New to the board..

[Don Miller]

..and just wanted to say Hi..

I live in Philly and I'm hoping to move to Japan by this summer.. I graduated with a degree in English education and I'm looking for teaching jobs in Tokyo..

Don.

[bluepxl]

good luck...

check out the JET programme. great for getting english native speakers to teach in japan. tons of people have done it and love it. watch out for the NOVA school though-- you may get to teach in only tokyo but i have heard from so many that NOVA sucks bad and they treat you terrible, and you don't even make as much money.

anyway, ganbatte!

[GomiGirl]

With a real-live teaching degree you can definitely do better than Nova.. and even better than JET as you may end out in the back of inaka rather than Tokyo.

check out gaijinpot.com (I think that is the url but somebody correct me if I am wrong)

But also look into international schools and private Japanese schools that hire English teachers.

Look at these from a quick Google search

Also keep your eye on the Japan Times Monday paper for job ads.. I think they have them in the on-line version
But you want to decide if you want to teach converstation English to adults or whatever..

But if you think you have found a good place to work, post back here and you can get the "good oil".

Best of luck!!

[Don Miller]

Thanks for the urls and hints.. I went to an interview with NOVA today actually, despite all of the bad things I've heard.. and it seems WAY too business oriented for me.. .. they were in town though, so I didn't think it would hurt to go and get an interview..

Don.

[Marked Trail]

Thanks for the urls and hints.. I went to an interview with NOVA today actually, despite all of the bad things I've heard.. and it seems WAY too business oriented for me...

English "education" in Japan is only either a business or a sick joke.

NO school I've interviewed with here in Japan knew or cared a flying fazoolo about whether the students ever learned any English. Hell, most schools do NOT want you if you're an real teacher. Schools HATE that I've got all the TP anybody would want: Secondary Ed Cert., MA TESL, and pending Piled Higher and Deeper in Linguistics. Your experience is a threat the frauds running the schools.

Bottom Line: your teaching is what you make it; don't make it Japan.

[bluepxl]

marked trail makes an excellent point. and you know what else? far too often (ok all the time basically), japanese children are taught to pronounce english using katakana. this is unfortunate though, because there are not sufficient sounds in katakana to correctly represent english. this is why japanese cannot distinguish a difference between our Rs and Ls, because they were taught to use it the same since the beginning. because their sound is so similar and kind of in between both, and since they are never taught there is a difference from a young age or early on, they grow up thinking classic is crassic, really is reery, hilarious is hirarious, etc.

but what's terrible, is i have heard from plenty of native english teachers over there, regardless of what program they are in, for getting in trouble or being shot down for teaching the correct pronunciation. they want their kids to learn it by katakana pronunciation only. they don't care if they learn to speak it correctly or not, they just want them to know how to pass the tests. what they do with it from then on is up to them! it's truly sad...

if you'd like to read a good article on this, check this guy out: http://www.timwerx.net/language/englished.htm

my favorite parts:

To cite one good example of how great a disservice this is to students, once while on a homestay program with a group of students in California a perplexed student came to me and said, "I went to a carnival with my host family yesterday, and when I tried to order a hotdog at a food stand the man couldn't understand me."

"What did you say?" I asked.

"'A hohtto dohggu pleazu,' and even though I repeated it 3 or 4 times he couldn't understand."

"Well," I explained, "It's simple. All you have to do is say 'a hotdog, please,' and forget all that 'katakana English' they taught you in junior high."

...

As is usual, one of my students quit my class after graduating from elementary school so he could start attending a "high school prep" class run by an older Japanese woman who I had heard of (and vice versa, so it seems). In her class he would learn about math tests and social studies tests and, of course, English tests; what kind of problems there would be and how to pass them. I thought this amusing since this woman could not speak English. Nevertheless, what really knocked me over was what she said to my former student on his first day there, as reported by the boy's mother to my wife: "Now, I want you to forget all that 'correct pronunciation' nonsense that Mr. Matheson taught you. I'm going to teach you the English you need to succeed in Japan." (!!!)

