In this post I am going to be a gigantic hypocrite and tell you that I do not believe that the system in Japan is working. That the importation of hundreds of foreign English-speaking “teachers” is not a good thing, and to some consequence could be damaging to what is already a flawed system.
Reinforcing Flawed Ideas
Firstly, the idea that a native speaker is “needed” to effectively teach a language is a completely flawed concept, and yet is a concept that Japan has bought into massively and unquestioningly to a financial loss. As I have mentioned previously Japan never changes, but us coming in our hundreds, only reinforces the idea, that for a person to be properly taught a language they must be taught by a native speaker. I have actually written papers on this exact subject, and surmise that while it is good to be taught by both native and non-native teachers simultaneously, the restrictions we are put under means that all the benefits gained from us are lost in the system. Thus the whole exercise seems inherently futile.
School in Taiwan where foreign teachers are used
How do we bring about change?
In one of my many teaching seminars held by my company, we were shown a TED talk on how children have different types of competences. There is the old saying that a fish will forever think itself useless if you ask it to climb a tree. However, in Japan that is how the system works. Children are simply taught to memorise sentences from a textbook by reading and repeating with no variation in style or method. Our trainer asked us; how can you bring more creativity into your schools? A colleague of mine, who is more jaded, raised his hand and said “You can’t”. I seemed lucky in my school; some teachers would let me practise my own teaching methods though this may only be for 10 minutes of a lesson, while others were stuck fast with tradition.
Terrible Engrish certainly hasn’t changed
Inexperienced “Teachers”
Here is where I get to my main problem with bringing in native speakers. Being a native speaker does not make you an English teacher. Some people are simply not made to be teachers. It hurts, that even though I have been teaching languages since the age of 17, people always question me and my motives. They believe that like the thousands of other teachers currently teaching all across Asia, that I have come to this continent, with as little as some “one weekend of teaching” TEFL certificate, or even worse no contact with teaching children, or even time looking after them. There are people who are simply not cut out to be a teacher, and you don’t know this until you do it. I had a Japanese lesson with an American who had been teaching English for over 10 years. The result was days of furious tears at his ineptitude at teaching. Some people are just not meant to be teachers.
A scheme to educate local teachers in rural India. A positive use of foreign teachers.
Burden of Responsibility
As a non-Japanese person in Japan, a heavy burden weighs down on you. Just 2% of residents of Japan are non-Japanese, and as such a minority you represent your whole race, and if someone knows you, your nationality. You are a microcosm, a physical representation of your country, and that is quite the burden. This is why it is so important to choose selectively who these ambassadors of our country will be. Japan is the most racist country I have ever been to. Racism is when you treat someone differently because of their race. When a Japanese person walks up to me on the street and starts to talk to me and tell me they love me because I am a white, that is racism. If a Japanese person is shocked and compliments me enthusiastically when I say “Sumimasen” or when they see I can use chopsticks, that is racism. Japan needs to understand that while these actions seem “harmless” or are done with no ill thought in mind, it still separates us from them, which is harmful. Foreigners in Japan, carry the burden of changing this damaging behaviour and it’s a heavy burden to carry.
Do I blend in with Japanese culture?
Damage to Children
Sensei being the high position that it is in society, children look up admiringly to their sensei or ALT. But how do those children feel when their mentors, those who they look up to, blaze in and out of their lives every year. Just as they grow to love and trust one foreigner, they leave their lives forever. The motivation to study English that they learnt with one ALT, is knocked down and must be built from scratch with the next, in what is already a very difficult and high pressure time in their lives.
What is your opinion? Do ALTs damage the system?
George On The Go 
Interesting article, George. What I think you’re not telling everyone, though, is just how terrible Japanese teachers are at teaching English.
Native ‘teachers’ imported from the US and the UK, etc. etc., make up for a lack of experience or real understanding with a sense of patience, creativity and an ability of expression that most Asian teachers simply don’t have. And that’s only thinking from a methodology perspective. You’d be a fool to think that Japanese English teachers can teach phonics to young learners: a fact that anyone who’s ever heard the Japanese take on English can attest to.
Perhaps there needs to be stricter rules in place to weed out the imported teachers incapable of teaching, but to say that they’re ‘ruining’ the Japanese education system is so silly that I felt compelled to write ^^
Oh, one more thing. A Japanese person approaching you in the street to tell you how much they love you isn’t racist. You’re being ridiculous. Racism is thinking that another person behaves or believes differently from you because of the color of their skin. What the Japanese guy in your example is doing is giving you preferential treatment. Word.
I’m glad you had a strong reaction either way, that’s why I wrote it. To hear opinions.
Firstly, the racism issue. Racism is treating others differently because of their colour whether that’s just thoughts or action. Even if it’s positive racism “That girl is so cool because she’s white” it is racism. Preferential treatment if given because of the colour of your skin is a form of racism.
Secondly, I don’t believe that anyone should be teaching phonics to young learners. Unless you mean pronunciation in which case there are cds with native pronunciation. I believe that Native teachers could be a great resource in the classroom. I personally believe that I am a good English teacher but in particular in JHS and HS, we are not used for our knowledge of teaching practises. We are used as tape recorders. If when I was teaching JHS I was allowed free reign in the classroom (like I am now with ES where I do think I am making an impact) then I do think that native teachers would be a good thing. The problem is we are not allowed to teach. Bottom line. We have strict guidelines on what to teach/say right down to the vocab that we are almost useless. Even in ES 1 lesson a week is hardly going to help your English skyrocket.
Also I never said that ALTs etc are “ruining” the Japanese education system. I said we could be damaging the children whose lives we breeze in and out of, and that we could be put to use more effectively. The Japanese education system is dire enough already. I just think we could be given the chance to actually teach and help people with their English.
I hope you read this reply and get a clearer understanding of what I was trying to say.
“Being a native speaker does not make you an English teacher.”
How very, very true! I totally agree with a lot of what you say. There’s absolutely no reason to have a native English speaker over an equally competent NNS. For me it all boils down to the competence of the individual teacher regardless of their nationality and origin!
I totally agree. There is often a problem with getting quality NS teachers anywhere. I think the main problem in Japan is that the NS is king. I know a Filipino girl whose English is native speaker fluency and she is a great teacher and still some schools won’t accept her and instead hire far less able NSs. Makes me sad.
