Archive for the ‘Living in Japan’ Category

“My first two years in Japan were spent teaching English… The students… studied English- or should I say, English was taught in their presence. Nothing ever seemed to sink in. Years of classes and endless tests and still they couldn’t master the intricacies of a simple ‘How are you?’ When I tried to have the most elemental of English conversations with them they looked at me with blank expressions, shrugged their shoulders, and said ‘Wakaranai’ (’Huh?’) They did this, I believe, just to annoy me. Don’t get me wrong, these teenagers were polite and studious and well-mannered, but they were still teenagers, and teenagers are pretty well insufferable anywhere you go on this planet.” (more…)

Maybe a few more actually, as I didn’t have any record for the first few months. It’s not Craiglist, but as my blog stats are the closest thing I get to payment (I like to think of them as monopoly money) I’m going to give myself a pat on the back.

And why should you care? Well, this is your perfect chance to jump on the bandwagon and get yourself heard on TEFLtastic with comments, links and/ or guest articles. To illustrate what I mean, here goes with trying to drive up the traffic on my neglected Japanexplained blog with an unsubtle selling of my post The Big List of My Japanese Faux Pas, which is mainly about messups in the classroom and therefore nice and relevant to anyone who has taught foreigners I reckon… Just as unsubtle selling of your own blogs and sites, as long as also vaguely connected to TEFL and teaching abroad, also allowed! You can start in the comments to this post if you like.

Number one: cosplay

Only joking- I mean of course that the status of English teachers is not so obviously low that when I met the love of my life and asked her to marry me she actually agreed!

You won’t hear a lot about it on the TEFL forums, but there are actually a lot of other advantages to choosing Japan to teach in: (more…)

The worst book I have ever read about Japan, Shutting Out the Sun, has more or less made up for the dental work I need from gnashing my teeth while reading it, by reminding me of another way to deal with living abroad without the irritation that the writer of the book obviously couldn’t keep down. The trick is, to take the criticism that you read, hear or that pops into your head, and see if you can’t replace the world “Italians” (to choose one random example of a nationality you might find infuriating) with any other group of people, such as some or even all other nationalities. Let’s all try this trickwith some opinions about Japan from that book, shall we: (more…)

2007 was yet another year in which the world of TEFL made its way into the consciousness of the general public for all the wrong reasons (a crack down on teachers in Korea, English teaching sex offenders etc. etc), and Japan did its fair share of damage to our industry’s repuation too: (more…)

Christmas being a time of year to look with sympathy at the problems of the less fortunate, I’d like to take a look at human trafficking in Japan.

Tempted by stories of a professional job for good money, once they arrive in Japan they realise they were only recruited for their looks (blue eyes and blond hair being prefered by the Japanese clients) and they are locked up in a small room for up to 8 hours a day, forced to service up to 16 clients, usually older bored housewives. The fact that all this often happens in a glass walled room makes it even more demeaning.

Although most of the people trafficked quickly realised they have been tricked, the fact that their money quickly gets spent on the alcohol they need to get them through this horrible experience means that many of them cannot even afford the airfare home, and the fact that many of them were fleeing problems at home such as still living with their parents or not being able to find a girlfriend means that many of them actually have nowhere else to go.

So, when you are tucking into your turkey in front of a blazing fire, spare a thought for someone for whom Xmas is just a piece of luke warm KFC chicken and please donate a few pennies to the “Save the Eikaiwa Teachers Fund”. (more…)

Which country is better to live and teach in is always a huge question, but if you love living in Thailand, you probably won’t like living in Japan and visa versa. Here are some reasons why-

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Quite a foreigners in Japan getting steamed about the fact that they are re-introducing fingerprinting for almost all foreigners, including most long term residents. As someone who tends to judge stuff like this that pisses me off with the patience and time before I react that my red hair would suggest, trying to understand and accept these things takes a bit more time and effort than for the more relaxed parts of humanity- especially in a country where I have still yet to see a joint but caffeine is always available. Think I’ve come up with another good tactic to make sure you don’t hate the natives though: (more…)

…but nicely summarized. 

I take it all back about Time magazine. It may not be the Economist or L’Express, or even El Pais Sunday magazine, but they have managed the article about Nova from a publication outside Japan with least factual errors. My one quibble is using TOEIC scores as a comparison of language learning levels in different countries. (more…)

$700- The hook up fees for a single domestic phone line in 2002