engrish torture camp

[Taro Toporific]

FASTER!!! LOUDER!!!

I Was an English Boot Camp Instructor
OhmyNews International, 2005-06-27 00:58, by D. Weber
.... Kanrisha Yousei Gakko (KYG) an intensive English course school, they apply a unique style to the teaching of English. It involves a teacher shouting rapidly mundane and trivial questions at the top of their lungs like a madman at their students to which the students have to respond to in a similar manner.
This practice of audio torture is called "Question Training" and ...KYG offered me the chance to finally be able to live out my dream of screaming at Japanese people and getting paid to do so for once. KYG holds five- and seven-day intensive courses throughout the year employing teachers with flexible enough schedules to teach and scream for their courses....
The accommodations with their large rooms filled with bunk beds or futons were reminiscent of military barracks. Whether by accident or design, the whole compound resembled a military installation fr o m its chow hall, its hidden location, its strict rules, and of course the incessant shouting.
The English course was in the same camp next to a managerial training course. Managerial training courses in Japan also involve a lot of shouting along with grueling bowing classes and badges of shame for those who cannot execute a proper 45-degree bow...
The teachers had to wear uniformed white smocks with the company's imperial Nazi-looking eagle symbol emblazoned upon them...
For two hours everyday we had Question Training, which consisted of the instructors screaming questions like drill sergeants at their frightened students. We used stopwatches to give each student an exact one-minute barrage of rapid-fire questions. I'm sure we were using a mix of techniques left over from the Cold War for flushing out North Korean spies and World War II POW interrogation procedures....more...

[dimwit]

From a language point of view assertiveness training is not a terrible thing for many Japanese to undergo. My worry is the kinds of people who might get this training - police officers immigration officals, and the likes.

[AssKissinger]

I think I know that guy in the picture...or do thousands of English teachers look just like that?

[Neo-Rio]

This is one of the paradoxes of English teaching in Japan.

Either you be nice to the students, and while their English level stinks, they learn to love gajin.
If you boot-camp the students, their English gets brilliant, but they all turn into racist Blinky Ishihara clones... and start trying to prove that their grasp on English is somehow better than yours.

What are you supposed to do?

Who has had a conversation like this before:-

Japanese: Excuse me gaijin-san, can you check my English?
Gaijin: ok, what have you written?
Japanese: Which is correct? "I will see you soon" or "I will see you in a moment"
Gaijin: Oh, either one will do.
Japanese: But what I mean is, which one of the two is better and more correct?
Gaijin: Well, both mean the same thing really.
Japanese: Well if that was the case, why are there two different expressions?
Gaijin: Oh for goodness sakes.... alright, just use "I will see you soon". OK?
Japanese: So why is "I will see you soon" better than "I will see you in a moment"?
Gaijin: It's not! Well they mean the same thing! It's just a matter of personal expression! Both dictate an undefined amount of time.
Japanese: Well *I* THINK "I will see you in a moment" is better! soon is too long a time and moment is shorter I read in some Engrish book.
Gaijin: English is not like Japanese! There are many ways to say things... unlike Japanese where you have to say the same thing like everyone else!
Japanese: I don't think you know anything about Engrish! You are a BAD teacher!
Gaijin: ....fine, but leave Pearl Harbour alone, OK?

[Maths Dude]

And they wonder 'why' the Japanese can't learn english. Or is that because they really don't want to and just go to english class because they think they should, as good little citizens they are. Actually, can anyone direct me to any studies done on the motivation of the Japanese for learning english?

[sillygirl]

Unfortunately, they all look like that. Introducing a pretty lame JET's blog:

http://todd.digiplebes.com/japan/index.html



[/i]

[omae mona]

Who has had a conversation like this before:-
Japanese: Excuse me gaijin-san, can you check my English?
Gaijin: ok, what have you written?
Japanese: Which is correct? "I will see you soon" or "I will see you in a moment"
Gaijin: Oh, either one will do.