I think a lot of foreigners in Japan over-react to just about everything. Why is Japan supposed to be so perfect? Try going to some other country in the world where the majority of people are of the same cultural background and have the same general looks. You’ll not only stand out, but you’ll be mocked. That doesn’t happen in Japan because Japanese society is extremely tolerant. Why shouldn’t someone comment on your chopstick skills? Japan is a country where food is a very important part of the culture, and you’ve probably got the language skills of a 4-year-old even if you’ve been in the country using the language for a decade (and you know it too). A lot of foreigners simply don’t have the ability to see how dumb they look from the point of view of someone who’s native Japanese, and are also blinded regarding just how well they’re being treated despite it all.
I don’t understand why some companies hire the way they do. Unfortunately I’m speaking about some friends, but it’s just sad the level of teaching ability some people have who are out there teaching. What makes it worse is that these people leave a bad taste in the mouth for their employers, so when you’re the next teacher to come along, there are all of these negative assumptions about you. Foreigners do this, foreigners do that.
On the other hand, there is a benefit to having native speakers. Language learning obviously isn’t just about language. It’s about seeing what people are like. A lot of people just want to know what sort of lives plain old Americans, Canadians, Kiwis, etc. live. They WANT to know how the guy who doesn’t know how to teach lives his or her life, because these are real people. There’s something intelligent about the complete idiot that somehow traveled halfway around the world and got hired by the local language school. It’s impressive. Some Japanese want in on that ability.
Let’s face it. The whole world does not need to speak fluent English. Japan would suck if everyone spoke English fluently. It wouldn’t be Japan anymore. It would lose its allure. Anyone who’s really serious about learning the language will find a way to do so. It’s usually as easy as saving up a bit of money then heading overseas for a working holiday and studying hard.
Personally, it’s not like everyday I expect to fit in and it doesn’t really bother me I was pointing it out for the sake of my argument. Also many of my friends are perfectly fluent. Even ones that are half Japanese have seen the divide. No matter how much Japanese you know or how much Japanese culture you follow you will never be “Japanese” and that’s sad for someone who feels they belong here.
I understand your point about learning other cultures, so why don’t we teach that instead? Many JHS ALTs stand in the corner of the room and read flashcards monotonously. Is this really sharing their culture.
And I’m not on about those unable to teach language, just those unsuited to being teachers, people who dont take pride in their work, who phone lessons in, who aren’t a good role model for the kids.
I hope that explains some things.
What’s so important about being considered Japanese? You’re not going to be Japanese when you’re dead. Why does it matter so much what others think?
Why not just live your life and be happy about it instead of forcing yourself to “belong” to a culture that doesn’t want to accept you? (Anyway, I think a lot of non-Japanese DO belong in Japan, and so do a lot of Japanese, and many Japanese DO want to accept non-Japanese in Japan.) It’s kind of like being upset about your girlfriend breaking up with you. You just have to accept that she doesn’t want to be your girlfriend anymore. Should she be forced to keep you? Why would you want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with you? It might hurt, but ultimately that’s YOUR problem, not hers. It’s YOUR problem, not Japan’s.
If you don’t like the ALT role, then go out and teach your own classes. An ALT, by definition is a teaching assistant, not a full-fledged teacher. ALT’s are very lucky because they’re allowed into public schools, often get paid as much as the regular teachers, but don’t have the qualifications to be a teacher in a public school in Japan. If you want to be a full-time teacher, are you actually willing to do the work? Go to university in Japan, get your teaching degree in Japanese, find a job, then dedicate your life to your job. Being an ALT is a very envious position. You virtually have no responsibility. Again, you’re there to assist. There are many teachers out there that want their ALT’s to do cultural activities and tell their students about life outside of Japan.
Yes, it’s unfortunate that some people are really not suited to being teachers and are bad role-models for kids. A lot of these people end up weeding themselves out eventually. A really bad teacher is not going to be around for long. They’ll either leave of their own will or will be fired. I’ve seen it happen. Schools that hire these people usually become more wise about who they hire next.
There is a lot of anger ere and I dont understand why? Also my keyboard is dodgey so apologies for that first.
I personally dont want to fit in Japanese society but I think its unfortunate for those who do and try really hard that they will never be allowed to belong because of the colour of their skin. If you f broke up with you for being a different race to her then yes maybe your analogy is the same.
As far as being an ALT, I want to be an Assistant and not a full teacher but I would also like to be able to do the job I was hired to do. I.e Encourage kids to learn English and share my culture. I think that the children would benefit hugely from ALTs being able to teach properly and again its unfortunate that that is not the case.
Also I would 100% disagree wit your final paragrap but thats ok.
This whole topic is not something I sit at home crying about but something I thought should be addressed to those thinking of working in Japan.
There’s a lot of anger? From me? How so? I didn’t feel angry when I was typing. I’m not particularly angry now except for being a bit ticked off at the implication that there’s “a lot of anger”. Or were you talking about yourself?
How do you know that no matter how much Japanese you know or how much Japanese culture you follow you will never be Japanese and that’s sad? I often hear this remark from people who are not fluent and it just sounds like justifying your lack of ability to engage with people on an adult level. I don’t think one has to be Japanese to find a place to “fit in” and be happy here. Why do you think that being “Japanese,” whatever that means, is so important? The better my Japanese got, the less I got the condescending comments and silly remarks – I guess the people around me realized that they were dealing with an adult at some point. The only conclusion that I have reached is that the blindness and prejudice of humans, whether well-meaning or not so, is pretty much consistent around the world – this is not something that is unique to Japan or any other country.
My friend who has lived in Japan for 3 years and works as a Japanese translator and I were sitting in the park next to some Japanese women. The topic of their conversation: his penis size. He lives in Japan knows the customs has mastered the language and still these women felt it was appropriate to talk loudly about the size of his penis centimetres away from him. Why? Because he is white. Because they believe he doesn’t understand.
In Kyoto the other day I asked a man in perfect Japanese if the train he was on was going to my destination. Without replying to me he pushes a girl towards me. It’s a relative of his who lives in America, speaks perfect English but does not come from Kyoto and therefore has no idea where this train is going. He, however, being a local did. He assumed I, being white, wanted English knowledge not local knowledge. Speaking to the girl, I spoke in Japanese, she replied in English.
