and Ohayo gozaimasu in the morning, and helping out with lunch etc can’t hurt. Whenever you travel, it’s a good idea to bring Omiyage back with you, little sweets or presents from the place you’ve visited to share with the staff. They will certainly appreciate the effort.

I hope this article has given you an insight into what it’s like working in Japan, and that you have a great time working here.