I haven't been in this position. But for this theoretical conversation, I think the Japanese student has a point. If I were hanging out with a friend, we finished up drinking for the evening, and my friend said, "I will see you in a moment", I would look at him like he was nuts. The two expressions are totally different in some contexts. In my opinion, telling the student they're the same could make him sound quite stupid in a future conversation, when in fact he had the initiative to try to learn the right expression.

I know your conversation was just theoretical, so I am sure real life situations can be different.

You are a BAD teacher!

I don't know if I'd go that far. But I know I ask detailed questions like the above when I am a student in private language lessons, and I always get answers. I'd be pretty ticked off if my teacher couldn't answer them (at the prices I pay).

[Neo-Rio]

Yeah it was just a theoretical conversation, perhaps a better example would be "see you in a while" and "see you in a moment" to convey my sense of frustration when Japanese ask me to check an expression which is very subjective.

"See you soon" has a different meaning in a certain context, I admit.

[Socratesabroad]

I think I know that guy in the picture...or do thousands of English teachers look just like that?

I don't know, seems the guy has been everywhere.
How he managed "army training days," "taught English in Egypt for nearly a year," traveled frequently throughout Europe f rom Spain to Romania as well jaunts to Mexico, Germany, and Monte Carlo, and still held a teaching gig in Japan is beyond me.

[Mennon]

I teach at a school with four other FG, two of whom are NOT native.
Typical converstion with student:

ME (checking something a student wrote) What do you mean here - "a good one!"

STUDENT it's like, "well done"(student gives thumbs up)

M: Oh, you mean "good one." No "a".

S: But Tim always says "a good one" when we give him the right answer.

M: Are you sure? (thinking, fuck here we go again.)

S: Yes.

M: Well, maybe that's what they say in... um... New Zealand. (Tim is really from an Eastern European country).

This shit happens every day. Has anyone noticed that when there's a job going at your school, more than half of the applicants are non-native?
Is this happening where you work?

[Taro Toporific]

S: But Tim always says "a good one" when we give him the right answer.
M: Are you sure? (thinking, fuck here we go again.)
S: Yes.
M: Well, maybe that's what they say in... um... New Zealand. (Tim is really from an Eastern European country).
This shit happens every day. Has anyone n0ticed that when there's a job going at your school, more than half of the applicants are n0n-native?

That's a good 0ne. :P

[Kurofune]

I wouldn't mind teaching one of these boot camps. I remember plenty of good examples from Air Force Basic Training, and I got to be squad leader with lungs for a couple days. Even without the expletives and insults, I could have fun with this language school assignment. I wonder if you're allowed to scream, "that's it, I'm going to jail" as you charge up and get in their faces.

This shit happens every day. Has anyone noticed that when there's a job going at your school, more than half of the applicants are non-native?

I wasn't exposed to the applicants. I remember many of the non-native teachers having an attitude toward the native teachers, but they'd eventually hit you up when they needed help. I didn't mind helping, as long as it wasn't one of the teachers with attitude. I experienced a couple bad instances in which Japanese teachers came locked-and-loaded to challenge my English (of course they overestimated their ammo), and I chose to get tactfully brutal with them. If you do that once or twice, word gets around that you're kibishii or that your English is scary. Teachers don't bother you after that.

Have you ever had students gasp in disgust the first time they see you write? Some of them think their elementary romaji is the yardstick, and they just have to correct you for not having that little tail on the bottom of your S.

[canman]

I have a class of second graders and I was teaching them the proper pronunciation of numbers. Well of course I decided to write them on the board, at which point I was told in group unison that my numbers sucked and that you have to form them the correct way. Little bastards. I'm not angry at them though as much as the damn education system.

[Kurofune]

I have a class of second graders and I was teaching them the proper pronunciation of numbers. Well of course I decided to write them on the board, at which point I was told in group unison that my numbers sucked and that you have to form them the correct way. Little bastards. I'm not angry at them though as much as the damn education system.

I've had that happen lots of times with kids' classes, and it was no big deal because they were kids. But when an adult tries to scold you about it, it isn't as cute.