This is just a small piece of the puzzle. I’m not saying that you need to completely fit in to Japan to be happy here. Many people revel in not fitting in, in being special, look how well Lola has done, or Becky or that guy from the coffee commercials (though I’d like to point out the first 2 are part Japanese.) There are even people who let daily occurrences like this wash over them and don’t even notice. But there are some people who feel at home in Japan, in the culture and the language who felt separated from their home and other cultures, and it makes me sad that those people will be forever rejected from this society.
My Japanese is certainly not fluent, it is what I call ok. I converse with my colleagues in Japanese on a daily basis and they know not to treat me differently simply because they have become accustomed to me, and they know that I can fit in, but the people you meet on the street who don’t know you will forever treat you differently. From the man who walked up to me eating a donut and repeated “oishi ne” in my face like I was a child, to the random girl in the club who ran up to me hugged me and shouted “I love you”, these instances have nothing to do with my Japanese ability or ability to fit in and only to do with the colour of my skin. And that is sad.
It may not be a problem that is unique to Japan, but it is a problem in Japan.
I can see your point. If you think about things that way, it makes a lot of sense. However, my feeling is that you are bringing a lot of assumptions in as you interpret these experiences. I’m not trying to prove that you are incorrect, and in fact, I will say that I agree with your basic assertions. Moldable, emotional interpretation is the way we make sense of our surroundings. However, here are a couple of thoughts that might allow you to look at those experiences one more time:
With regard to your anecdote about the women at the park, as a thought experiment, how would it change the situation if you characterized them as uneducated and rude *individuals* lacking class and common sense, rather than lumping them in as just “Japanese women” bringing in the assumptions about their inner psychology reacting to your friend’s whiteness?
My feeling is that there is a “tatemae” veneer here suggesting that Japanese are homogeneous and all basically have, want, and need the same uniform things. However, I think that Japan is actually sociologically (and economically/experientially) quite diverse. Were these ladies making the comment thoroughly educated and well to do “career women” who were members of local Japan-Indonesia Society who also came from thoroughly supportive and loving families? Were they orange-haired cigarette smoking child-abusers from broken homes who didn’t have the wherewithall to stay in school past an empty compulsory education? A bad way of illustrating this with fictional straw men, but my point is simply that there are perhaps a whole range of very, very basic human factors – namely upbringing and experience – that will influence a person’s behavior far, far ahead of anything as abstract as nationality. If it wasn’t your friend, it could have easily been them unwittingly stepping on some other landmine with someone else.
About the donut incident, there are loads of people walking around in public shared spaces. The vast majority are decent and wouldn’t say that to you. The vast majority didn’t. Yet that one man stands out fresh in your mind. Why does that happen? Why weren’t you shocked and impressed instead by the number of people who ignored you?
I am only one person, and I know I can’t effectively handle a nation of people pitted against me in ignorance. So I choose not to think of it that way, because a frame of mind is a weapon for navigating the world. I feel like I can handle dealing with the people around me as individuals though…
There are all kinds of people in Japan. We can’t realistically expect all of them to behave to our standard of international experience, although baseline standards (hate speech is one) need to be punishable offenses under the rule of law. Ideals are absolutely worth having, but experience tempers ideals. As you have more of these kinds of “light” racist incidents – and hopefully many, many more positive and meaningful experiences where you feel loved and accepted that show the opposite side of people here – your ability to contextualize them should only increase.
Sometimes I find myself guilty of the same crime of lumping the perpetrators together as Japanese, or old people, or poor people, or people with orange hair who smoke cigarettes in crowded spaces, or other groups I don’t like in an animal and subconscious way, not for any fault of my own, but because humans revel in stereotypes no matter what country they hail from.
I see the same evil in myself after living in Japan for more than 5 years. I’m not sure how much I can help it. I might be more guilty than any Japanese national. I don’t want to live that way, but it happens, because I don’t appear have the brain cycles to carefully deliver every single thought and remark through the politically correct filter.
Now, about your Japanese, I think the more likely scenario is just that “pretty good Japanese” doesn’t mean much until you are as good at or better at Japanese than the person you are speaking to. You think your Japanese is good, but having 60% amazing Japanese doesn’t mean that 60% of the time you are entitled to be treated like a native speaker. By the way, one of the best compliments I ever got was that my Japanese was better than an incompetent Japanese person. Because I was so used to being complimented for my language prowess, it really hurt my feelings when the person said it to me, even though it was meant to be a compliment. But it probably was true. That meant that I could own a few people at speaking their native language. But it also meant that I was still pretty low on the overall totem pole. Hopefully I have climbed up further since then (over 2 years ago).
I’d like to give you something to look forward to as you progress in your Japanese studies: 19 out of 20 times I talk to Japanese staff at a store, they just answer my question normally with no special treatment, no nihongo jozu comments, no amazing white guy treatment. You can do this too – if you are going to be here long enough and you want it bad enough. It’s great fun and satisfying to be aware of.
Have you ever observed how you feel and react when speaking with someone who is a native English speaker from your home country? You know you can bring up those Saturday morning cartoons you watched as a kid because you assume they share the same cultural heritage. You know you can do funky turns of phrase and they will be understood and chuckled at. You likely laugh more, smile more, feel more comfortable. When I speak to non-natives, I can feel how the barrier goes up uwittingly in my brain. It happens every time. I dumb down what I say to communicate with them. I repeat myself slowly over and over. I could say more to them, but they wouldn’t get it, so we settle for less.
It’s fundamentally unfair, and also fundamentally human.
Honestly thank you loads for this comment it really is quite brilliant. Originally I fobbed you off as one of the many people who just hate me because I wrote that Japan is racist and won’t listen to anything I have to say. I was wrong you are clearly very intelligent.
Thank you also for opening my eyes, I can obviously see the other perspective. The women in the park were well to do ladies in their 50s. My friend turned around and in Japanese pointed it out that it was not as big as they thought. There was an awkward silence. I think their decision to talk openly was 50% thinking he wouldn’t understand and 50% high spirits of spring in the park.
And yes you are absolutely correct 100s of times I have sat down and eaten something in Japan he is the one exception that stood out to me and not the 1000s of people who ignored me as they would in any country. Even the time I dropped an onigiri on the floor took off the nori and continued to eat it.