It was this event that really hit me like a mallet, causing me to see that the attitude towards English taught in the schools here was seriously twisted. With this kind of help it's no wonder that we have students unable to order a hotdog in spite of 6 years of English. And I believe that it's this problem of not taking English education seriously enough which allows thousands of household items to be smothered with all kinds of nonsensical English words.

it's so sad but true.. how does japan ever expect the students to use the language sucessfully? anyway, this is meant in no way to discourage you, because even though the system doesn't opearte in such a way to teach it correctly, you yourself can and still should make a difference in helping them to understand english in the best way possible. or at least give it a shot good luck!

[Big Booger]

eetoo eeetoooo..
wakaranai.
BB

:D:D

[GomiGirl]

[quote="Don Miller"]Thanks for the urls and hints.. I went to an interview with NOVA today actually, despite all of the bad things I've heard.. and it seems WAY too business oriented for me.. .. they were in town though, so I didn't think it would hurt to go and get an interview.. ]

Hi Don,

You can do so much better than NOVA with a teaching degree!!! NOVA is really just for people who want to study English as a hobby and are about as commited to real learning as the teachers are in teaching them.

But they do set you up with an apartment the minute you arrive - don't expect a palace as they are pretty dodgey..

Have the interview and grab their literature as it may have some interesting information for an intro to Japan etc.

There are lots of small "private" schools for teaching kids or adults or whatever that only hire qualified teachers - these are more like schools than business. You haven't said what sort of teaching you want to do.

[gomichild]

Welcome Don! It's nice to see someone sign up fr a change instead of all these mysterious opinionated gets...

I agree with GomiGirl - you have a degree and could do much better.

[kamome]

Take my advice: Do NOT start your career in Japan. You will be frustrated by the system and may find it hard to find future jobs in your home country. I would first look into DoD (American Department of Defense) schools, or other international schools that teach English to children of diplomats, etc. You get awesome benefits and the students are more likely to be top-notch and motivated to learn because they come from good families.

NOVA and JET are temporary jobs at best. Of the two, JET would be better because it is government-sponsored and they don't screw with your contract.

[Marked Trail]

With a real-live teaching degree you can definitely do better than Nova..
Best of luck!!

Here's the other side of the coin, to be fair...

My rant this week is directed towards all the foreigners out there who look down on teaching English for a living. In a recent issue, Tokyo Classified featured a story about sex workers in Japan. The American woman was quoted as saying "...it seemed like the only thing [job] I could get quick was English teaching. I was too proud to do that."

[GomiGirl]

There is nothing wrong with English teaching.. most people have done it at one time or another.... it was just that this guy has a degree and plans to make it his career rather than earning some extra cash..

The "too proud comment" - she chose sex work instead??

[kamome]

Pride is relative
Pussy is universal
I am a rich whore

The above gets my vote for haiku of the year!

[Kent Brockmann]

Kent Brockmann here. As a newcomer to this website I thought this thread would be appropriate to me as a minimally jarring point of entry.

But lo and behold, what is left for me to post after?

"Pussy is universal
I am a rich whore"

Oh, the humanity! Such hedonism. On Valentine`s day no less. Wanton decadence. BASE DEPRAVITY even. I shouldn`t be surprised. This is not http://www.fluffygaikokujin.com

[Kent Brockmann]

I joined twice. By mistake. I thought it didn`t work the first time. I think I need "tech support". Can one of you "hacking" types disable one of my cyber beings? Just a swift slash should suffice.

Nobody can hear me scream in cyber space.

Godspeed the vortex.

[Kent Brockmann]

Ultraman you say? But he`s not real. The internet is real isn`t it? I thought it was? I think I need a cup of tea and a bit of a lie down.

[American Oyaji]

NOVA isnt a bad spot to work at.

It's probably the best of all the chain schools far and away. The pay is good and it increases 10,000 yen each year and the pay is ALWAYS on time.

I got an extra 5,000 yen for each night I worked on my schedule. ( a night being working from 1pm to 9pm.) And an extra 10,000 yen for working on sundays. Now, that isnt per night, thats for it being on your schedule.

Over time was great because it was 2,000 yen per lesson.

But you DONT want to work in a large city. Best place to go is up north or down south. I worked in Aomori prefecture and got to travel to the different schools and got to work full days worth of overtime sometimes.

Another reason is because the apartments in the smaller towns are better. Because you can get a bigger place for less money, the standard money they spend goes a lot further. And it is also easier for you to find your own place.