I remember the first few times I went to a takoyaki place I didn’t know the counter for takoyaki and would simply say “takoyaki nana onegaishimasu” knowing it was wrong but would convey my meaning. And they would reply Nihongo jouzu and I would be thinking hold up… no it’s terrible I said like 3 words and one was wrong. Now they never say that to me, even though I talk to them about far more complex things than how many takoyaki I want.
Personally, I know my Japanese has a long way to come, but I’m not trying to live here forever, and at the same time I can only offer stories from my own personal experience. I will agree though I certainly levitate to people of my own culture, get excited by those particularly from Wales even if they are not as excited as me. I always use the phrase “does my tit in” to mean “makes me mad” and my Canadian friend suddenly burst out one day “what does that even meeeeaaan?” something so a part of my language I’d never considered as being a British phrase. Another includes “thick as shit”.
Thank you again for your comment. I’m afraid I don’t have too much to come back with as I totally agree with what you are saying. I think looking at things from a new perspective lightens your heart.
I read most of this post before I realised you’re not a teacher, you’re an ALT. I’ve never done that (and wouldn’t want to) but I have some idea of what it entails, and honestly, if you want to teach, pack in that job and go and teach.
Part of what you’re saying makes perfect sense, but I think with regard to the idea that importing native speakers reinforces this idea that they are necessary, it’s a self-fulfilling/chicken and egg thing brought on mostly by the sheer crapness of the education system. The Japanese school system is a pioneer in teaching to tests, not to educate, so everything is designed to help kids pass tests and many of their lessons have no actual practical value at all. Thus very few people actually become good at skills they don’t often have a need for – like English. This means a lack of Japanese natives with good English, so they import English speakers. This means Japanese don’t learn to teach English because native speakers are there to do it; due to demand, the native speakers don’t teach useful skills because people are more interested in their kids passing tests than having useful skills. And so it repeats.
Yes, there’s no reason why native speakers are *necessary*, and it is true that skilled natives would do just as good a job. There’s just a chronic shortage.
Now, regarding the thing about ‘not all native speakers are cut out to be teachers’: YES. I 100% agree with you. Unfortunately, we have Japanese recruitment practices to thank for the problem that exists here. My company (a major Eikaiwa chain) likes to recruit people with minimal experience or relevant knowledge (often people with Japanese spouses and other non-teachers, or part-time contracts for people with other jobs), treat them like shit and wait for them to quit, throw them away and repeat. All their policies, textbooks, training and expectations of me flow from this assumption that I am a fool and a wastrel and am basically a disaster waiting to happen. I, on the other hand, am CELTA qualified and Japan-specialised; I work for this company because I had a) no visa; and b) too little experience for anyone better to call me back.
That’s where I have problems with what you say. I teach 90% adults; I had no experience with kids before I came. How was I supposed to get it? In Britain (where I come from) it’s easier to rob a bank than it is to teach children. You can’t do it without years and years of expensive training. As it happens, I much prefer teaching adults, so I’m cool with this, but it’s been problematic – another school I’d rather have worked for left me with an open offer “if I got some more experience with kids”. Again, this is Japanese recruiting and training at fault, more than anything else.
I intend to stay in Japan and teach because I love doing it, and I am really down on people who come because they want to pay off their student loans and have no affinity for the work. Many of my colleagues suck at the job. As a result, I don’t really see where your ‘burden of responsibility’ paragraph fits with the rest of the article. I’m here for the long haul and in my view, it’s obvious that no-one who comes to teach should be any other way. Part of living here is accepting this: being physically different separates us from them in a way no awareness of racism will ever eliminate, and if you can’t not only deal with that but embrace the difference, you’re not cut out to be here. I am a gaijin, I cannot not be one, and I am completely OK with that. And as a side note, I have no qualms whatsoever about misrepresenting my country to the Japanese, because my country is almost entirely without merit, worsening daily and well beyond saving, and I am secure in my knowledge that I am actually painting Britain in a much better light than it has deserved for a good 40-50 years.
You’ve brought up some very good points and I thank you for your insightful comments. Particularly the chicken and the egg thing which I think hits the situation on the head. I have actually got a post on what I think could be some solutions (ie putting ALTs to better use) but that’s for later.
The reason I am an ALT and not a teacher is because I want to teach lessons but not put up with all the mind numbing bureaucracy that goes along with the teaching profession. I want to be an ALT but I don’t want to stand in the corner and read words off a flashcard. I would like to motivate these kids to learn English like my job title describes.
I heard that this Eikaiwa thing is a problem, but now you have experience you could jump ship. As for opportunities teaching children in Britain there are 1000s of opportunities, I know because I was there myself. At 15-18 I took part in an after school club teaching German to Primary school kids. I was also a trainee scout leader. At 17 I asked my teachers at High School if I could shadow their classes as an assistant. At 18 I took part in a paired reading scheme, I also began volunteering at a nursery. At 19 I was a German language teaching assistant in a school in England on Fridays, at 20 I moved to Germany to assist in a school, at 21 I began 1 on 1 tutoring with people of all ages, and au paired 7 children in Oz. At 22 I taught at a school in India. Now I am here.
I didn’t even get my CRB check (which is only like £50 anyway) until I became a teaching assistant at 19. Because I was volunteering people were happy for the help and I just moved up and up. I also have 0 years of expensive training. I just took every opportunity I saw.
I also know this gaijin thing is a very divided fence. I just think its a little upsetting that no matter how fluent you are at Japanese and integrated into the customs you can never be Japanese. For me it’s not a problem, I won’t be here forever, but for some it is.
Thank you so much for sharing your story I loved reading it. It’s just another example of discrimination whether positive or not. Whether you think you are a teacher or not I assume you have some ability possibly more than some people who try and force their way into the industry just to be in Japan. For you you didnt have to be a teacher to live here and so you were able to quit, they must persist.
The main point is that you don’t know you are a teacher or not until you try now that you have tried you can see it’s not for you. And I think if more people did that before coming they would see that too.
Trust me, there’s not a lot of mind-numbing bureaucracy in my job. Tooth-grinding incompetence from people who are supposed to be managers, yes, but the bureacratic burden of the job is slight. I know where you’re coming from, though – British school teachers certainly get a lot of bureaucratic shit to deal with which they shouldn’t have to. I don’t know about Japanese teachers but I presume there’s a similar problem.
I’ll be interested to read your future post about effective ALT use when you put it up.
With regard to your comments about opportunities to teach kids in Britain: I acknowledge that you’ve met a fair few fortunate breaks, but I don’t think you can assume that your experience is representative. You have a specialism in a relatively rare field (German), which makes you rare and thus valuable. More to the point you were using your connections and age to make this work – because you were at school you automatically had access to younger learners. I, coming to teaching at the age of 27, had none of that. Also, you volunteered. Maybe that was viable for you (if you say a CRB check is “only” £50 I rather think money isn’t a worry for you – that’s a week’s shopping for me), but I’ve always lived on a relatively low income and never had the luxury of being able to give my time for free; I really object to volunteer positions of this kind, in fact, because it not only exploits people doing skilled work they deserve to be paid for, but also empowers the privileged and keeps the poor out of opportunities. You also moved abroad a couple of times; I couldn’t do that, and nor could most others, without an income source to move to, i.e. something that would use my time and thus preclude me from teaching. I think this is very dependent on who you are and what your circumstances are.
I don’t think there’s any reason to be upset about the inability to wholly integrate. It’s just as true as with any other country, it’s just more obvious here compared to, say, France. How do you think the ex-pats in Provence are seen by the locals? Do they really ever see English Ex-pats as ‘integrated’, however good their French can be? Come to that, have you ever lived in a small village in the country anywhere in England? That’s just the same for outsiders. Outside people are outsiders. There’s no point being unhappy about it. Either go where you are not an outsider or learn to enjoy the perspective, that’s my attitude. This is why I’m more comfortable here than in the UK – I’m not supposed to be an outsider there, yet I feel like one and I always have. Here I really AM one and I can make it work for me, not against me.
Firstly, I would like to say I wasn’t born rich. Growing up me and my mum shared income support. I grew up living on £4,500 a year household income. I believe that you are an excuse maker. I.e oh you did that but I couldn’t because …. Moving to Germany cost me £28. The price of my Easyjet 1 way flight. I paid for my first month (before the first paycheck) using my overdraft. Then I had income from the job. £50 is obviously a lot of money for me but it was something I deemed essential. Also in the UK a weeks food shopping cost me £10-15 so if anything I think you are frivolous with your money.
The second post came out yesterday http://georgeonthego.org/2013/06/18/ways-to-improve-the-alt-system-in-japan/
I’m sorry if you don’t agree with volunteering but if you have no teaching experience then really by letting you near the children they are doing you a favour not the other way around. I personally was grateful for the volunteering positions I had, they were a lot of fun.
Here are some things you can do at 27 to get experience. (Sorry some are volunteering) Go to a local school and ask if you can shadow a teacher for a few weeks. Go to a local community centre and ask if you can teach any subject. Offer friends and family if they have any kids that you can tutor. Good at sport? Go to the local leisure centre and ask if you can help out with any classes you are good at. Sign up to online tutoring communities and tutor over skype. These are literally just a few ideas that came off the top of my head. I’m sure there is 100 more.
Also in terms of this tiny English village (I’m Welsh FYI and used to live in the valleys) My sister lives in the valleys and 2 of her best friends are a transexual and an Indian woman. Also in Japan I live in a city of 1 million. That’s twice the size of Leeds, and Leeds for the most part certainly allows it’s immigrants to integrate. I was at a restaurant the other day and the waitress just stopped in front of us and gawped and refused to talk. Probably because she thought we didn’t speak Japanese.
Yes, lovely, I’m an excuse maker; thanks for that. I’m know full well I am perfectly justified in my course of action, and I fully acknowledge that everyone’s experience is subjective, so we can agree to disagree there.
Moving to Germany cost you £28…so you just got on a plane with a one-way ticket and trusted to luck, and that’s a viable strategy? No, that’s an insane risk. In fact, it sounds like you already had work and accommodation and the basics of living sorted out, so in fact the whole enterprise is hardly relevant to the discussion anyway – you will have got that job on the back of your ability with German and experience you got through your school connections. Fair enough it’s not as expensive as I expected, but it’s about more than money. Irrespective of cost t’s just not viable for others unless you have no responsibilities at home, have the basic skills to do it (foreign language skills etc.) and a way of supporting yourself once you’re there.
Note that my point was experience specifically with kids, and/or teaching EFL – I regard anything else as basically wasting my time. It might be possible to shadow a teacher but given the ludicrous paranoia in schools nowadays I’d not be particularly hopeful, and it’s hardly relevant to EFL unless you go for somewhere with a large immigrant population, which means moving… A community centre would be a good idea except the number of kids doing classes will be minimal, plus it’s not like the people who run community centres just let anyone in as a teacher, you need at least some qualifications or they’ll just show you the door. Personally the only friend I have with a child is under 2, and I’m not good at sport. Skype tutoring is a decent idea but wholly dependent on market forces, and who’s going to go for someone with no experience over someone with experience? Your positivity is great but it seems unworldly. Then again, I’m an excuse maker, right?
Doing me a favour – that’s the whole point. This ought never to be about favours at all, in either direction. It ought to be about paid work. You don’t expect doctors or police to work for free, yet for some reason it’s the only way you can get anywhere as a teacher of anything outside the school system. If you don’t see how insane that is I might as well give up now.
Did you challenge this waitress? Ask what was wrong (in Japanese)? Your reaction is half of this social equation. I get stared at, and I stare back, and in extreme cases I challenge people. Sometimes I give them a huge smile, and sometimes I don’t. I had a vaguely comparable experience when I met a gang of drunk elderly businessmen outside an izakaya not long ago; one of them spontaneously decided to stroke my hairy arms. I stroked the top of his bald head in return. It was quite funny really.
I’m intrigued by your use of the word ‘allows’ – how exactly are you not allowed to integrate by the city itself (by which I understand you to mean the city/local government, as opposed to individuals)? My present city (not far from Nagoya) has a lot of Filipino immigrants who seem fairly content; before this I was up in Nagano-ken where there’s a lot of Brazilians, who also seem unhassled by daily life. Also, it’s great your sister is inclusive in her attitudes, but is she really representative of the people where she lives? Round NE England where I’m from, country and city people alike can be very welcoming to outsiders – or extremely hostile. Just like the Japanese.
Wouldn’t let me reply to your latest post so I’m replying here.
My sister was actually pretty racist to Indians until she met and liked one. Now she’s just racist against Pakistanis. We were brought up in a bit of a racist working class house though.
I do think you shoot down ideas too quickly. Shadowing in schools is easy particularly if you went there teachers love to see old pupils, I got my job in England off that experience and my job in Germany off that. It all snowballs.
I did already have a job in Germany when I arrived but not accom. One of the colleagues at my school let me live with her for a week (she was lovely and taught me how to play WoW.) Before she helped me find my own accom in a flat full of cats above a crazy old couples house. The rent was exceedingly cheap. So yes moving to Germany cost me £28 plus a few months of job applications. Plus moving to a country then looking for work is not “an insane risk” it’s very sensible you can scope out jobs from the ground level get a look at your school first and make a good impression face to face. If its in the EU its perfect as we don’t need work visas.
I mean allows as in I’ll always be foreign because of my vanilla face. This is an argument I don’t wish to hash again and again. I wasn’t rude to her no because I don’t treat rudeness with rudeness, I just asked for the bill.
Doctors have experience that is what 7 years of medical school was for. Police go through police training too. When they get hired they get hired off their experience through training they not only did for free but actually PAID to do. Volunteering is like free training. Why would you turn that down.
I’m not optimistic I’m realistic, you are pessimistic. That waste of time attitude is why you had no experience, you didn’t try because you didn’t think you would succeed. I tried because I thought I might.
I don’t mean you should have been rude to the waitress necessarily – maybe it warranted rudeness and maybe not. Often it’s not rudeness but curiosity. In my view rudeness has to be intentional, or at least persistently ignorant, for it to actually be rude, so unless someone actually wants to be rude or is so inconsiderate that they don’t care if they are or not, I have no problem with it. When I visited my wife’s parents in a small city (“only about 8 million people”, she said) in China, I was stared at by 75% of the people I saw on the street, and in two weeks I caused three bike accidents simply by walking along the street, causing astonished cyclists to stare and thus crash into each other. They weren’t being rude, they were just amazed and curious. It was uncomfortable but I understood it and didn’t feel angry about their behaviour.
Or maybe it was just surprise – I find a lot of my students are really bad at dealing with surprises and seem to freeze rather than deal with it. So there’s nothing rude about you asking her “Daijoubu?”, but it would let her know you are aware of her behaviour. Of course, if it was intentional rudeness, nothing will change unless it’s challenged, and that is wholly on you, and me, and every other gaijin.
There’s no way I’d go back to any school I ever attended. 50%+ of the teachers there were basically incompetent and most of the rest are gone. Not to mention they were the worst years of my life and no school I’ve attended was a place I’d piss on if it were on fire, as they say. Not to mention it WAS a waste of my time – I needed experience with kids in an EFL context, and there is none in any school I have access to. On top of which, I don’t want to work in a school context anyway – anything under university level is outside my interest. So you may see me as pessimistic, but that doesn’t stop me being right about my own circumstances and needs.
Doctors and cops have experience from training, which is structured, organised, financed and easy to find; they pay for the training because it is provided by experts and, at the end, the trainees walk out of the training college and into their first real job – or they fail, in which case they cannot do the job at all. Teachers for UK schools have a similarly clear path with PGCE. My point is EFL teachers, and for that matter people who want to teach in Lifelong Learning, have nothing like that, it’s totally unclear what if anything one should do, and nothing beyond an employers recruitment policy precludes people who suck at teaching but can ace interviews getting positions while good teachers who might struggle to make the right impression are passed over. The nearest thing I could find was CELTA, which I did, but guess what? No children.
Why would I turn down free training? Because I need to earn money to live, and time spent volunteering is not that. Because training is provided by experts, and barring luck, volunteering is not that. Because I want to work with foreign people and teach English, outside a school environment, and no volunteering opportunity I had access to was that.
Maybe you have a different attitude to risk compared to how I feel, but there’s no way in hell I’d go to a foreign country for work without sorting out a place to live first.
So you have £1000 for a CELTA but not £50 for a CRB. Interesting.
Maybe you have a point about the waitress. It’s not something I cry or an particularly angry about it’s just a thing, and those outside of Japan have no idea it exists which is why I wrote it.
As I said you may not get your dream volunteer position to begin with. It may be shadowing at a school you don’t like but that weeks experience will allow other places to take you on. It snowballs. I think on the job experience is worth 1000x what any training course is worth.
I’m going to stop my argument here as I am only repeating myself.
I’m happy to spend my money on relevant, useful, demonstrably valuable qualifications taught by experts. I’m not happy to throw it away on meaningless checks for positions which are of negligible relevance and value, a waste of my time, are essentially a license to be exploited and are against my principles anyway, not to mention that the money goes directly to the government and is 100% undeserved income.
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Let me preface by saying that I’m in Japan as a student rather than a teacher. I have a work permit, and am allowed per my visa to find my own part-time jobs up to around 30 hours per week.
That said, I generally agree with everything you said – from the opposite side of experience. Thanks to positive discrimination, as soon as my work permit was granted, I was offered a couple English teaching jobs in my area. I had a small amount of previous teaching experience in my own country (in English), and knew I liked working with children, so I thought English teaching was worth trying. However, at this time my Japanese level was extremely low. I had been in Japan for perhaps 2 months, and had come knowing barely more than “kore wa pen desu.” Additionally, no interview or application was ever requested. I was, in short, desired solely for my white gaijin face and native tongue, a fact I was later informed of directly by my first Japanese employer. After a a week, I knew I was in over my head. I was checking my electronic dictionary constantly when the students had questions, and asking the Japanese head teacher for help every time she seemed free. I felt like I was far more of a burden to the class than a boon. Yet when I tried to bring this up, my worries were brushed away, and I was questioned: hadn’t I signed up for at least a month, up to three if I could? They would love to have me for longer than that, really! In the end, I left after one month, vastly relieved. The main teacher seemed regretful but accepting, and the gentleman who “got” me the job was angry at me for the next 6 months. I tried one additional teaching job after that: a fellow student was leaving, and needed to find someone to take over his home tutoring of two young boys once a week. I did that one for a number of months, and it often worked out, but the boys had zero interest in learning English, and so they never progressed. For this reason, I eventually sat down with their mother and told her. “I enjoy teaching your sons” I said in broken Japanese, “But to be honest, they do not practice and are not learning very much.” We agreed a classroom environment would be better for them, rather than the quirky English-speaking babysitter I had become.
Through these, and a few other one or two-lesson tutorings I did upon requests from friend-of-friends, I came to realize: I am not a teacher. I have not been trained. I do not have the material. I do not have the time, honestly, to prepare a good lesson and do my own studying. Being a teacher is a difficult job. A really difficult job. And if I wasn’t going to do it properly, I didn’t want to do it. At this point, I began rejecting all offers of teaching jobs. I started telling friends that I really didn’t want to teach anymore. I went to locals who tended to pass on jobs and specifically told them “I can’t teach”.
I ended up with a teaching job two weeks later. I did everything I could to dissuade the woman in question, but she was insistent that we at least talk. I eventually agreed that we could talk – as friends – in English, and she would not have to pay me, as long as I was not teaching. She ended up slipping money to a mutual friend of ours at the end. Then she wanted to set up a weekly lesson.
This has been incredibly long and for that I apologize, but I think it really illustrates that a foreign face, especially a white one, is a rich commodity in a English teaching world in Japan, to an extent that can be both discriminatory and harmful to the student’s ability to learn.
Thank you so much for your story it was a really interesting read.
I think it definitely demonstrates the discrimination we face whether positive or negative. As a student you had the right to stay in Japan no matter what job the problem is that most people who want to live here HAVE to be a teacher and therefore despite not liking it or being very good grind on regardless. Ultimately it leads to poor and unhappy teachers which is never a good thing.
I’m glad you had previous experience even if it was only a little it’s more than a lot of people who enter the teaching game with nothing. The truth is you have no idea if you will like something until you try it. I thought I’d hate Bangkok but it was incredible. You can’t tell whether you will like or be good at teaching until you have the experience. You tried you didn’t like it you learnt, and that can only be a good thing.
George, I like this post. I think you have addressed some of the most important issues with English ‘teachers’ abroad. After my year of teaching in South Korea, I had similar feelings and it put me off teaching on a long term basis. One issue that really bugged me was the fact that I could come in and teach a lesson in which I engaged every student, pushed their personal boundaries in a positive way, and helped them practise their speaking…. but in general, it was more favourable to follow the text book and teach kids how to answer text book questions. In general however, my school was pretty great and let me teach what I wanted (ish), but some of the kids found it hard to be creative or to do activities from outside the books. However, I found that with every class I had, every time I saw them, they became more confident, more accustomed to change, and their language improved. If you are addressing these issues, I am sure you are aiming to help the kids more and I hope that others do too. In Korea, it’s very easy to go out until 8 in the morning, go teach at 3pm and receive no more or less positive or negative feedback for the classes you teach. I realise that I have now strung a rather incoherent series of sentences together when in reality I meant to say that I liked your article and the issues you addressed.
Thanks loads for your comment and I follow your train of thought. Japan is also addicted to the text book and not actually teaching. This is because their tests are all fill in the blank sentences from textbooks and no real thought. An example is my friend got bad grades in English at school and thought she couldn’t do languages, but she wanted to. She tried outside of school, and found the further she went from traditional learning the better she got. Now she is almost naive like fluency.
In Japan there is absolutely the same problem with creativity. By Junior High School kids will refuse to announce their favourite book or movie because they are worried people don’t like it and they don’t fit in. It’s sad they have to conform so much.
In Japan as well a lot of it isn’t to do with how good a teacher you are. Your lessons could be excellent the kids could love you and really be improving, but if the teachers don’t like you personally (an example the teacher who didn’t like that I was a girl!) then you won’t keep your job. My gay friend has trouble at his school even though he’s a great teacher. I don’t know if it’s homophobia related but there is always that chance (not that he has admitted it to them).
For me it was definitely sexism as she said she wouldn’t work with a female ALT. And as Japan is still this world of unfounded prejudice, it’s sad that society can’t see the flaws.
I worked in a school in Turkey for two months. Most kids told me I would go to Hell because I am not Muslim. Others refused to come to my class.
I believe that the borders in our world are disappearing. Unfortunately it is taking a very long time.
Similar experiences from my time in Korea http://www.ladventurers.com/why-korea-cant-be-home/
I thought Korea was the most racist place I’ve ever been. To be honest I am done with Asia for a long time. I couldn’t imagine being taught by a foreigner in my school and being racist towards them in class whilst the proper teacher stood by and smiled. I can only imagine how hard it is for Black people to teach in these places.
How long do you have left?
Just realised haha you’ve read it! What a numpty!!
Thanks for your comments yea i lloved your article too. I’m in Japan til Feb and then I’m cycling across Europe or something. We’ll see which way the wind blows.
Your last comment, about students being damaged by ALTs breezing in and out of their lives, doesn’t seem to be a very reasonable argument. I’m an ALT in senior high in Japan, in a prefecture where Japanese teachers are transferred from school to school, and JTEs get transferred all the time at the end of March. In schools with a staff of 50, about 16 teachers or other staff members are moved each year. In schools in Japan, as with schools in my native country, students don’t have the same teachers from year to year. Students really have no expectation of having the same ALT over many years.
I think you’re referring to ALTs who really seem to just breeze in for one or perhaps two years, just for the experience of living in a new country. But even those ALTs don’t necessarily damage students.
I’m personally planning to stay the whole 5 years if I can, and my fellow teachers are happy to have some continuity, and not have to train a new ALT, which is a nuisance in their busy schedules. I had 3 years of eikaiwa experience and a CELTA certificate when I started as an ALT in high school, and it was still a steep learning curve. I followed a very good ALT with a teaching degree and I was constantly comparing myself unfavorably to her, but it made me a better teacher.
I would like to thank you loads for you comment and I really understand your point of view. I would like to say that while I am happy that comparing yourself to that other ALT motivated you to be a better ALT yourself that for many people it has the opposite effect.
Sometimes I mentor ALTs for my company and I have heard my mentees say that they don’t expect to become as good as me, that their goal isn’t to be as good as me because I’m the mentor. I’m not saying I’m the best ALT but when people compare themselves to me (who is after all just another ALT just with a bit more experience) and they see it as a benchmark they don’t have to meet, or they could not reach then that makes me sad. With some practice and effort anyone can be the best version of themselves.
I can definitely see your point about Japanese teachers moving and I believe that the children have no expectation of you to stay. But at the same time a lot of my children talk about their last ALT and when I tell them he went home they think that he didn’t like Japan or that he didn’t like teaching them. They loved him and it breaks their hearts that they won’t see him again. As foreigners we did have this burden. Children remember you because you are different. And they think of you like a friend. Leaving them ultimately makes them think you didn’t care particularly at elementary.
I think that last paragraph is really important. Personally I think kids are pretty badly affected by change as a rule, not just in Japan but anywhere; just because Japanese high schools are beyond fucked up in their organisational methods (illuminating tangential anecdote: one of my students is a Special Ed Needs teacher, or rather she is this year – she told me the other day that she ‘was picked this year’ to run the SEN classes. Now, to me that’s a really specialised job, and to hear it’s given out on something akin to a lottery basis is I think indicative of the size and scale of the problem) doesn’t mean it’s therefore OK for the same sort of idiocy to be applied to ALTs or other staff.
Going back to the discussion George and I had earlier about Japanese reactions to foreigners, I think this is exactly the sort of thing that can affect those reactions. If as a kid in a Japanese school you have an awesome ALT who really stands out from the native teachers and you really get on with them, and then they disappear – how are you going to deal with it? How’s that early experience of foreigners, maybe the first a kid might have, going to affect how you behave and what you believe in later life? Perhaps you mistrust them. Perhaps you feel bitter towards them, or betrayed, or shapelessly angry. Or perhaps not, who knows; I simply think that what kids think, feel, need and want is just about last on the priority list nowadays.
Thanks for these points. I agree, it is really difficult to be a special needs teacher and I would think you’d need specific training or at least a specific temperament.
I also agree with the mistrust issue. I was thinking of racism in Japan and I have 2 new airport stories. I am white btw and so is my sister.
My sister is waiting for the airport to open for her early morning flight she is at the domestic terminal as she is flying to Osaka first and then on to Amsterdam. She is first in the line and has been there 30 minutes.
Someone sees her and without looking at her ticket that she is at the wrong terminal and must go to the international terminal. My sister says that she is first going to Osaka then Amsterdam, she is not used to plane travel and is not sure what is right. They again tell her international terminal. She gets on the bus and goes of course all along she is meant to be at the domestic terminal which they tell her when she gets there.
Now the domestic terminal queue is an hour long, her flight is in under an hour and they won’t let her cut back in despite knowing she was there in the first place. She makes her flight (just).
Me coming back from a trip to Korea and standing in the residents like to get my passport stamped. In painfully slow English as if I have a mental problem someone points and says “TOURISTS-HAVE-TO-WAIT-OVER-THERE.”
“eee nihon de sundeimasu” clearly confused by my vanilla face and my use of Japanese he asks again (this time in normal paced English) to see my passport. On seeing my visa he tells me I’m in the right line. This process is repeated when I reach the front.
I’m thinking of making a shit japanese people say to foreigners post. Classics include “Why do foreigners speak English?” “Cats are only in Japan” etc etc
I wonder if the presence of native speakers is really suppose to make Japan’s English better. I’ve been teaching in Japan for 5 years. Before that I taught French and Spanish in my English-speaking homeland. I’ve been in this teaching game for a minute.
But in Japan, one of the most depressing thing about being a foreign language teacher is how little you actually influence anything. At primary school, I’m pretty sure the kids don’t notice, but the JHSers know you’re not a “real teacher”. This is compounded by the fact that there aren’t really any guidelines for what you’re supposed to do at JHS. One of my Japanese teachers lets me teach whole class periods, not grammar, but more activity-based things. The other hardly takes me to class- even for walking tape recorder duties.
Native-speaker English teachers seem to be most helpful in improving the English of willing adults (like the Japanese teachers and the neighbours) by giving them a chance to practise and ask questions about English. I feel like the existence of the native-speaker teacher is less about actually improving English and more about Japan being able to say, “Look, we have native speakers. We’re trying our hardest with this English thing.”
Prime Minister Abe (the 7th PM in my 5 years – sigh) has made improving English a theme in his reform plan for better placing Japan on the international scene. Things are still in the early stages and, of course it remains to be seen if he can stay in power longer than the recent average of just shy of a year, but let’s hope his ideas do more to connect the initial idea to the desired outcome than the current system.
“I feel like the existence of the native-speaker teacher is less about actually improving English and more about Japan being able to say, “Look, we have native speakers. We’re trying our hardest with this English thing.”
This is pretty much exactly how I feel. You make some great points you really do.
At elementary I teach the whole lesson, the kids really enjoy my lessons and so I feel like I am motivating them to learn English by themselves which is obviously a great thing, all those build blocks though are absolutely demolished by the time it comes to JHS.
But I agree unless they loosen the shackles on us there isn’t really much we can do at JHS.
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Hello, I stumbled upon your blog while researching..
See, I’m a graduating student from the Philippines. Currently taking up a major in journalism. I am very much interested in Japan’s culture, and I really want to go there..
But I’m having a crisis, because I’m still conflicted with what to do after I graduate.. I can’t see myself working in the media years from now.. Probably forever.
What I really want to do is to go to Japan. I researched for possible jobs in Japan for a foreigner like me (although I’m Asian, fluent in English). So I found out about ALTs and Eikawas. I thought maybe I could be an ALT, that could be fun. I’d like to help and teach a class. But then after a few more research.. Some foreign ALTs, native-English people, think differently of Filipino ALTs.. and it made me have second thoughts suddenly..
They think Filipinos have thick-accents.. Then again, the post was back in 2009. I believe that I don’t have that of a thick-accent, and I’m almost confident of my English.. but having low self-esteem doesn’t help.
Now I’m just so confused. I really want to go to Japan so badly, I feel that I can find my happiness there. Because right now, I’m so darn unhappy with my life. I was so determined to become an ALT one day, and so helpless the next.
I’m asking for your advice.. Do you think I have a chance? Or it will be pointless for me to go there..?
I am so sorry it has taken me months to reply as you may have noticed I don’t update the blog anymore, but at anyrate I hope you read this.
You can definitely become an ALT in Japan I knew many in the area where I was. Here is my tip for you. Contact Interac and ask about their places in Kitakyushu. It is true that some places don’t like Filipinos because of the accent, but Kitakyushu hires a lot of Filipinos ALTs. Not only that but it is my favourite place in Japan and truly an amazing place to live and work.
I wish you all the best and hope you are feeling better now about your future. Email me anytime if you want to chat personally georgina.young90@gmail.com